“Buffysent me into therapy, actually,” Marsters said.
It’s a problematic scene for a lot of people who like the show.
And it’s the darkest professional day of my life."
James Marsters and Sarah Michelle Gellar, ‘Buffy the Vampire Slayer’.20th Century Fox/Everett
Marsters added that he “wasn’t thinking” about protecting the image of his character Spike.
“I was just having to do that to Sarah.
I was just having to live through that reality,” he said.
Spike and Buffy, ‘Buffy the Vampire Slayer’ (season 6, episode 7).UPN
“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.
James Marsters stars in ‘Buffy The Vampire Slayer’ year 5.Online USA/Getty
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.”
“I was contracted to do this.
James Marsters, ‘Buffy the Vampire Slayer’.The WB
I couldn’t say no,” he said.
However, he ended up in physical and mental pain while shooting that scene.
“It’s like a pulled nerve or something, and it popped off like a gunshot.
I just collapsed to the floor…
I’m like, ‘I guess I’m kind of tense right now.’
And we got the scene in the can, and it was hell.
I was in [my] personal hell.”
He remembered having to lay on the ground in between takes.
“They were all worried.
I’m like, ‘Be worried.
I’m not okay.'”
Marsters added that the silver lining of that terrible experience is how it led him to seek out therapy.
This isn’t the first time Marsters has spoken out against this scene.
“They kept having me do worse and worse things trying to get people to realize.
Even Spike at one point goes, ‘Hey guys, Im evil.’
Because the audience refused to do that, they finally landed on that scene.”
When you know those things, maybe it will inform how you react to that scene.
That wasnt what the writers were thinking at all.
It was very well considered and it was coming from a good place."
