RE-VAMPED with Juliet Landau

Countdown Bonus: Welcome BACK to the Hellmouth! Pt.1

• Slayin’ It! with Juliet Landau

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In our first Countdown Bonus episode we take you back to the Hellmouth and Sunydale High, literally. Join Juliet and her Scoobys, Chris and Frank, as they embark on a journey through Hellmouth Con. This includes the first-of-its kind, in-depth interview with Jean (the owner of Buffy’s house), and an exclusive walking-tour of the High School location with David Greenwalt (writer /director /exec producer of Buffy and co-creator / showrunner of Angel.) Get the behind-the-scenes scoop and insider experience here! This bonus episode brings you the show you love from an angle you’ve never experienced before. 



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Juliet Landau’s directorial feature debut, A Place Among The Dead Trailer: https://vimeo.com/791299045/5b5d98726a

A Place Among The Dead Blu-Ray with nearly 5 hours of bonus extras: https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B0CJJY4MB9/ref=ox_sc_saved_image_4?smid=ATVPDKIKX0DER&psc=1







Speaker 1:

The WB's New Tuesday begins with one of the most acclaimed series on television.

Speaker 2:

I'm Buffy, the vampire slayer, and you are Hello, hello. I'm Juliet, we're going to slay.

Speaker 4:

Want to come hey, it's juliet and I am here with my scoobies. I want to introduce you to scooby frank hiya and scooby chris howdy, howdy, howdy.

Speaker 5:

You're to do it that way.

Speaker 1:

I don't know why I said it like that Howdy, howdy, howdy. That was kind of ridiculous.

Speaker 5:

Well, I thought Frank was going to actually introduce himself. I was just saying hi.

Speaker 6:

You never know what I'm going to do. I'm the wild card.

Speaker 4:

Should I do it again? No, no, I can do it again, I'll All right.

Speaker 6:

So what am I going to do? I'm going to say it's me, frank. Well, say who you are and what the show you know a little connection to the show Buffy fan yeah.

Speaker 5:

Little credentials Make us sound like we're human beings. Oh, okay, I'll do all that.

Speaker 4:

Okay, hello. Hello, it's Juliet here. I am here with my Scoobies. Scooby Chris, hello everybody, I'm Chris.

Speaker 5:

I'm a professional podcaster, as some would say, big time Buffy fan and I'm excited to really jump in.

Speaker 4:

How do you do this? I hate introducing myself.

Speaker 6:

I'm Scooby Frank. Hi, I'm Scooby Frank Filmmaker. And then the last few wait hold on. So I started in the film smithing trade when I was around 18, 19.

Speaker 5:

Film smithing.

Speaker 6:

So I'm a film smithing, so a film smithing trade up in the colorado territories. I'm a filmmaker. I've been podcasting alongside my cousin scooby chris over there for the last couple years, having a blast and and I can't believe that this is happening yeah, we've talked about this. Doesn't make any sense really now we're both psycho buffy fans, so this is like a weird dream come true for me. Yay, so we just got back from hellmouth con. Well, chris didn't, because chris couldn't make it. Yeah, thanks it was.

Speaker 4:

That's sad, chris. Chris was on the ipad for the announcement, though, yeah I was like zombie mecca, like a high mecca hiney ho before we started talking about doing this show.

Speaker 6:

you invited me to this and I was just like, you pitched the idea. It's like, yeah, we're doing a Hellmouth. I'm like, oh cool At Sunnydale High. I'm like what? That's the most amazing thing I've ever heard in my life.

Speaker 4:

That was actually my husband's idea. We had scouted Sunnydale for a documentary project that we've been making. We thought, oh, we should get some some footage of the location that was used for the high school, some footage of the location that was used for the high school, and so we scouted it for our project and we then told Marcia, who is the promoter of Hellmouth Con and fandom charities, that we thought that that would be the perfect place to do a convention, and it was so much fun, wasn't it.

Speaker 6:

Chris, you have to take my word for it. It's like when I first showed up. I have video of it which I'll put on YouTube.

Speaker 1:

Oh, my God.

