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shadowkatThis is back with the footnotes - where I often insert the actual interview quotes.
[> Part V: Can Actors Really Break or Make The Show? -- s'kat (back with the footnotes), 10:12:18 08/23/03 Sat
V. The Importance of The Actors: Can They Really Break or Make the Show?
"Don't act just speak the lines." Kathryn Hepburn's advice to Anthony Hopkins in one of his first movie roles, as Richard to Kathryn's Eleanor in The Lion in Winter. (45)
"For me, I took a workshop with Maximilian Schell for six weeks when I was SC, and he would refer to the text of the play that you were working on as the Bible. He'd say, "This is the Bible. All your answers are here. If your answers aren't here, then you're going to have problems, because this is where you need to find your answers." Danny Strong Interview with IGFN (46)
"I've been hired to learn lines. They're paying me to learn lines. That is the only transaction that is occurring when an actor is hired. You are getting paid to say these lines. So I need to say them as believably and as honestly as I can, and pretty much nothing else matters besides that." Danny Strong Interview with IGFN.
"Here is where I make a mistake. I imply that the success of Buffy isn't just down to the writers (who are, of course, brilliant) but to the cast as well. From his reaction you'd suspect that I had just called his mother an old trout. James Marsters becomes vehemently defensive. "It is not. It is not. It is all writing, and a really good actor understands that. Good acting is Not Messing Up Good Words. If you can release the potential of the words... if you find yourself in the position of having to overcome the material, you're in the doghouse. The best thing is to recognize a good script and then serve it" Yes, but without a good cast, no-one would know if it was good writing or not, I counter. "There is a lot to be said for good acting, but most actors will mess up good words. I'm not saying that acting's not valuable, and good acting is not rare - it is. But good acting is serving good words. It's releasing their power." James Marster's Interview in SFX Magazine, August 2003.
I actually agree with these guys. Television is first and foremost, more producer's/writer's medium than an actor's or a director's. Writers may have more say in a television production than in a film or play, even though the print medium remains their strongest arena. Theater likewise is the actor's, regardless of how many hours or minutes a director, playwright or producer spends on a play - the actor is in charge once the curtain comes up. (47) There is very little the producer/director/or writer can do to change a live theater performance, short of switching off the lights. Mel Brooks parodies this a bit in his film The Producers, where an actor turns the playwright's serious script into a comedy by the virtue of his performance.
Film is a director's medium, the director can cut out the actor's performance, force the actor to re-shoot it, re-cast and re-film the performance, or just select a different take. The actor is a hired hand in a film and at the mercy of whomever is directing and editing it. Also as Jane Espenson notes in her interview with Hercules on AICN, "most movies are written by committee" (48), this is not entirely true - some directors write and direct their own films. George Lucas wrote and directed Star Wars. The Coen Brothers wrote and directed all of their movies. On the other hand a majority of films go through a series of writers and the producer/director chooses which sections of the scripts make the screen. William Goldman relates a particularly unpleasant story about screenwriting in Adventures in The Screen Trade. The story is about the making of All The Presidents Men. Goldman wrote the script. Robert Redford, the producer, sent the script to Carl Bernstein and Nora Ephron who wrote their own script. Goldman was then asked to meld Bernstein and his scripts together. Initially Goldman had been hired to write the script based on Woodward and Bernstein's novel and had stuck fairly close to it. Bernstein veered sharply away from the novel. After the thousandth re-write with no clear direction from anyone, Goldman gave up. The end product was based mostly on Goldman's script but had several scenes from Bernstein's stuck in it. (49) Joss Whedon relates a similar experience regarding the Buffy Movie, " What I started with was Horror Action comedy. It had fright, it had camera movement, it had acting, all kinds of interesting things that weren't in the final film." The Buffy Movie was a disaster, which he mentions initially watching in tears, thinking his career was over. (50) Whedon's vision had been greatly altered by the director. An experience he was to repeat on Alien Resurrection and X-Men, until he finally came to the conclusion that the next film he wrote, he would direct. (51)
Television? A whole different ballgame. In Television the producer and writer are more often than not the same. The writer may even be the director or at the very least is standing over the director's shoulder telling hi/r what to do. (52) That said, actors can still make or break the show, they can throw off the story, muddy up the works, and create all sorts of headaches for everyone involved. The writer may be the General but without his soliders he has no army and in Television, no show. So even though the actors basic job is to read lines - s/he must read the lines well and obtain the viewers sympathy, otherwise no one tunes in.
"Honestly, I don't see why they just can't hire new actors to play all the roles and pick up where they left off. I mean really this is television - they do it on soaps all the time, don't they?" Zachsmind commenting on BTVS' end. http://www.voy.com/14567/618.html, Buffy Book Reviews Thread.
Why indeed? If actors are only hired to read lines well and TV is truly a writers/producers' medium, why can't you just replace the lead roles with new actors? If you can replace the writers who run the medium, why not the actors? (53) Certainly would solve a lot of problems. Think of what ME could have done if they were able to just re-cast Amber Benson's role in Season 7 or Seth Green's? So why didn't they?
Because, the actor, like it or not, not only can define a role they are visible to the audience - even soap operas have run into this problem. Susan Lucci, for instance, has played Erica Kane for over twenty years, if she died or left the role for any reason - they would most likely have to kill her off. Same with Genie Francis who played Laura on General Hospital or Anthony Geary who played Luke. In soaps it only works if the character has had plastic surgery or the actor has not defined the role - ie. they haven't played it on and off for twenty years. Of course that's daytime television, it seldom works in prime time - the prime time audience is less willing to suspend disbelief. That does not prevent television producers from attempting it occasionally. The prime time soap operas Dallas and Dynasty certainly tried it. And it can work, if and only if it is done early in the character's run, the character is a supporting player or had a disfiguring accident and if it occurs before the pilot aired. Willow was originally played by Riff Regan, but since Ms. Regan's pilot never aired, ME was able to recast the role with Alyson Hannigan. (54) Dynasty successfully recast Fallon but the recast happened after she left for the spin-off the Colby's - they also did it by having Fallon get in a disfiguring car-accident. Or Barbara Bel Geddes role in Dallas - which was taken over by Donna Reed and was not much more than a bit part. The bigger parts of JR's brother and father were not recast after the actors left them. In Bablyon 5 - they created new characters and wrote the old ones out. Same with BTVS and ATS, something X-Files also attempted in its final two seasons. The problem the X-Files had was that it was attempting to replace the leads not the supporting characters. For the same reason you can't really re-cast or replace the lead roles of Mulder and Scully after six years, you can't re-cast or replace Buffy, Xander, Willow, Giles - once the audience identifies the character with the actor playing the part, there is no going back.
