by Chris Snelgrove
| Published
On the hit TV show Buffy the Vampire SlayerCharisma Carpenter played Cordelia Chase, a member of the Slayer-led Scooby gang who regularly battles monsters and other things that go bump in the night. When Carpenter left the show for angel Spinoff, I fought it up more Scary creatures alongside Buffy's former lover. But what most fans of the Joss Whedon series don't realize is that Charisma Carpenter fought a monster in real life, and survived the 1991 attack that could have easily killed her and her friends.
Carpenter's Charisma Attack
It all started when he was the future Buffy The actor was swimming with two friends at Torrey Pines State Beach in San Diego. They all had nothing on their minds except serious fun in the sun, and they had no way of predicting the horrific event that was about to happen. Soon, Charisma Carpenter and her companions have to survive an attack by the last person they expected to attack them: a police officer.
The police officer in question was Henry Hubbard Jr., a 29-year-old cop who wasted no time in threatening this trio of beachgoers. He pointed his gun at Charisma Carpenter, but did not attack her directly with it. Instead, he used the firearm to try to force her to tie up her two friends. Incredibly, she refused to do so (she told him, Cordelia!), and this gave one of her companions enough time to jump in and overpower Hubbard.
Fierce as it is Buffy the Vampire Slayerit's still strange to think that Charisma Carpenter is as strong-willed in real life, as she survived what could have been a horrific attack because she refused to comply with an armed attacker. Years later, the actress explained that her reaction was the result of an important lesson she learned at a very young age. “One of the things I was told when I was 10 was that whatever they're going to do to you when they take you out on your own, it's going to be 10 times worse than if they had to do it right away,” she said.
And by the way, Charisma Carpenter's quick thinking not only saved her and her friends… it also deprived Hubbard of the opportunity to attack future victims. She held onto the flashlight police issued him, a small piece of evidence that helped convict this police officer of the future violent attack. Buffy star. He was eventually sentenced to 56 years in prison for a series of assaults on a Los Angeles beach that included rape, robbery and attempted murder, and would likely have continued to attack others if Carpenter and her friends had not helped put him away.
After the attack
As for Charisma Carpenter, she refused to let this attack define her life or identity. Not only did he kill her later (so to speak). Buffy the Vampire Slayer and angelbut would later serve as host of the aptly named investigative discovery series You have escaped evil. This show featured other survivors telling their harrowing stories, and Carpenter's own experience helped her bring these tales to life even as she offered the victims some much-needed closure.
For sure Buffy Fans, this is all probably old news, but it's something I recently learned about. Honestly, I didn't think I could respect Carpenter's charisma more After watching her effortlessly become the best part of every show she stars in, but knowing that she survived a violent attack in real life raises my respect to the next level. Move, Buffy. There's a new killer in town and she knows just how to protect her friends when a monster makes his move.
source: TVLine
