15 Secrets The Cast Of Buffy The Vampire Slayer Don't Want Fans Knowing
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It's been over 20 years since Buffy the Vampire Slayer first debuted and almost 15 years since it went off the air. The fan following for this show was (and continues to be) enormous. When a fanbase gets this large and this dedicated, secrets don't stay secrets for very long. Now, for the intense Buffy fans, the ones who Google the word Buffy each morning and set Buffy fan forums as their homepages, there will be nothing they don't already know. We learn more from them than they learn from us. For everyone else, however, even fans like us who have watched the show numerous times, there are secrets out there—secrets that the cast of Buffy aren't too keen about letting out. We wanted to go out and collect all those stories that the cast and crew have tried to keep a lid on.
For some people, these are stories that may damage the show's perfect aura. While most won't have their viewing experience affected, there is a chance that these stories can take away from what was on screen. This is why these are secrets. No one from this show wants to ruin the illusion. You've been warned. Many of the secrets from Buffy are from the time when the show was still running. These stories from behind-the-scenes reveal that the Buffy family wasn't necessarily the big loving group that they appeared to be, at least not all the time, they weren’t. There were fights, arguments, disagreements, and talking behind others' backs. There were also things that came out after the show ended, things that the cast of the show would have liked to stay hidden. Again, they likely won't ruin the show for you. Nothing could ever ruin something as brilliant as Buffy the Vampire Slayer, but these tales might take some of the shine off it for some people. Actors are weird people. People are weird people. When you get a bunch of weird people together for a long period of time, weird things tend to happen. Here are 15 Secrets The Cast Of Buffy The Vampire Slayer Don’t Want Fans Knowing.
James Marsters May Be A Creep
When Michelle Trachtenberg was first on Buffy, she was about 14 or 15 years old. Now, we don't know when James Marsters first wrote the song "Dangerous," but we do know that he wrote it about Trachtenberg when she was around that age. The lyrics are about as creepy as the song title suggests. Here's a taste of what the then-near-40-year-old had to say:
"I don't think you know my name. I think you'd leave me standing in the rain. You're a pretty little girl, you got a thing for me. But you'd cut me open and let me bleed. But I notice you. With your long brown hair. Pretty little feet. Sparkling everywhere. You look so good. When you come my way. But I have to look down. When you talk to me.
'Cause you're dangerous. Dangerous. Dangerous. And you don't even know it.
One baby, two, maybe three more years. You'll be a full grown girl, have all your curves. And here's my taste of irony: You'll be a ten-hot baby, too good for me."
Buffy Got Annoyed
When Alyson Hannigan was asked who was the most "annoyed" of the show, there was no hesitation. "Sarah," she said. Later, Hannigan, in her sweet-as-pie way, said that she regretted answering the question and would not have used the word "annoyed" herself. Still, when prodded more about the answer, Hannigan said that Sarah Michelle Gellar was "annoyed" of the show by season three. In Hannigan's defense, Gellar herself has admitted to this, maybe not in those words exactly but close. She said, "This has been the longest span of my life in one place. There've been times where that's been difficult — you want to pick up and go, try other things, live in different places. It feels right, and you have to listen to that." Add in the fact that after season three, Angel was gone and the story was changing, we can see why Gellar might have been testy.
Joss Whedon Vs. Spike
James Marsters, the man behind the character of Spike, tells of his difficult relationship with the show's creator, Joss Whedon. Marsters remembers Whedon being troubled with the fan reaction that Spike got. Originally, Whedon intended for Spike to die at the hands of Angel, but when fans started falling in love with Spike, Whedon was forced to hold off on killing the white-haired vampire. This bothered him because he didn't like Spike and he was forced to adjust his plans. Marsters recalls, “It was not supposed to be romantic, but the audience was responding that way and Joss was freaking out. He backed me up against a wall one day and said, ‘I don’t care how popular you are, you are dead.’”
