The appeal of Buffy and Ripper's status

Jenny: What is it that made Buffy the Vampire Slayer so attractive to you?

Tony Head: Duh! When you're an English actor in Los Angeles, most of what you see is fairly caricature, two-dimensional. Mostly villains or idiots. We're always the token buffoon colonialist who is responsible for everything going wrong.

When I read the script for Buffy, I was blown away by the fact that someone could actually write for an Englishman. Usually people write complex sentences, and there's also a cadence and intonation that American writers can't write. Joss Whedon has a wonderful way with dialogue. So I was desperate to turn the pages to find out what would happen, but also laughing loudly.

It's very rare you get a script that's so spot on. The role initially attracted me because I could see lots of levels, lots of areas to play.

Celtic Angel: Is there any chance that the Giles spin off show, Ripper, will get made?

Tony Head: Everybody's still keen, which is good. It got a bit sideswiped by a show Joss was making for Fox called Firefly, which has unfortunately been cancelled. But Ripper is still on the cards. Joss still wants to write it. We're all basically still on the map.

Joss fluctuates between whether he wants to start with a two-hour pilot, or whether he goes straight into a series. At the moment he's favouring a TV movie - which suits me with my schedule at the moment. I'm thankful to say I'm doing a lot of stuff, and I'd love to seal that up and [then] do Ripper as well as everything else.