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Checking in With James Marsters

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There have been rumors about a Spike spin-off. What can you tell us about that?
Joss came to me as Angel was coming down and asked me if I would be interested in that, and I said, ''Heck yeah, I'd love to work with you anytime, call me — I'll come across the Earth for you.'' But to do Spike, let's do him [before] seven years [go by], because otherwise, I'm going to get too old and vampires don't age. Frankly, I think I'm looking a little better than I thought I would, and with a decent screen test we could find out if it was still possible. It has to be believable.

[But] I don't think the character of Spike really sparked Joss' imagination. I think that he was designed to be a throwaway character that got popular with the fans. Personally, he never really got into him. Every character on the show was a version of Joss, but Joss didn't see Spike that way. Spike was the other guy. He was the guy who might mess up the show, actually, because vampires are supposed to be ugly and hated.

What about Angel?
Angel was an exception too, but Angel wasn't Joss' idea and I think by the time I came on, he was afraid that these good-looking vampires were going to take over the theme. So whenever Joss would write an episode, Spike would have, like, five lines. [Laughs] That's fine. I mean, the man gave me a job and he's a great guy and everything. What Joss has said is that he's done with television.

Any chance he'd take any of the Buffy characters to the big screen?
I think the only thing he wants to take to the big screen would be Buffy herself, and I don't think Sarah [Michelle Gellar] is interested. But you know, I can't talk for her. As far as Spike, there was some interest about a year and a half ago, but it fell apart right away.

So what's after Without a Trace — is there anything else you'd like to be in?
What's the show that my good friend, Marti Noxon, who used to head up Buffy, is heading up this year? Oh God, it's such a popular show. You know, with Dr. Dreamy...

Grey's Anatomy?
Yeah, Grey's Anatomy! They called me in to talk to me last year, so I went down to the Television Academy and watched five episodes, and that was so great. I would love to do that show. I think that show has a wit and a sparkle that just bubbles from underneath. I'd love to do House. I think everybody would like to do House right now.

Is your band Ghost of the Robot still together?
No, you know, we just got a little tiny bit famous. But some of the people...were probably too young for that experience.

What was your sound?
The thing I loved about that band is that we had a sound that I hadn't heard before. We had a pop-rock sound [that] was kind of like Jimmy Eat World but with more complex chord progressions. So the band broke up while we were recording our second album. We did very well. We sold like 60,000 copies of the first album, we toured all around the world, sold out everywhere we went.

Who were you guys signed with?
We weren't signed with anybody — we sold all of our records over the Internet and kept all of that money, which is nice. There were a couple of record companies that came to us, but the kind of contracts they were putting in front of us were just ridiculous. So I went solo after that. And it was just me and my guitar going out on the road, which was very scary in the beginning. I just got back [from] playing Jersey and Wales. I've toured all through England, and I'm working on another album right now. I've got 20 songs [that] I'm paring down to 12.

So, for the short-term: What are you doing for your birthday?
I'm shooting a fabulous TV show called Without a Trace. [Laughs] I'm going to try and save the world from horrible people, and I'm going to draw my gun manfully.

Hopefully you'll get a cake, at least.
I hope not. It's so funny when they do the cake thing on the set because they don't have time for cake. The EP doesn't get a cake on his birthday.

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