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COFFEE
TO GO WITH YOUR STAKE, SIR?
Anthony
Stewart Head has gone from the Gold Blend TV ads to the monster hit, Buffy
The Vampire Slayer. Marcus Dunk joins him for - what else? -
coffee.
Since most people still
remember Anthony Stewart Head as one half of the middle-class coffee couple
from the Eighties Gold Blend adverts, it seems fitting that we decide to
meet for a hit of caffeine.
I'm not sure it's Gold
Blend we're drinking and the sexual chemistry might be limited to the
half-cup I spill down my trousers... but, nevertheless, the man retains some
of that peculiarly English sophistication that made those adverts such a
hit.
These days, however, he
slays vampires. As the more reserved member of TV's most high-kicking,
stake-driving, smart-talking band of heroes, Anthony's role as librarian
Rupert Giles in Buffy The Vampire Slayer has propelled Anthony to a
new level of recognition. He was even voted third sexiest man in
sci-fi.
"Giles is a wonderful
and complex figure to play," he smiles modestly. "There's
such a wealth of things going on with him. It's a great challenge and
great fun to play him."
Set in a Californian high
school, the show revolves around Buffy Summers, a female student who, along
with Giles and a handful of others, spends her spare time battling against
vampires, demons and other dark nasties from the netherworld. As
Buffy's "Watcher", Giles is the father figure appointed to oversee
her training and well-being. With his bumbling mannerisms, occasional
stutter and tweedy don demeanour, Anthony plays Giles as a wry cross between
Hugh Grant and Alan Rickman.
In real life, though, he is
nothing like the stiff and formal Giles. He's relaxed, affable,
wearing an earring and is sporting a leather jacket. Back in the UK
(where he maintains a base with his long-term girlfriend and their two
children) on a break from filming Buffy, Anthony has just finished
filming a part in the new series of Silent Witness.
"I get to play a
seriously bad guy," he says. "I get kicked off the family
estate because I have an affair with a 13-year-old and she kills
herself. One of the reasons I've done it is to muck about with the way
people think about me. When you're in a monstrously successful
international series like Buffy, you have to put other stuff out so
that people see you doing other things. You can't wait until you're
out of a job to say, 'OK, I'm ready now,' because it doesn't happen that
way. You have to make use of the fact that you have a great profile
when people want you."
Hard as it might be to
believe with its supernatural subject matter, Buffy has been
critically acclaimed as one of the funniest, smartest and most entertaining
shows on television - something Anthony is keen to point out. "I
always tell people who haven't seen it just how funny it is," he
enthuses. "It's a beautifully written programme which manages to
capture all our fears and apprehension about life. Without getting in
your face and pontificating, it manages to comment a lot on how we deal with
life, but in a humorous, moving and dramatic way. It's
wonderful."
So wonderful that Anthony
is sure to be a wanted man for a while yet.
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