Audiences tend to be more accepting of re-casts in theater - after all it's rare you'll get the same audience for each show. When Nathan Lane and Matthew Broderick left the Producers, it continued to play to sold out audiences. Same with Chicago, which has had numerous leading ladies or Caberet. In movies - the audience doesn't know about re-casts, so there's no effect.
So how did the actors decisions adversely or positively affect the writing and or plot arcs of Buffy the Vampire Slayer and Angel The Series ?
1. David Boreanze - The character of Angel was only supposed to last one season, but the actor playing the character, a relative unknown who had appeared in very few things prior to the role, (55) had amazing chemistry with the lead. So the writers expanded his role and took a risk, hoping he could play a prick as well as a heart-throb. To their delight Boreanze delivered the goods in a tour-de-force performance in the Joss Whedon written and directed episode Innocence. (56) Boreanze's chemistry with the camera and ability to portray the multi-faceted vampire cursed with a soul - led ME to create a spin-off around his character's quest for redemption.
2. James Marsters - The character of Spike was slatted for just six episodes in Season 2 BTVS. ME planned on killing the character in Innocence. But Marsters, like Boreanze before him, had chemistry with the camera, the other characters, and the lead. So the writers' re-wrote the episodes and changed the character. Marsters ability to add depth to what had originally been a two-dimensional villain kept his character alive in the Buffyverse. (57)
3. Juliet Landau - Drusilla and Spike were considered "lightening in a bottle". These two had more on screen chemistry than just about anyone on TV and ME wanted to keep them. In Season 3 BTVS the plan was to bring Spike and Dru back to Sunnydale in the episode Lover's Walk. The character of Drusilla had in fact been written with Juliet Landau in mind. But Juliet was unavailable in S3 so ME just brought back Spike. The character worked so well that Whedon decided to sign James Marsters to Season 4 with or without Juliet Landau. (58) In Season 4, according to Jane Espenson's interview with Hercules on AICN, both Spike and Dru were supposed to be regulars. But again Juliet was unavailable. (59) So they created the character of Harmony. Would Harmony have become a vampire if Juliet had been available? We'll never know.
4. Seth Green - In S4 BTVS, Seth Green made it clear to ME that he wanted to broaden his horizons. Was it possible for OZ to be placed on recurring status, just come in and out occasionally like he did in Seasons 2 and 3? ME said no, OZ was central to the group and it wouldn't work if he wasn't present in every episode. Green nodded sagely and told ME he wanted out. So ME scrapped the huge Veruca (Werewolf)/Oz/Willow/Tara quadrangle they had planned and went with Willow/Tara. OZ was supposed to be the character Willow lost not Tara. Tara was originally slatted as just a wiccan friend of Willow's, an experiment, nothing more. But Seth Green's departure changed the direction of the story and the Willow/Tara relationship was born. (60)
5. Lindsey Crouse - Professor Maggie Walsh was supposed to be the Little Bad of the Season 4 plot arc in BTVS. ME had plotted out an arc with Prof Walsh spying on and manipulating the Buffy/Riley relationship with all sorts of twisted Freudian overtones. But Lindsey Crouse wanted out to do movies and they had no choice but to kill her off. She kindly agreed to return for one episode near the end, just as Seth Green agreed to return for one or two episodes near the end of the season. (61)
6. Amber Benson - After Tara was killed off in Season 6, ME planned to bring her back in a dual role in Season 7 as both Tara and the FE. But Amber didn't want to do it so ME rewrote the plot and did the Willow/Kennedy arc. (62) If Amber had come back in the dual role - we may never have had the Willow/Kennedy relationship.
7. Charisma Carpenter - in Angel The Series, ME had decided to make Cordelia evil, she would be even more evil than Willow was. But something happened over the summer - Charisma got pregnant. Now here's the thing - in most jobs taking a sick day or getting maternity leave isn't going to screw up the product. Your boss can get a temp to take your place or you can work until you need to leave. Acting? Your body is your product. From your hair to your feet. If a character is stick thin - you lose weight and become stick thin. If a character is 238 pounds or 17 stone? You gain the weight. Tom Hanks gained over 30 pounds to play the lead in Cast Away. He gained 50 to play the lead in Catch Me if You Can. Russell Crow mentions gaining weight for his current role as Captain Aubrey in Master and Commander, he stopped short of 17 stone, due to the fact that the director wanted him to be active on set and that amount of poundage weighs a bit too heavy on his frame. (63) Uma Thurman ended up delaying the filming of Kill Bill due to her pregnancy. Quentin Taratino was so found of the actress, he agreed to delay filming an entire year. Otherwise he would have had to recast the role and re-shoot the scenes. (64) In Television - the writer can't replace the actress and is often stuck filming around her pregnancy or writing it in. Unfortunately in ME's case they'd already done a pregnancy/baby storyline the year before and this was the year they had planned to make her evil. Charisma did not warn them ahead of time, like many actresses do, Kelly Ripa warned All My Children each time she chose to get pregnant or was considering it - providing the writers ample time to write around it, twice they wrote it in. Also, regarding sick leave? Actors often go on stage or screen sick as dogs. James Marsters had been recovering from a severe bout with the stomach flu in 2001 while filming Smashed and Wrecked - that's why he's so thin in those episodes. Sarah Michelle Gellar had a cold in First Date. You work around it. You dye your hair - even if it causes blisters. (65) That's what acting on television is about. It's also why you get paid any-where from $50,000 to $750,000 per episode (just in case you're feeling sorry for these people, remember they are paid very well.) (66) But actors are human beings and life does not always go as planned - so Charisma got pregnant and ME had to change the story from Big Bad Cordelia to Cordelia has Jasmine. If it weren't for Charisma's pregnancy - we wouldn't have the Jasmine arc. (67)
8. Emma Caulfield - Emma made it clear before the end of Season 6 that she was not renewing her contract after Season 7, she was ready to move on regardless of what they offered her. Nor did she have any interest in appearing on Angel. As a result, Whedon decided to kill off the character of Anya in S7, since she was the one cast member he knew would not come back. (68)
9. Sarah Michelle Geller - the show is called Buffy The Vampire Slayer and SMG plays the title role. Without Buffy there isn't a show. Even though the writer is king or queen on Television, s/he can be replaced easier than the star. Why? The audience usually doesn't see the writer unless they look at the credits and are obsessed. The audience generally remains oblivious to whomever is writing the show, but they do notice when the star of the show changes. For example: the head writers/creators of Seinfield, Dawson's Creek, ER, The West Wing, and Roseanne have changed over time. They might do four years - then burn out. Writer turnover is big in television. ME has had numerous writers come and go over the years. Whedon handed most of the operations of BTVS over to Marti Noxon and David Fury in Season 6 and 7 of BTVS. Angel The Series was being over-seen by Tim Minear, David Greenwalt and Jeff Bell respectively. So change in writers? Not an issue. Season 7 was Joss Whedon's last year on BTVS - as he stated in numerous interviews (69) but it did not matter - the show would have continued without him. Whedon did not own the rights, Fox and the Kuzuis did. But it could not continue without Geller. Her decision to move on to other things ended Buffy The Vampire Slayer. Even though she was only hired to read lines and perform the role - her performance defined the character to the extent that Kristy Swanson's turn is almost forgotten. While it may be possible to recast the part in the distant future, it is unlikely the audience will accept anyone else in the role that SMG faithfully and brilliantly brought to life for seven years.