Nicholas Brendon's Depression
Of all the stars from Buffy, Nicholas Brendon is the one that has struggled the most after the show. Brendon has battled depression and numerous other mental health issues since the show has gone off the air. In 2015, after a multi-day bender, Brendon was caught on video trying to end his own life. The star cut his wrists, had several run-ins with the law, and found himself on Dr. Phil. After walking out of the show in a huff, Brendon returned and asked for help once again. Brendon has been known to be heavily involved with both drugs and alcohol, which helps account for his troubles.
The Cast Vs. Buffy
During the seventh season of Buffy, Sarah Michelle Gellar let it be known in Entertainment Weekly that this season would be the last. This was big news for fans, but it was also apparently news for the cast and crew of the show. According to many of the people involved in Buffy, that information hadn't been released yet. Therefore, most, if not all, the cast and crew found out the show was ending through the press article. When asked about this, Whedon said that people did know, but it is true that they were angry, saying, “There was a whole thing about it being in Entertainment Weekly and the crew wasn’t informed and everybody was unhappy, and I was just like, ‘There was somebody who didn’t know?’ Some of the actors were upset and I said, ‘You guys I’ve talked to specifically about this.’”
Sarah Michelle Gellar Vs. Joss
Even though this all comes from another party, David Fury, one of the writers of both Buffy and Angel, we think there is some truth to it. When Angel was preparing for its 100th show, the team reached out to Sarah Michelle Gellar to get her involved. She declined as she had some personal stuff going on. Fury says that while her excuses were valid, "Joss kind of felt a little bit put off about the way it was done. There was a perceived notion, on both sides, I can say, between Sarah and Joss of ingratitude for both parties. Joss doesn’t feel like Sarah’s ever shown the proper amount of gratitude for what he’s done for her and her career, and I think she feels the same way. That she feels she was never afforded the credit for Buffy’s success and the gratitude from Joss."
Filming "The Scene"
Every Buffy fan knows the scene that we're talking about. Although it isn't necessarily a secret that Marsters doesn't want told, he wasn't very happy that he had to film this scene. He has bad memories of that shoot. "It was the hardest day of my professional career. It was a horrible day," the actor said. “I personally don’t like to watch that stuff. I will not go to a movie if I know that’s in there. I will turn the TV off if it pops up. I will pass on auditions if that's what they want me to do, but I was contracted to do it.” While he did say later that he has no regrets about doing it in the end, Marsters says that he needed some real arm-twisting to make it happen. Even getting to set that day to actually film the dreaded scene was difficult for him.
Sarah Michelle Gellar Vs. Jeff Pruitt
Jeff Pruitt was the stunt choreographer on Buffy the Vampire Slayer. Much of the trash that was spoken about Sarah Michelle Gellar on set was from Pruitt. In his interviews, Pruitt would give SMG the most backhanded compliments you could imagine. He even included a story about a blind date he set SMG up on with his friend only so he could mention the negatives the friend said about her. Sure, he complimented her as well, but that was after insulting her. Either way, Pruitt tells of a fight that took place between him and SMG.
When choreographing a fight scene, Pruitt says, "[SMG] decided it was mainly an acting scene and began to tell the director her ideas as to where her character would stand and where she wanted Riley to be. The problem was that there was a fight scene going on… The director and I had worked all of this out for the past hour, but now Sarah shows up and decides that she is going to do something completely different that throws things all out of kilter. All I said to her was, 'Okay then. Will you show me how you’d like to do the fight?' This was the worst thing I could have done because she knew that I knew she couldn’t do martial arts at all. There was no way she could just step out onto the graveyard set and start punching and kicking like Buffy. Usually when she gets mad she will rip you to ribbons verbally. She is extremely bright and quick-witted and she can put a crew member in his place in a heartbeat. But our relationship was different. With me she instantly teared up and stormed off without saying a word."
