Joss Whedon: The Genius Behind Buffy Page 4

  There was some wonderful writing and a number of compelling scenes in Alien Resurrection, in particular the scene where Ripley discovers the remains of earlier attempts to clone her. The Ripley character is complex and subtle; she is uncertain of who she is and where her loyalties lie—and so are we. In Alien Resurrection, Weaver was given the opportunity to really stretch herself in portraying the reborn, part-alien Ripley. And leave it to Whedon to transform superheroine Ripley into a character many times tougher than the original!

  Alien Resurrection did well in the box office while receiving mixed reviews from critics. But the harshest criticism of the movie came from Whedon himself, who felt the director had ruined an excellent script. “I liked the script for Alien Resurrection,” he explained. “But the movie? I . . . hated it. I thought it was as badly directed as a movie could be and I thought it was bad in ways that I didn’t know movies could be bad. I learned more from that movie than anything I’ve ever been involved in. I thought it was badly cast and badly shot. I didn’t like the production design. Everything that was wrong in the script was incredibly highlighted by it, and everything that was right about the script was squashed, with one or two very minor exceptions. I just couldn’t believe how much I hated it. I wasn’t really involved in production. I went to dailies once and thought, ‘This doesn’t seem right, but I’m sure it’s fine.’ I saw the director’s cut with the studio brass and I actually began to cry. Then I started to put on a brave face and tried to be a team player, because Fox is my home. But I feel enough time has passed; it’s out on video and I can say with impunity that I was just shattered by how crappy it was.

  “I really had high hopes for it,” he added. “I worked really hard on it for a really long time. But you know what? It was an epiphany; a wake-up call. After that I said, ‘The next person who ruins one of my scripts is going to be me.’ I have always wanted to direct. I’m not just a bitter writer trying to protect his shit. I think they’re two very different talents, but there is an element of ‘Enough already!’ It really drives home the argument of why television is so much more satisfying. It was the final crappy humiliation of my crappy film career.”

  Whedon was now determined to find a venue that would give him more control. But he was painfully aware that while he was clearly being recognized for his talents as a writer, he was still best known for his Buffy movie script. As he said a few years earlier, “I’m still ‘Joss Buffy the Vampire Slayer Whedon,’ which is really depressing.”

  Ironically, it was Buffy itself and Joss’s reputation as the creator of Buffy that would give him his first opportunity to realize the creative control he craved.

  Sigourney Weaver returns for Alien Resurrection, a low point in Joss’s film career.

  I saw the director’s cut with the studio brass and I actually began to cry.—Joss

  3

  Buffy: Round Two

  “My wife, at the premiere [of Buffy], was sort of líke, ‘well, you know honey, maybe in a few years you could make it agaín, the way you wanted to: I went, ’Oh, ha ha, honey, that doesn’t happen in Hollywood! You’re so naíve!’ Well . . . it really doesn’t.”

  “Somebody came along and kissed Sleeping Beauty Joss and said, ‘You can have your dream back now.’”

  —Joss Whedon

  Joss was getting used to disappointment. Despite his successes as a screenwriter, despite the money and the growing recognition, very little of his creative output had made it to the screen intact, in a fashion that he could be proud of. Most disappointing of all was Buffy, in which he had invested so much of his heart and mind. But Joss would get a second chance at Buffy and the result would change his life.

  Gail Berman, an executive with Sandollar Productions, decided that Buffy the Vampire Slayer would make a great television show. Berman believed the concept had great potential and, even more, she recognized the potential of Joss Whedon.

  “There was something about that original script that made me believe there was much more to this guy and his vampire slayer than any of us could have imagined,” says Berman. “Joss is a genius, and given half a chance to show what he could do, I knew magic would happen. The script was fun with an edge. There wasn’t anything else like it out there.”

  It took a bit of cajoling to get Joss to consider the TV possibilities for Buffy. Joss loved the movies. What he had dreamed about his whole life, what had crystallized for him at Wesleyan, was his passion for movies. The big time, the big money was in movies. Television was what his father and grandfather had done. He was determined not to simply follow in their footsteps.

  But he wasn’t happy Despite the success he’d experienced as a screenwriter, he didn’t feel satisfied. Everything he’d written had either been ruined on the screen or it had been changed enough so that it was no longer fully his work. Joss came to the realization that television might be able to give him what he craved–genuine creative control over the final product. “At the time I still wasn’t ready to go back to television, but then I realized I’d have a lot more control if I did. I liked the idea that I would be in charge of every aspect of the show, and the only person I could blame if it failed was me.”

  At first the idea was to make Buffy into a half-hour children’s show, a girl-power version of Power Rangers. Joss played with this idea, but soon realized he didn’t want to do a Buffy that was silly or just for fun. He wanted to do Buffy for real, with powerful emotions and genuine horror. He wanted it dark.

