David Boreanaz had been acting for a few years before he was cast in what would be his first major on screen role, playing the vampire Angel, who becomes a love interest for the vampire-slaying title character on the Buffy the Vampire Slayer TV series. During a recent interview on the Paramount+ show The Summit, Boreanaz revealed what he was thinking while filming his first scene opposite series star Sarah Michelle Gellar.
Boreanaz told The Summit host Josh Horowitz (with thanks to Syfy Wire for the transcript), “I meet Sarah for the first time on the set the day before I’m supposed to shoot the next day. And I remember walking into the set, it was very low ceilings, and there was a fight sequence going on, and there was Sarah, kind of in like the distance. And, I met her, and I was just amazed at how they just finished doing a scene, and the crew was breaking up and moving, and there she was. She was so bubbly and energetic and very kind. And there I am just holding my cool, right? Just like, ‘Just whatever you do, you’ve been there, you’ve done that. Don’t ever show your weaknesses’ … I’m dying inside. I go, ‘Yeah, you know, see you tomorrow at work. It’s gonna be great.’ I’ve never really done this before, ever in my life … So getting that job was huge.“
And when it came time to film that scene the next day, “It couldn’t have been more surreal for me. She does this flip kick thing and flips me over. And she’s like, ‘Who are you?’ … It was like this whole weird dimensional thing. Everything’s so quiet. I’ve got these cameras pointed at me. I’m like, ‘Just maintain, maintain your calmness.’ I’m nervous, ‘Did they like me? What’s going to happen?’ … Lo and behold … it was great chemistry that the two of us had. And the characters drove that for that launch of that show and it was huge. It was that romantic character connection that really I feel was the Shakespearean draw to that show.“
Buffy the Vampire Slayer ended up running for a total of seven seasons and 144 episodes, but Boreanaz’s Angel was only in 57 of those episodes. Following season 3 of Buffy, Angel got his own spin-off series (appropriately titled Angel), which ran for five seasons. 110 episodes. After he got his own show, Angel only appeared in a handful of Buffy episodes.
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