Though he’s also a musician, singer, comic book writer, and audiobook narrator, actor James Marsters is best known for his role as the British punk vampire Spike from the Buffy the Vampire Slayer series and its spin-off, Angel. Interestingly, his portrayal of Spike was supposed to be very short because, according to Joss Whedon, vampires were supposed to be ugly, evil, and soon to be slayed at the hands of the eponymous Slayer. However, that didn’t really go according to Whedon’s plans because Marsters won the audience’s hearts.
In short, the massive fan response prevented Marsters’ character from being killed off, and Spike went from being Buffy the Vampire Slayer‘s supervillain of Season 2 to an anti-hero that stuck around until the end of the show, making Marsters one of the main cast members of the Scooby Gang. However, not everything was fine and dandy on the set of Buffy, especially when actors are contractually obligated to perform acts they’re uncomfortable with.
In a recent interview, James Marsters discussed a traumatic experience he suffered while filming a controversial scene during which his character attempts to sexually assault Buffy. During the episode titled Seeing Red, Buffy, injured from patrolling earlier, runs a bath for herself. However, Spike shows up “uninvited” and tries to convince her that she still loves him. Buffy, of course, protests and rejects the advances of her former vampire lover, but Spike attempts to sexually assault Buffy.
Even with her back injured, the Slayer manages to stop Spike’s advances, who, immediately horrified by his own behavior, attempts to apologize and flees the scene. He later left Sunnydale, vowing to return a changed being. In his recent interview with Smallville‘s Michael Rosenbaum, Marsters discussed the scene, describing it as a “problematic scene for a lot of people who like the show,” calling it “the darkest professional day of my life.” In fact, he shared that filming that particular scene sent him to therapy.
The idea for the scene came up when the writers were asked to come up with their worst day, the day they don’t talk about, their darkest day that keeps them up at night, and the day they might’ve really hurt somebody or themselves or made a very big mistake of some kind. Then, turn it into a piece of vampire fiction by slapping metaphoric fangs of top of that dark secret and release it into the world. And so, they did.
The specifics were based on the experience one of the show’s female writers had in college. According to Marsters, the writer had gotten broken up with, after which she went to her ex’s place. She thought that if they made love one more time, everything would be fixed the way it was before. Marsters then recalled that the writer kind of forced herself and that her ex had to physically remove her from the premises. He added that it was “just like one of the most painful memories of that time of her life.”
However, the writer thought to flip the idea on its head, flip the sexes, and have a man do it to a woman. The idea was good only on paper, considering that Buffy was an antithesis of stereotypical female roles in horror, and transferred this experience on screen. Unfortunately, it would seem that no one but Marsters considered how the viewers would react to such content. He openly disagreed with the idea and expressed concerns regarding the viewership’s reaction.
Marsters even argued by saying that the audiences identify with the protagonist Buffy and that everything against Buffy is an assault against the audiences. Unlike Buffy, victims aren’t superheroes and might not be able to easily defend themselves against such an assault. Sadly, he was contractually obligated to perform the scene, which eventually ended up on screen, generating quite a controversy between the writing team and the fans of the series.
The writers later explained that the scene was necessary to set up a powerful motivation for Spike’s quest to gain a soul, and Marsters said that he would never do such a scene again. He has since avoided any roles that involve sexual predation due to his strong negative reaction to such content — which triggered physical consequences. He even avoids films that may contain such materials and turns the television off if such scenes happen to be part of the program.
Sarah Michelle Gellar, the actress behind the eponymous heroine, has since watched much of the series that successfully subverted Halloween with her family but has explained that Seeing Red is one episode they skip, citing personal troubles with much of Season 6 and Season 7 of the show. James Marsters, on the other hand, openly stated that filming that scene was his own personal hell.
If you or someone you know has been sexually assaulted, please contact the National Sexual Assault Hotline at 1-800-656-HOPE (4673) or go to rainn.org.