This week and next we bring you something different, then it'll be the pack. Today we bring you part one of the roundtable live recording session we did with Slayin' it listeners in Orlando at Fanboy Expo. This is our first interview with you Me, oh you mean the fans.
Speaker 2:Yes, yeah, this was our first live show, which was amazing.
Speaker 3:Yeah, it was so much fun.
Speaker 2:As a fan of the show, it's such a privilege to be able to talk about the show in an official capacity.
Speaker 3:I'm sure you would agree, chris. I do agree, and I think it's selfish of us to be the only fans to be able to discuss this with Juliet and with everybody. So this is where you guys come in and we get to invite you to come onto the show and share your experiences the way we get to invite you to come onto the show and share your experiences, the way we get to it, absolutely.
Speaker 1:And you guys, everyone listening, you are what keeps Buffy alive. We are slaying it, slaying it, slaying it, slaying it.
Speaker 2:You, you, we do.
Speaker 3:She said the thing We'll do it live. Okay, we'll do it live. Okay, we'll do it live live from sunny orlando, florida.
Speaker 2:The following has been previously recorded it's slaying it with juliette landau, starring juliette landau, christopher Feinstein, frank Bonacci. The comedy stylings of Claw Vampire Wait what, wow Will not be seen tonight. Oh, come on, and the Slayin' it with Juliet Landau. Synchronized swimming brigade and guest starring you, the fans.
Speaker 4:Slam it.
Speaker 5:Slam it, slam it, slam it. Scooby and the Bandit.
Speaker 1:So I'm going to introduce my Scoobies. Scooby Frank is going to come up on stage first. Hello, scooby Frank, here's a microphone for you. And Scooby Chris, you guys want to come on up, say hello to everybody, hello.
Speaker 2:First live show.
Speaker 1:I know it is. This is our first live record and we're so excited to do it with you guys. Yeah.
Speaker 2:I'm nervous, excited I might pee myself a little bit but that's okay.
Speaker 1:Oh, my goodness.
Speaker 3:Oh my goodness, it's a lot different than just staring at my face in the computer monitor and staring at other people's faces.
Speaker 2:Yeah, all I'm thinking about when we're usually recording is why does my face do that?
Speaker 1:Yeah, Well, what's funny is when we got to announce at Hellmouth Con. But it was sad because we were all set to come and then Chris had something happen and then he couldn't come, so he was on an iPad, like the two of us were there, and he was a little floating head on an iPad when we were announcing.
Speaker 3:I was like Jambi.
Speaker 1:Yeah, exactly, and the thing about the Buffy fandom is that you guys are really what the show is about, and so that's why we wanted to do this episode where we want to include you so that you get to be on the podcast and we're very interactive. We also have a thing called the Battle of the Uber Buffy Fans, which is the ultimate trivia contest, and so anyone who wants to do that, please let us know and sign up and come on the show.
Speaker 2:In that regard as well, I've seen some of the questions Good luck.
Speaker 1:Yeah, yeah, yeah. So sign up and let us know if you want to be considered as a contender and so that should be fun. So we'll probably just call up a whole group of people here and then we're going to try to get to more. The con said 10. But since we have more people signed up, we're going to try to just get to as many people as we can here, so okay, let me see if I can read. I'm going to have Watcher Dev actually read the writing, Okay the first person who's coming up is.
Speaker 6:Nicole.
Speaker 1:Nicole Woo, nicole, come on up.
Speaker 2:Oh, you were the first one we were talking to.
Speaker 3:Yeah, awesome, that's very good.
Speaker 7:Sarah Elizabeth, sarah Elizabeth, there you are hey, all right Yay.
Speaker 3:Perfect, come on.
Speaker 8:Jen, jen Jen.
Speaker 3:Yes.
Speaker 2:Yay, these are all people I talk to.
Speaker 1:I swear, I didn't rig this, marlon. Is Marlon here?
Speaker 4:Marlon Marlon's there, marlon, marlon Yay.
Speaker 1:All right Come on down, wasn't there a show that said like come on down, no, no, what was that?
Speaker 8:I no, I'm not.
Speaker 1:What was that? I don't know.
Speaker 3:Price is right, okay, catherine, hey, all right, catherine, come on up. Okay, valerie Valerie, valerie Valerie. Yay, all right, hey, all right Okay.
Speaker 2:I'm all in the can today.
Speaker 3:Linda, come on up, yeah, come on up, hey you too, both, valerie, come on down, there it is. That's what this is about.
Speaker 1:Yeah, grab a seat. Yeah, grab a seat, and then we can refill them as we go too. Yeah, so here, do you want to come? Come on, I'll sit here, I'll sit here. So we'll start at this end, and the first thing that I wanted to ask you was let's see if I'll give you this mic and then we'll pass it around is what is your favorite Buffy episode?
Speaker 8:It's so hard. I will say Skullheart is great and I love Drusilla, but my favorite is probably Hush.
Speaker 1:That dog.
Speaker 8:Sorry.
Speaker 2:I was talking to your mom before the show. She said the show really means a lot to you.
