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Charisma Carpenter - Interviewed on location for Carpe Noctem in Los Angeles, August 22nd 2001

Better than being Buffy
  You originally auditioned for the part of Buffy - are you glad the way things turned out?

I think that the way it turned out is the way it was meant to have turned out. I’m extremely pleased that I wound up with the character that I have for a myriad of reasons.

Number one: because we got to see her growth. Number two: I got to do the spin-off with David, so you couldn’t ask for more there. Number three: I don’t know that I would have been ready for that kind of fame if I’d gotten Buffy. So, I think [Buffy] went to the right person.

From bitch to hero
  How do you feel about the evolution of Cordelia?

The road Cordelia has travelled, the journey she has taken up to now has been such a joy to play as an actress, because there have been so many chances to do so many different emotions.

Heroic, vulnerable, just angry, possessed, funny - I get to be all those different things rolled into one. Getting this role, in hindsight... God I made a good decision, or they did.

Visionary acting (season 3 spoiler)
  Are the visions difficult to play?

The visions aren’t really too hard to play but I have to say I wouldn’t include in that statement the last episode I did (That Vision Thing). That’s episode two of the third season.

That that one was really tough because [there] is this stigmata effect where the visions start manifesting physically upon me. That was a little bit more challenging than I had anticipated. It wasn’t your basic ordinary vision.

They’re not that hard to play. I don’t know. if they’re believable, great, if they’re not then they’re really hard.

Playing the queen, without much on (season 2 spoiler)
  At the end of season two you became a queen. Was that fun and would you want the responsibility in real life?

Sure, I’d take the responsibility of queen any day. My inner queen sure came out. It was a bonus, it was great.

I had fun with the crew too. I had to be a little bitchy, more than I would normally, and just blamed it on my role, which was fun. Yeah, I got 'Princess' [from them] a lot. I don’t understand it, but that was fun.

It was an amazing outfit

I was scantily clad wasn’t I? And cold. It was tremendously cold. In fact in the last episode [of season two], we’re in Pylea. Groosalug and Angel are fighting and I run to Groosalug’s rescue. He’s fighting with Angel and Angel has to go 'extra hellbeast' to fight him, because he’s like the king of all fighting in Pylea.

At that moment I realise my love for Groosalug and I go to hug him, and he’s wearing a metal plate, and there was snow on the camera cases. So I’m in a bikini top with coins all over going brrrr - so cold.

That was fun, that outfit rocked. I loved that outfit (laughs). I wish I could wear that every day.

Did that outfit bring up the programme any more in the demographic do you think? I’m wondering how the ratings were for that punishment. Were they any bigger?

I think they were a lot higher.

Listen to him feed me my ego!

How Charisma nearly missed the Buffy audition
  One thing that shapes Cordelia is that she’s a struggling actress. What was the most bizarre audition you’ve ever had in real life?

I have a two part answer for that.

Answer A, in Angel, I think the most memorable audition I had was [the one where] I was suffering from the loss of Doyle and I get my first vision in the middle of an audition.

I’m doing a Tide or a Spray and Wash type product audition, and it was funny and pathetic and a real joy to play. Jim Contener directed that particular episode and that scene, so that was the most memorable audition scene I had.

Then, answer part B is the most bizarre personal audition I ever had. Not so much bizarre, but it was just a trek to make it.

I was auditioning for the role of Cordelia. It was the screen test with the whole network and I was running late for the audition because I was at work at [the show] Malibu Shores in Long Beach and I had to get to Burbank. It was raining and it was rush hour, so I borrowed clothes from Costume, and I’m high tailing it on the freeway, trying to be safe, trying not to get in an accident.

I got these [cell phone] pages from my manager, and I was really broke at the time so I didn’t have a cell phone or anything. I’m just like, "I know this is my agent, please hang in there, please hang in there, I can’t get off [the freeway] yet, I can’t get off yet".

Finally I get off and I go to the Seven Eleven and my agent has paged me six times. I know what she’s telling me, "You’re late, they’re going to leave," and it would just make me panic.

So I get to the Seven Eleven [call her and ask] "Why are you calling me so many times, like 13 pages in half an hour?" She goes, "You’ve got to get there, they’re going to leave," and I go, "You tell them not to leave, you tell them to order a pizza, you tell them something but tell them to wait". So they waited, and I got the part. That was my most exciting real personal audition.

Dancing Queen
  I heard that you have a talent for dancing. Is it true you trade dance routines with J August Richards?

We’re not a dancing team, but we do like co-ordinating stuff. We’re together all the time dancing. We did a good Thriller version working on [the episode] First Impressions, J’s big episode.

I was breaking him into our group, and I’m there for him or whatever. We had some really long nights together, so we entertained ourselves making up Thrilleresque dance routines from the 80's, like old Michael Jackson stuff. We had a lot of fun.

Living on the edge
  I heard that you’re into dangerous sports like sky diving, which the network weren't too pleased about?

It was never officially told to me that I couldn’t do [the skydiving] any more. I had been warned not to get on a motorcycle, sort of. I think there is a clause in most general basic contracts to keep yourself in one piece and not alter your looks without telling them first.

There’s a pretty good chance that you’re going to go down when you’re on a motorcycle or if you’re sky diving or whatever, but that happened before I even got this job, and I haven’t sky dived since.

No nightingales on Angel
  Does Charisma sing better than Cordelia?

No, I’m a horrible singer, I’m awful. This is funny because I just had a job over the summer for VH1, a project I did called Strange Frequency where I got to play a Goth rock band singer.

I thought that my fans would really enjoy seeing me in that and I totally wanted to be my character. I really wish I could sing so I could front a band, because that would be a dream come true, totally. I want to sing. Can’t do it though.

A hairy problem
  What made you change your look and hair?

I wanted a change from the first season because I had to wear a lot of curlers every day. It wasn’t fun and it was hard to maintain continuity-wise. My solution, since I couldn’t cut my hair, with that whole fiasco with the WB telling USA Today ""Nobody can cut their hair", was to go in the opposite direction and get longer hair.

I got much longer hair and I started to have repercussions from that. It was too much for my scalp and it was just creating a lot of ickiness and hardship and was not the right thing to do.

So I begged, half way into season two, for them to let me cut my hair. They did and then it was darker and they didn’t like that dark edge for Cordelia. It wasn’t as warm and effervescent as she is usually, so they wanted me to go shorter and blonder. Hence, I’m growing it back out because I think I’m going to go back to season one style. It will just make life a lot easier.

Best loved episodes
  What’s your favourite episode?

There are so many. One is the last episode I did - season three episode three - because I felt a very strong connection performance-wise. I felt really confident in my growth as an actor and I felt really good about the opportunity I was given to go deep. I don’t know what the outcome was or how the fans or my producers felt, but I felt really good about it.

Then Expecting, there was so much fun in that episode. In season one, Expecting and Rm w/a Vu. I don’t know from season two, nothing’s really coming to mind.

A ghost around the home.
  Would you like a Phantom Dennis in real life?

Oh heck yeah, I totally would love to have a Phantom Dennis in real life. That would be great. A built in alarm system that freaked everybody out, nobody would mess with me.

Maybe he could feed the dog when I wasn’t available or scrub my back, or give me a massage. That would be great, and there’s no clingy relationship issues. That would be cool. Yeah, why not?