BBC Online

Video Interview

October 2003

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Whose decision was it to shoot over here?

Basically, Joss had always wanted to shoot in Britain. He announced the fact that he wanted to shoot some scenes with Willow in England, and I was very excited, because it's my neck of the woods (laughs) and it meant I could stay longer with my family before I went back to the States.

Then he said he wanted to shoot in and around Bath, because that's where we said that - if we ever do do the Ripper series, I'd pitched Bath as an interesting environment, a good backdrop because it's a cool place. It's like - Somerset is just riddled with myths and legends and folklore and ley lines and all sorts of stuff - it's very spiritual.

So Joss had always said yes, so when it came to actually shoot Giles at home - I don't know how it came about, I think he just pitched it, he said "Can we do it at your house?" (laughs) I thought I'd better ask and Sarah said, "Yeah, go on." I said, "Yeah, but film crews?" "Get over it, it'll be fine!" Actually the house loved it, the house was very 'smiley' - it loved having all the attention. It's a lovely home.

Were you riding your own horse in Lessons?

Yes, we've got nine now, and there's. I mean - Sarah works with -.there's about twenty two, I think, on the farm now. And that's where Sarah does all the TTOUCH work, all the stuff, the TEAM stuff is based. And - his name's Otto.

We ended up - I mean, we scouted it on the Friday and it was glorious sunshine, and I said, "Look, if you want a vista, come up to the farm and check this out." And we looked at these beautiful rolling hills. Because he wanted me to ride and we had a big struggle, because he wanted me to ride without a crash hat, and the reason we have the farm - one of the reasons we have the farm - is because a dear friend of ours came off her horse and cracked her head open and died and left Sarah some money, and that's how we were able to invest in the farm. So we feel quite strongly about it - she didn't have a crash hat on - so we feel quite strongly about not showing riding without wearing a crash hat. And then Joss was kind of - I showed him me in a crash hat and he said, "No, no. It's not quite the image I was looking for." (laughs) So we conceded and we said, "Look, alright, but only at a walk." It's still a concession because ultimately it's not - it isn't right. In fact I balked recently, I was asked if I would do something for someone else in a riding shot and I wouldn't do it.

Presumably the British weather affected the shoot?

The meadow grass was high, it was beautiful, it was just before we were going to cut the hay. And then I said, stupidly, "Of course, I can't guarantee the weather". And we all laughed, because we'd had like a week of solid sun - it was beautiful. Come Monday, when we started to film, it started to bucket, absolutely bucket down. It was just like.. So actually the shot of me on top of Otto - the rain is running down the back of my (he gestures to his head) - my hair is plastered to my forehead. And you wouldn't know because it looks glorious - great DP (director of photography), brilliant DP, he made the whole thing look - there was one shot of Alyson where I'm - we shot it in the hallway instead of an exterior. It was supposed to be an exterior, it was supposed to be out in the fields. I was supposed to, in fact, ride up to her on the horse and dismount and do the whole thing. Anyway, we ended up shooting this scene where the taxi comes, and I put in having an umbrella, picking up the umbrella and going outside. He said "Maybe we should shoot one without it and I said, "Cha! Come on, it's like bucketing down outside". In fact he had to use the one without because you wouldn't know - you could not tell.

Was Giles' inability to touch things a problem?

No, no, because the rules were sort of, kind of slightly vague about what you could do and couldn't do. I was constantly, "Can I do this or not?" What was patently clear was I couldn't touch any props, which was to everyone's great joy, because I have a tendency to use props a lot. Because it's part of the way I work is to sort of try to bring some of the outside world in to the scene, rather than just playing the scene off the page that you have a life and that the scene happens to be part of that life, and so, quite often, I'd involve some kind of something. So everyone was very, very tickled, it was very funny that I was stuck without being able to use props (laughs).

No, the only thing - it proved a challenge because the only - I mean, I had to make sense of it - why would Giles come in and not touch anything, not hug anybody, not involve himself in just like, you know, the usual things? I basically was playing that stuff had become so important and so serious and stuff was really - stuff was happening so fast with the First, that I was suddenly saddled with the responsibility of bringing all these girls in and trying to find them all over the world without the Watcher's Council, being blowed up. I kind of internalised it all and I was in my own little world of seriousness, trying to deal with everything, and trying to make - and so therefore had kind of shut down and wasn't allowing myself to be...friendly.

Where there problems filming with so many new girls?