  So Joss set out to do a presentation film, sort of a mini-pilot. It included most of the cast that would ultimately star in Buffy, although the role of Willow was played by Riff Regan. Joss had never directed professionally before, but he had studied film for years and had a natural talent for creating powerful visuals. He had a strong script and he knew exactly what he wanted on screen. But he was given a weak crew and he didn’t know how to effectively communicate with them. “I was a firsttime guy who didn’t know what he was doing, surrounded by old veterans who didn’t know what they were doing,” Joss complained. The result was pretty dreadful. But the power of the concept and the script came through. WB approved twelve episodes of Buffy as a midseason replacement on the fledgling network. No one knew at the time that Buffy would soon set the tone for the entire network.

  From the beginning, the title was an obstacle. The network tried to get Whedon to change it from Buffy the Vampire Slayer to Slayer, but Joss was adamant. “I believe that anyone who isn’t open to a show with this title isn’t invited to the party. I made the title very specifically to say ‘This is what it is.’ It wears itself on its sleeve. It’s sophomoric, it’s silly, it’s comedy-horror-action; it’s all there in the title. Having the metaphor to work with makes the show better, and having the silly title makes the show cooler. At least to me.”

  I believe that anyone who isn’t open to a show with this title party.—Joss

  Essential to Joss’s concept for Buffy was to take all of the misery of his high school years and put them into the series. “I don’t know about you, but in high school I turned everything inside and it was all so horrible and dramatic. Everyone always says it’s part of being a teen, but it isn’t easy for anyone. It may be all those hormones; I’m not really sure but there’s just so much emotion happening and nowhere to let them go. You blow everything out of proportion, and the tiniest thing can set you off. You have no control over the situations you are in, and that’s something that we use in our show on a continuing basis. I don’t care how together you are during that time of your life, everyone experiences those seesawing emotions. Puberty basically sucks.”

  If you had asked me in the beginning if we were to be a successful show, would have told you that you are on smack.

  —Sarah Michelle Gellar

  At the time of the launch, Buffy’s success was far from evident. In the world of network television, being a midseason replacement on the WB was pretty much the bottom. Joss had a small budget to work with, which made producing a qu
ality show difficult, especially one that required special effects in every episode. “If you had asked me in the beginning if we were going to be a successful show, I would have told you that you are on smack,“ laughs Sarah Michelle Gellar. ”I didn’t think there was any way that people would get what we were doing. It was such genius but I was sure no one would watch.”

  Buffy’s low status and limited budget made recruiting big-name talent almost impossible. But Joss turned out to have a knack for spotting talent and was able to hire an excellent writing and production team. Even more important, he attracted a team, especially writers, who had the potential to grow. Two of his early writers, Marti Noxon and David Greenwalt, would become executive producers of their own shows (Noxon would executive-produce Buffy in season five, and Greenwalt would executive-produce Angel from its launch).

  I called my mom to tell her that I got this job, and I was shaking with shaking with excitement. I called her from a pay phone, and there was this long pause, and she said, ‘Oh, honey, next year you’ll do better.’

  —Marti Noxon

  When Noxon initially joined the Buffy team as a writer, she was thrilled to be part of a show with such a smart writing and high-quality team. But getting others to share her excitement wasn’t as easy. “When I got this job, it was the first season I’d ever gone out for television work. I had been working on plays and stuff,” says Noxon. ”I called my mom to tell her that I got this job, and I was shaking with excitement. I called her from a pay phone, and there was this long pause, and she said, ‘Oh, honey, next year you’ll do better.’”

  Joss’s energy and vision attracted top people and motivated them to do their best work for him. He was able to attract a production, design, and special-effects team who were able to work miracles with a tiny budget.

  “The thing is, you have to find the right people who can work together,” says Whedon. “I’ve been on sets where there were too many egos and people weren’t talking. The director can’t deal with the actors and so on. It’s ridiculous. Part of the control thing was finding a way that all of these people could work together on a happy set.

  “The truth is they have all sold their souls to me,” laughs Joss Whedon as he discusses his cast. It must be true, because Joss managed to attract a stellar cast and succeeded in keeping them working well together for seven years. His stars ranged from show business veterans (Gellar, Alyson Hannigan, Anthony Head) to relative newcomers (David Boreanaz, Nicholas Brendon), but each of them proved capable of powerful, nuanced performances. With the exception of secondary characters Eliza Dushku and Seth Green, both of whom he lost to the movies, Joss managed to keep all of his important actors in the fold, despite the fact that many of them were not regulars. (And Dushku returns to Buffy for a number of episodes in season seven).

  Critical to the success of Buffy was finding the right actress to play the lead. Whedon knew exactly what he wanted. His Buffy needed to embody a complex mix of strength, vulnerability, sweetness, ruthlessness, beauty, and determination. The pretty young woman had to look like the innocent blonde who would be killed in the first act of a lowbudget slasher film while being able to radiate an intensity that would give even the nastiest demon pause.

  Whedon knew he was asking for a lot but he was determined not to compromise. He auditioned hundreds of women without finding what he was looking for. Sarah Michelle Gellar was one of these young women but he had her tagged to play Cordelia, a role not too different from her Emmy-winning role on the soap All My Children.

