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Joss
Whedon never gets sick. The creator/ producer/writer and
sometimes director of TV's BUFFY THE VAMPIRE
SLAYER is just a ball of inexhaustible energy and
boundless creativity. And for a tireless guy like Whedon,
who's pulling double duty on his BUFFY
spin-off ANGEL,
missing a day of work just doesn't fit the profile.
Except
for today, 'cause Whedon's out sick.
Despite
the gorgeous California sunshine and nearby Santa Monica Beach,
it's an incredibly busy day on the set of BUFFY.
There are problems with the script for the season finale, not
to mention several special effects considerations that need
to be cleaned up A.S.A.P. Under ordinary circumstances,
these troubles would fall into Whedon's lap.
"He
must be feeling really bad, because that guy is never sick,"
says BUFFY
scriptwriter and Dark Horse comics scribe Doug Petrie.
"The amount of work that guy does, it's frankly amazing
that he isn't sick constantly. Nobody around here understands
how he can work so hard, get so much accomplished."
Finally,
after a well deserved day of rest, Whedon makes it back to the
set. Not that he had much choice, of course: it turns
out Whedon's directing the season finale in addition to all
his other chores, so not showing up just wasn't an option.
"I
just finished directing at three o'clock this morning,"
says Whedon, the exhaustion dripping off his vocal chords.
"I'm a little worse for wear, but this show waits for no
man. It's a machine that will begin to work without me,
but I'm vain enough to say it can't yet."
Wizard:
It's rumoured you're a major comic book fan. How did your
passion for comics inspire you to create BUFFY?
Whedon:
Comics are good visually for storytelling if you're making movies
or TV, because they lay things out with clarity. They
let you see what the next thing you need to see is. Stylistically,
they're very helpful. Also, there's the mythic story for
the modern day that is, at it's heart, just a very personal
emotional story but clad in multi-coloured garb and involves
saving the world. A lot of people have said BUFFY
is like the X-MEN
in that regard. It plays like a teen soap, but it works
on a grander scale. Obviously I love fantasy, I love science
fiction, and that's kind of how those elements work in the modern
world.
Wizard:
Do you reference comics all the time on the show?
Whedon:
Yes, we do. Doug Petrie and I have read all the same Marvel
comics. Every now and then we'll say, "This is so
resonant and mythic. Oh yeah that's 'cause it was in the
AVENGERS."
(laughs) They come up more now than they used to, just
because, for a long time, I'd stopped reading. I was very
bitter about the state of comic books. I was seeing a
lot of soft-core pornography, basically, with no stories.
Everybody had muscles on their muscles, and implants - they
actually looked like implants rather than actual breasts.
I was blind to the good stuff that was going on.
Wizard:
How about now?
Whedon:
Just recently, I cam back in and was blown away by all this
stuff, particularly (Alan Moore's) ABC books on Earth X.
There's a ton of stuff out there that's just wonderful that
I hadn't been aware of. Now I'm very much more in the
comic book mode than I was a year ago. PLANETARY
and AUTHORITY.
PUNISHMENT
and PREACHER.
I read WHITEOUT,
which I loved. I'm reading RISING
STARS,
which is cool. It's such a fertile time.
Wizard:
What were your favourite comics growing up?
Whedon:
Well, I started out with the Ross Andru SPIDERMANs
(mid late 70s), then the George Perez AVENGERS.
Obviously the new X-MEN
issue #94, then when John Byrne took over, forget about it!
History of the world! I'd been so invested in the book,
then when #107 came out, I was like, "who's this new guy?
Oh my God, he's so good!" Then of course, Frank Miller
came and just shook everything. Nothing too esoteric there.
Wizard:
Have you ever written for comics?
Whedon:
No, I'm actually working on my first one now. It'll sort
of be for the BUFFY
line. It's a limited series for Dark Horse about a Slayer
500 years from now. I wanted to do something that was
connected enough that I didn't have to create an entire new
mythology around it, but was separate enough that it wouldn't
affect how I break the story to the show. It's several
hundred years in the future, so what would the Slayer be like
then? I like working with myth, and I really, really need
to have flying cars. (laughs) Now I can have both.
Wizard:
Would you ever write comics on an ongoing basis, for titles
other than the BUFFY
line?
Whedon:
I'd do it in a New York minute, it's just a question of time.
I wrote the first issue of this over Christmas break, and it
was fascinating. You can Monday morning quarterback all
you want, but if you get in and do it, you find the ways in
which it's difficult, the ways in which it's new. It's
very exciting, and of course, looking at (writers like) Warren
Ellis and Alan Moore... I just want people to like this story,
because there's no way to reach those guys' level. It's
just a yarn, I keep telling myself, stop worrying that it's
not going to be as cool as theirs.
Wizard:
Did you feel like you'd arrived when BUFFY
became a comic?
Whedon:
That was a big deal. It was always kind of designed to
be this sort of thing that would hit comics, where there would
be action figures and comics, because that's the kind of story
it is. But to see it actually happen was very cool.
Wizard:
Do you read all the BUFFY
and BUFFY
comics?
Whedon:
Oddly enough, no. After all that wishing I hardly get
to see them. I have read some of them and I think they're
very cool. They've been a bit restricted by the fact that
the show is in high school and they've got the vampires and
everything has to take place in this location around this nucleus
of people. I think now they're starting to breath a little
bit more, they're getting more freedom to create their own world,
which ultimately they have to. So they're getting better
and better, I think.
