Deconstructing the Emotional Allure

Featuring Marti Noxon

Continued from previous page... Marti began Season 5 by writing the premiere episode; "Buffy vs. Dracula" as well as Part I of the 2-hour Season 6 premiere; "Bargaining", which followed on the heels of their landmark 100th episode where Buffy sacrifices her life to save the world, again. Marti was faced with the extreme challenge of bringing Buffy back from the dead and although Marti dares not give anything away, I asked her to think of the new Buffy and Angel seasons and tell me the first three adjectives that came to mind. The result was not only taken over by fits of laughter, but was curiously enlightening to Marti's psyche. We start with Buffy. "Hmm -- tree, car and nose. Oh, those aren't adjectives are they, sorry." (thinkage time) "Dirty," she laughs. "I ju of aid that to be provocative. It's not really true, but I figured people would watch if I said, 'dirty'." (another pause) "Really dirty, all nude! No, that's not it. Okay, I'm trying. This year . . . all nude, more sock puppety!" The laughter takes over and can you see this woman works far to closely with Whedon! Time to try our luck with Angel. "Oh God, Angel is going to be very nosey. No! Angel's going to be very provocative, very provocative and kind of funny. Let me go back to the nouns. Angel is going to be bookcasey, and arm chairy and Kleenexy." Ah a typical season. "Yeah, a typical season," agrees Marti. Marti attends the San Diego Comic Con and greets fans. But Marti is not your typical producer/writer, you never know what this young woman has up her sleeve. This season Marti surprised us all with a Guest Cameo, appearing in Joss' musical episode extravaganza, "Once More, With Feeling", by debuting her astonishing singing talents. She was credited as the "Parking Ticket Woman" much to the unawares of the viewers. She was not the only Buffy crew member to 'get in on the act', as fellow writer David Fury played the "Mustard Man". Joss visited fans at the BronzeBeta posting board web-site the night after the Buffy musical aired and had this to say, "How cool is she [Marti Noxon]? What a classic voice, like Emma's [Caulfield] it's just perfect for a musical. Yay her!" Marti, along with other Buffy/Angel writers including Joss, attended the 2001 San Diego International Comic Con in August. During his Q&A panel, Joss announced that Marti would be taking on the additional responsibilities of Executive Producer this season on Buffy, "I have a secret weapon over at Buffy," Joss said, "and she's sitting right there and her name is Marti Noxon." A nice round of applause followed her immediately convergence upon by fans when the panel ended. 'Into The Fire' of Directing Both Mere Smith and Buffy's Amber Benson [Tara] have sat upon the director's chair this past summer and Marti is no exception having made her directorial debut with "Into The Woods" (which she also wrote) last season on Buffy. Both Mere and Amber commented that directing was the hardest and most traumatic thing they've ever done, yet it was also the most rewarding and educational at the same time. "I pretty much felt the same," Marti confesses. "First of all, I had a tremendous safety net in that I was doing it on the set of the show that I've been on for four years with Joss giving me tremendous advice and insight almost every step of the way. More so the first time just because it was my first time ever, and then the second time (Season 5, episode 17, "Forever") I leaned on him a little less heavily," she reveals. Although she continued to ask him questions such as, " 'What do you think of this?' and, 'What should I do there?' I had the greatest tutor in the world because I think Joss is - he always was amazing but I think he's sort of seasoned into just a tremendous director. And his learning curve has been alien as it has on all things!" she laughs. "Just freaky, freakish! I had high standards to try to live up to and I don't think I got there but I definitely had all the advantages. "I'm really excited that other women, especially with the show, are getting into [directing] because we need more chicks out there!" "So, in some ways, I think what Mere and Amber did was more daring because they were really just relying on themselves. I had this whole huge support system, but it was terrifying and I had the kind of fear that I probably hadn't had since high school. This feeling like, 'I'm gonna go and they're all gonna laugh at me. I could get fired', and had the worst, worst anxiety about it but it is one of those things where when it works you have never been happier and when it's going badly you've never been sadder," Marti says with a laugh. "It was very juvenile, it was very adolescent for me, it was like being jerked through all those experiences in one day and then completely exhausting. And something you find yourself