Speaker 8:It definitely does, I think, because, though supernatural the characters may be, each episode especially focuses on different hardships that you go through in life. Everyone does, and I know whenever I was down and needed something to escape to, because it was so creative and fantastical and the actors are so amazing just hearing your voice, it's true it's great that you were able to escape to it and it was a place to escape to. And if you were maybe weird, different, lgbt, whatever that is, it was shown there too, and so it was really great when, in my own depression, to be able to go, hey is, it was shown there too, and so it was really great when, in my own depression, to be able to go, hey, look, buffy's depressed, it's okay, it'll get better. And then it's just a comfort show to keep revisiting because it's so fantastic.
Speaker 1:That's so amazing. How many times would you say you've seen the show if? You had to guesstimate oh.
Speaker 8:I don't know if I can count that high. I definitely do a yearly rewatch at least, and then I'll pick maybe one or two episodes here and there that I'm just like ooh, I feel the mood to watch, just so To Kill Somebody today.
Speaker 1:Let's watch this episode. And if you had to have one piece of dialogue tattooed on you, what would it be from the show?
Speaker 8:Probably the hardest thing in this world is to live in.
Speaker 1:it Be right with yeah, yeah, powerful, oh my gosh. Well, thank you also for sharing all of that. It means so much to all of us who worked on the show that we could touch people and if we were helpful to get through difficult times and to you know, that's the thing why I think the show resonates so much and is still has the fandom that it does is because of all of the deeper meanings that are in the show and how it does sort of show the group of people that fight the ills of the world and the wrongs of the world and we all want that, we all want that posse, we all want that like that group, that I have my Scoobies and we get to do that.
Speaker 3:Yeah, it took a show about vampires to really portray human emotion, and it is, it's wild. It really resonates.
Speaker 1:Yeah, I mean it really is the high school as hell. But it's not just that high school period, it's really like life as hell and how do you deal with it? And using the supernatural I think genre really allows us also to use the supernatural to reflect on these deeper meanings in a way that straight drama doesn't necessarily allow us to do.
Speaker 2:Yeah, Like we were just talking. It's just like there's some really hard stories to talk about with that in terms of inappropriate teacher relationships. Like well, let's make a romanticist to make it more palatable to people.
Speaker 1:Yeah, and make a way that we can talk about it and look at it. So, thank you. Was there anything else that you wanted to share about Buffy?
Speaker 8:Just that what you do really matters, and I just love how you love this and how it matters to the fans that you respect it and you seem to enjoy it too, and it's really touching because not every fandom gets this, especially 25 years later.
Speaker 1:So, thank you. Can you believe it? You're making me feel old. We keep doing this.
Speaker 10:I watched it when it aired too. Oh my gosh.
Speaker 1:So how old were you when you first watched it? Eight years old when it first aired.
Speaker 8:It didn't scare you, not at all. I was in love. The vampires just mesmerized me.
Speaker 1:Oh my gosh, that is absolutely rocking. I think it would have scared me a day, though I'm not sure. That is just wonderful. Thank you. Wait, do you have a Drusilla impression?
Speaker 8:No pressure or anything but if you want to, you don't have to. I think it's actually. I think it's actually the only one I've ever done is oh, my angel, my angel, oh thank you.
Speaker 4:Oh my God Thank you.
Speaker 1:Thank you. All right, so do you want to introduce yourself to everybody, and then I'll ask you some questions? Hi, my name is Jen.
Speaker 4:Hi, jen, I feel like we're in AA all of a sudden.
Speaker 1:Oh my gosh, it's great that you're here. If you had to pick a favorite Buffy episode, which one would it be?
Speaker 4:When you talked about this on Instagram, you said Buffy or Angel, so can I pick Angel?
Speaker 1:Yeah, of course, of course, Absolutely. I always think it's kind of the Buffy-verse.
Speaker 4:So yeah, angel's my favorite show of all time and I love every single episode of it. Season two is just so incredible. Like you know, one episode after the next is just they're all so amazing, and I think my favorite is probably the Trial. Oh that's a good one Followed by Reunion. You know, those two together is just incredible television.
Speaker 1:Reunion's one of my favorite episodes to shoot because it's just what the writers gave Julie and I teaming up and sort of getting to wreak havoc in Los Angeles and being so you know, eating the lawyers and all of that. I mean it was deliciously fun to get to shoot that episode and Jim Cotner was the director of that episode and he was a real actor's director, so he would call us in to block scenes, which means where you're moving in a scene, because often on television your rehearsals aren't real rehearsals. That's why James and I would get together, because we have a theater background and we rehearse the scenes prior, because most of the time it's really for camera and so you don't get your chance to really do a lot of rehearsal. But James was very much about letting the actors find where they wanted to move and what was happening in the scene and then he'd move the camera out of that. And so I really loved working with Jim.
Speaker 1:It was very creative and very fun and you know, in that episode I, you know, was swaying and dancing and growling and gyrating and pulling. There was actually an extra where I was like, do you mind if I yank you by the hair? And you know doing all that stuff and he was always like so much fun and creative to work with. So what does Buffy mean to you, like what has it meant to you in your life?
Speaker 4:Oh, I mean so much.
Speaker 1:Angel.
Speaker 4:Right, I discovered the shows when I was in undergrad. It was pretty soon after that that I graduated, but I got really involved in the fandom. I started writing fan fiction to you know, continue the stories and stuff. Right after I started writing fan fiction, and people were discovering my stories, they were asking me why I wasn't writing professionally, and so I thought, well, why am I not writing professionally? And my sister is a professional writer, she's a poet. She had been in grad school for writing and so she was like you know, let me recommend this grad program for you. So I went to grad school because of the fandom, and so now I have an MFA in fiction writing. Oh my gosh. And you know, I write and it's because I was encouraged by the fandom. This fandom.