10. James Marsters, Juliet Landau, David Boreanze, Julie Benze and the redefinition of the vampire in the Buffyverse. Originally, ME wanted vampires just to be monsters - no staying power, no real depth. Staked after a few episodes. But Julie Benze and David Boreanze changed all that in Angel Season 1 BTVS - by making the vampire sympathetic and sexy. Juliet Landau and James Marsters continued the trend - creating a villainous duo that was more interesting than most heroic duos on TV. Ratings climbed and Whedon had to change his whole take on the vampires and vampire mythology as a result. If the actors playing these roles had been less charismatic and unable to add another dimension to the characters - they may have faded into the background like Luke, The Master, Trick and The Annoying One. (70)
11. Alyson Hannigan's portrayal of Willow. Joss Whedon has openly admitted that Willow is his favorite character and he's a huge fan of Hannigan's take on the character. (71) Hannigan's performance may be the reason Whedon backed off of turning Willow truly evil. It may also be the reason he could never kill Willow off.
12. Glenn Quinn and Max Perlach: Doyle and Whistler. Rumor has it that ME planned on using Whistler in Season 1 ATS as Angel's guide with the visions. It certainly would have explained the Whistler character mysteriously introduced in Becoming Part I & II in Btvs S2. Unfortunately Max Perlach recently released from Homicide Life on The Street was in jail for undisclosed charges. ME had to find someone else to portray Angel's half-human/half-demon sidekick - so they decided on Glenn Quinn, whom Whedon knew from his days at Roseanne, to play Doyle. Unfortunately Glenn Quinn also had a personal problem that interfered with his work, drugs and alcohol. Whedon was forced to write Doyle out after six episodes and introduce a new sidekick. Fans and critics alike continue to debate whether Doyle's death was pre-planned by Whedon or caused by the actor's unreliable habits.
13. Elizabeth Rohm: Kate Lockely. Rohm had gotten a coveted role on Law and Order. So ME had to write her out. She was slatted to be Angel's love interest, but due to Rohm's departure, Greenwalt and Whedon decided to have Cordelia take on that role instead.
Whether the writers like it or not - actors define their characters and by doing so can make or break a plot arc. This is true in movies and TV, imagine if you will what Raiders of The Lost Arc would have been like if Tom Sellack had taken the part? The difference between movies and TV is that the television serial is 22, 43 minute movies a year, not one two to three hour feature. If an actor opts out in mid-stream than so does the character, they can't re-cast. What would have happened if David Boreanze's movie career took off in Season 2 BTVS? Would we even have Angel The Series? Or how about James Marsters' career? What if he hadn't been available? The writer/producer/director may control the lines, how the actor comes across on screen and which scenes make it to the screen - but they can't force the actor to stay in the role. Nor do they have any control over how the actor interacts with the camera. A friend of mine, who is a set designer for a soap opera, once told me - that someone who is drop-dead gorgeous in person can be ugly on camera and vice-versa. There's really no way of knowing how the camera will react.
____________________________________________________________
45 TCM Tribute to Kathryn Hepburn August 2003
46 IGFN Interview with Danny Strong: Buffy The Vampire Slayer's Jonathan Levinson discusses his career. June 2003.
47James Marsters Q&A at Baltimore Shore Leave, 7/14/02, transcribed by Tara Dilullo for slayernews.com:" In stage, writers don't really have a lot of power so if you go to one and you tell them their work is really top notch, it's just really a worker to a worker." Also from same convention: "On stage, you are really in control in a way that you are not in control on TV at all. On stage, you tell a story. In film, you are just a building block for someone else to come and tell the story later on and that was kind of a hard adjustment for me."
48 Jane Espenson Interview with AICN, http://www.aintitcoolnews.com/display.cgi?id=15587: "The system of making television allows for strong individual voices, like Joss's. Movies are always made by committees, and the writer is not at the head of the committee."
49Goldman, William, Adventures in the Screen Trade, p. 215-227, Warner Books: 1983
50 SFX Vampire Special Edition, Fall 2001, p.37; See also IGFN Interview with Joss Whedon: ". The fact of the matter is, I remember having a conversation with Kristy Swanson. She was like, "Please, tell me how to do this. Tell me what you want." I literally said, "I can't." Because I have always treated film and television like the army, and I'm very strict about it. It was not my place. It was the director's movie. At that point I was there to try and help the director realize her vision, and that's all. Even though it was my script and all this stuff, the director... who had also financed, gotten the film off the ground. Fran Kuzui came in when nobody else wanted the film, said, "We're going to put this together"... And they did. Howard Rosenman and Sandollar and all of that. Without them, there would be no film - and possibly not this phone conversation. So I didn't agree with the way the movie was going, but I also kept my mouth shut because you respect the director."
