This was an awesome Oz ComicCon for Buffy fans! Hopefully you’ve already seen our interviews with Amber Benson and Sarah Hagan, and now we have one of the leading cast members! The world’s favorite vengeance demon Emma Caulfield!
Audio: Emma Caulfield House of Geekery Oz ComicCon
G-Funk: We’re here again at OzComicCon 2015 and we’re talking to Emma Caulfield! How are you this weekend?
Emma Caulfield: I’m better now. Truth be told I’d one of the worst cases of jet lag I’d ever had, and then I start coming down with a low-grade flu…yay!
GF: How long did it take you to get here?
EC: Like 21 hours from L.A.
GF: It’ll be weird if you weren’t jet lagged after that.
EC: It’s not crazy, but it’s OK. I got a B12 shot, and I’m feeling better.
GF: That’s good. You’re looking very well.
EC: I am?
GF: Looking very chipper.
EC: Good! Not the case yesterday.
GF: I couldn’t tell.
EC: Aw, you’re sweet.
GF: I try, I try. Now, you’re here promoted very heavily as having played Anyanka/Anya on Buffy the Vampire Slayer, which was 10 years ago. Do you find it strange that people are still out in force for that character?
EC: I don’t find it strange. I did, but now I don’t. I only did because I never anticipated the show having this kind of life at the time. You never know what’s going to hit and what won’t. But know it’s like, well, of course. The kids are getting younger and younger, the fan base is, it’s strange, is literally anywhere from 10 to their parents…it’s cool. And no-one’s here to promote it, it’s just “will you come and represent that show” and I’m “yeah, sure! I can come to Australia!” I can’t really promote something that…well, I can promote it being on Netflix! IT’S ON NETFLIX!
GF: We only got Netflix last week.
EC: Oh God! It’s so great! It’s the best, they have the best shows! They do!
GF: Like Buffy!
EC: I mean new shows, yes. Like the ones they make themselves. They are incredibly well done. Like House of Cards, Orange is the New Black, Unbreakable Kimmy Schmidt…Bloodlines is really good. I just finished watching (Note: I can’t make out this title on the recording! There’s a cheer in the background…if anyone can let me know what it is in the comments, that would be awesome!). A lot of really, really interesting shows.
GF: And Daredevil is just out.
EC: Daredevil, which I’ve heard is amazing, but I haven’t seen it yet.
GF: More about you, less about Netflix…
EC: It’s all a part of my plan to get them to put me on their shows.
GF: I should explain the yelling in the background is Amber Benson being attacked by Muppet Freddy Krueger. Now, I’m a big Buffy fan, so I’m going to ask some Buffy stuff.
EC: Ok.
GF: You came onto the show as a guest star on ‘The Wish’ and then you became this recurring staple character, how did this come about? Did you know you would be returning after ‘The Wish’?
EC: No, it was just a guest star. Then they asked me back, then they asked me back a few more times. That went on for…actually, I don’t know how long it went on for…when it came time again for another pilot season I was testing for another show. I was in this position where I was only recurring on Buffy so my agents said you can make her a regular or she’ll go and do the other show. So they made me a regular. That’s what happened. I didn’t do the other show.
GF: You’re character had a very split personality, torn between wanting to be a good human and wanting to be a vengeance demon. Was that hard for you to bring across?
EC: No.
GF: You’re just that good?
EC: (Laughs) It’s not that I think I’m that good, I think we all have some side of us that’s ugly. I think we do. We all have varying degrees of good and bad. You’re not fundamentally good or fundamentally not good, one of them is more of struggle. We’ve all had experiences where you’re really hurt or really angry and you’re like “I wish I could…urgh!” in that moment. All that is is brought to life. Then very artfully dealing with having the consequences come to life, come to fruition, and getting to play her dealing with the consequences was always fun. She was always fun anyway, playing her was aways a good time!
Also instantly quotable!
GF: She was! You’re character always went back and forth between Anya and Anyanka, the good and the evil…at the end of the day what side do you think Anya fell more in to?
EC: Well…I think she died doing the right thing, so that’s where she fell.
GF: I was sad when Anya died.
EC: Sorry.
GF: It wasn’t cool. My first episode was ‘The Wish’, and that got me hooked. I like to talk about Buffy a lot, but is there other roles you’d like to be more associated with?
EC: I think…I don’t know. There are three things I’ve done that I’m very proud off, and they’re all things that have their own little crazy cult fan base, which are obviously Buffy, and Timer, which has lately grown to rival Buffy in terms of absolute fandom associated with that, and the questions and this universal hatred of the ending (laughs). I get that all the time, and I stand by it. I thought the ending was honest, so I liked that. Then the show Bandwagon that was subversive and twisted. There’s a very particular group of people who get really, really get into that. I get constantly quoted ‘I can see now. Click.’ Someone came up with a quote from the show and my face on a shirt and I thought that’s awesome. That’s dedicated.
As an artist you never know what people are going to grab on to. I write a lot, and I haven’t been published and that’s cool. I hope that some day something I put out garners that intense admiration. Or even half the admiration those projects have garnered.
GF: Is there one project you want give a shout out to, you want to say ‘everyone, check this one out’?
EC: I always talk about shows that I desperately want to be on (laughs). That’s always my plug: please put me on The Walking Dead.
GF: Are you a geek like us?
EC: Oh yeah. Yes. There’s a handful of shows I am so, so in to and that is one of them. I would psychotically love to be on that show.
GF: Emma Caulfield for The Walking Dead. That’s what we want to see.
EC: It’s what I want you to see me in. That’s what I want.
GF: We’ll try and make that happen…somehow…
EC: But if by chance if you haven’t seen TiMER, then I would say see TiMER.
GF: I will see it. I haven’t seen it yet. I’ll check it out.
EC: It’s on Netflix. Actually, I don’t know what you guys have here. You’re just brand new. It’s pretty popular on Netflix.
GF: And it’s called TiMER?
EC: Yes.
GF: I will find it. I will watch it. And I will probably be a big nerd about it.
EC: It’s actually very interesting how many men love that movie. They don’t think they will, and then they do. It’s not a ‘chick flick’. It’s a wonderful movie and it definitely makes you think. What’s weird is that the concept, or the conceit, is starting to become a reality. I read an article about it the other day and was like…wow. It took five years and there it is, like a prototype for what the film is about. It’s crazy.
GF: I’m going to find it and give it a shout out because we like to share as much as we can.
EC: Thank you.
GF: Is there anything else you’d like to say to the public today?
EC: Just thank you for being so awesome. Thank you for supporting me in everything we do. You’ve all been lovely.
GF: Thank you for talking to us!
EC: You’re welcome.