Speaker 6:

Holy cow, this is where Xander first smacks his head with the skateboard in the first episode. Holy cow, it's a fountain, it's a fountain, it's a fountain, it's a fountain, it's a fountain. Debra, debra, it's a fountain, that's a fountain. Oh, and all these clips here will eventually make their way onto our YouTube, so stay tuned for that.

Speaker 4:

Yeah, so you get to see visuals as well.

Speaker 6:

Yeah, this is just a little taste A little taste.

Speaker 5:

So he's going to give you a little taste Slaying the podcast on YouTube.

Speaker 6:

You got to wet your beak a little bit here, so, but yeah, I can't believe we're here doing this show because this came together so weird, because we've been talking since New York Comic Con, where we first met.

Speaker 4:

Yeah, I mean, to me it's the best way that it came together because it was so organic. I met Frank at a roundtable press, for Slayers Audible had brought the cast to New York Comic Con, for Slayers Audible had brought the cast to New York Comic Con. And when we met, we just started talking. You actually mentioned something about Ed Wood and I started to tell you about the time I met Quentin Tarantino and you were like wait, wait, let me turn on the recorder.

Speaker 6:

Me and my friend John were just talking. We were huge fans of the movies Ed Wood and we love your line. No water, no liquids.

Speaker 2:

Absolutely. You know what's funny about that line. When I met Quentin Tarantino at a party, he came up to me I was getting a drink and he said no water, no liquids. And I actually didn't register. I thought why are you saying that? And he said doesn't that? And I was thinking that sounds familiar. And then he looked at me. He goes it's your dialogue. I said, oh my God, because he has a photographic memory. So it was the way I met Quentin Tarantino.

Speaker 7:

That's amazing.

Speaker 4:

And we just started talking and immediately just had an ease with talking and before I had to leave for the next table, I actually invited you to come to our New York live premiere of my film A Place Among the Dead, which was having its worldwide streaming and Blu-ray release that very day, which happened to be October Friday the 13th Wow. So then you and Deb came to the screening and it was just an incredible night and we got to talk a lot and we came on your podcast and talked about the film, my husband and I, and then when we were talking, we found out we're all three of us were huge Columbo fans, and so we started talking about Columbo and that will be actually something else interesting we'll be putting out later, probably and we started talking Buffy afterwards and then you brought Chris in and we sort of had this conversation. That was literally. I think we talked for two hours and it felt like five minutes.

Speaker 6:

Yeah Right, we just finished recording. We've been recording for three and a half and it's just like it does not feel like three and a half hours of yammering.

Speaker 4:

No it doesn't. And so we all of a sudden said wait a minute, why does this not exist? First of all, why don't we do this? Why does this not exist? Why is there not a Buffy rewatch podcast with a cast member? And why are we not doing this? Why are we not? The conversation we just had we should do this, and it sort of just came as an idea. That came so fluidly that I think that's part of the reason. It's already been just such a joy and so much fun to do.

Speaker 6:

It was a lot of hurdles to get over on the way up here. I was hospitalized for a week. My house exploded, chris's house exploded. Juliet started talking like Louis Armstrong at one point because she had a really bad flu and lost her voice.

Speaker 4:

This is true. Um, yeah, it was actually sort of wild all that, because I I hadn't heard from frank for a couple days and I thought, oh, I hope, I hope everything's okay. And then, sure enough, get a texted a picture in the hospital which was, uh, I know, oh my god. And then chris was supposed to come to hell mouth, and luckily everything is good with frank. And then chris was supposed to come to Hellmouth, and luckily everything is good with Frank. And then Chris was supposed to come to Hellmouth and had the explosion that Frank is referring to, and so that thwarted our in-person plans there.

Speaker 6:

That trailer we were recording and editing that morning Because all these things piled up and kind of delayed, because we knew we wanted to make the announcement of the show at Hellmouth Con. But all these circumstances piled up in front of us and it was just like we were like kind of backed up, like we were like I'm running to a photocopier during the con to like hand out flyers with the QR code for the show. It was a mad dash at the end because it was like okay, my pancreas seems to be working again. I guess I'll make it to the convention.