51 Joss Whedon Interview with SFX, The Vampire Special Edition.
52IGFN Interview with Joss Whedon:"I said to one director... he said, "One of these days, I'm going to come down and look over your shoulder while you're shooting." I brought him up to my office the next day and I said, "Let me explain something to you. It is my job to control the way you shoot, not your job to control mine. My name comes at the end of every show. You do very good work and you're going to come back for us, but I am never going to let you do something that I don't approve of."
53List of television shows with writer turn-over or who have replaced their writing staff: Angel The Series (David Greenwalt handed the reins to Jeff Bell in Angel S4), Buffy The Vampire Slayer (Joss Whedon handed the reins to Marti Noxon and David Fury in Season 6), The West Wing (Aaron Sorkin left and John Wells took over), The Practice, Ally McBeal, Chicago Hope (David E. Kelly handed the reins over to other writers), and Dawson's Creek (headwriter and creator left after the first two years).
54See The Buffy Pilot.
55EXTRACTS of David Quotes from TV Zone #166 'Avenging Angel' article - By Steven Eramo (www.visimag.com to purchase)
56 Season 2 DVD Commentary by Joss Whedon for Innocence.
57 See Introducing Spike on Season 4 BTVS DVD Commentary
58 Joss Whedon at Museum of TV and Radio, Angel event, also Introducing Spike on Season 4 DVD Commentary.
59 "AICN: At the ANGEL event at the Museum of TV & Radio a few years ago, Joss Whedon mentioned the original plan was to bring Spike AND Dru back as regulars for BUFFY's fourth season, but Juliet Landau turned out to be too busy to return. Do you think Buffy and Spike would have eventually coupled-up anyway had Dru returned? JANE: Oh yeah. Joss doesn't like to leave any couple together too long. We'd already seen what Spike and Dru were like as a couple. If she'd returned I think we'd've played 'em like an interesting divorced couple -- a bit of heat and love still there between them, but mostly challenged into conflict and jealousy." http://www.aintitcoolnews.com/display.cgi?id=15587
60 Season 4 DVD Commentary, specifically Wild at Heart with Seth Green, Marti Noxon and Joss Whedon.
61 Primeval Season 4 DVD Commentary.
62 Interview with Joss Whedon for IGFN, June 2003: "Amber didn't want to do it. She wanted to do other things. I had a whole - I used to tell people, "Here's what we're going to do. We're going to have her in a couple of flashbacks, keep her alive, and then at the end ..." I had a whole show figured out that ended with the return of Tara. I used to cry every time I pitched it. It was going to be Tara's her one true love, people are going to be blown away, they'll never see it coming - except on the Internet - and it's going to be just about the biggest thing. Quite frankly, Amber just didn't want to do it - which is her decision. I was like, "Okay, the thing where I cried, and we all cried, and I told you about? That's gone. So, instead, we're going to go out and find somebody really hot, and we're going to make this about moving on, because that's the only option we have. I don't want Willow stuck in typical gay celibacy on TV. I'm interested in where her heart will go once she's lost her true love, so let's do that instead." So, you know, hence Kennedy."
63 Svetkey, Benjamin, "Rocking the Boat: Russell Crow Interview" Entertainment Weekly, Fall Movie Preview, Aug 22/29, pp. 26-27
64 Coker, Cheo Hodari, "View to a Kill", Premiere, Sept 2003.: "...there was the year long delay when Thurman got pregnant in early 2001. Tarantino says he never considered replacing the actress."
65 James Marsters' Q&A at the Tampa Vulkon Con.
66 In articles archived on www.slayage.com in fall 2002, Sarah Michelle Gellar was reported to be pulling in a paycheck of $735,000 per episode, in a recent article in the Dublin Times, Alyson Hannigan admitted to be pulling in $200,000 per episode for Season 6-7.
67 Tim Minear and David Fury at The Succubus Club, May 2003. Original plan was for Connor to kill Cordelia, but Charisma became pregnant, so Cordelia was supposed to kill Jasmine, but Charisma couldn't be active, the most she could do was just lie around, so Connor killed Jasmine instead.
68 Mason, Dave, "Buffy Creator Sinks His Teeth into A New Season of Angel", 7/16/03: http://www2.bostonherald.com/entertainment/television/tca07162003.htm``I knew she [Emma Caulfield] wasn't going to come back. And if I killed any of the core group, you couldn't consider it a happy ending,." (Whedon explaining why he killed Anya.)
69 Entertainment Weekly Exit Interview with Sarah Michelle Geller, March 2003; IGFN Interview with Joss Whedon, June 2003
70 A&E Tvography, May 2003, also available on the S6 DVD Commentary.
71Whedon's Interview with IGFN and the Comic-Con Panel Interview via cityofangle.com
[> Part V: Can Actors Really Break or Make The Show? -- s'kat (back with the footnotes), 10:12:18 08/23/03 Sat
V. The Importance of The Actors: Can They Really Break or Make the Show?
"Don't act just speak the lines." Kathryn Hepburn's advice to Anthony Hopkins in one of his first movie roles, as Richard to Kathryn's Eleanor in The Lion in Winter. (45)
"For me, I took a workshop with Maximilian Schell for six weeks when I was SC, and he would refer to the text of the play that you were working on as the Bible. He'd say, "This is the Bible. All your answers are here. If your answers aren't here, then you're going to have problems, because this is where you need to find your answers." Danny Strong Interview with IGFN (46)
"I've been hired to learn lines. They're paying me to learn lines. That is the only transaction that is occurring when an actor is hired. You are getting paid to say these lines. So I need to say them as believably and as honestly as I can, and pretty much nothing else matters besides that." Danny Strong Interview with IGFN.
