Random Buffy email not sure what to do with...

[shadowkat]

Been a long while since I've gotten any emails associated with that website containing those(cough) Buffy
essays, but here it is. From same person who contacted me last year with a query about which sites to visit that had good essays.

"Hi, I hope you're well and have had a good
thanksgiving. My name's _________ and I wrote
you a few months ago when researching the Buffy series
for school. With so much on offer, I've come back to
look at the series, as I was always intending to do
and would be once again extremely grateful for your
assistance, if possible.

With Buffy fandom having quietened down and getting
smaller, I'd be greatly honored and very grateful once
again to have your response to this new survey
question (below) I need to ask of preferably only
highly advanced fans of the series.

As usual, if you either know and / or can recommend
any other very eloquent, articulate Buffy and / or
Angel fans or fanfic writers (compared to most
people), please let me know.
Thanks so much for your time and have a good and merry
Xmas also. I hope to hear from you very soon.

QUESTION : What most admired 3 or 4 actors from
BTVS's excellent 7 seasons do you think were and still
are, the 'best' (whatever your own definition of that
is) actors that this superb series brought to
people's attention and please give some valid reason/s
why, for each actor/s named. They can be actors who
played major characters and / or any actor’s who
played recurring character/s who appeared a few times."


If you want to respond to this woman, let me know - I'll give you her email address.

Personally? Not sure what my answers would be at this stage.
Off-hand?

James Marsters (who keeps getting crappy roles) - but was the best actor on both series
Anthony Stewart Head (ditto as above)
Amber Benson (not many roles elsewhere)- took a small role gave it depth and nuance
Seth Green - OZ, took a small role and provided depth and perfect comic timing with nuance
Alexis Denisof - for his turn as Wes

Angel:
Alexis Denisof
Lilah
Laurel Holloman - Justine
Vincent Kortheiser


Reasons? sigh. They took a character who was introduced as one thing and provided that character with depth and personality, more so than was written. Two of those actors actually took a role that was intended to be short term and made it long term - Marsters and Denisof, creating two of the best character arcs in the history of any televison series. Neither arc was originally planned by the writers. Head took the cliche English Prof and give him a sexy underlining edge - one not many people can pull off well.

Comments

Re: Kartheiser

[shadowkat67.livejournal.com]

LOL!

Yes, it feels a bit like a marketing person posing as a college student, or a college student taking a marketing course.

Had more or less the same reaction. Outside of the brief paragraph above, really feel no need to go in depth on it, too busy. I think I only discussed the topic once - in an essay on the perils of the TV medium.

Zachs Mind did write an extensive piece on Marsters acting ability and the method - which was interesting, considering Zachs Mind was a former actor and not really a Spike fan and anti-Spuffy. Outside of that...mostly fannish posts.

Re: Kartheiser

[masqthephlsphr.livejournal.com]

I realized after I posted this that I really *was* a bit of a snob. Of course, it's possible to talk about the actors and the job they did in a way that is intelligent and thoughtful, and in a way that would even make interesting reading on ATPo.

I'm just not used to seeing it. The actors get 60% of the attention in any fandom (40% to the plot and *possibly* the producers), but that attention is mostly superficial and sometimes downright fictional.

And even if it were 100% true and insightful, I still wouldn't care much. Other than saying, "Great job, you embodied the characters I love well", it just doesn't interest me.

Re: Kartheiser

[shadowkat67.livejournal.com]

I'm odd about it. I'm not interested in the personal lives of the actors nor am I interested in how great they look or the fannish aspects I've seen online (ie. all the photos, although those are nice, I guess). No what fascinates me is their process - how they embody the role, how they develop the character. Part of the reason this fascinates me so much is I explored acting extensively as a child and adolescent and read a great deal about acting methods. The other reason is what people do for a living, regardless of what it is, fascinates.
I find myself captivated by interviews with actors that delve into what their work day is like, how they read a script, how they analyze a role, what tools they use to create it. Many fans think the actor just shows up and reads the lines given, but about 65% of what you see onscreen is the actor - what they bring to it. There's a great interview with Christopher Walken - where he states how whenever he gets a script the first thing he does is kill all the punctuation, because from his pov that is up to the actor to figure out. An actor can take a horrid line and make it brilliant just by leaving out a word or take a wonderful line and make it horrid by doing the same thing.

Ask yourself - would you have liked Connor if Tom Lenk or Danny Strong or Daniel Radcliff had played the role?

Re: Kartheiser

[masqthephlsphr.livejournal.com]

No what fascinates me is their process - how they embody the role, how they develop the character.

Exactly. And to get around slowly to answering your question on the bottom, I actually read behind-the-scenes articles where VK described his process preparing for his initial Season 3 run as Connor. I rarely read any of that stuff because of the not caring. But in that particular case, VK made an impression on me. More so than any actors playing other favorite roles. I've never had much curiosity about DB's process, for example. And VK is the only actor of the entire bunch for whom I've ever actively sought out his other work. I pretty much deliberately don't watch DB or anyone else in their other roles unless it's something I'm going to watch anyway, like AD or ASH showing up in Highlander episodes, for example.

My interest in VK as an actor allows me to understand on an intellectual level at least why the actors behind the role matter, even if I think their personal lives are their own business. The artistry behind what they do, on the other hand? Their process? As a writer who loves to talk about her own process, yeah, that fascinates me.

And I think all but DR would have been all wrong in the Connor role. VK has a body of work as an actor that made Connor an obvious choice for him. DS is physically wrong for the role. TL has comedic instincts he'd have to severely squash to do the role. I'm not saying he couldn't do it, I'd have to see him in more dramatic roles first.