addicted to; at the end of it you're like, 'I never want to do that again until tomorrow. I never, ever, ever want to be a director until, maybe, the next time they ask me, please.' It's thrilling," she enthuses. "It's a thrilling experience and for women it especially feels like an amazing challenge because there aren't that many people to emulate. There are not a ton of female role models out there doing it so it really feels like a tremendous adventure. I'm really excited that other women, especially with the show, are getting into it because we need more chicks out there!" Marti is a Patron Member of Women in Film, an organization that promotes and acknowledges the outstanding accomplishments of woman in film and television and an association to be very proud of for obvious reasons. She is slated to direct one more episode of Buffy at the end of the season. "Depending on how things go; if things get too crazy I may not but I am absolutely hoping and planning to!" Outside the Buffy-verse Not only do her responsibilities on Buffy and Angel keep her undeniably busy but Marti also has a few outside projects that help keep her writing skills perked and primed. Currently she is penning a screenplay for a feature film. "This is an original, romantic comedy that I sold to Universal. It's a new thing I'm working on and in fact I'm getting close to turning in a draft, so I'm on the brink of getting a lot of scary studio notes," she shyly confesses. "One of the wonderful things about doing film is if you have the good luck to work on something that's popular, that can get you a leg up in getting some movie work." Undoubtedly this is very exciting for Marti. "Oh it's amazing," she confirms wholeheartedly. "It's like a complete -- I already have the most amazing job in the world -- but to be able to supplement that with writing movies is beyond a dream come true!" As to how she fits all this in with the demands that not only one but two weekly successful full-time series put on her, in typical Marti fashion, she can only laugh and reply, "I don't know! I always think it's going to be easier. I think that writing screenplays is sort of like childbirth. You kind of forget how painful it is after you do it, and then you think, 'You know, it won't be so bad, it will be easy this time.' I had the same exact idea, 'It's just such a very clear idea and I think I'll be able to execute it in no time.' Then cut to a year later and I'm like, ehh! "Beware the creatures of the night - they have Lawyers!" "I'm always back in this painful process of realizing that writing screenplays is really hard and it takes a lot of time and there's almost always some point where I'm crying and pulling my hair out and my husband is saying, 'I told you!' I work around it obviously," she explains, "around the regular job during weekends and nights and every once in awhile I'll go hold up in a hotel away from everybody and work for a couple days. That actually really works, that's a good trick." The screenplay is in the 'draft' stage at present and like most industry projects, it is a never-ending process. "It took a long time to get an outline that everybody was happy with and then from there it's taken me probably five or six months to write a first draft just because I've been working fulltime at the same time. Given that, it's just taken longer than it would if you were not doing anything else. And then, the first draft will lead to the second draft or the producers, which will hopefully lead to another draft for the studio, so it can go on for years." Marti finally confides that, "Many times a first writer will be replaced by another writer and really, it just goes on and on and on." We are hoping that Marti goes on and on and on. Not in that droning demon I'm-here-to-make-your-life-a living-Hellmouth sort of way, but then again with the emotional turmoil she helps to put our favorite characters through week after week maybe that's not too far of a stretch. Seriously though, we look forward to all the future adventures encompassing her exceptional talents of writing and this wonderful new spectrum of directing that she has so rightly found herself undertaking in all its myriad. Where there is life there is pain, where there is happiness there is emotion and where there is a need for this to be expressed, there is the outstanding ability of Marti Noxon to convey it from the heart and soul and onto the written page for the fans. Written by CoA Writer, Kristy Bratton CityofAngel.com would like to Graciously Thank Marti Noxon for this most enjoyable interview. Special and Warmest thoughts for J.D. Peralta who assisted us throughout. If you have any comments for CityofAngel.com regarding this 'Behind the Scenes' feature, we would love to hear from you. Just email us at: comments@CityofAngel.com

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