Speaker 1:That is such an inspiring story. Yeah, that's amazing and it's one of the things I really love about the fandom is one how it's so accepting it's how the world should be like accepting everybody and second of all, how encouraging it is in terms of people's creativity. That is just extraordinary. What are you writing right now? What are you working on?
Speaker 4:I have a novel called Stargazer and it should be out this year.
Speaker 1:Congratulations. That is incredible. If you had to have Dialogue from Angel tattooed on you, what would it be?
Speaker 4:Well, I do have an angel tattoo.
Speaker 1:Oh, is it somewhere we can see? Should I be asking to see it?
Speaker 4:I would have to take my shirt off, but it's the angel logo from the business card.
Speaker 4:It's on my shoulder that is cool, but if I had to get dialogue tattooed. I was thinking about this earlier and I was thinking our rats are low, um, but. But also there's a, there's a um, there's a line in hero, the episode hero in season one, when Doyle is saying to to angel. It's not fair. You've got to help all the helpless types around here and now you also have to fight the apocalypse and Angel says it's all the same thing. Fight the good, fight whichever way you can.
Speaker 4:And so I think the phrase whichever way you can is something that I would be willing to get tattooed on.
Speaker 1:That's powerful. That would be an incredible tattoo. Oh my gosh, okay. So do you have a Drusilla impression? I do not. Incredible tattoo, oh my gosh, okay. So do you have a Drusilla?
Speaker 4:impression.
Speaker 1:I do not. All right, all right, yeah, so do you want to introduce you Valerie, number one.
Speaker 10:Valerie, number one. So yeah, my name is Valerie, if you had to pick an episode of Buffy or Angel.
Speaker 1:What would be your favorite episode to pick?
Speaker 10:So me and my kids were on our way to this conference trying to narrow down like our top 10. And even that turned into like a debacle. But if I really had to single one out, I think the Wish. It's just such a cool episode. I love it. I love the idea of like an alternate timeline. I love exploring what could have happened if Buffy didn't come to Sunnydale.
Speaker 1:What does Buffy mean to you? Obviously, it sounds like you're now. You're watching it with your kids and you're like passing it down, and so what does it mean to you?
Speaker 10:Oh gosh. Well, I started watching Buffy when I was 12, when it first premiered, and I lived in New York city. So we didn't really go out and play, cause that wasn't very safe.
Speaker 2:So I'm from New York city wasn't very safe.
Speaker 3:Um so I'm from New.
Speaker 1:York city. She's not lying. I know you said you could only go to the fire hydrant. Right, it was not. It's not Florida.
Speaker 10:Um, so I really didn't have much except me and my TV screen, and so it helped me a lot, especially during those difficult young teenage years. Um, it's really hard to to top what you said earlier, but same, there's so many themes that were explored throughout the series. There's so many things that we go through growing up that resonate in the show.
Speaker 1:Absolutely. And if you had to have dialogue as a tattoo, what do you think it would be?
Speaker 10:Out for a walk.
Speaker 1:Good one, all right, awesome, and what about?
Speaker 10:you want to do a Drusilla impression?
Speaker 1:Oh, my God, my favorite, oh cool.
Speaker 10:You say so, you say do it again, do it again when the judge was killing everybody. That was great.
Speaker 1:We actually use that as our sign off, like we'll see you next week, when Really Do it again, do it again. Yes, awesome, all right, valerie number two, all right, hi, I'm Valerie.
Speaker 6:Number two Hi, yeah, my name is Valerie, I'm from Montreal. Okay, we've been. Nothing from Montreal, nothing from Montreal, no pop, hey Montreal, hey Montreal, hey Montreal.
Speaker 1:Hey Montreal. Hey Montreal. Hey Montreal. Hey Montreal. Hey Montreal. Hey Montreal. Hey Montreal. Hey Montreal. Hey Montreal, hey Montreal hey.
Speaker 3:Montreal hey Montreal, hey Montreal, hey Montreal.
Speaker 6:Hey, montreal hey, which is interesting to talk about today, because Jason Burr is here and he was guest starring in Light to Me.
Speaker 1:I know I haven't gotten a chance. I've been so busy. I want to say hi to Jason. Yes, Jason and I used to work out at the same gym.
Speaker 2:Oh, my goodness. So not only was we on budget, the gym is the nexus of all entertainment. As I start on this show, when is that gym Insider Tim.
Speaker 1:Ins. It is funny, but yeah, so I hope he's here tomorrow. I want to say hi, he's such a doll. We'll talk about the show.
Speaker 6:He has some really creative insight about it. I went to talk to him about it today. It was great.
Speaker 6:But the reason why I love that episode is because I've realized recently that Lie to Me is really the first episode of the series where we see a shift to a darker side, where we kind of start seeing the weight that Buffy has to carry with her. It foreshadows the sacrifice that she will do when she stabs Angel in the heart with a sword by introducing the character of Ford and to us we don't know him, so we're not attached so maybe it doesn't seem as obvious that this is a very heavy decision that she has to do. But this is her friend that she's known for years and it gave me chills when I watched it again recently because I thought, do, but this is her friend that she's known for years. And it gave me chills when I watched it again recently because I thought, wow, like this is the writers telling us we're about to see some really dark, heavy stuff and I really love that. So right now this is my current favorite.
