by Chris Snellgrove
| Published
If you are Buffy the Vampire Slayer As a Spike fan who saw Spike actor James Marsters at a convention, you may have heard something that sounds completely wrong: the actor's American accent. He became famous by playing the undead British bad boy on this show, but the English accent he uses throughout the series is completely fake. It sounded very realistic, and the reason for its authenticity is that the Marsters had vocal training from actual Englishman Anthony Stuart Head, who was troubled by Marsters' first attempts at learning an English accent.
Giles to the rescue
Chief, of course, was part of Buffy He was cast from the beginning, and his English accent made him the perfect foil for the titular killer. Buffy Summers was a California girl forced into a life of monster hunting, and Head Giles was her stoic, stuffy counterpart. Spike wasn't introduced until Season 2 and Joss Whedon planned to quickly kill him off, but the character's popularity ensured he stayed until the end of that show and even appeared in the series' final season. angel spin off.
become a Buffy Mainstay means that James Marsters He was going to have to use his fake British accent for years, but Anthony Stuart Head didn't wait that long to help him work on it. After Marsters mispronounced a vulgar bit of colloquial English, he claims Head took him aside and told him: “We don't say it that way.” Fortunately, the criticism was accompanied by a very generous offer: “I will help you now.”
He taught by force
Enjoying this story at Dublin Comic Con, Marsters joked that his story Buffy A colleague “forcibly taught me” regarding Spike's English accent. As he recalls, he would get a new script for his trailer in the morning and Head would come over at lunch to help him write the lines. It is clear that Head was as strict with Marsters as Giles had always been Buffy“We were reviewing the script until he was convinced that (the accent) would no longer embarrass him.”
While Marsters can't help but laugh at those early on Buffy Days later, he was the first to admit that Head deserved credit for Spike's great English accent. “(I owe the accent to) Tony Head,” he said, noting how Giles' actor “saved me.” He noted that Spike's accent is not particularly clear in his first two appearances, giving fans an easy way to understand when the voice teaching actually begins.
To this day, Spike remains a fan favorite Buffy character, and the man behind him is eternally grateful for the dialect training he received from Head: “If it wasn't for him, he definitely wouldn't have had a good accent,” Marsters said. And by the way, if you want to hear more of Marsters' real accent, it's easy to catch up on shows like Runaways (Great and foolish MCU series). Or you could listen to a song or two from Ghost of the Robot, the band where Marsters is the lead singer.
As for us, we come in for the next rewatch of Buffy the Vampire Slayerand we'll be paying close attention to Spike's accent in the first two episodes. It must be fun to notice all the ways in which the accent improves over time, and it's strange to think that this is all thanks to Anthony Stuart Head. It's always great when actors share some similarities with their more famous characters, and in Head's case, he turns out to be just as effective a teacher off-screen as he ever was on the show that made him famous.
source: He crosses
