Thanks! It's weird thinking what Buffy would have been like without ASH. Thank you Joss for begging him!

[ edited by hitnrun017 on 2006-10-11 04:17 ]

hitnrun017 | October 11, 06:16 CET

I truly, honestly believe that without Tony Head as Giles, Buffy wouldn't have been anywhere near enjoyable.

Gouki | October 11, 06:50 CET

Thank the Powers That Be for Joss’ vision and his ability to articulate it. “Buffy” without Tony Head? Unimaginable!

showgirl | October 11, 07:11 CET

What a ghastly image. No Tony Head? Aiiiiiiiiiiiiie!

Tonya J | October 11, 07:15 CET

I'd have to agree. Take out any of the key players from the beginning, Joss, Sarah, Tony, Nick, Allyson and David...
It wouldn't have been the same. Joss was a genuis and chose his characters well.
This series was brilliant in every way.

cheryl | October 11, 08:08 CET

I cannot even imagine anyone else in the role of Giles! He was so perfect as Giles!!

Firefly Flanatic | October 11, 08:09 CET

ASH IS Giles. We love him. I would have let Nicky go before Tony.

Alex2459 | October 11, 09:57 CET

Nicky? I'd've let SMG go before both Nicky and Tony. (No offense to SMG, ofcourse, she's a talented actress, but sometimes she just didn't click with the character.)

GreatMuppetyOdin | October 11, 10:15 CET

Hey everybody, we're linking to Contact Music. We might as well link to a bloke in a pub.

Simon | October 11, 10:17 CET

Shouldn't that read he narrowly avoided missing out on the role?

And adding a hearty thank god he didn't. Life (or at least, Buffy) would have been poorer without him.

(And Simon, what's Contact Music?)

TheDivineGoat | October 11, 12:09 CET

To be honest I loved everyone in their roles on the show. However, if others had been cast in the roles we would likely be saying the same things about them that most of you are saying about the current cast members.

Saying nobody else could have played willow is fine because it is after the fact. but in all likelyhood they probably could have hired someone better or just as good (or worse). We just would have never known.

Rip2~~ | October 11, 12:14 CET

True, but in the absence of evidence to the contrary ... ;).

(and I just don't see a 'resolve face' from another actress but then we might have had other faces from others, fair comment)

And yep, if he'd actually 'narrowly missed out' he wouldn't have been on the show. Unless this is one of those trans-Atlantic usage differences like 'momentarily' ?

Saje | October 11, 13:12 CET

Most of the parts were just great because of the writting, and they would've been great no matter who played them. But I think Tony made Giles great in a way nobody else ever could have done. In my opinion he was the one truly irreplaceable actor of the ensemble.

Though, now I think about it, I must admit the way Aly played Willow was very special in the beginning too. Something with the confidence Aly portrait her with. Not cliche nerdy at all. And Nick was so special too. Now that I think about it, I think I always have underestimed how important a role the actors played in making the Willow and Xander characters so great right from the start. Alright, I'll add Alyson and Nick to the irreplaceable actors.

And now I have to add SMG too. And Armin Shimmerman. And Seth Green. Ofcourse, Seth. He made Oz. Can't imagine an other Oz. Or Buffy without Oz. And maybe some others aswell. But that's it.

the Groosalugg | October 11, 13:32 CET

Aly was irreplaceable as Willow. If you've seen Willow played by Riff Regan in the unaired pilot, you'd see what a difference Aly makes in that role.

MissKittysMom | October 11, 14:58 CET

It’s quite ironic that one of the reasons I didn’t watch BtVS when it was first shown was because of ASH and those Gold Blend adverts. They were so cheesy, he was so “charming” and it was all too much and I thought no show with that cheeseball in it will be any good. So fast forward to now and I think that he was just fantastic as Giles (my favourite main character after Willow) and the show was and is better because he was in it.

moley75 | October 11, 15:12 CET

Here we are with "the actors are interchangeable props to the writing" argument. Anyone who has ever seen two productions of the same play, will attest to the difference actors can make. They can make boredom out of magic and they can take something you thought was nothing and make it sing. ASH did an incredible job as Giles. If any other actor had been cast, Giles would have been a very different character, no matter whether the writing had stayed the same or not. I think that is true for the rest of the cast as well.

newcj | October 11, 15:36 CET

newcj and friends know whereof they speak. Do the words "Halle Berry" and "toad" ring a bell? They would to Joss.

jaynelovesvera | October 11, 16:19 CET

"I'd have to agree. Take out any of the key players from the beginning, Joss, Sarah, Tony, Nick, Allyson and David...
It wouldn't have been the same. Joss was a genuis and chose his characters well.
This series was brilliant in every way.
cheryl | October 11, 06:08 CET"

Don't forget Charisma. All the actors, all the key characters including Spike, Wesley, Gunn, Fred, Doyle, none of them can I imagine being played by anyone else. I've seen the original Willow and if that actress had been kept I think it's fair to say Willow would not be the Willow we had.

So much of the actors shaped the characters. JM has said that he played a sexual attraction to Buffy from the first episode and it certainly worked, but it wasn't in the script. Had he not who knows what might have happened. Spike was only meant to be in a few episodes, as was Wesley, and then killed off. The actors' appeal prolonged the characters life. Without a good script there's only so much you can do. But even with a good script, without a good actor there's a limit to the appeal of the character.

lynnie | October 11, 16:45 CET

As lynnie mentioned, the scripts also changed for good actors, to take advantage of what they bring to the screen. It would be interesting to imagine how the storylines would have been modified with different actors in place. (Carrot Top as Spike: In his first eps, trips getting out of the car and impales himself on the Sunnydale wooden sign...)

OneTeV | October 11, 18:22 CET