Speaker 1:I remember with Jason. He was so good in it and he really thanked us because, james and I, when you come into guest star on a show, it can be rough because you come in, it's a well-oiled machine, you're like the new kid in school, right, it's difficult, but you have to go and do your work. And so we, james and I, because we have the theater background that we do. Anybody who was coming in that we were working with, we'd say, like, do you want to run lines, do you want to hang out? Like we'd build up, you know, a connection and all of that. And and Jason said it was so helpful to him that it was really, really fun to get to work on the set. And we we just had a blast working with him on that episode and that's the one. It starts in the playground and everything right Isn't that.
Speaker 1:Yeah, that was fun. What will your mommy sing when they find your body? Mommy sing when they find your body. I love when she does that. She switches it on like that.
Speaker 3:It's crazy. I know Drusilla comes to me surprisingly easy.
Speaker 1:You never know when it's coming and what is Buffy meant to you. You shared something really interesting with me earlier about your sister, some thoughts about the show that I'd love you to talk about if you want to.
Speaker 6:Yeah, so I started watching Buffy when I was eight years old.
Speaker 1:Oh my, gosh another one, that's amazing and it didn't scare you?
Speaker 6:No, actually, the first episode I saw was the puppet show and I thought it was amazing. I was like, oh my God, this is so scary and cool and she's this strong woman and the puppet's not actually bad. So that was great, and I remember I was at a slumber party and the other girls were all screaming. I was like I need to find this show and watch more of it. The show has meant a lot to me growing up. It's meant everything, really, and one of the things that I've pursued in my personal life.
Speaker 6:I became a neuroscientist.
Speaker 6:I recently have acquired my PhD, thank you, and I specified in chronic pain. I had a chance to work with people and see what does chronic pain mean, not only on a physiological level, but on the social and psychological levels, and what we see is that it really has multiple aspects, and I was thinking about how neurodiversity, which includes chronic pain, is showcased in the Buffyverse and I realized that the symbolism of the soul that Angel carries is very similar to somebody living with chronic pain. A lot of individuals will say that they feel like they have a battery that depletes very, very quickly, which means that they have limited attention to social interactions or what they can give to others. And I see that in Angel, and that's what is amazing is that David Boreanaz is able to switch that off completely when he goes into Angelus and we don't see those restraints anymore, and we know that this conscience that his soul is guilty is very heavy on his guilt. So, yeah, so I like to think of his burden as maybe an analogy to somebody living with chronic pain.
Speaker 1:And you were saying your sister. Part of the reason, yes.
Speaker 6:The reason why I one of the reasons why I pursue this is my sister lives with endometriosis and even though I've pursued the highest level of education in that field, I still feel powerless in in front of what she lives with. So she is forever my inspiration. She's the strongest woman I know and yeah so, and I know a lot of people know somebody who lives with chronic pain. Two are two out of three people who live with chronic pain are women, so I'm sure everybody can know somebody who lives with chronic pain. So it's important to also see representation on TV, and I think Buffy has that in other characters as well, which I'd love to talk about another time.
Speaker 1:Aw, thank you. Thank you so much for sharing all of that as well. Thank you. If you had to get a tattoo with some dialogue, what would it be?
Speaker 6:Have a nice summer.
Speaker 1:Great, and do you have a Drusilla impression?
Speaker 6:Well, I didn't think I did. And then, when I watched the series the first time with my boyfriend who's right there- oh great. He laughed instantly when Drusilla says Spine, because he says I do this to him and I'm like what I'm like when I want something.
Speaker 1:What's your boyfriend's name? Javi Javi. Javi Javi, that's great, all right, perfect. I love it.
Speaker 6:Thank you.
Speaker 3:Thank you.
Speaker 1:Do you want to introduce yourself to?
Speaker 5:everyone. Yeah, hi, I'm Sarah Elizabeth. I'm from Texas. I'm not as cool as any of these people.
Speaker 1:Yes, you are. You're very cool. I've been talking to you earlier today. She's awesome. So what would you say is your favorite Buffy or Angel episode if you had to pick?
Speaker 5:Well, I'm going to cheat and tell you four of them. That's fine, that's good. So, Buffy, I'm going to go with graduation one and two. I love them all but those are like really good ones. But Angel, I'm like Jen Angel's, kind of my baby. That's my favorite. And I'm really torn between Dear Boy and Reunion. Oh, they're both really strong episodes.
Speaker 1:And what has Buffy meant to you?
Speaker 5:Yeah, I mean it's been a lot. I mean it's meant a lot of different things in different parts of my life. I had a very unique childhood, and so I ended up raising my brothers and my cousins at a very young age so I was 13, taking care of kids, figuring out how to make dinners, all that.
Speaker 8:So I think I related a lot to.
Speaker 5:Buffy.
Speaker 1:You had the weight of the world on your shoulders, literally.
Speaker 8:Yes exactly.
Speaker 5:It felt a lot like that. I wasn't out faking vampires, unfortunately, but I was Well you were. You were it felt like a lot of responsibility and so I related to her in that way. It's grown as I've grown, and every year I go back and I rewatch it and it's something new. Each time it's a new treasure box I open.
