Credit: Inside the MagicJames Marsters, one of the breakout stars of Buffy the Vampire Slayer, recently opened up on how a controversial episode of the series sent him into therapy.
Buffy the Vampire Slayer premiered on The WB in 1997, being show creator Joss Whedon‘s second attempt to get the concept of a high-school cheerleader who also happens to slaughter the undead on a regular basis off the ground.
The original 1992 had turned out to be a critical and commercial disappointment for 2oth Century Fox and just as much so for Whedon; he would later say he “had written this scary film about an empowered woman, and they turned it into a broad comedy. It was crushing.”
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In contrast, Buffy the Vampire Slayer the series is regularly cited as one of the best television series ever produced, helping to launch the careers of title star Sarah Michelle Gellar, David Boreanaz, Alyson Hannigan, Charisma Carpenter, and James Marsters.
The lattermost actor portrayed Spike, a platinum-blonde vampire initially introduced as a second-season villain who eventually became a fan-favorite character for his complicated past, moral ambiguity, and relationship with Buffy.
Spike was also a huge part of the Season 6 episode “Seeing Red,” which immediately became one of the most controversial installments of the franchise.
The episode takes place after Spike and Buffy Summers have had sex, and amid the fallout, the vampire attempts to sexually assault the series’ central character, who is barely able to defend herself. “Seeing Red” shocked viewers at the time with its complicated depiction of the assault and would have huge consequences later in the series.
According to James Marsters, it also had a huge impact on him as a person and an actor.
In a recent appearance on the Inside of You podcast (hosted by fellow CW alumnus Michael Rosenbaum), Marsters revealed that acting out the scene was a “personal hell” and that “Buffy sent me into therapy, actually. Buffy crushed me. It’s a problematic scene for a lot of people who like the show. And it’s the darkest professional day of my life.”
Marsters described the genesis of the episode and Joss Whedon’s attempts to explore complicated events via a fantasy adventure show.
He said, “The writers were being asked to come up with their worst day, the day that they don’t talk about, their dark secret, the one that keeps them up at night, when they really hurt somebody or when they really got hurt or made a big mistake of some kind, and then slap metaphoric fangs on top of that dark secret and tell everybody about it.”
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Apparently, Marster was contractually required to act in the scene and had no choice.
He said, “We got the scene in the can, and it was hell. I was in [my] personal hell. I don’t like sexual predation scenes, anything that has to do with it. I don’t audition for those things. If there’s a movie with that kind of material, I don’t go to see the movie. If it pops up on television, I’ve got to turn the television off before I break it. I have a very visceral reaction to that stuff.”
Despite that, James Marsters would continue to appear in Buffy the Vampire Slayer and would reprise the character in the Los Angeles-set spinoff series Angel. At one point, there were plans to develop a solo film featuring Spike, which was scrapped due to financial concerns.
Do you remember your reaction to “Seeing Red?”