  Gellar wasn’t sure she wanted to play Cordelia, for fear of being typecast as the bitchy brunette. But she loved the script. “I sat back and I kept rereading the pilot, which I still have, and there was something so special and so unique about it. There just wasn’t another show like it. And I said, ‘I feel like I want to be a part of this.’ There was something in the writing; there was something in the story.”

  So Gellar agreed to audition for Cordelia. Two auditions later, she won the role. But there was still no Buffy. The studio executives suggested to Whedon that he consider Gellar for the Buffy role. Gellar was told that she had won the role of Cordelia, but if she wanted, she could audition for the Buffy role. Gellar agreed. Joss had her audition many times, long, grueling auditions that took their toll. When asked to come back for a final time, Gellar broke down in tears. “Never mind, I’ll just be Cordelia,” she sobbed. When she did return, she found Joss and casting team there to congratulate her on winning the role of Buffy.

  “I guess we did make it pretty tough on her,” says Whedon. “But we knew that she was definitely the one.”

  “Auditions are scary things anyway,” says Gellar. “You go in and often read for a different part than you eventually get. It’s weird but they look at you and sometimes say, ‘Hey, try reading this other role.’ I really didn’t have a clue after going back and forth to the auditions where I was with them. I think they try really hard not to let you know if they like you, because there’s some morbid fascination with the desperation these poor actresses feel. I do know that when I heard I finally had the part, I felt like I’d earned it in more ways than one.”

  I think they try really hard not to let you know if they like you, because there’s some morbid fascination with the desperation wiz

  —Sarah Michelle Gellar

  The role of Buffy would turn Gellar into a star. But that was far from evident at the time and her new role didn’t impress her friends. “You try being on a midseason replacement show on the WB called Buffy the Vampire Slayer and see how much respect you get,” Gellar explains.

  Gellar would turn out to be the ideal choice for the series, casually beautiful, credibly tough, and genuinely funny. Most critically, she brought a powerful vulnerability to Buffy’s superhero persona. “I wanted to stress her vulnerability, because she came off a little harsh in the movie,” Joss explains. “I wanted to pull back from that. This is someone who has already been a slayer. You want to make her an underdog. She is stronger than everyone around her, because she is faster and smarter. So you need to have that empathy that everybody puts on her.”

  Buffy was far from Gellar’s first role. At nineteen, Gellar was a showbusiness veteran, having played Kendall Hart on the ABC soap opera All My Children from 1993 to 1995. She also played several small roles in various television shows and miniseries throughout the early nineties, from Swans Crossing to Girl Talk with Soleil Moon Frye.

  When she left her popular role as Kendall on All My Children, Gellar’s fans and a few of her peers thought she was foolish to leave such a plum job. But ongoing conflict with Susan Lucci made the work environment stressful, so Gellar decided it was time for the next phase in her career. She packed her bags and moved from New York to California with her mother. There were regular auditions after arriving, but nothing worked out. Trudging off to auditions was a daily event, and while her savings could keep her going for a short time, Gellar knew she had to find work fast. She wasn’t sure what to think when the script for Buffy the Vampire Slayer arrived.

  “The title would throw anyone off,” laughs Gellar. “But in that first script you could see that this was a strong female character and those aren’t always easy to find. I knew going in that it would be a very physical role, but in hindsight I didn’t really have a clue what I was in for.”

  Gellar could relate to what Buffy was going through. The actress, who was born and grew up in Manhattan, had many of the same high school conflicts as the characters in Buffy. “I was an actor and I tried to go to a high school where that’s what you trained for, but they didn’t like the fact that I was already working,” says Gellar. “They weren’t very happy about any of that. And I never fit in. I don’t know if it was jealousy or if it was because I was never there, but I always felt like such an outsider.”

  In one of their first interviews in front of the press, Whedon was incredulous when the beautiful Gellar mentioned that she felt like a geek in high school.

  “Does
anyone have a good time in high school?” laughed Gellar. “I felt like a total geek and didn’t fit in at all.”

  “Are you serious?” asked Whedon. “You have to be kidding.”

  “I am not!” said Gellar seriously. “High school was not a fun time in my life and I did feel like a total geek most of the time. I didn’t have any friends.”

  “Wow,” Whedon said. “See, that’s what I mean about this being so universal. There are millions of people who had horrible high school experiences and we can all relate to Buffy in some way.”

  4

  Secrets of Success

  “[When asked, ‘What’s your secret for building a cult phenomenon?’] . . . I’m not telling you. That’s all I’ve got.”

  “I have never had any particular life of my own, so I don’t see any particular reason why anyone should run out to get one. of course, if they’re dressing up like willow and staying in their basement for nine months at a time, that’s not good. But the show’s designed to foster slavísh devotion; it has it from me, and I entirely respect it in others.”

  —Joss Whedon

  Whedon launched Buffy with grand ambition. Knowing full well Buffy’s status as an obscure show on a new network, with a tiny budget and a minimal network commitment, Joss set out to build an empire. Joss envisioned Buffy as a genuine cultural phenomenon, complete with action figures and comic strips, cartoons and spin-offs. Joss kept this to himself because he knew how crazy it made him seem. But he was deadly serious and, against all odds, he made it happen.