Fuck it. It’s time to come out of the closet. We were/are total nerds for Joss Whedon and
. And now, in light of that bullshit new vampire series by Alan “Smells Like a” Ball on HBO (fuck you, sir, and fuck
too), we thought we’d talk to Whedon, the fucking OG when it comes to heavy, funny, complex, and even—yes—avant-garde television about vampires. Did you see the silent episode, “Hush”? Did you see the fucking musical episode? Did you see the Lars von Trier-worthy episode when Buffy’s mom died?
Anyway, there will never be another vampire show as intense as . Shit, there’s hardly ANY show as intense as . It consumes our doomed and forsaken souls to this very day. (Also let it here be noted that Joss Whedon’s is publisher Erik Lavoie’s favorite movie. He’s seen it like a thousand times. What the fuck that is about, we have no idea.)
This past summer we also became obsessed with Whedon’s hilarious online musical , in which Neil Patrick “Doogie” Harris plays a novice supervillain desperately trying to get accepted into the Evil League of Evil. (Download it from iTunes for five bucks right now!) And now, now, we are peeing ourselves waiting for Joss’s new TV show, , starring second-string Vampire Slayer Faith—oops, Eliza Dushku—as a human “doll” whose memory can be wiped clean and then imprinted with a new persona to be hired out for different sinister missions. It sounds really weird, which is exactly the direction Whedon says he’s going in. Will it be better than ? Fuck no. But what is? and are the only things that ever have been, basically. Vice: You’re super-busy all the time.
Joss Whedon: I’m sure that helps everyone around you. The more I research you the more I fall into these wormholes. You’re so anti-linearly prolific. How do you know when to pursue an idea and when to let it go? Dollhouse Wonder Woman Yeah, what happened with that? You’re so good at creating your own superhero woman characters, why would you want to take on one already in existence? You write such rich characters that I feel like it’d be hard for some of the actors whom you’ve worked with to get a job and not have someone refer to the people they’ve already played. It’s not them as actors, it’s your strength as a writer. I look at photos of Eliza and go, “Oh, that’s Faith.” Dollhouse It seems Dollhouse is a chance for Eliza to play off the idea that an actor is malleable by a director but fixed by a viewer, but in this role she’s looking for a sense of self.
I wonder if there’s any bigger-picture stuff going on with the show, like some cosmic theory that this life is a Sims life, that there’s a real waking life somewhere else.
This show is a lot more of an exploration of the psyche, and the Buffy comic book is sort of the same way. Your stories have always been rooted in the mind but you’re going deep full-blast now.
What do you think makes a successful TV show?
Terminator Have you ever come up with a plot or a premise that’s been just too outlandish, even for you?
After Dr. Horrible With Dr. Horrible, because of the writers strike, you had to start a new filmmaking model. How’s that going?
What do you think makes an ideal villain?
Any real-life examples?
Don’t tell me you’re one of those people who thinks he’s a lizard!
Maybe there’s no such thing.
Can I ask you some geek-out questions?
Or, um, is it irritating at this point to still be answering questions about Buffy?
Between the end of the show and the beginning of the comic, what happened? It seemed like Buffy was so excited to start having a normal life, and then right away in the comic she’s basically gone Aeon Flux. That’s about as much the reverse of an organic California blond as I can imagine. It definitely has a silliness, with famous actors showing up in dreams and fantasies, but in general it seems more sexualized than the TV show.
Yeah, totally! Even just the way the characters are rendered.
What’re you listening to these days?
To who?! You’re kidding. Minutes to Midnight Ah man. It seems so different from the music you’ve had on your shows. I’m going to pretend I didn’t hear that.
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Anyway, there will never be another vampire show as intense as . Shit, there’s hardly ANY show as intense as . It consumes our doomed and forsaken souls to this very day. (Also let it here be noted that Joss Whedon’s is publisher Erik Lavoie’s favorite movie. He’s seen it like a thousand times. What the fuck that is about, we have no idea.)
This past summer we also became obsessed with Whedon’s hilarious online musical , in which Neil Patrick “Doogie” Harris plays a novice supervillain desperately trying to get accepted into the Evil League of Evil. (Download it from iTunes for five bucks right now!) And now, now, we are peeing ourselves waiting for Joss’s new TV show, , starring second-string Vampire Slayer Faith—oops, Eliza Dushku—as a human “doll” whose memory can be wiped clean and then imprinted with a new persona to be hired out for different sinister missions. It sounds really weird, which is exactly the direction Whedon says he’s going in. Will it be better than ? Fuck no. But what is? and are the only things that ever have been, basically. Vice: You’re super-busy all the time.
Joss Whedon: I’m sure that helps everyone around you. The more I research you the more I fall into these wormholes. You’re so anti-linearly prolific. How do you know when to pursue an idea and when to let it go? Dollhouse Wonder Woman Yeah, what happened with that? You’re so good at creating your own superhero woman characters, why would you want to take on one already in existence? You write such rich characters that I feel like it’d be hard for some of the actors whom you’ve worked with to get a job and not have someone refer to the people they’ve already played. It’s not them as actors, it’s your strength as a writer. I look at photos of Eliza and go, “Oh, that’s Faith.” Dollhouse It seems Dollhouse is a chance for Eliza to play off the idea that an actor is malleable by a director but fixed by a viewer, but in this role she’s looking for a sense of self.
I wonder if there’s any bigger-picture stuff going on with the show, like some cosmic theory that this life is a Sims life, that there’s a real waking life somewhere else.
This show is a lot more of an exploration of the psyche, and the Buffy comic book is sort of the same way. Your stories have always been rooted in the mind but you’re going deep full-blast now.
What do you think makes a successful TV show?
Terminator Have you ever come up with a plot or a premise that’s been just too outlandish, even for you?
After Dr. Horrible With Dr. Horrible, because of the writers strike, you had to start a new filmmaking model. How’s that going?
What do you think makes an ideal villain?
Any real-life examples?
Don’t tell me you’re one of those people who thinks he’s a lizard!
Maybe there’s no such thing.
Can I ask you some geek-out questions?
Or, um, is it irritating at this point to still be answering questions about Buffy?
Between the end of the show and the beginning of the comic, what happened? It seemed like Buffy was so excited to start having a normal life, and then right away in the comic she’s basically gone Aeon Flux. That’s about as much the reverse of an organic California blond as I can imagine. It definitely has a silliness, with famous actors showing up in dreams and fantasies, but in general it seems more sexualized than the TV show.
Yeah, totally! Even just the way the characters are rendered.
What’re you listening to these days?
To who?! You’re kidding. Minutes to Midnight Ah man. It seems so different from the music you’ve had on your shows. I’m going to pretend I didn’t hear that.
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