Best known for his role as the evil/good second vampire with a soul, Spike, on the cult hits Buffy the Vampire Slayer and Angel, James Marsters has bitten his way into the hearts of legions of fans across the world. Further cementing his place on the radar of fans, Marsters has been appearing on Smallville this season as the villainous Brainiac as part of a 10-episode deal.

James Marsters arrived in fine form at the Canadian National Expo this past August though the closest many could get to him, including a group of reporters, was standing on the opposite side of a large grey cubicle wall hoping to catch a glimpse as fans went, one by one, behind it to get a photo snapped with the actor.

Marsters’ status as one of the most popular characters from the Buffy mythology explains why the actor had so many security personnel, PR reps, and convention organizers shooing people away (those who didn’t pay upwards of $500 US for a VIP weekend pass, anyway). But once the actor gets in front of his fans, he appears incredibly humble despite the numerous awards he’s received for playing Spike. “I put all of them in a box labeled James’ ego trips. I shy away from compliments. If you take too many, you start to believe them,” Marsters tells the audience, on day three of the epic Intimate & Interactive event.

At the time of the event, Marsters had put two episodes of Smallville into the can. Audiences may be a little shocked to see the actor without his bleached-blond hair (now a deep brown), arrogant swagger, and his British accent. Marsters is actually a native Californian, but his accent was so convincing that not only did viewers accept it as real, but many cast and crew were also fooled.

On Smallville, Marsters plays the incredibly smart villain, Brainiac, who comes to Earth aboard a Kryptonian spaceship. The entity assumes the identity of Professor Milton Fine who begins to mentor Clark (Tom Welling). Marsters displayed a genuine enthusiasm both for the character and show creators, Al Gough and Miles Miller.

“They have a clear idea of what they want to do with the Superman mythos. My character, Brainiac, has a clear objective which is fantastic. So many seasons of Buffy I’d wonder what Spike would be doing this year. I mean, why was he still in Sunnydale? I dunno, looking for milk I guess,” Marsters says.

“Brainiac is intelligent and arrogant,” Marsters continues. “On Buffy, to make a character cool, they’d have them dominate Spike. With Smallville, the same thing is happening to Lex. They set me up as cool by having me come out on top.”

With the deteriorating friendship between Clark and Lex (Michael Rosenbaum) being an ongoing focus of the show, Marsters says his character is set to exploit the cracks as much as possible. “I’m going to wake Clark up,” says Marsters. “We’re superior beings and humans are inferior creatures, especially Lex Luthor.”

Marsters claims that the only teacher he follows in his acting career is the audience. “They see through the bullshit. If you’re performing for a live audience and no one is breathing, it’s a sacred noise. You hear rustling programs and you know you’re in trouble. You can think you’re great, hear the rustle, and know you have to simplify what you’re doing.”

Marsters likes to act a lot with his body. On screen, Spike was hypnotic to watch as he would make arm gestures, bob his head, and walk around about freely. “It drives the cameraman crazy. They like bad acting from people whose arms are glued to their bodies. It’s easy to film. I like to give cameramen whiplash,” Marsters chuckles.

Though many actors would want to get out from under the shadows of past characters, Marsters seems to have a genuine affection for Spike, though early into season four the character was almost lost forever. Marsters reveals that he was concerned Spike was being played for too many jokes and when his comments got back to the powers that be, the character was nearly axed. Obviously things worked out for the best as Spike went on to be one of the most memorable small screen hero/villain dichotomies of the past decade.

What would Spike be, however, without murderous other half, Druisilla, played by Juliet Landau?

“I would pray they’d write another episode with her in it. Spike needed her more. They had an artistic passion, that fire in the belly and we’d both want to get every scene right,” Marsters says. Though the crew would have to hurry them on to the next scene, it didn’t stop them from making obscene hand gestures at each other. “If you watch closely, you can make some of it out. People must have been thinking ‘what are they doing?’”

Later in the series, after Spike and Buffy (Sarah Michelle Gellar), began their unlikely screen romance, Marsters recalls one bizarre instance where the script called for him to lick Gellar. “I couldn’t do it,” he says to laughter. “Sarah was so funny. She said “you could rape me last year, but you can’t lick me?”

“I told her that I loved her like a sister, warts and all. Kissing is one thing, but licking?”

Another favorite moment for Marsters was the fifth season Angel episode in which the title character, played by David Boreanaz, is magically transformed into a puppet. One of the episode’s key scenes involved a throw-down between Spike and the all-too cuddly Angel puppet.

“It was fun fighting that puppet,” Marsters says. “They wired it to me and just said ‘go.’ Just totally low tech and let the actor do his thing.”

The end of Angel had Spike and the rest of the cast in an alleyway facing a horde of creatures. Just as the team attacked, the screen went dark, and the credits rolled. For months, rumors of a Spike movie, either for TV or straight to DVD, have been circling the web with all corners talking about it, including Buffy creator Joss Whedon. The rumor mill seems to be ramping up again, suggesting former co-star Amy Acker (Illyria) may be due to appear in the film. Should it not come to pass, however, Marsters seems content with his contribution to pop culture.

“I’m willing to put Spike to rest,” Marsters says. “Though there’s been constant rumbling about this movie. When Angel finished, I told Joss he had five years. I’ll be 43 then, and Spike isn’t supposed to age. The point of a vampire is that he beats death every day, but if you take that away, and it just declines quickly.”

“All I know is that I don’t want to be second best, so I told Joss to get going or forget about it.”

Quelle: The Magazine @ Millarworld.tv