James Marsters Says Filming Controversial “Buffy ”Assault Scene Was 'The Darkest Professional Day of My Life'

Marsters says he tried to convince the show's writers that the scene was a bad idea

This post contains discussion of sexual violence.

James Marsters was as disturbed filming an infamous Buffy the Vampire Slayer scene as many fans were watching it.

“It's the darkest professional day of my life,” the 62-year-old actor told host Michael Rosenbaum on the most recent episode of his podcast, Inside of You.

The scene in question comes from the season 6 episode “Seeing Red,” which originally aired in May 2002. It finds an injured Buffy (Sarah Michelle Gellar) rejecting the advances of her former vampire lover Spike (Marsters). Believing he can convince her that she still has feelings for him, Marsters’ character attempts to sexually assault Buffy, who manages to fight him off.

Related: Sarah Michelle Gellar Still Grapples with 'Buffy' 's Legacy, Sharing Her 'Full Story' About Mistreatment on Set

“It's a problematic scene for a lot of people who like the show,” Marsters acknowledged to Rosenbaum.

“The writers were being asked to come up with their worst day, the day that they don't talk about, their dark secret, the one that keeps them up at night, when they really hurt somebody or when they really got hurt or made a big mistake of some kind — and then slap metaphoric fangs on top of that dark secret and tell everybody about it,” Marsters said.

He went on to explain that the scene had been inspired by an experience one of the show’s female writers had in college. “She had gotten broken up with and she went to her ex's place and thought that if they made love one more time, everything would be fixed,” Marsters recalled. “And she kind of forced herself and he had to physically remove her from the premises. And that was just like one of the most painful memories of that time of her life.”

The show’s writers, Marsters explained, “thought that since Buffy was a superhero, that they could flip the sexes since Buffy could defend herself very, very easily from this. They thought that they could have a man do it to a woman and it would be the same thing, I think.”

Related: 'Buffy the Vampire Slayer' Cast: Where Are They Now?

Marsters said he was against the scene, arguing that viewers would experience the assault from Buffy’s perspective. “I said, ‘You know, guys, we're providing a vicarious experience for the audience,’ ” he recalled. “And so I was saying, ‘You know, everyone who's watching Buffy is Buffy, and they're not superheroes. So, I'm doing this to every member of the audience, and they're gonna have a very different reaction.’ ”

Marsters added that he wasn’t concerned with how the scene would impact fans’ perception of his character. “I wasn't thinking of that,” he said. “I was just having to do that to Sarah. You know, I was just having to live through that reality.”

“I don't like sexual predation scenes,” he explained. “Anything that has that to do with it, I don't audition for those things. If there's a movie with that kind of material, I don't go to see the movie. If it pops up on television, I've got to turn the television off before I break it. I have a very visceral reaction to that stuff.”

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And indeed, Marsters said he had a physical reaction while filming the scene with Gellar, with an old neck injury flaring up. “I just collapsed to the floor,” he remembered. “I'm like, ‘I guess I'm kind of tense right now,’ you know?”

“We got the scene in the can, and it was — it was hell,” he added. “I was in personal hell.”

If you or someone you know has been sexually assaulted, please contact the National Sexual Assault Hotline at 1-800-656-HOPE (4673) or go to rainn.org.

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