The trailer for the first season of "Buffy the Vampire Slayer"/FOX
A sexual assault scene from the series Buffy the Vampire Slayer, which is badly remembered by fans, sent one of the main stars to treatment - after he found himself having an anxiety attack on the set.
James Marsters
, who played
Spike
in the cult series that aired between 1997 and 2003, said he was not happy when he learned about the brutal sexual assault scene he was forced to participate in as part of the role. Not only the fans were outraged by the controversial scene: now, more than 20 years since the series ended, the actor reveals what the motives were for the scene, what the creators intended and how its filming affected him - and yes, he too is still shocked that this scene was broadcast.
James Marsters played the vampire Spike in the successful science fiction series "Buffy the Vampire Slayer" alongside
Sarah Michelle Gellar
, aka Buffy. Already in his first appearance, during the second season, Spike showed interest in the vampire slayer and something seems to be developing between them. Thanks to Masters' spectacular performance, Spike became one of the teen drama's most popular supporting characters and joined the cast full-time in the fourth season. As time passed, the relationship between Buffy and Spike developed into a toxic one. The climax happened during the episode Seeing Red in the sixth season - when Spike sexually assaulted Buffy in the bathtub. The fans must remember this very difficult scene to watch. Now it turns out that it was meant to be hard to watch - so that fans would stop rooting for Spike and Buffy's relationship.
This is the scene for those who managed to forget:
In an interview with RadioTimes, he said that the writers were "very frustrated" because "they couldn't convince the audience to stop cheering for Spike". Marsters added: "They didn't want the audience to say 'Spike and Buffy forever', that's just not what they wanted. They kept making me do worse and worse things trying to make people understand. Even Spike said at one point, 'Hey guys, I'm evil '. Because the audience refused to accept that, they went for that scene. They said, 'Okay, we're just going to have him do it to Buffy, like there's nothing else left for us to do that's going to get that point across.'"
He added: "I don't know if that means it was the right thing to do. I know over time it looks worse, but what I want people to know is that it wasn't an arrogant decision. It wasn't, 'Oh well, these things are fine and it's done be sexy and hot if we do it'. That wasn't what the writers had in mind at all. It was well thought out."
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Spike and Buffy in the bath rape scene from the series "Buffy the Vampire Slayer"/Fox
"It was the hardest day of my professional career. It sent me to therapy"
The scene was very difficult for Marsters. He recalled: "It was the hardest day of my professional career. It sent me to therapy. I collapsed on the set, I couldn't even speak, I was shaking. It was a terrible day... When this script came, I was under an agreement to do whatever they told everyone They said. I was forced by law to do that scene. It wasn't fun to watch, but it wasn't fun to film it either."
Spike's fate changed in the seventh and final season of the series, when Spike finally got a soul, forced to live with his guilt - and he and Buffy were able to have some sort of relationship, though Marsters isn't sure the Slayer could ever truly forgive him. This is also a question that occupied many viewers and still a large part of them do not agree on the answer. In the same interview, Marsters said that Buffy couldn't really love her former enemy and that Spike realized that.
This is how they looked then:
Spike and Buffy from the series "Buffy the Vampire Slayer"/Fox
And this is how they look today:
Sarah Michelle Gellar who played Buffy and James Marsters who played Spike in the series "Buffy the Vampire Slayer" at a red carpet meeting in 2023/GettyImages, Jesse Grant
James Marsters: "I collapsed on set, I couldn't even speak, I was shaking"/GettyImages, Ilya S. Savenok
Previously, James Marsters spoke about the difficult atmosphere on the set following the toxic work with director Joss Whedon, when actress Charisma Carpenter claimed that he "abused his power" and undermined her. According to her, in her years when she played Cordelia in the series (and in the subsidiary series "Angel") she was treated humiliating, belittling, offensive, and vindictive (for daring to get pregnant), to the point of risking her physical and mental health. Marsters published a statement on Twitter in 2021 in which he wrote : "Although I will always have the honor of portraying the character of Spike, the set of 'Buffy' was not without its challenges. I do not support abuse of any kind and am heartbroken to learn of the experiences some of the staff went through. I send my love and support to everyone involved."
Could Buffy really forgive him?/Fox
He also admitted that Whedon "backed him into a corner" when he revealed on the Inside of You podcast: "I wasn't meant to be a romantic character, but then the audience reacted to it that way. I remember Whedon cornered me one day and said, 'I don't care how popular you are, kid, you're dead . Do you hear me? Dead. Dead!' And I was like, 'Oh, you know, it's your pitch, man. It's all good.'"
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Sarah Michelle Gellar
sexual assault