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David Boreanaz - Interviewed on location for Carpe Noctem in Los Angels, August 22nd 2001

Angelic moments
  What’s your favourite moment of Angel?

There’s not one in particular that I enjoy over the other. They’re all pretty much in sync with each other.

Being this character is very diverse, there’s different parts of him and personalities that I find in every show.

It’s always fun playing evil Angel or sarcastic, witty Angel. It’s hard to say which one I enjoy more than the other. I really enjoy all of them. They all seem to be somehow interplayed with whatever story Joss or David is trying to tell.

Humour and humiliation
  How about the humour of the character?

The best thing about setting him up is seeing him miserably fail, because it is a dark sided character and his humour really comes [out] if he’s being humiliated or if he’s got icing all over his face.

Then you see his humiliation and you see that fumbley-ness that he has, and that’s humour. I think it’s the way the writers play his character and put him in those certain situations, so it’s dictated by plot and story and movement.

Don’t make me sing
  Is the karaoke side of things tough to do?

It’s bad, yeah. I don’t do much of it, so I really couldn’t tell you, but if I did have to sing [properly], it would probably be worse.

Of course, your voice always sounds better in the shower for some reason, maybe it’s just the octaves or, I don’t know, the water, I have no idea. But I can sing a lower, bluesy kind of a note rather than the higher pitched Mandy type a song. That’s not really my hit.

Are you a Manilow fan?

No, I’m not a big Manilow fan.

Inspirations
  Yul Brynner was one of your early influences, wasn’t he?

I guess he was one of the people I looked up to. His conviction, inner strength, his poise and his stature on stage were very powerful when I saw him in The King And I when I was a young kid.

Anyone who’s got passion coming out of his eyes and his heart - and you can see that is pretty powerful - it gave me the inspiration to do that, it looked like a lot of fun.

Before the big break
  Were there any jobs you had before getting into acting that you enjoyed?

With any job, I think you have to take away something from what you’re doing.

I don’t want to go back to the days of parking cars or selling gourmet food door to door, but within those confines of work, you learn more about yourself in the days that you’re struggling.

You confront your fears and use them rather than cast them aside, so I think with all the odd jobs I ever had, there was some kind of enlightenment but, yes, a lot of pain and suffering that I don’t want to re-live.

Antique Sensibilities
  One of your hobbies is restoring old cars, isn’t it?

I don’t restore them, but I’m learning more about old automobiles. I have an old 58 Chevy pickup that I just redid, not myself personally, I just got it done.

That was a two year project that I probably won’t do again because it took too long.

I like old cars, old watches, anything with a vintage, antique kind of a feel to it. I’m just more in tune with that than anything else.

Darla cracks up! (spoilers)
  Tell us about working with Julie Benz as Darla

She’s coming back for a bit of an arc in season three, which will find Angel’s character coming to grips with a different side of himself. Julie’s a great person to work with and we have a lot of fun on the set and off camera.

In the shows, we don’t take it too seriously. It’s just a television show, we have fun with it and try to make each other crack up. Most of the time I’m cracking up and screwing up her close ups.

A new nemesis (spoilers)
  Tell us about the new main villain in Season Three

I know as much as you would, possibly. He’s somebody who’s haunted us for the past 140 years, throughout Europe. As the season progresses I think we’ll show him back in the past, what his relationship is to where he is in the future and where he’s going to end up, trying to hunt us down.

It’s a character that came out of season two, one that Tim Minear wrote. This character developed out of the mind of Tim Minear so I’ll leave the mystery to him, but his name’s Holtz.

Dedicated follower of fashion
  I hear that you collect shoes. Is that right?

There are some shoes. I enjoy London’s fashion sense and the clothes and shoes. I’m a big Patrick Cox lover and I just love their fashion, every time I get there I always end up getting shoes and boots in different styles.

It’s not a huge fetish of mine or anything, it’s just something that I like to gather up. Maybe one too many pairs.