Eonmagazine.com, webzine. Thinking Green Lights All the Way--Anthony Stewart Head Pictures His Success in TV's Buffy the Vampire Slayer, November 6, 1998, by Cynthia Boris. http://www.eonmagazine.com/archive/9811/features/the_tube/buffy/features_frameset.htm Picture this: Co-star of a hit TV show. Critics love it, fans can't get enough. Comic books, magazines, trading cards and action figures, fan mail and web sites, apartment in LA, country house in England, a lovely companion and two sweet children. Anthony Stewart Head doesn't have to imagine; welcome to his life. As Giles the Watcher on Buffy the Vampire Slayer, Tony Head has managed a wide range of performances, from bumbling Brit to fiery passion, and didn't we nearly see a tear for Buffy's homecoming this season? "The thing I love about this show is that the character can change and grow," says Head. " I don't like doing stuff that's too radical but you can evolve. So much happens to the character, especially mine, it's fun to think about how I would be affected by the changes Giles has been through and how he would adapt." After a dark and brooding season-ender, everyone is back in Sunnydale but no one is quite the same. "[Giles] went through so much last season, especially with the torture, the invasion that torture is, that now he wants to present a different Giles to the world," says Head. "We went for less of a warm and fuzzy look and one that's slightly more on edge, slightly sharper. I wanted a little less bumbling, putting a little less out there for the world to step on." While Head is very happy with where he's going, he's also very proud of what's past. "At the Comic Con [in San Diego], we were asked what our favorite episode was and I said 'Passion' was one, 'Ted' is the other one and Joss says, 'that's cause you're in it'" laughs Head. "But it's not that. Everybody rose to the occasion and it was a beautiful piece." However, before reading the script did Tony know that Jenny was doomed? "I had known that it was going to happen, but even I didn't expect it to be the tour de force it was," says Head. "It was a great piece of writing and it was fascinating to see just how well Joss knows his craft. When I first read the script, I thought it would be cool if you didn't know that Angel had killed her so when you come to my house, you think there might be a chance that she's still alive. But Joss was absolutely right. Everybody knows except for me. It's fun to screw around with the audience like that." Head also appreciated the most dramatic sequence of the episode where Giles tells Buffy and Willow the news over the phone. "They rigged up a live land line and I was on the other end," adds Head. "So all the emotion was real." And what about the drama at the end of the season finale? "The kissing was great," says Head. "In fact, it was a lot sexier [before it was cut for TV] I watched the dailies and there was some sexy old stuff going on there, but they tempered it down. Still, I got to kiss two beautiful women one right after the other." Before joining the cast of Buffy, Head had a short run on the series VR.5, a cult favorite that never quite made it into the mainstream. "Buffy is not only a successful show, it's a successful hit show," says Head. "VR5 was a cool show too but it was misunderstood and it lost its way a bit. I think it was trying too hard to be hip." As Oliver Sampson, Head played a character teetering on the edge between good and evil. Just the kind of dichotomy the actor loves to play. "Oliver had a very cool, faceless exterior and there was a riskiness to him," says Head. "He had a lot to hide and that made him interesting." When the cameras are off, Head is really not much like Giles or Oliver Sampson. Although, he's loath to admit it, his real personality is a little more like that coffee guy he use to play in the old Taster's Choice commercials. When he's not working, Head tends toward a relaxed style of clothing, an earring in one ear, and silver jewelry. He is writing a steamy rock and roll musical in the style of his beloved Rocky Horror Show and hopes to have it made into an animated feature. The actor loves to tease and shock and that accent that says "Giles" is just a tad more proper than Head's natural sound. "People don't know that I'm not Giles," Head says with a sigh. "My fan mail is usually very polite and not too much, 'I want to get into your knickers'. But there are a few. They compliment my acting, which is very flattering. Still, it's very strange going from the romantic pinup that the character in the coffee ad was to Mr. Intelligent." Something Head does share with Giles is an interest in things spiritual. Okay, not vampires and werewolves, but crystals and ancient mysteries. "I've learned an enormous amount in the last two or three years about myself," says Head. "I think, it's only too easy to say, 'this is the way I am and I'll never change'. But it's never too late to change, and change is not only possible -- it's supremely advisable. There are certain elements of myself that I have looked at and I have changed and I feel a much better person for it" His leanings toward homeopathy have also helped give his life balance which goes a long way toward surviving 14 hour work days and travel between two continents. "A long time ago, when I was getting a cold, I'd go, 'oh no, I'm getting a cold' and I'd just welcome it in energetically," says Head. "Now, I've learned to say, 'I can't afford sickness or jet lag to enter into the picture.' So it doesn't." You can see some evidence of Head's interest in the set for Giles' apartment; a wind chime in the entrance way and a crystal hanging in the pass-through to the kitchen. The crystal was hung on the beam that cuts Giles' living room in half in accordance with the rules of Feng Shui. "It's an eastern philosophy that promotes the flow of energy through your life, through where you live," says Head. "There are a certain amount of ground rules, like if you have beams in a place, it cuts energy so you put up crystals which refract the light and change the energy breaking up the solid. The worst thing you can do is to sleep under a beam because it cuts your energy in half. There are studies to show that people who have slept under a beam for a lot of their life end up with leg problems, or stomach problems." Head admits to following these rules on the set as well as at home since "I have a loft where I sleep and the beams are close together so I have crystals in everyone." With all the rules and precautions, keeping balanced is an on-going effort for the busy actor. "Last week, I broke my glasses in the cinema," says Head. "In Chinese medicine that means, I'm not seeing something in the big picture. So, I need to try and think what I'm not seeing and in turn I become more aware." Becoming more aware seems to have its rewards in the real world too. "Recently, I was talking to someone about intuition, I had sited as a tangible example that you can 'book a parking space,'" observes Head. "This is something my girlfriend Sarah taught me, that if you visualize the space you can book it. You can get to the place you're going and there it is. I mean it's unfailing and you have the whole thing of traffic lights. If you visualize the traffic lights will be green, they turn green." Of course, even a deep belief in the mythical powers won't get you your way all the time, sometimes you have to deal with the power that is Joss. While filming the final fight scene in the church at the end of Buffy's 'What's My Line' episode, Head decided a little creativity was in order. "There is one scene where you see the vampire go to dust and then you see me behind it with the cross bow," says Head. "You know how in old movies, people shoot a gun then blow on the end? Well, I did it with the cross bow for my close-up. Joss was furious. 'You can't do that, it's a serious scene,' I said, 'yeah but É' and he said, 'you're not having it. That'll teach you.' I thought, 'my god, I've just done myself out of a close-up'." Still, Head is a great believer in, "if you put energy out there it comes back to you," And for Tony this means a new year packed full of personal appearances, charity affairs and more opportunities to get out in the public eye. "If I just sit here and do the job and go home on the hiatus, it's like denying I'm here," he says. "I need to go out and say thanks to people. I just made a conscious decision that when I came back this year I would try and be seen more and it seems to be working." For Tony Head, it seems like everything is working. Maybe that's the result of visualizing green lights all the way.
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Page created January 1999; last updated January 16, 2001. Original material © Betsy Vera (bentley@umich.edu). This website is for information and entertainment purposes only and is not intended to infringe on copyrights held by others.
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