Joss Whedon’s Much Ado About Nothing would not have been possible had it not been for the filmmaker’s formidable company of actors. So what is it like to be a member of the most interesting club in Hollywood?
Via: John Gara/Buzzfeed
Judd Apatow has his crew of goofy doofuses. Wes Anderson usually calls on Bill Murray and Jason Schwartzman to be achingly cool sad-sacks. Christopher Nolan apparently cannot make a movie without Michael Caine. And so forth.
There is no director in Hollywood today, however, whose acting troupe is as deep and devoted to each other as Joss Whedon’s. Since launching his first TV series Buffy the Vampire Slayer in 1997, the writer-director-composer-and-even-occasional-actor has cultivated relationships with dozens of performers on screens big and small, many of whom have appeared in at least two of his productions. The network of stars is so vast, in fact, that it is known among Whedon's fans simply as the Whedonverse.
This weekend, the most Whedonverse-y project yet will open in select theaters, a black-and-white adaptation of William Shakespeare's Much Ado About Nothing that Whedon adapted, produced, and directed, in 12 days, at his Santa Monica home, populated almost entirely with actors he has worked with before (or admired from afar). The self-financed project came together with such breakneck speed — Whedon squeezed it in between production and post-production for his least Whedonverse-y project, The Avengers — that the only way it could have been made is because he had so many friends he knew he could call upon, and who would say yes.
What is it like being a part of the posse of such a singular storyteller? How did Whedon bring all these actors together, and why has he worked with so many of them so often? I spoke with several members of the Whedonverse to answer these questions, and several I hadn't even thought to ask. Here's what they all had to say, in their own (lightly edited) words.
Alexis Denisof in Buffy the Vampire Slayer, Angel, The Avengers, and with Amy Acker in Much Ado About Nothing
Joss Whedon’s early career as a Hollywood wunderkind began as a TV staff writer on sitcoms like Roseanne, before moving on to helping to write feature films like Toy Story, Waterworld, Titan A.E., and Alien Resurrection, sometimes without on-screen credit. In 1997, Whedon put his career on the line with a small-screen adaptation of his feature screenplay for 1992's Buffy the Vampire Slayer. It was his very first TV show as the Big Boss, but even after all that time spent on sets and with actors, Whedon says he didn't really have any particular philosophy about how he would relate to them.
Joss Whedon: I was just desperately scrambling to find people who could enact their roles. As I cast actors more and more, I more and more began to concentrate on the dynamic that everybody was gonna have with each other, and with me. When you're looking for an ensemble, you're looking for how will they mesh as a group outside of the workplace in such a way that it'll affect the workplace? I cast for sanity.
The most well-traveled member of the Whedonverse is naturally also one of the earliest. Alexis Denisof joined Buffy in its third season as a foppish Brit named Wesley Wyndam-Pryce, and he's gone on to appear in no less than four other Whedon projects — as well as court, marry, and have two children with Buffy costar Alyson Hannigan. When Denisof first showed up to the Buffy set, however, he was originally only supposed to be there for one or two episodes.
Alexis Denisof (Buffy, Angel, Dollhouse, The Avengers, Much Ado About Nothing): I hadn't heard of the show. I thought it was a kooky title and it didn't sound like something I wanted to do in the slightest. It was a very peripheral role, just meant to be a upstart Watcher that was gonna shake things up a little and go away. We were shooting a second episode and I remember Joss saying to me on set, “You know, we could use you more if you're around.” I said, “Yeah, I'm around.” Of course, I was thrilled.
Denisof's twin star within the Whedonverse is his love interest in Much Ado About Nothing: Amy Acker. She joined Angel at the end of its second season as the bookish Winfred “Fred” Burkle, and has also since become a near-constant presence in Whedon's projects. From the start, in fact, Acker's fate within the Whedonverse was entwined with Denisof's — and redolent of Shakespeare.
Denisof: The first time I met Amy was in the context of reading a scene that was basically Shakespeare. Joss had written it in iambic pentameter, and it was loosely based on the lovers from A Midsummer Night's Dream, but in this case it was costar J. August Richards and myself fighting over the affections of what would be Fred.
Amy Acker (Angel, Dollhouse, The Cabin in the Woods, Much Ado About Nothing): I wouldn't say I knew much about Joss, but I did know about Buffy. My boyfriend in college, his roommate and his girlfriend had Buffy pizza night every Tuesday. At first I was like, “I don't know about this show, a vampire show,” and immediately got sucked in. I was like, “This is the best writing ever.”
In the sixth season of Buffy, Tom Lenk joined the cast as the soft-spoken and kinda gay Andrew, part of a trio of bumbling geeks with delusions of super-villainy.
Tom Lenk (Buffy, Angel, The Cabin in the Woods, Much Ado About Nothing): I was not aware of Joss, really. When I booked the role of Andrew and I was told that he watched the audition tapes, I was like, “I should figure out what this is all about, who this person is.”
Felicia Day landed a small recurring role on the final season of Buffy as one of the potential young Slayers.
Felicia Day (Buffy, Dr. Horrible's Sing-Along Blog, Dollhouse): I actually auditioned the year before for Angel, I think for the part that Amy Acker got. I don't think I got very far. But it was nice that they brought me in again for Buffy — my character was supposed to be an Asian girl. I'd seen some episodes. I was not a superfan. Which is great, because when you go in and you want something really badly, which I would've wanted had I known more about it, I probably would have tanked it.
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