"Here is where I make a mistake. I imply that the success of Buffy isn't just down to the writers (who are, of course, brilliant) but to the cast as well. From his reaction you'd suspect that I had just called his mother an old trout. James Marsters becomes vehemently defensive. "It is not. It is not. It is all writing, and a really good actor understands that. Good acting is Not Messing Up Good Words. If you can release the potential of the words... if you find yourself in the position of having to overcome the material, you're in the doghouse. The best thing is to recognize a good script and then serve it" Yes, but without a good cast, no-one would know if it was good writing or not, I counter. "There is a lot to be said for good acting, but most actors will mess up good words. I'm not saying that acting's not valuable, and good acting is not rare - it is. But good acting is serving good words. It's releasing their power." James Marster's Interview in SFX Magazine, August 2003.
I actually agree with these guys. Television is first and foremost, more producer's/writer's medium than an actor's or a director's. Writers may have more say in a television production than in a film or play, even though the print medium remains their strongest arena. Theater likewise is the actor's, regardless of how many hours or minutes a director, playwright or producer spends on a play - the actor is in charge once the curtain comes up. (47) There is very little the producer/director/or writer can do to change a live theater performance, short of switching off the lights. Mel Brooks parodies this a bit in his film The Producers, where an actor turns the playwright's serious script into a comedy by the virtue of his performance.
Film is a director's medium, the director can cut out the actor's performance, force the actor to re-shoot it, re-cast and re-film the performance, or just select a different take. The actor is a hired hand in a film and at the mercy of whomever is directing and editing it. Also as Jane Espenson notes in her interview with Hercules on AICN, "most movies are written by committee" (48), this is not entirely true - some directors write and direct their own films. George Lucas wrote and directed Star Wars. The Coen Brothers wrote and directed all of their movies. On the other hand a majority of films go through a series of writers and the producer/director chooses which sections of the scripts make the screen. William Goldman relates a particularly unpleasant story about screenwriting in Adventures in The Screen Trade. The story is about the making of All The Presidents Men. Goldman wrote the script. Robert Redford, the producer, sent the script to Carl Bernstein and Nora Ephron who wrote their own script. Goldman was then asked to meld Bernstein and his scripts together. Initially Goldman had been hired to write the script based on Woodward and Bernstein's novel and had stuck fairly close to it. Bernstein veered sharply away from the novel. After the thousandth re-write with no clear direction from anyone, Goldman gave up. The end product was based mostly on Goldman's script but had several scenes from Bernstein's stuck in it. (49) Joss Whedon relates a similar experience regarding the Buffy Movie, " What I started with was Horror Action comedy. It had fright, it had camera movement, it had acting, all kinds of interesting things that weren't in the final film." The Buffy Movie was a disaster, which he mentions initially watching in tears, thinking his career was over. (50) Whedon's vision had been greatly altered by the director. An experience he was to repeat on Alien Resurrection and X-Men, until he finally came to the conclusion that the next film he wrote, he would direct. (51)
Television? A whole different ballgame. In Television the producer and writer are more often than not the same. The writer may even be the director or at the very least is standing over the director's shoulder telling hi/r what to do. (52) That said, actors can still make or break the show, they can throw off the story, muddy up the works, and create all sorts of headaches for everyone involved. The writer may be the General but without his soliders he has no army and in Television, no show. So even though the actors basic job is to read lines - s/he must read the lines well and obtain the viewers sympathy, otherwise no one tunes in.
"Honestly, I don't see why they just can't hire new actors to play all the roles and pick up where they left off. I mean really this is television - they do it on soaps all the time, don't they?" Zachsmind commenting on BTVS' end. http://www.voy.com/14567/618.html, Buffy Book Reviews Thread.
Why indeed? If actors are only hired to read lines well and TV is truly a writers/producers' medium, why can't you just replace the lead roles with new actors? If you can replace the writers who run the medium, why not the actors? (53) Certainly would solve a lot of problems. Think of what ME could have done if they were able to just re-cast Amber Benson's role in Season 7 or Seth Green's? So why didn't they?
Because, the actor, like it or not, not only can define a role they are visible to the audience - even soap operas have run into this problem. Susan Lucci, for instance, has played Erica Kane for over twenty years, if she died or left the role for any reason - they would most likely have to kill her off. Same with Genie Francis who played Laura on General Hospital or Anthony Geary who played Luke. In soaps it only works if the character has had plastic surgery or the actor has not defined the role - ie. they haven't played it on and off for twenty years. Of course that's daytime television, it seldom works in prime time - the prime time audience is less willing to suspend disbelief. That does not prevent television producers from attempting it occasionally. The prime time soap operas Dallas and Dynasty certainly tried it. And it can work, if and only if it is done early in the character's run, the character is a supporting player or had a disfiguring accident and if it occurs before the pilot aired. Willow was originally played by Riff Regan, but since Ms. Regan's pilot never aired, ME was able to recast the role with Alyson Hannigan. (54) Dynasty successfully recast Fallon but the recast happened after she left for the spin-off the Colby's - they also did it by having Fallon get in a disfiguring car-accident. Or Barbara Bel Geddes role in Dallas - which was taken over by Donna Reed and was not much more than a bit part. The bigger parts of JR's brother and father were not recast after the actors left them. In Bablyon 5 - they created new characters and wrote the old ones out. Same with BTVS and ATS, something X-Files also attempted in its final two seasons. The problem the X-Files had was that it was attempting to replace the leads not the supporting characters. For the same reason you can't really re-cast or replace the lead roles of Mulder and Scully after six years, you can't re-cast or replace Buffy, Xander, Willow, Giles - once the audience identifies the character with the actor playing the part, there is no going back.
Audiences tend to be more accepting of re-casts in theater - after all it's rare you'll get the same audience for each show. When Nathan Lane and Matthew Broderick left the Producers, it continued to play to sold out audiences. Same with Chicago, which has had numerous leading ladies or Caberet. In movies - the audience doesn't know about re-casts, so there's no effect.
So how did the actors decisions adversely or positively affect the writing and or plot arcs of Buffy the Vampire Slayer and Angel The Series ?
