Best Panel Moments of ’Buffy the Vampire Slayer’ Cast Reunion at ’90s Con!
For those of us who miss the feisty, fashionable Sunnydale gang of vampires and vampire fighters, ’90s Con in Hartford, Connecticut, is the place to be! Fans packed the Hartford Convention Center March 17-19 where the cast of Buffy the Vampire Slayer reunited taking the stage first to kick off the weekend. The cast shared a lot of laughs talking about the beloved show and answering fan questions. Here are some highlights from the Buffy the Vampire Slayer panel.
What do you think Buffy was about? What is it selling?
“For me it’s don’t give up,” said James Marsters, who played everyone’s favorite bad boy vampire Spike, on both Buffy and its spinoff Angel. “Life is a challenge, and it hurts sometimes, but it’s worth it, so keep going.”
Jack Rowand/Courtesy Everett Collection
Charisma Carpenter, who played the popular cheerleader who accidentally involves herself with the vampire-chasing misfits at Sunnydale High, said that to her, Buffy was about honoring your purpose. “Honoring your authentic self. Living up to that potential.”
“It’s okay to play with your food,” joked Julie Benz, who portrayed the vampire Darla who sired Angel (and then died several times on both Buffy and Angel).
“Grit,” answered Marc Blucas, who played Buffy’s college boyfriend and the leader of a secret government agency hunting demons in Sunnydale. “Get your core group around you who can whether the storms with you.”
“You’re gonna be okay. Just wait, your people are out there,” answered Kristine Sutherland, who played Joyce, Buffy’s mom. “I told my daughter this. Just wait till you’re thirty. You were born to be thirty.”
“To me, it’s about community,” said Clare Kramer—the spunky and spookily trigger-happy god named Glory who Buffy vanquished in Season 5.
What did you bring to your characters? What did you learn from them?
“I was soft and a bit shy and struggled with the word no,” Charisma Carpenter said. “Cordelia informed me off the page rather than the other way around.”
“I grew up with a single mom when there weren’t a lot of single moms around,” said Kristine Sutherland. “I was really drawn to and honored to play one of the first single moms on television.”
“I was so green and new to Hollywood. This job was an accident,” Marc Blucas said about joining the cast in Season 4, when Buffy starts college and is no longer with Angel, a vampire with a soft side that could also turn into a serial killer if he felt even one moment of happiness. Blucas’ character, Riley, is the opposite. “I just had an innocence and youthfulness Joss was looking for. Joss said, ‘You don’t follow a banjo act with a banjo.’”
Byron Cohen/Courtesy Everett Collection
“I got the role because I could do an English accent and they had three days to find someone before they started filming,” Marsters said, with a laugh. “But I brought love. I was told Spike was a soulless vampire who didn’t care about anyone or anything. They were like, ‘We don’t want to feel for the vampires. Vampires are metaphors for the challenges and obstacles you have to overcome in your teenage years, so they’re designed to be defeated.’ Then they turned their back, and I was like, I gotta find the love because that’s where you connect to the audience. It doesn’t have to be ‘aww, love.’ It can be love denied, it can be love betrayed, frustrated. But there’s gotta be love in there somewhere.”
Was there anything you took from set after the show ended?
“I took a lot,” Charisma Carpenter said, to a room of laughter. “I took my set chair, a green coat, my homecoming queen trophy, every single script and all my notes.”
“Underwear,” Clare Kramer said, also with a laugh.
Courtesy Everett Collection
You can find re-runs of Buffy on Comet TV or multiple streaming outlets.
Dracula
October 2020
Drac is Back! Delve into some of the best vampire fare in TV, movies, radio and books.
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