Speaker 1:I think that's the thing about the writing, and there's so much to it that you can watch it over and over and find new things every single time. It's funny because, even as we've been doing this rewatch and talking about before, Every time that happens.
Speaker 2:This is like my fourth or fifth time watching the show.
Speaker 3:It's crazy you don't consistently pick up on new themes.
Speaker 2:It's like wait a minute. It's like wait a minute.
Speaker 3:This is what they're talking about in this. I was very naive as a child watching this show.
Speaker 2:Yeah.
Speaker 1:Well, that's because you were only allowed to go to the fire hydrant.
Speaker 3:That's true, there was a whole world beyond that fire hydrant. You know, I was smoking at eight.
Speaker 1:Yeah, she was wild. They said that they wouldn't have been allowed to play with me. No.
Speaker 2:No, oh no, she was chain smoking, she was running guns.
Speaker 5:No, I wasn't doing that, I was smoking on the tube, but yeah.
Speaker 1:I listened to that episode.
Speaker 10:Awesome.
Speaker 1:I was like, I don't know about you kids, but I was smoking at eight.
Speaker 2:She's a bad influence.
Speaker 1:So if you had to pick some dialogue to get at, you have amazing tattoos. Do you have one tattoo? Do you have a Buffy tattoo?
Speaker 5:I do, so I have she saved the world a lot on this side, and then I have let's go to work on this side Amazing, but what I really wanted. There's a quote from Angel that is if nothing we do matters, then all that matters is what we do.
Speaker 1:I really wanted that, but it's a little long. You need it all down your back. Yeah, I need like an entire back piece.
Speaker 5:I'm working on that one. But that's like probably one of my most favorite quotes of the show yeah, it's a beautiful, beautiful quote. It's really great and I think it really encapsulates the whole meaning of the show.
Speaker 1:Yep, yeah, the theme right Distilled into that Right there.
Speaker 5:Yeah, I love that. I love that so much. So, do you have a Drusilla impression? Y'all don't laugh, all right, I think one of my favorite. I mean you have so many iconic lines and they're so good in the show.
Speaker 1:Well then, why aren't you getting a tattoo of Drew, I mean?
Speaker 5:really, because they're long, they're long but. I think one of my favorites is oh gosh, I'm nervous. Do you love my insides, the parts you can't?
Speaker 1:see the parts you can't see.
Speaker 2:I was just saying this when we just did a recording for Rewatcher. Anybody listen to the Rewatcher.
Speaker 1:So we did it. They're doing a feed drop on September the 13th, Friday the 13th, and we're doing yeah, so we were recording with them.
Speaker 2:And I just said on there it's like there we were doing the show for a while now and I've known her for like a while now, juliet and it's still halfway through a conversation.
Speaker 1:We talk like 10 times a day because I've edited notes and everything else.
Speaker 2:And I still just go like halfway through a conversation. Holy shit, that's Drusilla Every few minutes and it still happens.
Speaker 3:Which was news to Julia.
Speaker 1:Yeah, I didn't know that.
Speaker 3:I was like what.
Speaker 2:Really.
Speaker 1:Marlon, you want to introduce yourself to everybody.
Speaker 9:Hi, I'm Marlon and I'm addicted to vampires.
Speaker 1:So you pronounce it, marlon, as we all that's beautiful, thank you.
Speaker 9:What is the origin of your name, by the way? I don't know, because I'm Spanish background, but it's not a Spanish name.
Speaker 1:Oh, it's such a gorgeous name. I've heard it's.
Speaker 9:Germanic Ooh.
Speaker 1:So what would be your pick of your favorite Buffy or Angel episode?
Speaker 9:There's so many, but since I'm a Spike fan, I have to say Fool for Love.
Speaker 5:Ooh.
Speaker 9:And because I'm also an ex-New Yorker, so that whole fight scene on the subway is just awesome, and he's a punk rocker, so it just speaks to me.
Speaker 1:I love the way they lit that scene. Yes, it was bad. Were you in the punk scene as well? Yes, yes.
Speaker 9:I'm a little older than you guys. I didn't get to CBGBs, but I saw a lot of the bands that were elsewhere.
Speaker 1:Amazing, that's incredible. And what has Buffy meant to you? The?
Speaker 9:show has so many, like you were saying, like an onion, you keep seeing, like, like into it, into it, and you learn about people, you learn how people react to things and you can go for like a really funny scene, especially between you and Spike. There was some hilarious stuff but then the suffering that went on between Buffy and Angel, especially towards that Becoming episode or the two of them. It's just amazing how it was all shot so well.
Speaker 1:When I was brought on season two, the whole arc of that season was really clearly mapped out and you can see it and in the writer's room you would see that they literally had like an arc and it showed all the episodes and the whole trajectory and the whole thing of like David and Sarah get together and it being, like, you know, the boyfriend that doesn't call afterwards, and all of that stuff, and I just think that that whole season is crafted with such attention to detail.
Speaker 9:And the teacher getting killed and all of that.
Speaker 1:Yes, yes, we were actually just at Sunnydale High, at the Hellmouth Con, and she actually we did the photo ops in different locations, so Jenny Callender, in that window where her demise was, it was like oh.
Speaker 2:Yeah, me and my wife found that on accident. We were just like walking around the school and we just happened to say, oh my God, these are those windows right here.