No, all it meant was that every scene that we had with them all in, it was like we had to shoot it in 500 different directions. It was just "Please, please don't, but no, we're all in the room together". Just because, you know, it's like, one of the problems with shooting a show like Buffy in eight days is that you're limited for time, and so it cuts down your choices - it means you can't, say, you can't walk from this side of the room to that side of the room because it means that you're going to have to cover it again from a different point of view. So it comes down to, "Where can I move without - so that it means I can move, but without actually increasing the time that we're going to have to have on camera?" It's a little limiting, but ultimately, for the pay-off, which I thought was well worth it. You know, I asked Joss on the last week, I said, "When did you come up with this twist?" and he said "Oh, about a year and a half ago!" Geez, man, he's got an incredible brain, and everything had been working towards that for a year and a half. So the pay-off, I think, was worth it. Definitely. Any amount of extra coverage we had to shoot. (laughs)

Were you glad to return for a number of episodes?

No, it was actually more. They said a minimum of ten, but it ended up being twelve or thirteen, maybe, I don't know. What did I think of what? (to the interviewer) (The interviewer asks: "Were you happy that you were so involved again this year after easing back the year before or did you miss it?") No, it was perfect. The year before it meant I was able to spend more time here. I was able to shoot some stuff here and most especially was able to spend some time with my family. I mean, it meant I wasn't constantly going backwards and forwards. The previous year, year six, Joss had very specifically, after I'd left, he was going to bring me back a couple of times. He was going to bring me back for the wedding and another time. He called me up and said, "Do you mind very much if I don't bring you back until right at the end, because I think it would be more value." He was quite right - it was really nice - it was a great entrance, to disappear for that many shows and then come back and kick butt, it was cool (laughs) - briefly as it happens. It was a great entrance. (mimics Giles throwing magic at Willow)

But then I was very flattered that he went on record as saying that they'd underestimated my part in the show and I was missed. So I was, no, it be churlish to say, "No, I'm not coming back". And as it happens, I was able to - it happened in chunks, so I was able to spend a lot more time back here. It was the difference between trying to find six days consecutively when I could get on a plane to come home and just being - I was able to pretty much fly back between each episode, so I was getting back sort of once every two weeks, sometimes less. I'd shoot two days on an episode and then they'd let me go, so I was able to come home, so that was fantastic. When I was a regular, it was just that much harder and I was getting back once every month and a half or something. It was a very different feeling about the whole thing.

Did you ever choose between acting and singing?

It is a bit of a decision in England. In America you can do anything you like - it doesn't matter. But in England people do sort of think you're a dilettante in one area or the other if you haven't paid your dues. We did all that "We're a recording band - we don't gig". I wish we'd gigged, actually, because that would have been fun. But basically, I don't think we had the bottle for it - we were too scared of how people would receive it. But we did actually write some good music, but then the band fell apart and then I stuck together with the bass player and then somebody turned out a couple of singles and they were pretty - they were alright actually, a couple of our songs. But it wasn't - it was just make your mind up time and then the acting really took off. So it's not like it was the hardest decision I had to make. (laughs)

Now, at the age of forty-whatever-I-am, 49, 48, 49? 49, I think, yeah. It's very interesting to have an audience. I was very chuff with the album. It was one of those, "Do you want to do it?" and I was, "As long as I don't come out like David Hasselhoff!" And in fact, I don't think I do. There is always that thing about actors doing, you know, albums. Yes, it was a fantastic time. The bottom line is as long as it's fun, that's what - when they gave me the opportunity to do the album, I thought - Sarah said, "Why don't you get a bunch of friends and just jam, just do your thing, just have fun and write some songs that mean something, rather than just waffle," and so I wrote songs about stuff I was thinking and stuff I was observing, and I think it has a place.

Was it your idea to bare your bottom in Manchild?

It certainly wasn't mine, you can be sure of that! The bottom line is he's...he's - there's a bit of all of us in all the characters that we play. And he's just that kind of - I'm not like him and he's sort of a sad piece of work! (laughs) But all he needs to do is get away from Terry, the Nigel Havers character. He's obviously - that was my choice, I felt he'd sort of looked up to Terry since secondary school and has always wanted to be a Terry. He'd come late to the making money bit, so he was sort of climbing on the bandwagon. But, no, I don't particularly relate to him. I don't drive motorbikes - I'd crash them if I did. I'd crash fast cars if I drove them. I'm not particularly whizzy like that, and I'm certainly not a dentist.