Speaker 4:

Well, also my voice, as you mentioned. I've never lost my voice before and I literally sounded like an extremely demented. Mickey Mouse was the most bizarre. I mean, every time I went to say anything, deb, who is very like, he doesn't snigger. He doesn't snicker. He was like, but anytime like a little like I would try to say anything. It was so bad so there was no way we could start recording this on our proposed schedule until I at least had some voice it was weird.

Speaker 6:

It was like this is gonna be the greatest thing ever, and like calamity befell saul in very creative ways all at once. All at once. It was so bizarre what do they say?

Speaker 4:

bad dress rehearsal, good show, isn't that that hopefully?

Speaker 6:

from your lips to god's ears.

Speaker 2:

Finally, maybe I shouldn't say it.

Speaker 6:

So, yeah, we were at Hellmouth Con, which was it was as a Buffy fan, this was overwhelming the fountain, the fountain, the fountain. On the second day, though, we went to the Buffy house, Buffy's actual house, and you had an interview with the owner there, jean.

Speaker 4:

And Jean is 94 years old and amazing.

Speaker 6:

She's 94? She doesn't look a day over 93.

Speaker 4:

No, I'm just kidding, she was great. She was one of those people that just tells you yeah, tells it like it is.

Speaker 6:

Yeah, she just. I love when people get to that age where they just don't care anymore. She has one of my favorite lines coming up. I won't spoil, but she has the greatest reaction when we come back. I'll tell you what it is, yeah awesome.

Speaker 7:

Hello everybody and thank you for joining us on the walking tour of Sunnyvale which ends up right here at Buffy's house.

Speaker 2:

We'd like to give a special thank you to Jean Jean, thank you so much for having us.

Speaker 4:

Thank you. I want to thank you, jean, so much for opening your home to all of us and making the booklet that you made, which I don't think I'm supposed to say yet, so I'll tell you more about that later, sitting down and talking and sharing all of the stories that everyone here is dying to hear. Okay, so how exactly did this house, out of all of the houses in Torrance, become Buffy's house?

Speaker 3:

One day somebody came to the door and knocked on the door and they said would you mind if this could be used as Buffy's house? And I said I didn't even know who Buffy was.

Speaker 4:

So basically they knocked on the doors, probably location scouted, and said, hey, location, whatever they call it, locations, manager, did you right away say, oh yeah, I'd love to do that, or what was your? Did you have trepidation?

Speaker 3:

I said, okay, I didn't say I'd love to do that. Or what was your? Did you have trepidation? Okay, I didn't say I'd love to do that.

Speaker 4:

And you probably didn't quite know everything that a film set entails right at the beginning, right? So you've said before that you were almost always on site while the cast and crew were shooting the show here. Do you have any particular favorite stories or memories that come to mind when you think about those years and that time?

Speaker 3:

Well, one of the funnier things I thought was that when they filmed at night, they didn't film at night, they covered the house all up in a tent and so it's dark inside. I mean mean, it seemed like a lot of trouble. Why don't they just film at night rather than cover the house?

Speaker 4:

It was probably the schedule and they figured they had other stuff to shoot at night exterior with us. Like the vampires had to be outside at night, so they figured, okay, during the day we can shoot the interiors and make it look like night and then still get everything that we need to shoot outside. So, even though it seemed nuts, there probably was a logic behind it. Between the late nights and having to share your space with so many people, was there ever a time during the shoots when something took an unexpected turn? I heard that there was a stunt scene that resulted in maybe a little bit of damage. Right yeah.

Speaker 3:

One of the people the stunt people came through the bathroom window.

Speaker 2:

Have you do that a little closer?

Speaker 3:

Down the roof and then they hit the edge of the railing which they broke, and then they broke the bush right in front of it. There's still the the bush down at the end there is still shorter than all the rest.

Speaker 4:

Oh my gosh still from that? Yeah right Gosh, was it difficult?

