Amber Benson on Books, Body Image, and Why 'Buffy' Kicks 'Twilight's' Butt

By Brooke Tarnoff Posted Apr 21st 2009 04:56PM

Joss Whedon's series 'Buffy the Vampire Slayer' has been off the air for six full years, but the community that embraces the "Buffy-verse" is still going strong. To the uninitiated, the name Amber Benson might be unfamiliar. To her loyal and possibly permanent following, Benson is immediately recognizable as the actress who portrayed sensitive 'Buffy' witch Tara Maclay.

Those fans are partly responsible for the success Benson has enjoyed since 'Buffy,' as the author of comic books (both part of the 'Buffy' franchise and original stories) and now her first novel, 'Death's Daughter.' Benson admits that her unbreakable affiliation with the iconic series could feel restrictive - if it didn't have such a positive effect on her career.

"There's never an escape," she admits in an exclusive interview with PopEater. "It's a high-class problem to have. I know that there are people who never would read the book, but they love me from 'Buffy,' so it gets them to read. I can't complain about that. It does get overplayed a little, but it gets people in the door."

"I find that the people who like 'Buffy' are really smart," Benson adds. "They're willing to go with you to other media. I think it's something a lot of genre fans, 'Star Trek' and stuff, don't do."

Winning the affection of die-hard fans isn't an automatic perk of the job offer. When Benson joined the cast, some 'Buffy' loyalists were less than kind to the 5'4", 120-pound actress. "There was a lot of, 'Oh, Amber's fat,' because I'm normal-sized. I'm working with girls who are five feet tall and weigh 90 pounds, so yeah, I look like I could eat them."

Benson confesses, "I felt kind of angry, because I was like, 'Well, you guys are sitting behind your computers, hiding. I don't get to see what you look like. That's not fair.'"

The problem, Benson acknowledges, is less an issue of over-critical fans and more a systemic problem in Hollywood. "I like the fact that I'm curvy," she says, "because there's not a lot of it on television. We need the balance. Most of my cast mates are just little people. Any way you cut it, they're just petite. I've worked with anorexic girls - and this isn't 'Buffy' - they're so skinny that they look almost normal on screen because it adds ten pounds to their emaciated frames."

Benson laments the idea that stars generally considered healthy - or even voluptuous - are often unusually thin in reality. She says, "I was up for a part in 'Never Been Kissed' and I met with Drew [Barrymore]. I walked in, and - she's two feet tall. I look at her on screen and she looks curvy. She's not curvy - she's so tiny! It blows your mind."

Discussion of anti-feminist trends in Hollywood naturally leads to a more current vampire obsession. "I got very excited about 'Twilight,'" Benson says. "I was like, 'Oh, another series to be excited about.' I read the first one. I didn't think it was at all badly done, but it didn't grab me. I got why everybody else was excited about it. I just like my women to be more proactive."

She explains, "[Bella] keeps falling into these traps and playing the victim. We get that all the time, we don't need it in our literature. We need Buffy, who can be a totally flawed character - being completely, totally confused - but when she's in a dark alley and some guy's trying to kill her, she stakes them and kicks their butts into oblivion. That's how it should be."

Though the worldwide 'Twilight'-frenzy would suggest otherwise, Benson isn't alone. "We were in Australia a week and a half ago. Kids kept coming through the line, and they had these "Buffy Staked Edward" T-shirts," she says. "I thought those were the greatest shirts I've seen in a long time."

She admits, "['Twilight'] makes women go right to that victim place - I think 'Buffy' does kind of kick 'Twilight's' butt a little bit."

Fans of Benson and the Buffy-verse are hoping her continued support of the show will pay off in another Joss Whedon gig. The 'Buffy' showrunner has been known to cast new projects with familiar faces, with 'Buffy,' 'Angel' and 'Firefly' alum popping up in his enormously popular web-musical 'Dr. Horrible's Sing-Along Blog' and new series 'Dollhouse.'

"I think it's just going to be a matter of how long 'Dollhouse' is on the air before you start seeing more people make their place in that world," Benson says. "I think they're just trying to get through this first season. The tone is so different than 'Buffy,' I think [Joss] doesn't want to muddy the waters. If they can get through this year - and get a second year - they'll have a lot more stability and they can do what they want."

Benson has no particular insight to share on what those casting decisions might be if the show survives its shaky freshman year. "I haven't seen a lot of the people from 'Buffy' in a good chunk of time. I'm sort of out of the loop at the moment." She adds, "I was in my apartment three months out of the year, and traveling the rest of the time. It's just been so crazy."

It's a schedule that leaves little time for a full-time series gig. "Everyone knows me as an actor, and now I'm trying to segue into other things," Benson says. Those other things include a series of comic books based on her 'Buffy' character's romance with brainy sidekick Willow, and the first novel in a trilogy based loosely on Dante's 'Divine Comedy.'

"She's got a very young voice," says Benson of her novel's 20-something protagonist. "I based her on a lot of girls I know - So there's this immature quality to her. I think a lot of young women are sort of stunted in this place, where we don't really want to be adults yet. We don't feel like adults, we still feel like we felt in high school."

"I do," she adds. "I don't feel like a grownup."

She may be a teen at heart, but Benson's career is certainly grownup enough. In addition to the books and a steady stream of roles, Benson has co-directed a film with boyfriend/'Buffy' alum Adam Busch that is currently in post-production. With the support of her fans and an impressive work ethic, Amber Benson is poised to be this busy for a long, long time.