Live On The Set

Working on Angel is always an interesting and individualistic experience for all the actors. Everyone seems to have tales of fun and humorous moments that keeps the cast and crew laughing during the long days (and nights) of shooting. Andy attributes many of his good times to anecdotes inspired by an unnamed crew worker that he calls 'Sparky'. "We work with Sparky all the time. I don't know what Sparky does; Sparky does set dressing I think. He's the bomb. Sparky should be one of the writers! He's hilarious; he is wonderful. We all sit when we're in between takes and he always comes up with ideas on what we should do," he says laughing. "He thinks that Dionne Warwick should be J.'s [J. August Richards] mom on one of the shows and that she should come in trying to steal my job, because you know how she's psychic, Psychic [Friends] Network. He thinks that she should come into the bar and be like, 'Hey honey, I'm looking for a job,' and sit down and say, 'I foresee a Gin & Tonic, whoa! I'm right' and have a Gin & Tonic sitting right there." Andy continued to elaborate on Sparky's plot idea: "Then have her trying to fight me for the job, you know because she wants to take over the bar and me being like, 'No, no, no.' Then just getting her totally trashed and walking her out, 'Come on, let me help you out.' And she'd say, 'Honey you don't have to help me. I know my way to San Jose.' " Andy laughs so hard he can barely finish the idea. "And she stumbles up the stairs. That's one idea that Sparky came up with, and we're trying to get her. David Boreanaz ran into Ms. Dionne somewhere and she wants to do it! Wouldn't that be wonderful?" That would only be classic!

Andy Hallett and David Boreanaz on the Inkworks Trading Card from episode, There's No Place Like Home

At the end of Season 2, viewers where taken on an engaging visit to Lorne's home world of Pylea. Here they discovered that he was the black sheep of the family and witnessed his return to his not-so-loving relatives. While everyone on Angel seems to have father issues (Wesley, Angel, and even Cordelia), Lorne has mother issues. "That's my boy Tom [McCleister]," Andy laughs, recalling his Pylean mom, a very stocky character with a deep voice. "Oh God, Tom plays that roll so well! Isn't he wonderful? He really is. It's funny to go home to that, well if you want me to be Lorne it's not funny to go home to that!" He explains that Pylea is not on the Zagats Guide of Inter-dimensional Travel Destinations, "To go home to a place with no music and no understanding for someone who has visions and music in their head and who has an open mind; who's not so conservative. It's not fun to go home to that environment nor would I think anybody would like that, so that's a tough situation," he jokes. "But Tom, who plays my mom is a hot ticket, hot ticket! It was really fun working with him, I loved when he was like, 'Now take your cow and get off my lawn,' and he shook his head like that," recalls Andy laughing. "That was my favorite part."

Of course, no one can forget Joss Whedon's cameo as Numfar, the ridiculous dancing relative in "Through the Looking Glass", which was part of the story arc that wrapped up Season2. However, while filming the scene, Andy admits that he was out of the loop: "You know, I didn't know that was Joss! No, everybody else knew there except me. David Boreanaz knew that Joss was doing a cameo but he didn't know which. So Joss came on the set that day, and this was when we were up shooting in the homeland, Pylea. I didn't know anything about who was getting make-up, when and where, so I was sitting in the make-up trailer just getting my make-up on minding my own business, yeah right," he abashes himself jokingly, "You know I never mind my own business, and they were like, (using an over-the-top pleasing voice) 'Oh well Numfar,' they kept asking, 'Numfar, Numfar this and Numfar that, and we have to do Numfar in the other trailer and we have to take all these airbrushing kits over to Numfar,' and I was sitting there being like, 'Who the f*** is Numfar?!' " We all burst out laughing. " 'What? Who is this guy? This better be an all-star guest cast member or I'm going to be really pissed,' " he jokes.

"Joss did his little number and I was sitting there looking at him laughing my ass off!"

