Buffy The Vampire Slayer ran for seven seasons from 1997 (Picture: Fox)
James Marsters has opened up about his tumultuous time working on Buffy The Vampire Slayer, revealing that one particular scene drove him into therapy.
The 62-year-old played vampire Spike in the supernatural series, opposite Sarah Michelle Gellar, who starred as the titular character, Buffy Summers.
The hit program ran for seven seasons between 1997 and 2003, with Alyson Hannigan, Charisma Carpenter and Nicholas Brendon also in the cast.
During an appearance on the Inside of You podcast, the actor – who has also appeared in Smallville, Without A Trace, Runaways and Supernatural – detailed one of the show’s most uncomfortable episodes, and why he sought professional help afterwards.
‘Buffy sent me into therapy, actually. Buffy crushed me,’ he told Michael Rosenbaum. ‘There was a scene where I was paired with Buffy, she breaks up with me, and I go and I kind of force myself on her, and she kicks me through a wall.
‘It’s a problematic scene for a lot of people who like the show. And it’s the darkest professional day of my life.’
Sarah Michelle Gellar starred as the titular character beside James Marsters as Spike (Picture: Fox)
The scene came in Seeing Red, which initially aired in 2002 as part of season six, and saw Spike attempt to rape Buffy before she fought him off.
Reflecting on the footage, James recalled: ‘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.
‘It’s not a show with a bunch of writers telling other people how to live their lives … That’s why it resonates. One of the women writers actually had come up with this idea, because in college she had gotten broken up with and she went to her ex’s place and thought that if they made love one more time, everything would be fixed.
‘She kind of forced herself and he had to physically remove her from the premises, and that was one of the most painful memories of that time of her life.
James revealed one particular scene sent him into therapy (Picture: Shutterstock)
‘They thought that since Buffy was a superhero that they could flip the sexes, since Buffy could defend herself very, very easily from this. They thought that they could have a man do it to a woman and it would be the same thing.’
James shared that he went to the writers and begged them to reconsider, suggesting that the audience would have a ‘very different reaction’ to the episode.
He vowed that he didn’t want to shoot the scene as he has a ‘very visceral reaction’ to similar material, but was ‘contracted to do this’, and ‘couldn’t say no’.
‘I went to them and I said, “You know, guys, we’re providing a vicarious experience for the audience,’” he said.
The controversial scene aired in season six(Picture: Getty)
‘”Everyone who’s watching Buffy is Buffy, and they’re not superheroes, so I’m doing this to every member of the audience, and they’re going to have a very different reaction.’”
‘We got the scene in the can, and it was hell. I was in a personal hell.
‘I was doing a take and going to the corner of the set and going into the fetal position on the cement.’
James isn’t the only cast member who has come out against the episode as Sarah previously explained that she has ‘trouble’ with the sixth season, which depicts her character in very low moments.
Sarah revealed she hasn’t rewatched the controversial season (Picture: Getty)
Speaking to the Hollywood Reporter, she praised the series as ‘spectacular’ and said she has watched the majority of episodes with her children, Charlotte and Rocky – who she shares with husband Freddie Prinze Jr – but they stopped short of the controversial Seeing Red scene.
‘We watched seasons one through five,’ she told the outlet. ‘We skipped around a lot on those last two.
‘I have trouble with six. It wasn’t appropriate for them at the time, and I just don’t want to rewatch it.’
‘I will always be proud of Buffy,’ she added. ‘I will always be proud of what my castmates did, what I did. Was it an ideal working situation? Absolutely not. But it’s okay to love Buffy for what we created because I think it’s pretty spectacular.’
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