Blockbuster.co.uk - James Marsters Interview

Buffy legend James Marsters chats with Blockbuster.co.uk's Marshall Julius about his days among the undead and his latest role, as the evil Lord Piccolo, in Dragonball Evolution.

"I'm the sort of person who, if everyone is walking one way, I'll turn around and walk the other way," says Marsters, a rebel to the end. "As far as I know, I'm the only person in the world who hasn't seen Titanic, for the only reason that everyone else did."

As Piccolo, Marsters is hidden under layers of latex and pea-green make-up, and it's hardly the first time he's worked under such conditions. "Acting isn't comfortable," he says, matter-of-factly. "It's one of those jobs that's never going to be comfortable, and like race car driving and mountain climbing, it's no good whining when it's uncomfortable."

A Dragonball fan for many years now, Marsters says he jumped at the chance to play the role. What's more, he conspired to make his character older and uglier than the producers had originally intended, even though that meant longer spells in the make up chair. "In the manga," explains the actor, "Piccolo starts very old and decrepit. The reason he's angry enough to take revenge on the Earth is because the Guardians of Earth stole his youth. If he was young and good looking in the movie, he would have collapsed into a general kind of villain that I no longer understood.

"I was willing to be fired over that one. I believed in it that much. I was sitting with the make up guy saying, 'Older, older, OLDER!' And he said, 'Dude, I don't think the producer is going to like this.' But I told him, 'The producer is not here - just do it!' In the end I got my way, and Piccolo works all the better for it."

Happy to suffer for his art, back when he played Spike, Marsters went to extraordinary lengths to keep his character real. "Todd McIntosh, the make up artist, told me to keep out of the sun. He said, 'Yes, I can cover your tan with make up, but you're going to look like a transvestite.' So I stayed out of the sun for seven years.

"I also had to bleach my hair every six days to keep it looking the same. Although that's supposed to be really bad for your hair, my hair just didn't care. I never had a problem with breakage. But my scalp was the thing that tripped me up. It would bleed and puss a lot. It ruined a lot of takes. They'd shout, 'James's face is dripping again!' Oh yes - it's all about the glamour!"

Though his character was only intended to last a few episodes, Spike endured throughout the series and its spin off, garnering Marsters a massive fan following that remains loyal to this day. "I get a sense that Spike touched people in a way that was important to them," says the actor.

"Though I didn't write, direct or produce the show, I was part of something that touched people and I still get stopped whenever I go out. I no longer have the bleached blond hair so it's not like a light bulb attracting attention from a hundred yards away. I don't get mobbed any more, but still, there's always someone who'll come up to me, and that's fine. I'm glad they value the show."

Marsters reveals he's a fan of his fans. "Buffy was a show that demanded the audience be fairly intelligent and have a fairly well developed sense of humour, so I find that the people who want to meet me are really cool. They don't tend to blast over my boundaries, they don't want to interrupt my day, they don't want me to do dog tricks or anything, they just want to say that they really appreciated the experience."

Well known for doing the majority of his own stunts on Buffy, 47 year-old Marsters still does as much as he's allowed. "My only worry is they won't let me try," he says. "There's only one shot in Dragonball that isn't me. It's the blast that sends Piccolo crashing through three pillars during the climactic battle.

"I'm looking forward to the Dragonball Evolution DVD, because I'm counting on the extra package showing a lot of the fight that was cut. We shot twice as much as was used and I tore myself up for those takes, so I want to see those shots. I baked the cake," says Marsters, wrapping up, "and now I want to taste it!"

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