Cordelia Vs. Joss
Even though this has to do with Angel, we decided to include it because of Cordelia's role on Buffy. Charisma Carpenter, the actress who played Cordelia, tells that she was informed that she wouldn't be returning to Angel through the press. She was not happy about this. Then, when the show was getting ready for its 100th episode, they reached out to Carpenter, asking her to come back. She said that she would only return if her character lived. She refused to come back to die. They agreed. But then, she got the script. In it, she found that she was going to die. She went through with it in the end, but she and Joss had a rocky relationship because of it all.
Buffy Vs. Willow
In the final season of Buffy, after Sarah Michelle Gellar leaked the news that the season would be her last, things weren't sitting well with the rest of the cast. Since the show ending was ultimately SMG's decision, the others felt like they had lost control of their own careers. Because of this, SMG and Alyson Hannigan didn't speak much after the show ended. It is said that it wasn't until they both became parents that they rekindled their friendship. Now, much of this likely has to do with the two women just growing up and going their separate ways, but it does put a small kink in once-perfect Buffy friendship line.
Nicholas Brendon And Domestic Abuse
Two years ago, back in 2015, Nicholas Brendon was arrested on charges of domestic abuse. The former Xander was accused of choking his then-girlfriend, although he denied the charges. Just last month though, in October of 2017, Brendon was once again arrested on charges of domestic abuse. It is unclear if the woman is the same one from the 2015 charges, but the arrest was said to be because Brendon violated a protective order, so it would seem that it is the same woman from the first allegations.
Buffy Vs. Faith Scene
In the episode "Graduation Day," Buffy and Faith have their epic face-off in a building and then on a rooftop. Now, it's not hard to see that the rooftop is actually indoors. Apparently, this wasn't the original plan. The rooftop was supposed to be an actual rooftop with views of the city. But, when they tested it out, Sarah Michelle Gellar felt that it was too cold up there, at least that's what Jeff Pruitt (the stunt choreographer) claims. Because of this, they were forced to build a set that looked like a rooftop, taking extra time and adding extra costs to the shoot.
Buffy Vs. The Stunt Double
There was a rumored beef between Sarah Michelle Gellar and Buffy's stunt double, Sophia Crawford, for a while during the show's run. Now, much of this stems from comments made by Jeff Pruitt, the stunt choreographer on Buffy the Vampire Slayer. Pruitt was married to Crawford and felt that she was the star of the show. He wasn't shy about smack-talking Gellar and downplaying her role either, talking about her reading fashion magazines while they shot the show and only being needed for closeups. Still, we believe that SMG and Crawford had their issues. Because of this, Pruitt took it out on Gellar by giving passive aggressive interviews and dishing dirt on the star. He tells one story about SMG ordering the cast and crew not to clap for Crawford after performing stunts because it upset her. He also says that Gellar refused to do an interview for a magazine after they gave Crawford a centerfold piece.
Buffy Hated Season Six
This one isn’t much of a secret for anyone who has heard Sarah Michelle Gellar speak about Buffy. She is very open about being on team Angel much more than team Spike. When Angel left the show after season three, Gellar was hurt and a bit bothered by the change. When, in season six, the storyline shifted and Buffy and Spike got closer, Gellar was even more put off. She was not happy with the unhealthy s*xual relationship between the two and made her feelings known to Joss Whedon. Although Whedon disagreed, he understood her issues. There's also some claims that Whedon was giving more of his time to Angel and Firefly around this period, which bothered Gellar even more and created a rift between them.
Xander Vs. Angel
Although the details on this are sketchy, it's very clear that it is true. To hear Nicholas Brendon speak about David Boreanaz, it's plain that there is friction there. According to Emma Caulfield, Brendon is not a fan of the actor who played Angel. All this was revealed at a fan convention. Brendon then added onto this claim, explaining that Boreanaz had ensured that Brendon was not allowed at a reunion photoshoot (perhaps because of Brendon's legal issues). In the shoot, Brendon was Photoshopped in to make it look like he was present, but he claims that he never got to join in the reunion fun.
Sources: Wikipedia; Reddit; IMDB; Buffy Wikia; Entertainment Weekly
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