by lindabarlow » Fri Jun 28, 2002 5:40 pm
Back home again finally after spending a couple of weeks in LA at a family funeral and having the responsibility of going through all our deceased relative's things... anyway, I was at the Buffy Behind the Scenes thing but computer deprived in a hotel for 10 days. I did manage to write up a report which someone reposted here (back on page 13). Here are a few more details...better late than never.
I didn't try to post to the Kitten bb from the hotel because frankly there didn't seem to me to be much in the way of good news to report on the Willow/Tara front. No questions were taken from the audience, so it was impossible to actually confront Joss or Marti on season 6 failures. When the question came up about Tara's death, it was my personal impression that Joss was defensive and perhaps rather tired of the subject (as in, "oh not, not ANOTHER why did you kill off Tara question?). He and Marti admitted that Tara's death had proved very controversial, but they did not address the lesbian cliche, although it was pretty clear (to me at least!) that this is what they were referring to.
In keeping with some of the other remarks they had made about the increased realism of season 6 and the reduction in the use of metaphor (this had come up in regard to Buffy/Spike non-romantic sex) they reiterated that they'd intended to show that death on BtVS is not always the demon/vampire staking variety, but something real and painful. That people you love can die, and no one is safe. That death can come suddenly, in a mundane way. That guns are bad and "good for nothing." That someone's last words, "your shirt?" can also be mundane, no closure, the way death too often happens in real life. As JM was quoted in another interview (about being required to act a rape scene, something he said that he would have ordinarily refused to do) "this (Joss's creative vision) is not a safe place."
The cast seemed genuinely saddened by Tara's death. All the actors were very appealing onstage, and Aly, in particular, looked lovely. I was struck with how similar she seems to be to Willow, with many of the same gestures and intonations. (This was somewhat true also of Nick Brendan, but less true of JM, who doesn't seem much like Spike at all). Joss encouraged audience applause for her performance as Dark Magic Willow, but Aly herself seemed a bit embarrassed at this. She denied that she knew where the plot line was going and said she was surprised, and rather worried, when she saw from the end of season scripts that Willow was really going evil. She knew something was up when her make-up calls were scheduled for an hour earlier than usual. Aly was not as vocal as some of the other cast members (especially Brendan), but whenever she spoke, she did so with that special charm that Willow, as a character, has always possessed. She has a quiet, feminine charisma that is very appealing.
BTW, someone quoted Joss as saying, at one point, "I didn't hire dogs." I believe what he actually said was "I didn't hire trolls." This was in the discussion about the excellent work done by the Director of Photography (who was one of the members of the panel), who, according to James, always makes the actors look good. Joss was complimenting the cast on their general good looks, and they *did* all look terrific. As did Alex Denisof, who was in the audience (he and Aly are really cute together).
Some of Joss's comments were supposed to be witty, but didn't come out that way, I thought. Generally, Joss did not come across as well as the rest of the group (yeah, even Marti came across better). IMO, he's a very complex personality -- both friendly and arrogant, self-deprecating yet confident, funny, yet defensive. In general he couches everything he says in little jests and ironies, making it difficult to be entirely sure that anything he says is serious, much less absolute. He was pretty rude to my partner outside in front of the building when he complimented Joss on the show, but, OTOH, one can't really expect him to be courteous to every stranger who accosts him with compliments. It's seems worth noting, though, that everyone else in the cast (and James was the only one I managed to meet, although I got very close to Nick, Michelle and Aly) went out of their way to be friendly and polite.
They really didn't give away anything about next year, with the one exception of the Sunnydale High reopening spoiler. I think it's absolutely true that Joss 1. doesn't tell anyone anything in advance...they pretty much do not know what's happening except in very broad terms until they see scripts, and 2. he comes down hard on anyone who breathes a word of what they *do* know. After Joss announced the reopening of Sunnydale High, Aly commented that she'd be dead if she'd told anybody something like that.
I took some pics, but they haven't been developed yet because of my trip. Actually, I got yelled at by the official event photographer for taking pics during the show, but if there's anything good, I'll post them when I get them.
Also, thanks to BBOvenguy and his website of Buffy location shoots. My partner and I took one afternoon off from our estate executor duties to drive around to some of the places where Bob had reported various location shoots -- it was a great change of pace and a lot of fun for someone who lives 3000 miles away from LA.
Sorry I don't have any good news to report.
--Linda
, that would actually make me watch again.
Hope you're doing some serious thinking about how you're gonna get those fans who have started avoiding the show back. Also hope you're really paying attention to what drove them away in the first place. (Ya know, like, killing Tara, totally degrading and destroying both Buffy and Willow) Many of us have quite enough pain in our lives without the shows we turn to for entertainment and an uplifting message adding to that pain.
Out