Speaker 3:

in almost seven years of the crew in your house, how did you continue to lead a normal life and did your friends or family ever visit on set, actually, my family never even had any interest, but my husband, my second husband, his two children, came over and watched the filming and a lot of people the neighbors lined up at the very beginning. They all sat on the sidewalk across the street from there watching this whole thing and they're very interested, the neighbors are very interested.

Speaker 4:

Almost every inch of this house has played a role across the seven seasons of Buffy. I know that what happened initially is so a lot of the stuff was shot here and obviously the exterior stuff was shot here, but then at a certain point it was also built on a soundstage where we worked in Santa Monica. So for me in particular, I worked outside the house, but when I was inside for instance, buffy, when I follow Buffy and her nightmare in the hallway that was actually on set in Santa Monica. So a lot of the interiors were shot elsewhere, but initially most of them were shot here in the staircase and the living room and stuff. So today we're gathered here in your backyard. It always played an important role for the characters, for people listening to us today. What's a moment from Buffy filming history that you remember happening right here? I thought I heard something about a cat, a cat, a cat.

Speaker 3:

Yeah, they wanted to have a cat in the scene and so they had an actual cat and they're trying to get the cat to sit there and go like this. But the cat you know cats aren't very easy and trainable.

Speaker 1:

So the cat was used to do that.

Speaker 3:

So they made this little mechanical cat and they buried it in that round thing around over there where my plants are, my succulents, and a little thing came up out of the ground, a little mechanical thing, and did it look realistic? Yeah well, it was as realistic as a little thing coming out of the ground.

Speaker 4:

All right. So you wrote a very detailed booklet that we are going to hand out to everybody today, and it's not just about how your house factored into the world of Buffy, but how the greater Torrance area played a role. It became Sunnydale, california. What did your friends and neighbors think about? You know our production rolling into town. Didn't they sometimes use the neighbor's driveway for scenes? Wasn't the house on the other side taken over by a bug man in what's my Line? Wasn't a lot of the stuff used here?

Speaker 3:

Next door in the lot they put a thing called a condor which is a very tall light. I mean it's about as tall as the telephone poles in the next door to neighbors.

Speaker 4:

So was the neighbor upset about the light shining, or were they okay with it?

Speaker 3:

I don't know, I don't remember. I didn't discuss any of this with the neighbors.

Speaker 4:

Okay, your booklet mentions when the town of Torrance, like there was a period, which that follows up on, where the town of Torrance became less than thrilled about the production of Buffy being there. What was it like here in the neighborhood on the explosive night that marked basically the end for Sunnydale High, the neighbors over here didn't.

Speaker 3:

They were happy with the whole thing. You know they didn't care. High the neighbors over here didn't. They were happy with the whole thing. You know they didn't care. But the people where this explosion was over by the high school, were the ones that complained to the city council because they said it happened at two or three o'clock in the morning, which was kind of disturbing.

Speaker 4:

Have you ever? I bet I can guess the answer to this question have you ever watched the show in its entirety and if so, do you have a favorite episode?

Speaker 3:

No.

Speaker 4:

I knew that was going to be the answer. I had a beat on that, all right. Was there a certain point, and if so, when was it that you realized that the house, that the series itself became kind of an iconic thing, and so the house became an iconic thing and your house meant a lot to a lot of people? Was there a particular point that you started to realize that?

Speaker 3:

I don't know. It was when people started coming to the door and knocking on the door and saying you wouldn't mind if I take a picture, but most of those people were from Europe or the Midwest. They weren't from around here, because everybody around here knows all about Buffy. They don't come over. You know. Rush over here and take pictures.

Speaker 4:

Would you be receptive to doing it again, or is that you've done enough of that? I think that was enough. I think so Wonderful. Well, thank you, thank you so much. Thank you for sharing your stories, your time, your house and everything with us, and especially the mechanical cat.

Speaker 6:

My favorite was no, that was enough. That killed me.

Speaker 4:

I know that killed me, I know. And also it was funny because we took questions from the audience. And do you, you know? Did you watch this show? Did you end up in retrospect watching all of the show or watching any of the show? And she said I, said I have a feeling.

Speaker 6:

I know the answer to this, and she said no, oh, if I get to make it to that age. You actually really surprised me. I didn't think she was 94. I didn't think she was even close to that.