1. David Boreanze - The character of Angel was only supposed to last one season, but the actor playing the character, a relative unknown who had appeared in very few things prior to the role, (55) had amazing chemistry with the lead. So the writers expanded his role and took a risk, hoping he could play a prick as well as a heart-throb. To their delight Boreanze delivered the goods in a tour-de-force performance in the Joss Whedon written and directed episode Innocence. (56) Boreanze's chemistry with the camera and ability to portray the multi-faceted vampire cursed with a soul - led ME to create a spin-off around his character's quest for redemption.
2. James Marsters - The character of Spike was slatted for just six episodes in Season 2 BTVS. ME planned on killing the character in Innocence. But Marsters, like Boreanze before him, had chemistry with the camera, the other characters, and the lead. So the writers' re-wrote the episodes and changed the character. Marsters ability to add depth to what had originally been a two-dimensional villain kept his character alive in the Buffyverse. (57)
3. Juliet Landau - Drusilla and Spike were considered "lightening in a bottle". These two had more on screen chemistry than just about anyone on TV and ME wanted to keep them. In Season 3 BTVS the plan was to bring Spike and Dru back to Sunnydale in the episode Lover's Walk. The character of Drusilla had in fact been written with Juliet Landau in mind. But Juliet was unavailable in S3 so ME just brought back Spike. The character worked so well that Whedon decided to sign James Marsters to Season 4 with or without Juliet Landau. (58) In Season 4, according to Jane Espenson's interview with Hercules on AICN, both Spike and Dru were supposed to be regulars. But again Juliet was unavailable. (59) So they created the character of Harmony. Would Harmony have become a vampire if Juliet had been available? We'll never know.
4. Seth Green - In S4 BTVS, Seth Green made it clear to ME that he wanted to broaden his horizons. Was it possible for OZ to be placed on recurring status, just come in and out occasionally like he did in Seasons 2 and 3? ME said no, OZ was central to the group and it wouldn't work if he wasn't present in every episode. Green nodded sagely and told ME he wanted out. So ME scrapped the huge Veruca (Werewolf)/Oz/Willow/Tara quadrangle they had planned and went with Willow/Tara. OZ was supposed to be the character Willow lost not Tara. Tara was originally slatted as just a wiccan friend of Willow's, an experiment, nothing more. But Seth Green's departure changed the direction of the story and the Willow/Tara relationship was born. (60)
5. Lindsey Crouse - Professor Maggie Walsh was supposed to be the Little Bad of the Season 4 plot arc in BTVS. ME had plotted out an arc with Prof Walsh spying on and manipulating the Buffy/Riley relationship with all sorts of twisted Freudian overtones. But Lindsey Crouse wanted out to do movies and they had no choice but to kill her off. She kindly agreed to return for one episode near the end, just as Seth Green agreed to return for one or two episodes near the end of the season. (61)
6. Amber Benson - After Tara was killed off in Season 6, ME planned to bring her back in a dual role in Season 7 as both Tara and the FE. But Amber didn't want to do it so ME rewrote the plot and did the Willow/Kennedy arc. (62) If Amber had come back in the dual role - we may never have had the Willow/Kennedy relationship.
7. Charisma Carpenter - in Angel The Series, ME had decided to make Cordelia evil, she would be even more evil than Willow was. But something happened over the summer - Charisma got pregnant. Now here's the thing - in most jobs taking a sick day or getting maternity leave isn't going to screw up the product. Your boss can get a temp to take your place or you can work until you need to leave. Acting? Your body is your product. From your hair to your feet. If a character is stick thin - you lose weight and become stick thin. If a character is 238 pounds or 17 stone? You gain the weight. Tom Hanks gained over 30 pounds to play the lead in Cast Away. He gained 50 to play the lead in Catch Me if You Can. Russell Crow mentions gaining weight for his current role as Captain Aubrey in Master and Commander, he stopped short of 17 stone, due to the fact that the director wanted him to be active on set and that amount of poundage weighs a bit too heavy on his frame. (63) Uma Thurman ended up delaying the filming of Kill Bill due to her pregnancy. Quentin Taratino was so found of the actress, he agreed to delay filming an entire year. Otherwise he would have had to recast the role and re-shoot the scenes. (64) In Television - the writer can't replace the actress and is often stuck filming around her pregnancy or writing it in. Unfortunately in ME's case they'd already done a pregnancy/baby storyline the year before and this was the year they had planned to make her evil. Charisma did not warn them ahead of time, like many actresses do, Kelly Ripa warned All My Children each time she chose to get pregnant or was considering it - providing the writers ample time to write around it, twice they wrote it in. Also, regarding sick leave? Actors often go on stage or screen sick as dogs. James Marsters had been recovering from a severe bout with the stomach flu in 2001 while filming Smashed and Wrecked - that's why he's so thin in those episodes. Sarah Michelle Gellar had a cold in First Date. You work around it. You dye your hair - even if it causes blisters. (65) That's what acting on television is about. It's also why you get paid any-where from $50,000 to $750,000 per episode (just in case you're feeling sorry for these people, remember they are paid very well.) (66) But actors are human beings and life does not always go as planned - so Charisma got pregnant and ME had to change the story from Big Bad Cordelia to Cordelia has Jasmine. If it weren't for Charisma's pregnancy - we wouldn't have the Jasmine arc. (67)
8. Emma Caulfield - Emma made it clear before the end of Season 6 that she was not renewing her contract after Season 7, she was ready to move on regardless of what they offered her. Nor did she have any interest in appearing on Angel. As a result, Whedon decided to kill off the character of Anya in S7, since she was the one cast member he knew would not come back. (68)
9. Sarah Michelle Geller - the show is called Buffy The Vampire Slayer and SMG plays the title role. Without Buffy there isn't a show. Even though the writer is king or queen on Television, s/he can be replaced easier than the star. Why? The audience usually doesn't see the writer unless they look at the credits and are obsessed. The audience generally remains oblivious to whomever is writing the show, but they do notice when the star of the show changes. For example: the head writers/creators of Seinfield, Dawson's Creek, ER, The West Wing, and Roseanne have changed over time. They might do four years - then burn out. Writer turnover is big in television. ME has had numerous writers come and go over the years. Whedon handed most of the operations of BTVS over to Marti Noxon and David Fury in Season 6 and 7 of BTVS. Angel The Series was being over-seen by Tim Minear, David Greenwalt and Jeff Bell respectively. So change in writers? Not an issue. Season 7 was Joss Whedon's last year on BTVS - as he stated in numerous interviews (69) but it did not matter - the show would have continued without him. Whedon did not own the rights, Fox and the Kuzuis did. But it could not continue without Geller. Her decision to move on to other things ended Buffy The Vampire Slayer. Even though she was only hired to read lines and perform the role - her performance defined the character to the extent that Kristy Swanson's turn is almost forgotten. While it may be possible to recast the part in the distant future, it is unlikely the audience will accept anyone else in the role that SMG faithfully and brilliantly brought to life for seven years.
