Joss Whedon: The Genius Behind Buffy (10 page)

when you say you want to direct movies, they’re appalled. They look like, ‘Do you kill babies?’—Joss

This is a high school girl, but she’s like a warrior woman. It’s funny that she’s in her prom dress at the same time it is masterfully frightening. That’s Joss.

—Professor Basinger

Alyson Hannigan (Willow)

 

One of Joss’ most critical insights in creating
Buffy
was his portrayal of Willow. It would have been easy to make Willow the mousy, brainy sidekick so frequently seen on TV and in the movies. But Joss’ Willow is as complex a character as Buffy—meek but courageous, smart but sensitive, intensely vulnerable but surprisingly tough. The role of Willow has turned out to be central to the series and it’s hard to imagine a better Willow than Alyson Hannigan. No character on Buffy has evolved as much as Willow, but Hannigan manages each transition—from shy virgin to werewolfdating Wicca to lesbian addict to ‘evil Willow’—with aplomb.

“There was a certain innocent strength about Alyson that came through when she was reading for the part,” Whedon says. “She seemed confident one minute and the next she was so vulnerable. Of course it took us a while to see how good she would be in the role. Much like Sarah we put Alyson through hell. The network had their pick and we had ours and it was a big push and pull kind of thing.”

 

 

Alyson Hannigan hangs out with boyfriend Alexis Denisof.

“I seriously thought there was no way I was going to get the role. We auditioned and auditioned,” says Hannigan. “It got down to just a few of us and I didn’t think I had a prayer. ”

A few weeks later she got the call that she had won the role.

“I know everyone says this, but I really was shocked,” Hannigan laughs. “I couldn’t wait to start work. I was just so excited.”

From the beginning Hannigan felt a kinship with the Willow character. “In some of those early shows Willow is afraid to speak out and I know just how she feels,” says Hannigan. “I’m better now, but there were times in my life when I just couldn’t speak because I was so afraid. Do I understand that whole not fitting into high school thing? Yes! ”

“We, Willow and I, have a great deal in common. I’m incredibly shy and worry about what others might think. That is so much of what Willow was about in those early days. I like that she was smart and sort of bookish. She’s also had a chance to experience life in a way that most people don’t, and as an actress I’ve had that same thing. So there’s a lot of me in her and vice versa.”

There’s something else the character and actress share. “You aren’t expecting anything and then all off the sudden Ally says something that makes you bend over laughing,” says Brendon. “Let’s just say for such a sweet woman she can say some pretty wild stuff.”

Like Gellar, Hannigan has been in the acting business since she was a toddler, when she began doing commercials for Oreos and McDonalds. When the Washington D.C. native was 11, her family moved from Atlanta to Los Angeles where she appeared in the films
My Stepmother is an Alien
and on the television shows
Almost Home, The Torkelsons
and
George.
On
Buffy
Hannigan has made the best of the skills she’d honed in her early acting career, and over the seasons she enlarged her character into a complex, multi-faceted individual. As a result, fans have watched Willow evolve from a mousy doormat to sexy powerful Wiccan.

“You know I’ve grown up too,” laughs Hannigan. “I used to worry all the time that I’d do or say the wrong thing. I was always putting my foot in my mouth. Now I’m used to the taste of feet. And, like my character, I’m a lot better about speaking my mind.”

Let’s just say for such a sweet woman she can say some pretty wild stuff.

—Nicholas Brendon