Speaker 4:

She's amazing. And she's there for the seven seasons of Buffy that shot there. She lived in the house and was present during all of the shoot days. Any of the time that the crew was there, she was there.

Speaker 6:

So on the first day you had the showrunner of Angel, co-executive producer of Buffy, David Greenwald, and just taking this, this is again. You can't do this at any other convention. Yeah, so you're going to be with one of the showrunners walking around the locations they shot at, and it was just incredible.

Speaker 4:

It was amazing the tour was supposed to be an hour but it actually was two. We ended up doing two hours because there was just so much to kind of look at and talk about and David's a really good friend and so it was really fun for me to just get to hang out with him there as well.

Speaker 7:

See, all this stuff is very interesting To me. It's like 60s monorail architecture and I don't really know why we chose this school. But it's like 60s monorail architecture and I don't really know why we chose this school. But it's big and it seems a little timeless for high school. And the very first night, buffy and Cordelia, sarah and Charisma the very first thing we shot Now the first thing in the pilot is the mighty Julie Benz sneaking into the high school with this guy and the great twist of course she bites him. Now her name on the call sheet then was Vampire Number One. And look at all. You know we're ecological, we like to use the people. Can I tell a story about you while I'm standing here?

Speaker 4:

I guess, so I hope so.

Speaker 7:

The marvelous and talented.

Speaker 4:

Oh yes, please tell the story.

Speaker 7:

Who we've known each other a long, long time, but for some reason, some few years ago, she decided and Dev, wonderful husband that I'm their good friend and it's the greatest thing ever happened we knew it was gone had to happen and they give me gifts and we go out and we do stuff.

Speaker 7:

But so we knew we wanted the character of drusilla. I don't recall meeting anyone else for it and you know, sometimes actors come in and they read sides, uh. But juliet is a person of certain stature, so she's just going to come in and talk to us. So she comes in, we fall in love and before she gets to her car the agent calls and says you've got the part. Okay, here we go. This is this weird early disney kind of architecture. We did a lot of walk-in talks. I don't remember anything fantastic happening here yet.

Speaker 4:

David, I have a question for you. So school was in session when you were shooting.

Speaker 7:

Yes.

Speaker 4:

So can you talk a little bit about that?

Speaker 7:

Yes, I just talked to Ms Gonzalez, who was a teacher here for many years, and they loved having us here. We'd wait till they went to class and then everybody said quiet, quiet, quiet and we'd shoot a lot of stuff in those hallways. I hope we get in those hallways, shot one of my favorite scenes with Sarah there. Let me tell you about Sarah. It's like driving a Lamborghini. You know. She started at three years old. I loved directing her and she wanted eyes on her.

Speaker 7:

Anyway, I wouldn't go as an exec producer I didn't have time. But as a director you could do a five-page walk and talk A lot of moves. She wants notes. She comes up to you. You could give her seven notes on a five-page scene and next time hit every single one. It's bizarre. You know there's three species men, women and actors the good ones. I have no idea how they do it. You know there's three species men, women and actors the good ones. I have no idea how they do it. You know the original title was Dorothy the Supernatural Waitress, his original idea way back. When is a better title? One of the things I loved about writing it was there was no word. You couldn't use Shenanigans, cornucopia and stuff like that.

Speaker 4:

Bounding on what you were saying, david, that the title Buffy the Vampire Slayer showed you Buffy, there's comedy, it's going to be funny, vampire it's supernatural, and Slayer that there's action, that it sort of encompassed everything that the show was, which was new, because at that time there really wasn't obviously like the female heroine and all that, but also there wasn't like the mix of of sort of the humor with action and supernatural. It was like, well, what is it, david? How did you so, since it was live high school, how did you deal in terms of sound, with bells ringing and students going and like how did that actually navigate that while shooting was going on?

Speaker 7:

You know, generally we waited for the bell to ring and things to be cleared out. But don don't forget, we shot Buffy in a warehouse. So pigeons, rain, you name it, airplanes. So you know you, just you do. And often you have to go again for sound and when I was a novice director and always in a hurry to get done, I would kind of ignore sound.