Speaker 1:It was so funny all the bonus stuff on the episodes where, as we said, chris couldn't be there, but. Frank was there, and every time he'd go oh my God, oh my God, oh my God, it's the fountain, it's the fountain, it's the fountain, it's the fountain.
Speaker 2:They'd be like it's the window, it's the window, it's the window, it's the window, and I impl has not changed at all since they shot it, and we may be doing some fun slaying it stuff too with all you guys who come as well and some of that stuff.
Speaker 1:So it should be really fun. If you had to get a tattoo, what would the dialogue be that you would get?
Speaker 9:I'm not great at dialogue, but I know there's some smart line about we slay, let's go party. I think that's so cute.
Speaker 1:That sounds great. And what about? Do you want to do a Drusilla impression?
Speaker 9:No, I just love when she'd go off on one of her deep ends and everybody'd be like, oh, there she goes. Yeah, there she goes.
Speaker 1:Although you know sometimes they should have listened to.
Speaker 7:Drew.
Speaker 1:Yes, there was stuff coming like a fire and they just ignored her. I mean, you know, sometimes they should have listened to. Drew, yes, there was stuff coming like a fire and they just ignored her, I mean you know, Drew had visions she said things in an unusual way, but she very often was right on the money about what was coming down the pike If you siphon through the crazy.
Speaker 3:there was something there.
Speaker 1:The message was there. Yes, it's so funny because I you know, when you're an actor and you play a character, you cannot think of a character as crazy or evil or any of those things. You can't have a judgment about them. You have to actually get inside it. And so, while I was playing Drusilla, I really understood the logic of her illogic and it all was very, very clear to me. And so I used to say, you know, people on set would come up and say like, oh, drusilla is so crazy. And I'd say no, no, she's not crazy, she's just a little touched. And then, years later, I was at the gym in Paris, of all places, and yeah, and it came on. I was watching an episode which subtitles, which is funny. It also had the looped version, and the woman who does my voice also did Jennifer Aniston on Friends, which is really weird because you couldn't have two more different characters like ever. Yeah, and Xander and Joey, yeah. So it came on and I was looking at it and I was like, oh my God, she is batshit crazy.
Speaker 1:But it took the perspective for me to see it because I got inside it and sort of understood what she was talking about. But thank you for all of that that's amazing. Do you want to introduce yourself to everybody? Sure, I'm Catherine. Hi, catherine, thank you so much. Do you live near in the area Are you coming from? I'm in Memphis, tennessee. Oh, okay, cool. How long did it take you to get here?
Speaker 6:Just about three hour flight, not too bad All right, well, that's awesome.
Speaker 1:So what would be your favorite episode of Buffy or Angel?
Speaker 6:My favorite episode is definitely Once More with Feeling. Everybody loves a musical episode, but it was also actually the first episode of Buffy I ever watched.
Speaker 1:Oh my gosh, did you think they were all musicals? I was confused.
Speaker 6:I was very confused. I don't recommend it as a starter episode. I was in college when I came to Buffy and one of my roommates was a big fan and she started me with that episode. It was very confusing but it quickly became. Once I watched all the way through, that was my favorite episode. I love the music. I love how, throughout, you see Buffy feel so alone in her journey and then, as the music builds and the songs develop, you see that she's not alone at all. She has all of her friends right there with her and I think that's something that resonates with anybody.
Speaker 1:Yeah, yeah, chris, I think your first episode you said was the Body, the Body yeah, I made him watch the Body. Yeah.
Speaker 2:That was awesome. But you explain why I was trying to get him to watch it for like months. I'm slow to usually to the Well, because I torture him, I'll just make him watch whatever I want.
Speaker 1:Also, you have to understand that some of Frank's taste I refer to as craptastic. So some of it is like the worst filmmaking you'll ever see and you'll be like watch this.
Speaker 3:So I got to take it with a grain of salt. He's recommending something.
Speaker 2:It could go either way. Which?
Speaker 1:I love everything he recommends, but some of it is Horrendous, but it's.
Speaker 2:Let's call it what it is. Let's call it what it is. So I was really trying to get him to watch it and I know like the kind of things he responds to, so I went, I took the nuclear option, even though Babadi is like out of context, it's like hard to watch, but the filmmaking is so strong and that's what I said.
Speaker 1:Look, this is the potential of the show he was in right and it worked.
Speaker 3:This was on television. Yeah, this is cinema and and there's vampires in it is what you're explaining to me. Yeah, so then that was it, and it was all downhill from there and if you had to get a tattoo?
Speaker 6:with the dialogue. What would it be? I've been having such a hard time with this because you all have had such beautiful answers and this is one that I mean you can buy it on a sticker. I do have it on a sticker and it's kind of a bit of a stereotype, but it would be if the apocalypse comes beep me, and the reason for that is I've worked in local news most of my career, so I'm always getting phone calls when there's a disaster and then I like run at it and I'm definitely not saving the world, but I do feel like I sometimes run towards the crazy, like Buffy does, absolutely.
Speaker 1:That would be my quote. Oh my gosh, and what is Buffy, an angel, meant to you?
