James Marsters: Tapping Into Darkness to Embody Spike

Growing up in the late 90s and early 2000s, Buffy the Vampire Slayer was a pillar for teenagers, like myself at the time, who were shaping and discovering their identities. The so-called “Scooby Gang” was formed from the different high school archetypes–their dynamics through the survival of hell (literally and figuratively) strongly relatable. Spicing up the hormonal concoction were the vampires, entities of forbidden desire and danger who elevated the stakes and broke hearts. While Angel represented the tragic, tormented soul with a defined arc, Spike exuded a rebellious energy that went against the grain of storytelling–starting as the big bad alongside Drusilla to ultimately becoming an unconventional hero. James Marsters revealed how he molded Spike’s persona, balancing danger, vulnerability, humor, and charisma: “Acting gives me the ability to explore parts of myself safely that normal life wouldn’t afford me to do. Laurence Olivier, who was a great stage and film actor, said that a dramatic character has two or three facets. If you give a dramatic character more facets than that, it gets muddy, and it’s just not as effective … you really want to keep it to just a few. Even if they’re radically different characters, if I can admit to myself how many facets I have, I can still not lie in front of the camera, which is the whole point … to be honest. Could I have fun shredding innocent people? I guess I could. I never have, but, in fantasy, I got to a place where I could just release the guilt and not worry about anyone else’s feelings and just have fun dominating people that way. That was the real challenge. And then the other part was just being so much in love with Drusilla, which was easy.”

After binding those facets into a character, Marsters explained that the rest is all about following the writing. He recalled his humble beginnings in theater, particularly the Shakespeare play The Tempest at the Goodman Theatre in Chicago. During that experience, he began to understand how to serve the words: “I was very nervous to do this play. In a panic, I asked one of the older actors, ‘How do you do Shakespeare, Bob?’ And Bob goes, ‘Kid, stand up straight, say your lines clearly, and get the hell off stage.’ It was the best advice in the world, because if you can do that, then Shakespeare does the rest, and he’ll make you look like a genius. You just follow what the words are wanting and they will lead you to places that you didn’t expect.” This fundamental notion carried to Buffy the Vampire Slayer and Angel, where the actor trusted Spike’s journey and became a vessel to his unapologetic nature.

Spike’s role for each season was always a wildcard. James Marsters explained that while every character arc was well defined, for the vampire troublemaker there was never a clear path: “All the secondary characters are saying some version of, ‘What do we do now, Buffy?’ ‘Everyone, get behind Buffy!’ ‘Wait for Buffy!’ Or ‘Did I do a good job, Buffy?’ The writers were very smart because they made a character that said, ‘You’re stupid, Buffy. Your hair looks horrible and we’re all about to die.’ And that was Cordelia, actually. But Cordelia went over to Angel, and they needed someone to fill that role in [Buffy the Vampire Slayer] Season Four–that’s why they called me to come in as a regular cast member. Had she not gone over to Angel, I don’t think that there would have been any more Spike. I was just the new Cordelia … that character throwing those curveballs at [Buffy], undercutting her. Not a lot of shows and writers are brave enough to do that. I got to do it on Angel too … My whole job description was to give that man a headache every day! Yeah, it was great.” He added, “I was the villain to be overcome; I was the wacky neighbor for a while; I was the bad boy love interest (so that Buffy could learn what a mistake it is to date a bad boy [laughs]); I was the guinea pig hero, but that was really all supporting everybody else’s journeys. The writers on Buffy were so talented that it all did stitch together into one character. It was a happy accident.”

After Angel ended, the Buffyverse continued in comic book format–until in 2023 the cast reunited for a very special Audible Original. In Slayers: A Buffyverse Story James Marsters returned as Spike, but this time relying purely on his voice to express the same emotional intensity without visual performance. He admitted that “it was a real challenge. In film acting, most of the information is conveyed through the eyes. So how can I balance lifting the words enough so that the information is conveyed but the character is not ruined? I kept thinking, ‘Does this still ring true as Spike to me?’ But at the same time, it was just such a blast to watch Drusilla drive the train as the big bad … Juliet Landau is just an incredible actor. And then watching Cordelia be the new Slayer … at first I was like, ‘You’re going to make Cordy a Slayer?! This doesn’t make sense.’ And then I watched [Charisma Carpenter’s] performance and was like, ‘Of course Cordy would make a great Slayer, she doesn’t take shit!’ That was a beautiful choice. It was really fun.”

Although his wheelhouse is acting, James Marsters also has a passion for music. His rock band Ghost of the Robot just released a music video for “Civilized Man”–a one-man show that brought back that intensity and unruliness that longtime fans may recognize from Spike. “I wrote [the song] a long time ago. I was up in Toronto filming a heist movie, and the 3rd AD was abusing the extras, shouting at them and just being horrible. I wanted to just rip him into a hallway and punch him in the head. At that point, I think it had been four years since I’ve been in a fight, and I was really trying to grow up and not do that anymore. I went to the producers and maturely said, ‘This is not professional; he needs to stop doing this to the extras.’ I did it the right way, but there was an unreleased kind of violence, so I went back to the hotel room at the end of the shoot and wrote that song–about how it is difficult to be civilized sometimes.” He then explained how Spike’s dangerous spirit found its way into the performance: “It’s interesting because the part of me that I use for Spike is all of the darker parts of my personality–the cynicism, the loneliness, the violence, the anger … it’s not stuff that you probably want to hang out with. And so I was like, ‘Well, if I’m going to sing about this part of me, why don’t I just put on blonde hair and have fun with it? That’s how the thing kind of cooked up.”

Tapping into his darker side, James Marsters helped create a multifaceted character that continues to matter to the audience across generations. His portrayal of Spike is unforgettable, and the character’s rebellious essence lives on through Marsters’ music. Make sure to connect with him on Instagram and stay tuned for the release of Ghost of the Robot’s 7th album, coming soon!