10. James Marsters, Juliet Landau, David Boreanze, Julie Benze and the redefinition of the vampire in the Buffyverse. Originally, ME wanted vampires just to be monsters - no staying power, no real depth. Staked after a few episodes. But Julie Benze and David Boreanze changed all that in Angel Season 1 BTVS - by making the vampire sympathetic and sexy. Juliet Landau and James Marsters continued the trend - creating a villainous duo that was more interesting than most heroic duos on TV. Ratings climbed and Whedon had to change his whole take on the vampires and vampire mythology as a result. If the actors playing these roles had been less charismatic and unable to add another dimension to the characters - they may have faded into the background like Luke, The Master, Trick and The Annoying One. (70)
11. Alyson Hannigan's portrayal of Willow. Joss Whedon has openly admitted that Willow is his favorite character and he's a huge fan of Hannigan's take on the character. (71) Hannigan's performance may be the reason Whedon backed off of turning Willow truly evil. It may also be the reason he could never kill Willow off.
12. Glenn Quinn and Max Perlach: Doyle and Whistler. Rumor has it that ME planned on using Whistler in Season 1 ATS as Angel's guide with the visions. It certainly would have explained the Whistler character mysteriously introduced in Becoming Part I & II in Btvs S2. Unfortunately Max Perlach recently released from Homicide Life on The Street was in jail for undisclosed charges. ME had to find someone else to portray Angel's half-human/half-demon sidekick - so they decided on Glenn Quinn, whom Whedon knew from his days at Roseanne, to play Doyle. Unfortunately Glenn Quinn also had a personal problem that interfered with his work, drugs and alcohol. Whedon was forced to write Doyle out after six episodes and introduce a new sidekick. Fans and critics alike continue to debate whether Doyle's death was pre-planned by Whedon or caused by the actor's unreliable habits.
13. Elizabeth Rohm: Kate Lockely. Rohm had gotten a coveted role on Law and Order. So ME had to write her out. She was slatted to be Angel's love interest, but due to Rohm's departure, Greenwalt and Whedon decided to have Cordelia take on that role instead.
Whether the writers like it or not - actors define their characters and by doing so can make or break a plot arc. This is true in movies and TV, imagine if you will what Raiders of The Lost Arc would have been like if Tom Sellack had taken the part? The difference between movies and TV is that the television serial is 22, 43 minute movies a year, not one two to three hour feature. If an actor opts out in mid-stream than so does the character, they can't re-cast. What would have happened if David Boreanze's movie career took off in Season 2 BTVS? Would we even have Angel The Series? Or how about James Marsters' career? What if he hadn't been available? The writer/producer/director may control the lines, how the actor comes across on screen and which scenes make it to the screen - but they can't force the actor to stay in the role. Nor do they have any control over how the actor interacts with the camera. A friend of mine, who is a set designer for a soap opera, once told me - that someone who is drop-dead gorgeous in person can be ugly on camera and vice-versa. There's really no way of knowing how the camera will react.
____________________________________________________________
45 TCM Tribute to Kathryn Hepburn August 2003
46 IGFN Interview with Danny Strong: Buffy The Vampire Slayer's Jonathan Levinson discusses his career. June 2003.
47James Marsters Q&A at Baltimore Shore Leave, 7/14/02, transcribed by Tara Dilullo for slayernews.com:" In stage, writers don't really have a lot of power so if you go to one and you tell them their work is really top notch, it's just really a worker to a worker." Also from same convention: "On stage, you are really in control in a way that you are not in control on TV at all. On stage, you tell a story. In film, you are just a building block for someone else to come and tell the story later on and that was kind of a hard adjustment for me."
48 Jane Espenson Interview with AICN, http://www.aintitcoolnews.com/display.cgi?id=15587: "The system of making television allows for strong individual voices, like Joss's. Movies are always made by committees, and the writer is not at the head of the committee."
49Goldman, William, Adventures in the Screen Trade, p. 215-227, Warner Books: 1983
50 SFX Vampire Special Edition, Fall 2001, p.37; See also IGFN Interview with Joss Whedon: ". The fact of the matter is, I remember having a conversation with Kristy Swanson. She was like, "Please, tell me how to do this. Tell me what you want." I literally said, "I can't." Because I have always treated film and television like the army, and I'm very strict about it. It was not my place. It was the director's movie. At that point I was there to try and help the director realize her vision, and that's all. Even though it was my script and all this stuff, the director... who had also financed, gotten the film off the ground. Fran Kuzui came in when nobody else wanted the film, said, "We're going to put this together"... And they did. Howard Rosenman and Sandollar and all of that. Without them, there would be no film - and possibly not this phone conversation. So I didn't agree with the way the movie was going, but I also kept my mouth shut because you respect the director."
51 Joss Whedon Interview with SFX, The Vampire Special Edition.
52IGFN Interview with Joss Whedon:"I said to one director... he said, "One of these days, I'm going to come down and look over your shoulder while you're shooting." I brought him up to my office the next day and I said, "Let me explain something to you. It is my job to control the way you shoot, not your job to control mine. My name comes at the end of every show. You do very good work and you're going to come back for us, but I am never going to let you do something that I don't approve of."
53List of television shows with writer turn-over or who have replaced their writing staff: Angel The Series (David Greenwalt handed the reins to Jeff Bell in Angel S4), Buffy The Vampire Slayer (Joss Whedon handed the reins to Marti Noxon and David Fury in Season 6), The West Wing (Aaron Sorkin left and John Wells took over), The Practice, Ally McBeal, Chicago Hope (David E. Kelly handed the reins over to other writers), and Dawson's Creek (headwriter and creator left after the first two years).