Speaker 6:Quite. A few people up here have mentioned neurodiversity and I really appreciated that. But I came to Buffy in college and I had just been diagnosed with OCD and depression and I worked my way through all of those seasons my senior year of college and as I was going through a really hard time and it just meant so much to me to see Buffy, this character, going through incredibly difficult things and getting up and going to work every day and thinking she's alone, like in that episode, and realizing she's not, she has people around her and helped me realize I have Willows, I have Zanders, I have dials, and that just meant so much to me. Also, just in that one episode that kind of encapsulates a lot of the feelings that I had about the show because she can't begin to heal until she's told her friends what she's been through and that really just meant so much to me and helped kind of guide me and how I dealt with my issues and did you do that?
Speaker 1:Did you end up sharing with people that were close to you?
Speaker 6:Yes, and I was able to get the help I needed.
Speaker 1:And yeah, now I have the CD for Once More, with Feeling in my car and if I'm having a bad day, I just Can you sing it while you're. Yes, I won't put you on the spot to do it here, but that's great, you just pop it in, yeah.
Speaker 6:I just pop it in and play it and it reminds me of just so many good things.
Speaker 1:Oh, that's incredible. That's really amazing. Thank you for sharing that. And you got through all of the seasons. You said in one year the first time. So were you doing any schoolwork? Some? That's awesome. All right, and to James, right.
Speaker 7:Greetings. Yeah, my name is James and I'm from Miami.
Speaker 1:Oh, awesome, and we met earlier today for the first time. Thank you so much for coming on stage. So what would be your favorite? Buffy or Angel episode?
Speaker 7:Okay, I have a lot of them, but I'll just do the top two. Okay, my first is Prophecy Girl. Oh yeah, sarah, I don't know who had her family hostage, but she was acting, you know, watching that episode she really put it in perspective Like, hello, I'm 16. I don't want to die. Who wants to die? Period. But at 16, she made you feel that and that performance. I'm like, oh my, I need to tip her, like what?
Speaker 4:This is what I'm talking about.
Speaker 7:And my second is what's my line? Yes, when you kill kendra oh yeah, it was. That was my first ever episode. I was like eight or nine. My sister was flicking through and I just see girl running in the school. I'm like that's odd. Who runs into a school?
Speaker 1:everyone runs out, right. I'm like, okay, this is weird.
Speaker 7:Let me see what's going on. Then I see this lady doing a little dance with her I'm like what is wrong with this lady? Face is she gonna kiss her, eat her or kill her and she? Kills her, and I'm like, yeah, I'm into it. So yeah, oh, my god.
Speaker 1:So yeah, oh my God, that is hysterical. I have a funny story about that whole sequence. So I was working with Bianca and we were working out the stunts. The thing that had been unusual about that day is we had been shooting the confessional scene earlier, which was back in time, 1860. And I couldn't have the Drusilla manicure for that because it wasn't period correct.
Speaker 1:But I had to have the Drusilla manicure because it figured in very prominently for me to be slicing, yeah, doing this exactly and and although that actually I'll tell you in a second so the nails in that whole scene with killing Kendra, and so we, there was no time between the shooting, and so Todd McIntosh said, well, well, you know, for this one time we'll do basically those kind of Lee press-on nails for the sequence that we need. Well, the problem with that is that they kept pinging off. So I was in like five-inch heels I'm working with Bianca, we're doing this whole thing and in the middle of everything they would go like bing, bing, bing, bing, and it would look very undaunting to be like, you know, look in my eyes and then bing, I'm going to kill you, bing. And so it kept happening. And then we were rehearsing and rehearsing and they were trying to figure out, okay, how do we stick these on better? So we don't, you know, have that, we can get a take without it. And we'd done all the fight choreography and Bianca was supposed to kick me like right around here, that I was supposed to block it.
Speaker 1:We went through all the thing, and the thing with stunts is you often, if you're the parts that we did, we had incredible stunt people like Sophia Crawford was Buffy's double, who was brilliant and I brought in. Actually, michelle was someone who I'd worked with on a movie and she was built very much like me and had dance training, so I thought it would be great for Drusilla and she was amazing, like they were all incredible Mike Massa who did David, and so we were rehearsing it. And you rehearse it kind of slowly, by the numbers to get it faster and faster and faster, and then even for camera you do things a little bit slower, because if you go the regular speed it's almost too fast for it to register, but still it's almost too fast for it to register, but still it can be dangerous. So we had been working and every time she kicked me exactly in the right space. And then we're still dealing with the nails and everything and we're trying to get it like this all worked out.
Speaker 1:And then we get to a take and I don't know what happened. I think she got excited about the take. So all of a sudden we're doing the scene and I see her huge combat boot coming up and instead of it coming to here, I'm like it's going to hit my head and sure enough. And I'm like, damn, this was a really good take. The nails stayed on Like that's what I'm thinking, and the next thing that happens is she kicks me really hard in the head.
Speaker 1:And I'm such a girly girl. I was like, oh wow, I've never been kicked in the head before, but you really do see stars. And I'm thinking like, okay, I can't ruin this take, because it's been really good. The nails have stayed on. So the next thing I have to do is kind of grab her by the neck and back. And I grabbed her by the neck. I looked in her eyes and I was like don't do that ever again. And I back her in where I'm supposed to back her and we do the whole thing. And in the rehearsal process, actually what happened is it wasn't scripted, I hadn't thought of it ahead of time, but it was sort of in my Drusilla mode and I started doing the swaying and she started doing the swaying and then it all sort of came out kinetically and of course that is the take that is in the episode.
Speaker 5:Oh, awesome.
Speaker 1:So yeah.
Speaker 3:So it took a concussion to it took a concussion.
