March 29, 2006

BRAINIAC SPEAKS
The Wizard Q & A: James Marsters

As the second half of this season of ‘Smallville’ heats up, the former ‘Buffy’ and ‘Angel’ bad boy sets his sights on Superman.

WIZARD: After playing a popular character like Spike for seven years on “Buffy the Vampire Slayer” and “Angel,” how challenging is it to move on to a new character like Brainiac on “Smallville?”
JAMES MARSTERS: The best way to do it is to be so effective in this new role that people forget about Spike as they’re watching it. When they turn the television off, they can say, “Eh, that wasn’t as good as Spike,” or whatever, but hopefully not while they’re watching.

How are the two characters different?
[Spike] was very much in his heart, he was emotionally driven. He wasn’t stupid, but he didn’t really exist in his head. Brainiac exists completely in his head, and there’s a pleasure and bliss toward that. He’s more complicated than just coming in and wanting to kill the Earth, more psychological.

What are Brainiac’s plans for Clark Kent?
I am so gonna sucker Clark. It’s not just Kryptonite that’s his vulnerability, it’s his own naiveté at this point in his life, and I’m going to go after that. I’m going to separate him from everybody who loves him, take his friends away, take his family away, isolate him, and then I’m going to corrupt his mind. God help the world when Superman is confused.

How is being the new guy on the set treating you?
It’s the most harmonious set I’ve ever worked on. There are no jerks in the pool. I’ve gotten to work most with Tom [Welling] and that is fabulous. We both have PSPs so we race each other on those and goof around. Then working with Michael Rosenbaum [chuckles], it’s like the circus comes to town, you just want to sit back and watch. On a 15-hour day, to have him come in cracking jokes, it’s better than coffee. And Annette O’Toole—still so hot, oh my god.

Were you a comic book fan prior to joining the show?
I read hundreds of comics when I was 13, then I read Dark Knight Returns, but that was about it.

Is there any other comic book character you’d be interested in playing?
Being that Christian Bale is going to be playing Batman for the foreseeable future…

You could always do “Dark Knight Returns.”
[Laughs] I just have to wait around for another 20 years.

Now that you’ve made a few appearances on “Smallville,” are you getting the most reaction to being not blond, not British or not 20 years old?
[Laughs] I don’t know, man, I’m too busy flying around to even know what the reaction is.

A lot of people are wondering where you learned your American “accent.”
Ha! Gotcha! Fooled ’em again. No man, I’m not 20. I wasn’t 20 when I took the role [of Spike]—I was 34! I’m 43 now. I’m not getting any younger and I’m not getting any more British. [Laughs]

Any plans to revisit Spike and the “Buffy”/“Angel” franchise?
[Pauses] I gotta say, I don’t really think that’s going to jump to Joss [Whedon]’s front burner. He asked me before and I said yes but that there would be a five-year window because of this age thing. We’re coming down to five years in about a year and a half. Joss never really found himself in Spike. Spike was always the other guy. Whereas all the other characters were really Joss, Spike was “that ain’t me, man.” It made for a cool outsider character. I’m not complaining at all.

Who wins in a fight between Spike and Brainiac?
I’m sorry to say it would be Brainiac. He’s from Krypton. It would be such a one-sided fight. I don’t even want to think about it.

It makes you sad?
Yeah. [Laughs] Hopefully Spike is smart enough not to go at him head-on.

New episodes of “Smallville” return to The WB on March 30, 8/7C.

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