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My, My American Pie
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Please note that this interview was conducted before the news of the cancellation of Angel.
“Boy, he has bad luck with women, doesn’t he? Poor old Wes.” Alexis Denisof smiles sympathetically at the thought of the character’s turbulent love life. First he was rejected by Cordelia because he had the kissing technique of a toothless snake suffering muscular spasms, then he lost Fred to a mate, after which he started sleeping with the enemy until he was forced to behead her. Hardly Mills & Boon stuff. No wonder the poor guy ended up picking up bleached blondes for casual sex (although it’s unlikely he was so desperate that the bleached blonde in question was Spike, as certain elements of the online fan community like to theorise.)
It’s a very different tale for Denisof himself. He is clearly in love. Deeply and passionately. He’s been and married man for just a few months now, having tied the knot with Alyson “Willow” Hannigan, and the thrill is not wearing off. Not even with a work-enforced, 6,000 miles, six month separation to contend with. He’s still in LA filming the last few episodes of Angel’s fifth season; she’s in London appearing in the stage version of When Harry Met Sally.
“It’s been hard for me,” he says with misty eyes just begging you to believe him. “It’s been an adjustment. We’re really missing each other right now because it’s a special time when you get married. So, we had to really think about it when she got the offer, whether it was the right thing to do. And it was just such a great opportunity that neither of us could not let her go and do it. It’s just as hard for her as it is for me, and we miss each other.”
Luckily, we live in the infotech era, and Denisof is wired for lurve…. “We have the little cameras on our computers, and so we get to have live conversations. It’s tantalising because you feel like you can almost touch your loved one. You can’t, but at least I can see her face and her expressions and likewise for her. So, that’s been a really great thing. E-mails are fantastic because they’re so quick. There’s none of that time-lag you get with a letter. So, between the phone, email and the computer cameras, we’re doing a pretty good job of communication.”
And it could be quite a while before Denisof is getting more than a virtual boffing.
“The opening night was 20 February, there were three weeks of rehearsal before that, and it runs until 30 May,” he sighs. “The producers have talked to me about letting me go over there. Her schedule obviously doesn’t allow for as much travel. Ultimately, it’s a good thing because it makes us realise how much we want to be together and it makes us really appreciate the time that we do have together. We’ll just have to learn to satisfy the needs of career and family. We’re able to make this brave separation now and then, but when we have children, it may be a little harder. So, we’re going to do it while we can and make the best of it.”
Denisof himself spent much of his life and early career in the UK (he even appeared in Sharpe) and is very familiar with London, which has its advantages.
“The play is at a beautiful theatre and I’ve played there myself,” he reveals. “That’s a nice thing because I can imagine every corner of the building she’ll be working in. I feel like I can share that with her.”
In fact, Denisof owns a flat in London. Last time he was there was back when Alyson was, as he puts it, “slaving away down in Bath” filming the scenes at Giles’ Westbury home for the opening few episodes of Buffy’s final season. “I got to have some fun with my friends.”
When filming was completed, though, he took her on a tour of some of his favourite Blighty haunts before she took him on a tour of the high streets.
“Well, she loves London, and of course, I have a long history there, and I know it well,” Denisof admits. “So we really had a fun time together when we were there. I got to show her all those little places that were significant to me. And then, of course, we’d go shopping.”
Midway through season five, Angel reaches its landmark 100th episode. Denisof hasn’t been there for quite all of them, but he reckons he must be due a personal centenary celebration of some sort. “I don’t know how many episodes that character has been around now,” he muses. “I wasn’t in the first few Angels, but then I was in about half a season of Buffy. So, it must be a few more than 100 for me now.”
With the possible exception of Cordelia, Wes must have been through the biggest character transformation in the Buffyverse – from priggish goon to grizzled dark avenger to cynical businessman – but Denisof is loving the ride just as much now as he ever did.
“It’s the same satisfaction because it’s a long run – anyone who’s completed a marathon will understand. You train hard and you work hard to do it and it’s a real sense of accomplishment when you cross that line. And we’ve all done it together, pulled each other along and cheered each other up and laughed, and it becomes a big part of your life. One hundred episodes will become something to look back on. I hope we get 300, but we’re all really pleased with the accomplishment of making 100 shows. More than 90 of them are really good,” he laughs.
The dramatic changes in Wes’ character have been helped to keep playing the role fresh for Denisof. “I’ve got to tell you, I love the journey. If you look at the character when he arrived in Sunnydale in season three of Buffy, or season one of Angel, and compare the character that we’ve got to know over the last two seasons of Angel, you can’t believe it’s the same character. I defy anyone to say that, episode-to-episode, we haven’t connected the dots and made an organic journey. And for that, I have the writers and Joss to thank for their amazing ingenuity in evolving this character. And I’ve been very lucky to be on the performing end of that. Long may it continue.”
