James & Sarah - March 20, 2008
![James & Sarah - Gone [Behind the scenes]](http://24.media.tumblr.com/tumblr_mcq3wgsx4c1qltzlfo1_500.jpg)
I remember on Buffy, right after a horrible school shooting in Columbine… that week we happened to have a story about a student up in a bell tower with a high-powered rifle, and Buffy goes up there and stops him, and they sit and talk about why he was up there. We also had the first teenage lesbian kiss. Buffy talked about how hard it is to grow up, and how hard it is to realise the world is a messed up place, and how not to give up on it. Hamlet addresses that, Catcher In The Rye addresses that, but to be able to get it out in popular media for a lot of people to see is really quite exciting, actually. I’m a subversive artist, so it’s perfect for me.
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| — | James Marsters (via ecstasyofdeath) |
James talking about fanfictions
I suppose one of the only things Buffy and Twilight have in common, aside from vampires, is that they both generate an inordinate amount of fan fiction. In your darkest moments, have you ever read any Buffy/Spike fan fiction?
James Marsters : No, I haven’t! I haven’t! But I think it’s absolutely beautiful. I think it’s one of the most exciting things… I come from stage, right? And in stage, the script is just the beginning point of a conversation between the actors and the audience. On a human level, on an emotional level, it’s a conversation between the audience and the actors. It means the audience cannot be sleepy. The audience has to be there to give as well.
If you ask a sculptor or a painter what their piece is about, they’ll ask you, ‘well, what’s going on with you right now?’ I’m trying to elicit a response, and if I’m not getting a response then the piece of art is dead. It’s not working. It’s not for me to tell you what to feel about it. It’s supposed to make you feel any one of a number of things; tell me what your experience is.
So having an audience take over the conversation and create whole new topics for it is like… that’s the best reaction you could hope for. Did you know, by the way, that 50 Shades Of Grey started as Twilight fan fiction?
[October, 2012]
http://www.scenestr.com.au/lifestyle/arts/arts-adelaide/marsters-of-the-universe.html
