Anthony Stewart Head was cast on the first day of auditions, and was the first person to be cast on the show. He said:
“When I went to audition, it felt very good. I remember going to the Fox [screen] test and seeing Joss there, and I knew that I was …

David Boreanaz was the last major cast member to be cast for the first episode Welcome to the Hellmouth. Marcia Shulman, the casting director for Buffy at the time, was having problems finding the right guy. She auditioned hundreds of men but eventually a friends of hers saw David walking …

James C. Leary (who played Clem) told the BBC about how he got the part:
” I guess it was in 2001. I was called in April to come to read for this part. At the time [Clem] was just called The Loose Skinned Demon, and I had the script and …

Vincent Kartheiser spoke to the BBC about being cast as Connor:

“When I first got the sides [casting description] for the audition, it was for a role called Street Kid. They did not want to let out anything about the character, but what my agents would tell me is that, “this …

Bianca Lawson (Kendra) was originally cast in the role of Cordelia but turned it down. She said:
“Well, there’s a period in a season where you audition for all the pilots, and you never know…so you kind of audition for everything. At the time I had done a lot for Sister, …

Juliet Landau didn’t audition for the part of Drusilla. Joss had seen her in Ed Wood, and asked her to meet him, the casting director (Marcia Shulman) and two executive producers (Gail Berman and David Greenwalt). At the meeting, they discussed the character and then Juliet was asked within the …

Clare Kramer, who played Glory, talked to the BBC about how she and Charlie Webber (Ben) were cast:
“I got the two pages and thought “Well why not?” I’d heard good things about the show, so just went in, auditioned, did what I felt was interesting and worked with the material …

Juliet Landau has said that after she had been cast, she went to the audition for Spike to read with potential actors for that character. She and James immediately clicked. They were reading a scene and they went to kiss then turned away towards the camera instead. The producers loved …

When casting the role of Tara, Joss Whedon was originally looking for someone like ‘old Willow’ - before Willow became as confident as she is now. Visually he wanted someone who was small and thin. Amber Benson read for the role and it was Marti Noxon who saw her vulnerability …

The actress cast to originally play Willow was Riff Regan, though she only played the part in the original pilot episode. She didn’t work out and Joss started looking for a new actress. He says the network wanted a “supermodel in horn rims” to play Willow.
Marcia Schulman (the casting …

David Fury has mentioned that Dawn was originally supposed to be much younger than she ended up - about 12 years old. When Michelle Trachtenberg came to read for the role they decided she was perfect, and made the character older so they could cast her. This explains why Dawn …

Christian Kane, who played Wolfram and Hart lawyer Lindsey McDonald on Angel, originally auditioned for the role of Riley Finn. He told EW.com, “I auditioned for Buffy, for the role that Marc Blucas has”.

Marc Blucas mentioned in an interview about how he got the part of Riley:
“They had narrowed it down to five or six guys and we all went in to read with Sarah. The night before, I was playing basketball and I got undercut. I landed on my back, so I …

When Robia LaMorte first read through her audition scene for I Robot, You Jane she thought that the character of Giles was one of her teenage students. Robia met with Joss Whedon and the producers and was surprised when a distinguished looking man, whom she thought was one of the …

Anthony Stewart Head (Giles) was the first member of the main Buffy cast to be given a role. He was cast on the first day of casting. According to Marcia Shulman (on the ‘Casting’ featurette on the season 5 DVD) the moment Anthony spoke, they knew he was the one. …