So does he watch early episodes and cringe at the goofy character he once had to portray? “I don’t want to make it sound like I sit around and watch old episodes. God, I’d never leave the house. I’d be paranoid and insecure. But I have watched a lot of the early episodes and, yes, if you look at those Buffy episodes, he’s a pretty quirky, geeky, funny dude. It was a blast, though. They had firmly established heroes all in place, and the last thing they needed was another one. And so it really left the field wide open to go in and be an annoying little twit. I took that as my agenda and maybe went a little too far. But Angel has given me the chance to reel that back in and grow up a little.
“It was an awful lot of fun. Nothing was set then. The character was a blank page. He had a name and a sense of where he came from and some ideas about what he was like, from the producers and Joss and the writers, and then, from that we just built this quirky little fellow week in and week out, and I never knew if he was going to stick around. So, the job for me was just to try and make the character as interesting and irritating as possible in the hope that they would find something for him to do the following week. Fortunately, they’re still doing that as we stand here.”
Angel’s format has been one of constant evolution, but season five has seen more changes that most. There’s the new base location – the offices of demon lawyer firm Wolfram & Hart – and a new modus operandi as Angel and Co find themselves running the company they once fought against. There’s also been pressure from the network to make the show more accessible to new viewers – especially now that Buffy has been dusted.
“Sure, there’s some obvious differences in the addition of cast members like James Marsters and the character Eve,” muses Denisof, a man who clearly thinks the changes are far from detrimental to the show. “So, totally, the show is very different this year. We tried to go back to a more contained storyline for each episode and develop emotional storylines still with the through-line over the series, but not have each episode hinge so immediately on the show that preceded it – which was the case last year. I think they felt they needed to appeal to fans of Buffy who may not have yet caught on to Angel – and also the broader audience of people who hadn’t seen Angel or Buffy – and give them a chance to know everyone.”
The intention was not, though, he believes, to make the show more like Buffy. “I think it’s always had its own sense of humour and I think it’s always had its own tone. I don’t think it is very close to Buffy, in that the things being dealt with are on a larger scale and the show deals with some issues that are a little more mature than the Buffy show allowed itself. I think we were afforded a lot more latitude and we could explore more things with our stories. I think that’s always been the case and continues to be the case despite the addition of the characters from Buffy.”
Some fans fear that the arrival of new characters will see old faves like Wes pushed to the sidelines. “Interesting question,” says Denisof, thoughtfully. “Yeah, that's something that people are going to be extremely prejudiced by, but I think a lot of the characters who have been on the show for a longer duration have made way for some of the new characters just to afford the audience the chance to get to know those characters. Especially for long-standing viewers, they need to kind of incorporate those new characters into their view of the show. So, you’ll find that there hasn’t been as great an emphasis on the old characters as there might’ve been last year, or the year before, because we’re trying to work Spike into the show, and work Eve into the show. But there’s some great stuff coming up that I’m really nervous about and excited about, and I think that the fans will feel the same way.
“Always with our show, you hit an episode that you’re in heavily, and you hit some that you’re lighter in. That’s just the nature of the animal. It’s how they structure the show. When I joined the show, there were only three of us. We’ve got a lot of people now, and they all need to get their story time on. So, it makes our contribution much more specific – and in a way, that can make the stories more powerful because when you do step into the focus of the story, it’s in a very powerful way.”
Another new factor in the show’s mix this year is that star David Boreanaz has been given the chance to direct. Denisof reckons that Boreanaz the director is “definitely more like Angel. He was a life saver, not a life taker. He’s a friend we all have worked with for years, and to get that chance from within the ranks to lead the charge….And David did a great job. There’s not one member of the cast and crew who will say any different, because we were all really impressed with his natural ability to get into the role of director. At this point, he’s very comfortable in the role of Angel, so there’s no reason he can’t do both. I hope he comes back next year and directs a bunch of episodes.”
But is this the year Wes finally settles down with a woman? “I know they’re definitely planning to look at the more emotional aspects of the character, to explore that. That’s an area I’m really excited to look at, because I think that’s where the vulnerability for the character comes in now. He’s very intellectually confident and morally secure, but affairs of the heart have always been a challenging area for him and an upsetting one. I know Wes has always carried a torch for Fred, and I don’t think that will ever change. I think that, from the moment he saw her, she was the one for him. It just never worked out. I keep hoping.”
Reproduced with the blessing of Dave Golder, Editor of SFX Magazine |
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