54See The Buffy Pilot.
55EXTRACTS of David Quotes from TV Zone #166 'Avenging Angel' article - By Steven Eramo (www.visimag.com to purchase)
56 Season 2 DVD Commentary by Joss Whedon for Innocence.
57 See Introducing Spike on Season 4 BTVS DVD Commentary
58 Joss Whedon at Museum of TV and Radio, Angel event, also Introducing Spike on Season 4 DVD Commentary.
59 "AICN: At the ANGEL event at the Museum of TV & Radio a few years ago, Joss Whedon mentioned the original plan was to bring Spike AND Dru back as regulars for BUFFY's fourth season, but Juliet Landau turned out to be too busy to return. Do you think Buffy and Spike would have eventually coupled-up anyway had Dru returned? JANE: Oh yeah. Joss doesn't like to leave any couple together too long. We'd already seen what Spike and Dru were like as a couple. If she'd returned I think we'd've played 'em like an interesting divorced couple -- a bit of heat and love still there between them, but mostly challenged into conflict and jealousy." http://www.aintitcoolnews.com/display.cgi?id=15587
60 Season 4 DVD Commentary, specifically Wild at Heart with Seth Green, Marti Noxon and Joss Whedon.
61 Primeval Season 4 DVD Commentary.
62 Interview with Joss Whedon for IGFN, June 2003: "Amber didn't want to do it. She wanted to do other things. I had a whole - I used to tell people, "Here's what we're going to do. We're going to have her in a couple of flashbacks, keep her alive, and then at the end ..." I had a whole show figured out that ended with the return of Tara. I used to cry every time I pitched it. It was going to be Tara's her one true love, people are going to be blown away, they'll never see it coming - except on the Internet - and it's going to be just about the biggest thing. Quite frankly, Amber just didn't want to do it - which is her decision. I was like, "Okay, the thing where I cried, and we all cried, and I told you about? That's gone. So, instead, we're going to go out and find somebody really hot, and we're going to make this about moving on, because that's the only option we have. I don't want Willow stuck in typical gay celibacy on TV. I'm interested in where her heart will go once she's lost her true love, so let's do that instead." So, you know, hence Kennedy."
63 Svetkey, Benjamin, "Rocking the Boat: Russell Crow Interview" Entertainment Weekly, Fall Movie Preview, Aug 22/29, pp. 26-27
64 Coker, Cheo Hodari, "View to a Kill", Premiere, Sept 2003.: "...there was the year long delay when Thurman got pregnant in early 2001. Tarantino says he never considered replacing the actress."
65 James Marsters' Q&A at the Tampa Vulkon Con.
66 In articles archived on www.slayage.com in fall 2002, Sarah Michelle Gellar was reported to be pulling in a paycheck of $735,000 per episode, in a recent article in the Dublin Times, Alyson Hannigan admitted to be pulling in $200,000 per episode for Season 6-7.
67 Tim Minear and David Fury at The Succubus Club, May 2003. Original plan was for Connor to kill Cordelia, but Charisma became pregnant, so Cordelia was supposed to kill Jasmine, but Charisma couldn't be active, the most she could do was just lie around, so Connor killed Jasmine instead.
68 Mason, Dave, "Buffy Creator Sinks His Teeth into A New Season of Angel", 7/16/03: http://www2.bostonherald.com/entertainment/television/tca07162003.htm``I knew she [Emma Caulfield] wasn't going to come back. And if I killed any of the core group, you couldn't consider it a happy ending,." (Whedon explaining why he killed Anya.)
69 Entertainment Weekly Exit Interview with Sarah Michelle Geller, March 2003; IGFN Interview with Joss Whedon, June 2003
70 A&E Tvography, May 2003, also available on the S6 DVD Commentary.
71Whedon's Interview with IGFN and the Comic-Con Panel Interview via cityofangle.com
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no subject
Date: 2009-08-30 05:14 am (UTC)I apologize if I'm bringing up a comment you already heard when this was first posted. (I didn't read it then.)
While I don't dispute the premise, I do think "The Producers" might be a poor case study. Yes, the playwright intends the script as serious and the actor intends his performance as serious too. So do the producers - to whom it never occurs that any audience could laugh at Hitler.
However, both writer and actor are failures - neither succeed in conveying what they intend. But it's not the actor who turns "Springtime for Hitler" into a comedy - it's the audience. It's those first few who stop being horrified, who see the absurdity and laugh... that transforms the production from "So bad, it's horrible" to "So bad it's funny".
no subject
Date: 2009-08-30 04:53 pm (UTC)Or thought about.
You may very well be right on that point - The Producers may not be the best example. A better one might be a bad B horror flick.
That said, I do think how someone plays the part does have an effect on how the audience will react. I do think performance plays a factor, but in the case of the Producers possibly not as big of one as in say a film like Tremors.
(Oh there are a few things in that post above, that I should change - Elizabeth Rohm's Kate for example - really wasn't intended as a love interest - according to the commentary. That was an unsubstantiated rumor. They'd planned on having her be in the Justine role in Angel S3, but she wanted out to do Law and Order.)
no subject
Date: 2009-08-30 08:30 pm (UTC)I certainly agree.
The Producers is an odd case, because "Springtime for Hitler" is supposed to fail - they intend to horrify and offend. Perhaps if they'd selected a less terrible/bombastic actor than Lorenzo St. DuBois it would have been just bad instead of bad-funny. But then, Max Bialystock is a bad producer too. His attempts to create hits bomb, and his attempt to bomb yields his biggest hit.
But it underlines the interactive nature of creating a work meant for an audience. (As all shows ultimately are.) The actors, the directors, the production - they all contribute. To what degree each part - that's specific to each production.
Much as some producer/directors might prefer, the actors aren't robots or interchangeable. A different actors portrayal will draw different things out of characters and evoke different responses from the audience. Even good ones. It's a rare case where you can see two actors play the same character and feel them as truly the same. (Ewan MacGregor evoking Alex Guiness as Obi Wan Kenobi is a rare example...)