Speaker 1:They actually had to drive. I couldn't drive because I was really, yeah, no, it was bad. And they were like, oh, you can't go to sleep, and it was, I mean. I got really badly kicked in the head.
Speaker 1:So yeah, description of it, how just you, you could cognize, like how it was coming at you just in slow motion it was you know how, like when you're driving and you have a car haven't you guys had that where it goes in slow motion. I did see her big and she was wearing like massive combat boots and I was like exactly that, exactly what frank. Your rendition was perfect. If you had to have a dialogue tattooed, what would it be?
Speaker 7:It will be the impression that you said earlier. Oh, do you like my insides? Yeah, Do you like my insides. You know the one you can't see.
Speaker 3:That's true, that's great.
Speaker 1:And do you know what Spike says back?
Speaker 7:He say entrails and all baby Eyeballs and trails.
Speaker 1:Yeah, I like your. Take on it, baby. That's cool, that's great.
Speaker 7:I respect Spike. He loves you now. You was his baby. No matter how crazy you was.
Speaker 1:You was his For actually 123 years, that's right.
Speaker 2:He was going through it.
Speaker 7:He was going through it when you left him for the Ferraro demon.
Speaker 1:Okay, but it's because I knew I'm a chaos demon. Yeah except it's because Drusilla knew that he was developing feelings for that cheerleader. That's good.
Speaker 7:You know your worth.
Speaker 1:You know your worth, I would not have gone off with that slimy dude otherwise.
Speaker 7:That's right. I respect you for that.
Speaker 1:So what has Buffy meant to you? What?
Speaker 7:has the journey of watching the show meant to you? To me, it's about power and blessing, and some people don't truly know what power and blessing is. It's just what they see. But when you watch Buffy, you see a short tiny girl. You know she has friends. When she don't have her friends, or any episode where she exclude them, she goes through hell. She needs her friends to understand her blessing and her power. So that's what it means to me. So if you have any doubts about yourself, power and blessing is not what you have. It's what you believe you have. So you got to go with that. If you think you're too short or you're too heavyset or you can't do it, you can. You just got to believe in yourself. Anything is possible.
Speaker 1:Don't let limiting beliefs you limit yourself. We actually ended up talking about that a lot because I made a movie and I wasn't raised with very loving parents and stuff and so I've had to learn a lot of that. And, oh my gosh, your phone at this terrible, profound moment. Put them on. Put them on my alarm you got somewhere else, you got to be.
Speaker 2:That's my work alarm.
Speaker 1:No, I'm just teasing you, but yeah, it really is. That thing of those limiting beliefs are the things that hold you back. It's not who you truly are. You can achieve.
Speaker 7:So I mean, that's the thing about just having a little bit of encouragement, or having a little bit of love in your life or a little bit of people who believe in you. Yeah, I think I've seen this on Zena. I love Zena too, and Charm. So Zena said and I will always remember this I was so young when I watched this, I was like 10. Zena say sometimes to achieve things, you need one person to believe in you, to believe in yourself, and that stuck with me.
Speaker 1:We were just talking about that on the podcast. That, like the first episode, on the introductory episode, it feels like you know Buffy's alone and she has the way of the world on her shoulders, totally alone. And then she starts to develop like you know, xander over here, like they start to overhear and understand what they're dealing with and her posse you know she gravitates to and she could hang out with Cordelia, but at that point Cordelia is really the mean girl, the bitchy girl, and she chooses the people that are really positive to be her posse and her group to combat all of those things.
Speaker 7:Yeah, so that's what Buffy means to me. I watch it so much. Some of the discs don't work. Oh my gosh.
Speaker 1:How many times would you guess if you had to guesstimate?
Speaker 7:It's really bad. The CD's cost a lot. Yeah, it's a lot, it's a comfort show.
Speaker 1:We just had someone who's coming on for our trivia contest who said they watched it a thousand times. But we were trying to even figure out if that's possible and I said, oh, you mean rhetorically and he said, no, I actually have done it.
Speaker 7:It's possible there's so much happening in the world and you just need some calmness. It makes you feel sin Like oh, she's killing him.
Speaker 1:I feel okay.
Speaker 7:My witness do. Oh, she just killed the demon with an axe, okay.
Speaker 3:Everything makes sense now, yeah.
Speaker 1:I love that. Well, you guys have been amazing. I know there's some other people we've got names and then anyone else who also wants to has been inspired, that wants to come up. Give a big cheer to everyone here. Slaying it, slaying it, they slayed it, they slayed it how much fun was that yeah, that was. That was amazing.
Speaker 2:So much fun I think the original plan was we would only talk to 10 of them, yeah, but then we were having so much fun, was that? Yeah, that was amazing, so much fun. I think the original plan was we'd only talk to 10 of them, yeah, but then we were having so much fun and we were the last panel of the day, so we're just like let's just keep going till they throw us out, which is what happens.
Speaker 1:We shut the lights off.
Speaker 2:They literally shut the lights off and said get out of here please.
Speaker 1:We'll be back next week with part two.
Speaker 3:We'll be slaying it Slaying, it, slaying, it Slaying it with you.
Speaker 2:With you, part two. Our timing could be tighter, but you get the gist.
Speaker 8:Our timing sucked.
Speaker 1:See you next week, when we'll do it again. Do it again and, most importantly, until next time, go out and slay it.