Andy smirks, raising his eye for effect and continues on with the story, "So it ends up that finally we get out to the location. We had to go down this long dirt road in a van and we got way out there to this little cottage and there were a few people gathered around, Tim Minear was directing and Joss was there. I didn't know it was him and normally I always go up and introduce myself to everyone who's on the set and say, 'Hi, how are you? Nice to see you,' whatever, 'it's nice to work with you', but this particular day I was late getting to the set and they were waiting for me. I ran up there and I did my thing and said, 'Okay let's go,' and then Joss did his little number and I was sitting there looking at him and I was laughing my ass off and then Tim would say, 'Alright, calm down,' because I was laughing so hard. And then David Boreanaz looked at me and he was like, "Do you know who that is?' and I said, 'No, I have no idea.' I mean I just thought it was another actor on the set. I was like, 'Well, who's that?' then David was like, 'That's Joss!' And Joss was pissed because he didn't want anyone to tell me because I would have never known it was him, ever, ever, ever. Joss wanted to go through the whole thing and then come up to me at the end and be like, (in a rather nerdy sounding voice) 'Andy, uhm like I'm one of your really big fans and I was wondering if I could have your autograph?" There is not enough laughter in the day for this man.

Fans and Shopping the UK

What's ironic about Andy's popularity is that just one year ago he was basically an unknown. Not that fans didn't know he starred in the very popular second season of Angel or that his singing talents were quickly gathering a bevy of faithful listeners, but no one knew what he really looked like! At first fans referred to him only as the 'green karaoke-guy', then as 'The Host' but as far as Andy Hallett, the man was concerned, he didn't exist. Until . . . in February of 2001, Andy attended the 4th Annual Buffy Posting Board Party in L.A. Since only the cast knew what he looked like under all that green makeup and horns he sort of snuck in unobtrusively, mingled a bit with the guests and then when he took the stage and started to belt his signature song, Patti LaBelle's classic, Lady Marmalade, then everyone knew. And now people know what he looks like and following that this past summer in London by attending the Nocturnal Sci-fi Convention. Everyone there loved Andy; he just completely won them over! "Nocturnal was wild, yeah! Oh that's so nice. Oh, that's sweet, they were awesome," recalling the fans he met. "I loved Nocturnal, I loved it, thanks," Andy went on, genuinely touched.

Andy sings at the 2001 PBP with Jamie Boatner and Kai Whedon

One of his fellow cohorts in London was non-other than his co-star on Angel, J. August Richards [Charles Gunn]. "He is outrageous. I worked with him yesterday (the first day back on the set for the start of Season 3.) God is he fun!" he states with a big smile. I wanted to bring up the wardrobe that Andy wears on the show because his character Lorne gets to be decked out to the nines. But we discovered that J. has quite a shoe fetish (I'm joking here, but J. did mention his shoe obsession during his own interview with CoA), "and I understand you do as well according to J.! So what's up with you guys and your shoes?" I asked Andy as he bursts into a fit of laughter. "Shooeessss, I love shoes! J. loves shoes more than I do," he admits, "we were in London together [during Nocturnal] and he bought some wild shoes! J. has a great eye for fashion, all things, I mean shoes, clothes, everything. He's really, really on target."

Another break in the action as Andy glances down and notices my shoes. "You have some nice shoes, these look brand new," he observes. "Brandy new," I reply. "Are they Docs [Martens]? Yeah, they're the bomb. These are old," referring to his own shoes, "it's because I came down in a hurry. (He gives Jamie a humorously raised eyebrow) Normally I pack a few costume changes however, Jamie was rushing me this morning so I was only able to pack this old pair of black shoes but normally I pack in at least a few pairs of shoes," he states laughing.

And these pants, they go with these pants. I got these in London, J. made me buy them," he blames. "And he made me buy these [sunglasses] and a leather jacket that goes with them." "Stylin'," I state. "Well, he made me do it! I think I'm over extending myself, my budget." "He made you do it?" I ask accusingly. "He did! We were at -- it was supposedly the largest men's clothing store in the world, they say." I suggested a popular fashion store in London that might help him recall the name, but out of respect we won't mention it, exactly. "No, it wasn't H******. H****** sucked!" "Hey," I defended mockingly (having my fulltime occupation as an architect), "I designed that Cosmetics floor." "Oh no, the cosmetics floor, it's the bomb," Andy saves himself. "But the Men's Department, we were not happy with. They had like two things, we were like, 'Let's get out of here.' We went and had a cappuccino and we blew that joint!" We couldn't help but double over with laugher once again, are you surprised?