Continued
from previous page...
Amy Acker (Winifred Burkle)
Amy's infectious laugh makes it to the big screen |
With the absence of Charisma during the latter episodes of the season,
Amy has been the only female regular on set. On being asked if she likes
working in a male dominated cast, she candidly replies, “Yeah! Charisma
has obviously been away for a couple of episodes having her baby and I
have been the girl on the set and it's fun because they don’t treat me
any differently. They don’t really watch what they say, I am pretty much
one of the guys”, she giggles. “It’s not that different especially around
Andy or someone so…actually Andy’s probably more of the girl of the cast
than me!” To huge applause and lots of laughter she shouts out, “I hope
you heard that!”
If you live outside the
US the chances are you will have seen the outtakes from the DVD Box set
of Angel Season 3. For the outstanding episode Waiting in the
Wings, Alexis and Amy took a ballet class and filmed a ballet scene
which was later cut from the episode for broadcast but was subsequently
included in the DVD as an extra. Amy describes this scene as one of the
funniest for her, “Alexis and I have a dance number that was cut. I enter
the stage first and then he is supposed to do some silly, ridiculous jumps
onto the stage but he actually ended up being kind of good, so we were
all like, ‘Wow!’ When he came onto the stage for the first time not only
did he have tights and the whole ballet outfit on, he also a red g-string
on top of his tights. As everyone was far back in the auditorium it took
about 5 minutes before the whole audience noticed and broke out into laughter.”
This take did not make it onto the DVD but imaginations duly running riot
the audience howl with laughter.
Another favourite moment for Amy was her stint as a Lornette in the Season
4 classic The House Always Wins. She reminisces, “Vegas was
very interesting and fun. It was so different, we had a really good time
and getting to be a Lornette was fun! I went into the McDonalds when we
were in Vegas (I had my Lornette outfit on) and I ordered and the lady
said $1.89 and I looked up and it said $3.49. I said, ‘Oh is there a special
on?’ She replied, ‘Yes you get the special dear as you work here’. She
thought I was a real showgirl at the casino. I said, ‘Oh thanks!’” totally
deadpan she adds, “I took the deal!” greatly amusing the audience who
applaud and cheer as they burst into laughter.
Vincent Kartheiser (Connor) &
J. August Richards (Charles Gunn)
Amy, Vincent and J. let the quips fly, much to our delight!
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There is a great camaraderie between the cast which is highlighted by
the friendly jokes and banter between the guests on stage together. Following
the antics of Andy, Mark and Brody there are some great moments between
Amy, J. and Vincent, their comfort with each other clearly apparent. As
a lady in the audience asks how Gunn and Fred felt upon discovering that
Connor had thrown Angel in to the sea, and what Connor’s motivations were,
J. immediately calls out, “Ok you want to see us re-enact that scene?”
The audience cheer as J shouts, “Oh my God, Connor’s the one who pushed
Angel in to the sea!” Turning to Vincent he asks, “Why did
you push Angel into the sea?” Vincent replies, “Don’t you read the scripts
dude?” everyone laughs as he adds, “I chucked Angel into the sea because
he’s a bastard! He killed Holtz.” J. quips, “Boy this really is just like
work isn’t it!” Pleased with himself Vincent states in jest, “Yes except
people are actually laughing at my jokes now!” At this point, Amy reminds
them they need to answer the question and explains to the audience Gunn
and Amy’s feeling, “We spent the whole summer caring for him and being
sweet to him and then we found out who he really was and he back-stabbed
us!” Vincent jokingly shouts, “Bullshit you guys backstabbed me from the
get go. You sent me to Quor-toth; you were out to get me!” Amy wants
the last word, “What, we were all in love then, we weren’t even
paying attention to you!” She takes the last laugh too as the audience
clap and cheer.
The Trio continue to tease each other
mercilessly, as someone asks Amy how she remains so thin, J. and Vincent
state in unison, “Oh my God she eats so much!” Amy laughs and admits,
“I think one day it is all going to catch up with me and I will end up
being about a thousand pounds! I have been lucky so far!” Vincent dryly
states, “Oh no you won’t, you’ll always be perfect!” causing much laughter
and cheering once again. J looks at Vincent dryly stating, “I really do
get a kick out of you!” Amy is also praised on her beauty; she is very
coy and embarrassed. Vincent has discovered the reason, “She knows where
the fountain of youth is and she just doesn’t want to tell anybody!” Vincent
doubles up with laughter as J. shouts, “The bitch is 60!” The audience
are in fits at this point.
“Did you see that sex scene with Cordelia? That was so nasty.”
~ J. August
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On being asked if he would like to change Connor in any way, Vincent bluntly
says, “I wish Connor had more muscles, I wish he had more sex scenes!”
J teases, “You shouldn’t have said the thing about the sex scene as you
know what I’m about to say, right?” Vincent smiling, shakes his head, as
J adds, “Did you all see that sex scene with Cordelia?” J. then proceeds
to replicate Connors movements on top of Cordelia in the scene at the
end of Apocalypse, Nowish against the chair on the stage. The audience
is in tears of laughter as J says, “That was so nasty.” Amidst the cheering,
Vincent tries to justify himself, “She was four or five months pregnant
and I went to the dressing room and I said, ‘So she’s going to be on top
right?’ because I didn’t want to be responsible…I could just see myself
slipping and falling on the baby and
next thing you know she is rushed to the hospital and I’m like, ‘Oops’.
