Actor Spotlight: Watchers Edition

So, I decided to create a category that lets my inner fangirl come out and play (more than she usually does, anyway). The result is a Spotlight category for past movies, television shows, and actors that I really dig (as opposed to current releases that fall into those categories). Today, we have my two favorite Whedonverse actors, the watchers Anthony Stewart Head and Alexis Denisof, both of whom are celebrating a birthday this week. This way lie spoilers….

First up, Anthony Stewart Head (February 20, 1954):

Giles: Buffy Summers’ beloved watcher, Rupert “Ripper” Giles, was my favorite character on that show, someone who managed to be both paternally encouraging and mighty intimidating (when he got his “mean” on, that is). He tried to set a good example for his Scoobies, but he could also be enough of a smartass to attack Maggie Walsh for being dismissive of his parental abilities and trying to replace him as the central authority figure in Buffy’s life (“A New Man”). Always great with swords and chainsaws, Giles also has been known to rough up his enemies with his bare fists, and to kill a guy (“The Gift”) or two (Buffy Season 8, # 9), if the occassion calls for it. In fact, of the core Scoobies, Giles is the one who will hesitate least when it comes to killing someone. Demons fear Buffy, but the rest of the world should fear Giles.

Tony: Before Buffy, Tony Head was known for his performances in a series of Gold Blend ads, and his post-Buffy career has seen a great deal of work over in the U.K. (he left Buffy in Season 6 to spend more time with his family overseas). Besides the hilarious Manchild, he has enjoyed success as Uther Pendragon in Merlin (scheduled to come stateside on June 21, 2009) and as the Prime Minister in Little Britain. Most recently, the new series Free Agents features Tony as company boss Stephen Caudwell, described by the show’s website as “a ruthless scoundrel completely without morals and possessing all the sexual responsibility of an alley-cat.” Though Merlin is the more high-profile series, I’m personally dying to see Free Agents, since it seems geared toward a more adult audience, in the same style that made Manchild such a delight. I hope that it makes it to our side of the pond. If you get a chance, try to netflix the aforementioned Manchild, or the first season episode of Spooks (American title: MI-5) called “Traitor’s Gate”, featuring Tony as rogue agent Peter Salter, who collaborates with a terrorist organization; a truly intense performance from our Mr. Head in a spectacular hour of television. Other than that, my greatest wish for Tony is that someone greenlights that Ripper spinoff/made-for-tv-movie that was in the works, focusing on that darker side of our beloved Rupert Giles. In the meantime, for those of you who require a Giles fix, I greatly recommend the Buffy Season 8 series, especially the No Future For You volume set, focusing on Giles and his partnership with vampire slayer Faith.

Alexis Denisof (February 25, 1966):

Wesley: My other favorite watcher, and my favorite character in the entire Whedonverse, was Wesley Wyndham Pryce. Seriously, how many times have you seen a character (on television or in any other medium) have such a great story arc? Wesley taught me a lot of things about the nature of characterization itself, especially the notion of growing/changing a character without violating the character’s core persona (contrast this with Cordelia Chase, a character who changed wildly beyond recognition, without design or consistency, and one of the few times that Mutant Enemy dropped the ball in the personal arcs of one of its characters). The uptight Wesley who was willing to let Willow die during one of his earliest appearances on Buffy (“Choices”) is the same Wesley who was willing to kidnap Connor several years (and a hell of a make-over) later (“Sleep Tight”). The ruthlessness was always there, as were the skills (he just couldn’t tap into them until he overcame his lack of confidence). The Buffy Wiki tells us that Wesley was the best marksman in the entire Buffyverse, even better than the slayers and vampires who fought at his side. One can see this even as early as his first season on Angel, in episodes such as “Expecting” and “The Ring”, when the normally shy Wesley turns dead serious. Eventually, Wesley would develop his fighting skills to a point where he could take on demons and vampires single-handedly, and regularly would shoot an opponent as soon as look at him. In the case of his own father, Wesley emptied a clip into the elder Pryce’s face with barely a blink of an eye (“Lineage”). When he wasn’t busy shooting up his enemies, Wes has also been known to torture people, keep women chained in his basement, and carry on an affair with a mortal enemy, all the while hoping to steal the girlfriend of one of his best friends….and he’s one of the good guys! Even Numfar agrees that Wes was awesome, as evidenced by his recent response to the question of favorite character arcs at Whedonesque: “For a long term arc, you can’t beat Wesley Wyndham-Price. Talk about empowering a geek!” There you have it from the Master himself, ladies and gentlemen.

Alexis: Of course, for Wesley’s arc to work, you need an actor who can deliver both extremes of Wesley’s personality, from pompous, ineffectual know-it-all to ruthless demon-hunting badass, and Alexis Denisof delivered the single most nuanced, subtle and engaging performance ever filmed for the ‘verse (or any other tv ‘verse, with the only possible match being James Callis as Gaius Baltar on Battlestar Galactica). The tragedy of Wesley Wyndham Pryce was Shakespearean in scope. Sadly, we haven’t seen much of Alexis since his days on Angel. He was in an English stage production of All My Sons, and he has guest starred as a bigamist on the tv show Private Practice and a self-centered news anchor on How I Met Your Mother (which stars his wife and former Buffy costar Alyson Hannigan). I’m hoping he’ll show up on Dollhouse eventually, and I told Joss as much in the two seconds I got to speak to him. Here’s hoping we see Alexis again, and soon! In the meantime, I highly recommend Angel: After the Fall for your Wesley fix; it’s a great and worthy continuation to the Angel series, written by the talented Brian Lynch (and crafted by Lynch and Whedon). Check it out! No, really, check it out….now! In fact, buy all of Lynch’s books, especially Spike: Asylum…seriously, Lynch is that good!

Random trivia fact: did you know that Tony Head recommended Alexis Denisof for the part of Wesley? They had worked together on the play Rope in England. The Hitchcock film of the same title was based on the this story of two college buddies/lovers who decide to murder their classmate, much to the horror of their disillusioned and cynical professor. Tony Head played the professor in the stage play, opposite John Barrowman (yes, Torchwood’s Captain Jack!) and Alexis Denisof as the two killers.

-Artemis

~ by Artemis on February 20, 2009.