Speaker 4:

You know, like ah, but then you get in post it's oh, why did I do not have to loop everything do you know that the cast and crew called buffy, while we were shooting it, buffy the weekend slayer, because we would start, oh, like on monday, we would have like an 8 am call and then by friday we'd usually have maybe a 6 pm call and work all of Saturday. So it became known as Buffy the Weekend Slayer.

Speaker 7:

Yeah, that's fantastic. Well, angel, you could never go outside, except my brilliant son, now 32, who's a little boy. And he said, well, couldn't Angel run out of a bank and jump in a fountain and not explode? And I said, well, you just got $100. And we went to Paradise Cove, which is a trailer park and a van roared up with blacked-out windows. David Angel leaps out, grabs the bad guy and they go over the pier and they fight under the pier in shadow. Otherwise, we were always all night.

Speaker 4:

Yeah, it was funny. My experience I remember or it was like we'd call at 4 pm so that we'd get into hair and makeup and then it would be dark. So you'd basically be working like from 4 pm to, and we worked often like 16, 17-hour days. Oh yeah in those days, yeah and so we were there for the long haul. But, yeah, we became vampires because it was all night.

Speaker 7:

That's so true. Well, you know, yes, it was hard, but if you do what you love, it's not really work and there's something fun about staying up all night. It's like a college party or something. Yeah, yeah, that life of this. You know, I remember Jodie Foster getting an award many years ago and she said I love the set, I love the styrofoam cups of coffee, and you either love it or you don't, but you're going to spend your life there.

Speaker 4:

I was just going to tell a funny story, because my one scene I got to do with Tony Head speaking of, because it was the scene where we put him on the spell and then, you know, it comes around and he thinks I'm Jenny Canada. So I was thinking about it, so we calendar. So I was thinking about it, so we were so excited because we'd overlapped on set but we'd never gotten to work together. And so we, basically we get ready to rehearse the scene and I'm, you know, straddling tony and making out with him. Okay, this is hello, we're doing this scene and all of a sudden, you know action and Tony's stomach went. So I'm sorry so so

Speaker 4:

sorry, okay. And he's like I'm fine, I'm fine. Then they go okay and action, get his stomach, I'm hungry, I'm so sorry. No, no, I've got it, it's fine, it's fine. Action, oh no, can we get this man a peanut butter sandwich or something? And he's like okay. And so every time we were going to do it, his stomach was making the most and he was so cute, he got really embarrassed. This is so. I mean, my goodness, and we're doing the scene. And then what happens? All the coverage. We just got the giggles.

Speaker 1:

Of course.

Speaker 4:

And so then James and David are coming in and it's their coverage and we couldn't stop laughing. So I'm still straggling him and we're like this like laughing, trying to silently not ruin the take, and they're trying to keep a straight face Like they run in and I say something, I say oh, I got lost in the moment, or whatever I say. And we're literally going like this and they kept coming in and they're like this one we're going to get and they go and we could not get a take and it was all because of Tony Sorry about that had not eaten lunch properly and it was like this has never happened in a make-out scene before, never, never.

Speaker 7:

Well, tony is a wonderful singer and a theater-trained English actor, but he got fame in America and most of you will remember this, these Taster's Choice commercials, right, and it was him and some woman and he just, you know, he just captured the world One of my favorite, of course you know you're always arriving in the morning, etc. But that was early. It was episode four, because I think I wrote it where Xander is pretending he's been with a lot of women. Of course he's a virgin and this was that Miss French I'm talking about. She's a praying mantis and she's going to bite his head off, but he thinks he's getting ahead.

Speaker 7:

And the other thing I loved out here was the one where the big snake almost ate Buffy at the frat house. And again I was talking about this at one of the tables. The metaphor of okay, I'm going to drink for the first time, I'm going to lie and go to a party I shouldn't go to and in life you'd probably get in trouble. In Buffy you get eaten by a giant snake and Charisma who at that point really hates Buffy. But the boyfriend says if you bring Buffy to the party, you can come too. And she got such a look on her face of oh, dear God in heaven. And then they walk up and meet the frat boys in the car. I love that.

