CHARISMA
CARPENTER
AKA: Cordelia Chase on Buffy the Vampire
Slayer
She's really a nice person. If you get
that much out of this interview, Charisma Carpenter will be happy. The
actress is strongly identified with Cordelia Chase, the acid-tongued fashion
arbiter of Sunnydale High on Buffy the Vampire Slayer. And as she tells
our Jeanne Wolf, she's not in a huge hurry to disabuse viewers of that
perception. But really, she's not at all bitchy.
Do you share any traits with Cordelia
- her attitude, her sass?
I like her truthfulness. I'm very much
like that. I didn't realize that quality about her until this one episode,
where Giles says, "Do you have any tact at all?" And I said, "Tact means
just not saying true stuff, so forget it, no." And when that line was said,
I thought to myself, "This is the first time I could say I had something
in common with her." Not that I'm not tactful: I can be tactful, but I
also am very blunt [laughs] at the same time.
Do you think that the writers understand
that about you?
I don't spend any time with them. They're
not on set a lot. Most of the time the writers and the actors are kind
of separate. They're upstairs writing and we're down on the set spewing
what they've written. Maybe Joss has seen it, and is aware of it, because
he spends the most time with us.
What drew Cordelia and Xander together?
Because we're so opposite. Opposites attract.
We do this bantering and this battle of the wits so much that inevitably
we were just attracted to each other. It was a physical thing at first,
but now I don't know what it is, because we're not pursuing the physicality
anymore. What's keeping us together is at this point up to the writers,
because I don't really know [laughs] why we're together at this point.
How did you feel about keeping your
relationship a secret?
Well, I think it made for some really
humorous scenes, and it was hilarious and I think the audience really loved
that. And at first they were afraid of us being together, they didn't like
it. But then as time went on, it was interesting and it was really funny.
And then we got together and everybody was moaning and groaning that the
prelude to getting together didn't last longer. Because they were getting
so much out of that and it was so funny.
You were in beauty pageants as a kid.
Were you pushed into that?
I wasn't that young. And I wasn't pushed
into it - it was something that I loved doing. I don't think pageants are
necessarily a bad thing. I think the mothers can be. Stage mothers are
the most deadly thing there is, because you can kill a kid's spirit by
that, or you can teach them to be comfortable with themselves and to field
questions off the top of their head. My parents encouraged me, but they
also made sure I enjoyed the experience.
Your parents sound like the exception
rather than the rule.
My mom never put a bunch of makeup on
me or extravagant outfits, even when I was in pageants. My mom sewed my
clothes, which I loved, and someday when I'm married I hope she makes my
dress. I've told her she'd better. She was into simplicity, and it wasn't
about more cheeks, more makeup, bigger hair, big fancy dresses. It was
simple, classic. Not excess. I can always spot a pageant girl when I see
one.
Meaning?
There's a little too much makeup or the
hair is just a little too perfect; they're trying too hard. But they're
bright girls and they have a dream, and this is the way that they are choosing
to get that dream and there's nothing wrong with that. I'm not in it or
around it anymore, so I don't know if it's changed.
You sound happy. Don't you know that
you're supposed to come from a miserable, dysfunctional home to be a good
actress?
[Laughs] There's some credence to that.
My life wasn't perfect; I just had a very supportive family. I had a very
supportive mom and dad, but my childhood wasn't perfect either; nobody's
is. Everybody has their garbage and their baggage.
You sound like you were a good girl
growing up. Were you ever in trouble?
Always in trouble. Bad grades, sneaking
out, having boys over when my mom wasn't home. I was always in trouble,
always. I took my dad's car out for a spin. I snuck out when they were
sleeping to go out with my friends because my parents were very, very strict.
I had to be home by midnight, but I had some of the best times trying to
be home for my curfew. It was a lot of fun at the same time. Growing
up, I had two cousins very close by. My mom used to tell me, "If you don't
want me to find out about something, please don't tell your cousins, because
they're just going to tell their mother and their mother's going to tell
me." I was constantly in trouble, but I'm glad my childhood was the way
it was.
Is there a lot of pressure on you now,
to move from this hit series to a movie?
I'm getting tremendous pressure, even
from my own people - my agent and my manager - right now. Like, "You got
to do a movie this summer because everybody's going to come back to Buffy
and you're not going to have done anything." And I said, "So?" [laughs].
I'm ambitious, but I want balance. And I'm not a tiger and I'm not a barracuda.
I know who I am. I believe in myself, and it's going to happen when it
happens and not any sooner. I know what I have to do to excel, and
that is I don't like to be running around to three, four appointments a
day. I like to devote a day to prepare for an audition, and I cannot do
it any other way. If that means that I don't work today, that's fine, because
I want to work until I'm 80. But there is a pressure, definitely:
"I want you to read for Robert Rodriguez for this part, and Kevin Williamson
wrote this script." And it's like, "Well, what character are they having
me read for?" It's just Cordelia with a different name. No, I don't
want to read for that character. I have Cordelia. I have another
10 months to do Cordelia. I've been doing Cordelia for two years; I have
another year to do it for sure; let's try something else.
Is it hard to keep that attitude?
Well, yeah. It's not hard to keep the
courage, but it's hard to get people to understand you and not to give
up on you. And then I have to say, "We don't have the same vision; we're
not on the same page," so I have to look for support somewhere else. And
that may come around and bite me in the butt, but for me right now that's
how I feel. I have another 10 months of work and it's hard work. I'm not
going to get up and do something that I don't feel 100 percent about. I'm
not going to get up and do something half-assed. And if I don't feel like
I could get into it or I love it, then I'm not going to do it.
So it didn't drive you crazy to see
Sarah Michelle Gellar suddenly on the cover of everything?
I think that's amazing, and I'm so happy
for her. And she's been doing this a lot longer than I have. She is a veteran,
and this has been a long time coming for her. She deserves it. And I will
have that. And it may not be this summer and it may not be in five summers,
but I have to go at my pace. I can't be comparing myself to anyone else
or put that kind of pressure on myself. I don't know if I'll be ready for
it when it does; we'll just see. I'm here. It's my karma; things
work out.