So I really elevated above quite a bit over the body and…” pausing he
turns to J., “Gee you must have that recorded on tape or something. You
got every move!” J quips, “No baby that is burned in my memory!”
Poor Vincent is teased terribly by J. but takes it all in good spirit
and he manages to deliver one of the funniest lines of the weekend to
a lady in the audience, who stands up to tell him that he smells great
and how she enjoyed the hug in her photo session. It appears she may have
been a little over zealous as Vincent dryly states, “I think there is
still some of my ass on your hand!” and follows with, “You know I don’t
have a whole lot of ass so you’d better give it back to me!”
Alexis Denisof (Wesley Wyndam-Pryce)
Joss really doesn't want to "Kill Wesley"... or
does he? |
Beneath the surface of Alexis’s calm, almost spiritual presence lurks
a very sharp and dry wit. His opening words are, “I apologise as my accent
will probably wander all across the Atlantic in the course of this talk.”
Peering out at the audience he adds, “Although Wesley has clearly had
laser surgery, I haven’t, so if you don’t mind”, he pauses to take his
glasses from his pocket, “Ah now I can see you, you’re all beautiful!”
Mentioning Joss he confesses, “I have to say I was supposed to be joined
here today by Joss, he couldn’t be here which I am actually really pleased
about because if Joss were here I would never have the opportunity to
say anything as he is a microphone hog. So wherever you are Joss; ‘good
riddance!’ What did that chalk board say last night?” The board from Joss’s
video is put up on the big screen behind Alexis and he reads it out loud,
“‘Kill Wesley’, well I’m not so crazy about that story line. ‘More brooding
from Angel’, is that even possible?” His delivery is perfect and produces
much laughter.
The change in Wesley’s character
is a popular topic and Alexis is asked if he chose to keep his character
as a buffoon at the end of Buffy Season 3. On learning the whole big fight
scene for Graduation Day, and this was the first time that Wesley
would get to do something cool, Joss and Alexis were standing at the monitors
during a break and Joss said, ‘Do you want to do this fight or do you
just want to get knocked out with one punch’. Alexis confesses, “He told
me later that he was absolutely sure I would ask for the big fight and
the cool moment”. Alexis admits that he took a moment to decide but thought
it would be funny if he got knocked out and it still tickles him when
he thinks of the end scene with Wesley in the ambulance wearing a neck
brace. He reminds the audience, “Wesley was really going to be in Buffy
originally for one or two shows and then the character was going to be
killed and it was during that time period at the end of Season 3 when
every so often Joss would wander down to the set and say, ‘Yeah we couldn’t
kill you again, I don’t know what happened!’” Setting the scene he explains,
“The room is divided, you have half the writers who really want to kill
you and half the writers who really want you to be alive and I’m biting
my tongue and saying, ‘ahem oh sure’ like I don’t care! ‘So what
do you think Joss?’ ‘Well I kind of want to keep you alive.’” To demonstrate
his response to this he looks up at the ceiling and imitates a prayer
as everyone laughs.
Alexis has a good laugh at his own expense
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Alexis is reminded about his dance in the Season One episode She
and asked if he can demonstrate. As everyone cheers he comments, “I guess
I should be glad you didn’t ask for the ballet, or we’d be carrying me
out on a stretcher for real. I just remember when I was goofing around
with that dance, because I was such a twit in those days, I remember that
it had a lot to do with kick-starting a motorcycle. It goes something
like this…” He executes the dance perfectly as everyone laughs and cheers.
“He had a lovely jumper [sweater] on and he was pretty hot. You think he is sexy
now. Oh boy Wesley on the dance floor, they just shot that endlessly
because they were obviously being amused at my expense. Quite a few times
I fell over and David, of course, just laughed throughout the whole thing.
The people in the scene were all extras and frequently extras don’t get
told very much and the show was very new then. So they had just been told,
‘It’s a party, enjoy yourselves,’ and this clown comes barrelling onto
the dance floor, falling into them and elbowing several of them and spilling
their drinks and they were just looking at me like, ‘Who the hell is this?’
But it was a pretty funny scene.”
Reference is made to Andy’s
‘Lil Boo’ story. Alexis laughs, “Little Boo, Oh my God that was funny! Well
Andy is a joy, we have all been so delighted that he joined the show and
thank god they finally made him a regular.” Cheers and applause all round.
“But ‘Little Boo’ is just a crazy thing that happens when you’re up all
night shooting Angel in some downtown location and you’re exhausted; at
four in the morning a lot of crap comes out of your mouth,” he laughs
before he continues, “and it seems to become really amusing, let’s see
if I can remember the crow, ‘squawk’ something like that, it was
a real bird in-fact. I just know we laughed awful hard all day. And you’ve
all been exposed to Andy as it were right. So you can imagine then…it’s
not so hard to make Andy laugh - which is one of the things I love about
him. It’s all true and ‘Little Boo’ is going to be here next year!” Is
that a spoiler or a jest one wonders!
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