Speaker 4:

I was just going to say it's so interesting. We actually came here to scout the location for our documentary series and what surprised me since I hadn't worked at the actual school I'd worked in the neighborhood on a couple exteriors, it was just the way it's situated here is really different than you imagine when you watch the show, like when you look at it from the front, and also how friendly it is for production in terms of the access, how much parking there is, how much stuff for loading equipment, which is all the stuff that needs to come in to make it look like there's been no equipment, no lighting and none of that stuff. So it's really interesting because I think the school is big, but the front of it, the way that it was shot by Michael Gershman, it's so epic. It kind of looks almost bigger and grander than it did, you know, in terms of the way that it was shot on film, than it actually does in the front in person, I think.

Speaker 7:

Well, that reminds me, when you're prepping an episode, you know you go out with the crew and you spot all this stuff and everything. And that's probably why we did pick this place, because the part of the trucks, you know, you got to have the trucks, you got to have the trailers, you got to have the catering, which is the most important part. Also, craft service, which is the stuff you know snacks on the set. I forgot my wonderful point, but that's.

Speaker 4:

Oh, when you were scouting. When you were scouting, it was probably because of the fact that you had oh when you were scouting.

Speaker 7:

When you were scouting, it was probably because of the fact that you had all that, yeah, why we took this place. Now I'm hungry, thinking of catering.

Speaker 1:

You know it's been a long time and I'm sure that this is forever Sunnydale, high in your mind, but did you scout anywhere else that you remember? It was always this one.

Speaker 7:

Yeah, I think that was somehow a choice. I wasn't involved with no-transcript and they went to 35. We on Angel were 16 and we went to 35. But then everything went digital and look If I can save $30,000 a week. I can't say, oh, I'm a filmmaker, you know. But Ross Berryman and Gershwin, they could make that digital look like film and that I don't know how they, I don't know how anybody does. You know their stuff. These people work really hard. Sarah, who started at three years old she was only 18, but she was already a master of the craft. She knew what every single person did on the thing and you'd sit in her chair and she knew every little detail. And you know, I've known some really good actors. And another thing I could never do, which is if I'm like this, and it's a 75 lens and the light is here, if I go like this, it's a completely different thing. That much technical and yet all the emotion at the same time. It's a really cool thing.

Speaker 1:

Jonathan is such a good example of someone who does start as not a stand-in but totally a background character. That's right, and takes on such a profoundly important role in the series, is that one of those like that decision or decisions like it? How often are they calculated, versus riffing and making the magic when you find it?

Speaker 7:

much more, uh, riffing and finding the magic, but of course you know we'll look at I, we just we're just talking about darla. Julie vins, you know, became a huge, huge part of the show, and same thing happened on grim. By the way, the way, claire Coffey she was just basically an extra in the first shot of the show. So yeah, and that's so much fun. Now, on Grimm, we really couldn't bear to kill our characters, so we'd kill them and bring them back to life because we loved those actors so much.

Speaker 4:

So on Angel, Sam Anderson, who played Holland Manners, and I had known each other before we got to work together on Angel. We were both theater actors, so we'd done theater readings together, we'd done plays together, and so he had been seeing me on Angel. And then he got cast and he called me up and he said oh my god, I can't wait until we get to work together. And so we were waiting and waiting and we never got to overlap. And then a little secret of production is very often the wardrobe department actually gets the scripts before a lot of other departments.

Speaker 4:

So I would sneak into wardrobe and read the scripts when I would have my wardrobe fitting. I'm like, can I just do it? So Sam and I got called into a wardrobe thing which was actually at Paramount Studios and we're so excited that we're working together. It's amazing. He goes in first and I start paging through the script and I'm like, oh, this is amazing, this is amazing, this is amazing. And all of a sudden he's like what do we get to do together? I'm like do you want the good news or the bad news?

Speaker 4:

And he's like what do you mean? And he comes out. I'm like look.

Speaker 1:

And we start.

