"The Man who Transcends the Metaphor"
an Exclusive Spotlight on Joss Whedon

oss Whedon is the man who takes 'being metaphory' to another level. He is an amazing storyteller! This is his gift, this is what he does best, and this is who he is. Joss is always the first person anyone from his cast or crew will tell you is his or her inspiration. Not so much that they want to be him, just that they aspire to meet the creative expectations of their so acclaimed genius. He had a simple aspiration of his own; take an ordinary 16 year-old girl and turn her from screaming victim into a world-saving heroine. Simple right? He thought so. Little did he know that creating Buffy the Vampire Slayer would launch him into a world he knew not yet existed. Or maybe he did!

The gift that Whedon brings to his fans is not only his ability to tell an entertaining story which combines horror, humor and an underlying message but also his capability to achieve this via his many artistic talents. Whether producer, director, writer or composer, Joss has an understanding of what is good and how to draw that from his creative mind into something tangible that we all can enjoy. 'Good' is not a minimalist word here. Good is hard to do, but good is what he achieves on a very consist basis. And even though that good may be considered evil at times by fans, he never, ever, disappoints or ceases to shock and astound!

During this past summer's San Diego Comic-Con we got a chance to sit down with Joss and talk a little bit about his beginnings, the direction in which he sees Angel headed plus his exciting new leap into the alternate reality known as the comic book world.

Joss on the musical episode set of Buffy with Sarah Michelle Gellar
We step into the past for a moment, we wondered if Joss could possibly pinpoint, somewhere in his youth, where he may have tapped into the diverseness of his creativity and desire to do what it is that he does. This is a person where imagination is the focal point of his productivity and defining that pivotal moment may be crucial to a writer's development. Or not. "Well, if you've notice," he began humorously, "I can't seem to make up my mind what it is that I want to do. I do know that I knew early on that I wanted to be an artist because I couldn't possible do an actual job." Although he tends to be light hearted with his answers it may just be that Joss really is overwhelmed at this present moment in his life. But whatever his hands get involved with, writing tends to always be in the foreground even though he hadn't planned it that way. "I wanted to make movies or do theatre, or write or act, or sing or anything that was artistic and now I seem to be doing all of them. Except, to the great joy of everyone, but singing," he adds with a laugh.

"But I never planned to be a writer. I wanted to make movies... and I always imagined that I would write them through the back of my head, that's the truth. I never studied writing," he admitted, "I never wrote to try and train or anything. When I got out of college I was like, 'Oh, I've got to make some money. Maybe if I write a TV spec I can get a little something to tide me over until I become the brilliant independent film maker that I'm destined to be.' And then fell in love with writing." It's not surprising that a man who tells a great story would fall in love with the words that convey them. And it's one of the talents that Joss prides himself most with. "When people ask me what I do for a living I say, 'I'm a writer.' Of all the things I do that's the most important and the most wonderful and the rest is gravy, the rest is fun but that's what it is." Joss sums up his thoughts by musing, "So, I never knew and I always knew, would be the answer."

"That to me is very beautiful and for him to find peace in that meant a great deal."
A prime example of his genius when creating a seasonal story arc can easily be reflected in season two of Angel. He seems to have written from a very unique perspective. He took Angel to a place that was as dark as the character could go without becoming his evil alter ego Angelus, who then finds himself in a 'resolve' place and finally ends up almost being happy. Joss agrees that this was planned from the beginning, "Absolutely," he stated, as apposed to having this arc evolve during the course of the season. "No, we knew from the start what we wanted to do with him. We knew we wanted to just get him to a difficult place and really put him through his paces, emotionally, but not do the same thing we'd done before by making him evil. Which, by the way, is a lot of fun for him," he tossed in laughing. "So it wouldn't have been that hard anyway.

David Boreanaz [Angel] with Joss Whedon

"The idea of [Angel's] mission is a very complicated concept in the sense of what it means and what it's really for. To take it apart and look at it from the point of view of, 'Well, is it about vengeance? Is it about killing?' And then finally finding out it's just about doing good." He continued, "It's not about 'getting something for myself or even being forgiven'. Because ultimately, 'forgiveness won't undo what I've done.' So the idea, to come to what for me is a very existential place, of just to do this because it's right and if you're alive and you're bothering to do something, that's the thing you should do. That to me is very beautiful and for him to find peace in that meant a great deal."

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