Wizard:
Have you seen the BUFFY
toys?
Whedon:
I've seen a bunch. I think they're cool, too, although
sometimes I don't think Buffy looks enough like Buffy.
But I've got the red pants variant Willow, so I'm very excited.
Wizard:
How many more seasons would you like to see the show go?
Whedon:
I don't want it to go on until it becomes crappy. I'm
looking at a few more seasons. I think everybody involved,
including the actors, are too committed to the quality of the
show - what we think it means and what we think it should be
- to start doing it for the sake of getting more episodes and
having another year. If it started to not work, I think
they would walk away; I think most of us would. We've
told a lot of stories and have a lot more to tell. It's
not like we're going to run out, but it is an incredible grind.
Sooner or later, it inevitably falls into patterns. It
slips, and I don't want to see it become tired. I think
we've got a few more good seasons to us, then I think we'll
go out with some dignity!
Wizard:
Could the show continue without you or Buffy herself?
Whedon:
Eventually I will step back. People are starting to take
over responsibilities from me, and I've got a great staff and
actors who really know their characters. The idea is to
build something that will exist beyond you, the way the story
does. I'll never completely walk away, because I care
so much about it. In terms of Sarah what can I say?
That character is the title of the show, she is very much the
heart of the show. I don't really think of it without
Buffy, but by the same token, I don't think of it without Willow,
Giles or Xander, either. I really think of them as - dare
I say it? - the Fantastic Four. To me, it's sort of idle
speculation. We've seen shows that worked when they changed
stars and we've shows that died when they did. I have
no desire to see it.
Wizard:
When its run on TV is over, could BUFFY
move back to film?
Whedon:
That would be very cool, a STAR
TREK
thing. It would be lovely to have the kind of freedom
that a movie could give you, do something really huge.
If we all got together and all had the time, the desire, it
would happen. But it's always more complicated than that.
It's not something anybody's planning.
Wizard:
Is there a character on the show you relate to the most?
Whedon:
These days, I probably identify most with Giles, because, I'm
in charge of this group of kids who don't really pay attention
to me, who are all fascinating and moderately appalling. (laughs)
Wizard:
What's your favourite BUFFY
episode?
Whedon:
HUSH
was really an extraordinary experience because it felt like
we were doing something really different. I was scared
when I was writing it, and I had that happen with the season
finale. I did something really different there, and I
was really scared while I was writing it that I had completely
lost it. If it works, then it's going to be something
really special, and if it doesn't, I've completely lost it.
To be working on a show that can become as strange and baroque
and off centre as this show is, while still maintaining its
narrative integrity, I'm really lucky there.
Wizard:
You've had characters bounce between BUFFY
and ANGEL
already. Any more crossovers planned for the future?
Whedon:
It sort of depends whether the network comes at us and demand,
"you must do crossovers!" I feel like, in a
way, ANGEL
had training wheels on this year, but that they've been taken
off. They're very different, production-wise, and to figure
out the mythology and what everybody's going through and how
to do this crossover here... at this point, I'm not as geared
toward making them, but I'm not against them. If we come
up with a really good reason for anybody on the show to crossover,
we'll always do it.
Wizard:
BUFFY
seems to be about grownups, it has a more mature feel to it,
whereas BUFFY
seems more about kids. Was that intentional?
Whedon:
It does feel a little strange. Faith just did a stint
on both, and she really feels like she belongs in the world
of ANGEL
in a way that she doesn't anymore in the world of BUFFY.
Even though BUFFY
is becoming a very adult show in the sense of dealing with morality
and responsibility and the kids are out of high school, Angel
is still more of an older, darker world, and it does feel a
little awkward for one to be in both.
Wizard:
We've heard talk about some life changing events planned for
the show next year. Anything you can share?
Whedon:
This year was about college, about freedom, about new identities,
growing apart and growing up. Next year is different.
The gang will be brought closer, and we'll keep it more internal.
We've had this giant thing with the Initiative this year, next
year we want to make things work on a more personal level for
everybody, and really played the gang dynamic in ways that we
haven't as much. It's going to be a very different feel
that this year.
Wizard:
Beside BUFFY
and ANGEL
you've worked on some high profile films like ALIEN:
RESURRECTION,
TOY
STORY
and even a draft of the X-MEN
film. What was that like?
Whedon:
That fanboy in me had a good time. They came at me to
punch up the ending. I said the problem with the ending
is the beginning and the middle, so I did a complete overhaul
of the script which they then threw out. I'm actually
not particularly perky on the subject of the X-MEN
movie. I loved writing it, because it was fun. But
then it got a little bit ugly in the process, and quite frankly,
I know they may have kept a few things, and I heard some more
of my stuff crept back in after the read through, but I sort
of walked away from that with yet another example of why I love
television.
Wizard:
If you could work on your dream comics project, adapting any
comic for TV or film what would it be?
Whedon:
Fox, for a while, had the rights to Iron Man, and I was
very interested in developing that, but they gave up the rights.
I never got a shot at it. I loved that. It's a story
about weakness and redemption, and that, to me, is a fascinating
emotional subject. That one I really fixated on for a
while. Obviously Spider Man's the guy. After BUFFY
and ALIENS
and X-MEN
if I'm going to do a movie about a superhero or a superhero
team, I have a feeling I want to make it up myself. BACK
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