Speaker 4:

He's like, oh, this is really good, this is really good. And I'm like, yeah, wait the next two pages over, we eat you. He goes what? And I'm like, oh, my. God, I guess we're only getting one episode together and I'm like but it is a supernatural show, so you can come back.

Speaker 7:

That's right.

Speaker 4:

And he did, he did the elevator scene later.

Speaker 7:

Speaking of Sam Anderson, a wonderfully theatrical trained actor, and you'd know him the minute you saw him. If you don't recognize the name, he was in a later I cast him in a grim and he has this tremendous long death scene in this deserted gas station. So when, when we were, you know, codder setting the lights, I come, I said I don't want to disturb you in this, oh no. And he would talk and laugh and then they'd shoot and he'd go back to dying again. I don't get them, oh my gosh really oh yeah, like nothing, depending.

Speaker 7:

you shoot a lot of pages a day, not like soap operas, but I'll you know, movies are two pages. We try to do six, seven, eight in your schedule. Well, let's say, we have one scene here, can we shoot the other scene close by? Because moving costs time and money and often you'll do, say, a morning at one place, then you set up the catering at the next place, then you go and eat and uh, yeah, I don't remember too much about the city, but I'm sure we did. Now buffy's house is nearby, isn't that? Yes, and we did a lot in that neighborhood, those Halloween shows and coming and going, and of course, oh, here's a funny idea.

Speaker 7:

So I was telling some of you people, you know I shot that first Buffy Angel kiss. I said I'll write that up. We didn't know it was going to be a big deal, right, and he is up on her roof and he in the window and they kiss and I'm pulling back Right. Then I see the dailies. I'm pulling back right, then I see the dailies. I'm like, oh, you didn't pull back far enough. You don't get ease on the roof, you moron. So I went and we reshot that scene. But what a love affair they had.

Speaker 4:

David had the best time doing that tour.

Speaker 6:

He loved it. It seemed like he was having a time.

Speaker 4:

Yeah, yeah. I talked to him yesterday and he said that he just it was such a joy and he loved it, and he was asking about next year.

Speaker 6:

Has he ever done anything like?

Speaker 4:

that before, not a whole lot.

Speaker 6:

That's amazing. Yeah, Cause he, he, yeah, he was having a good time. It was like I would feel like I wouldn't be as comfortable. He was very comfortable doing it too. Like I wouldn't be as comfortable.

Speaker 4:

He's a great raconteur. He tells wonderful stories. He actually grew up in high school. He and Jeff Bridges were best friends and they, to this day, are still best friends. When we went to his wedding, Jeff was there and David is very handsome and could have been an actor, but he always wanted to be behind the scenes and him and Jeff are really besties.

Speaker 6:

The dude, mm-hmm. That whole thing was so surreal to me too. It's just like there's one of the showrunners just walking around the actual place. They shot it and he had such a great memory for things. It's like this is a while ago and he's like recounting things like they happened yesterday Of course Chris didn't get to be there, yeah.

Speaker 6:

It would have been great if Chris was able to show up. I wish that didn't come up again. Oh, so we'll have more highlights from Hellmouth Con, next time Without Chris, without Chris. Well, chris is sort of there in the next one.

Speaker 4:

Yeah, you're on an iPad there, yeah you're on an iPad there, so you kind of does make an appearance.

Speaker 6:

You're kind of there. I was there in spirit. Yes, you are, but you'll have to wait till next week for that.

Speaker 5:

No, You're enjoying Slaying it? Leave us a review on Apple Spotify, your podcast medium of choice, especially on Spotify. On Spotify, you can leave comments on episodes in particular which is fantastic and it's the easiest way for you guys to communicate with us.

Speaker 6:

Oh, hit us up also on our Twitter. Do we have that yet?

Speaker 5:

We don't have that yet, but we're going to have that by the time we see it. So Slay in the Podcast on Twitter, TikTok, Instagram.

Speaker 7:

YouTube, youtube, oh yes, youtube. Sorry for yelling.

Speaker 5:

YouTube. No, that's your, thank you.

Speaker 4:

See you next week, when we'll do it again. Do it again and, most importantly, until next time, go out and slay it.