James Marsters Says Filming ControversialBuffyAssault Scene Was 'The Darkest Professional Day of My Life'

Mar. 15, 2025

James Marsters and Sarah Michelle Gellar in ‘Buffy the Vampire Slayer’ in 2003.Photo:20th Century Fox Television/Kobal/Shutterstock

20th Century Fox Television/Kobal/Shutterstock

This post contains discussion of sexual violence.

James Marsterswas as disturbed filming an infamousBuffy the Vampire Slayerscene 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.

James Marsters as Spike in ‘Buffy the Vampire Slayer’.Online USA/Getty

Online USA/Getty

“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.

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.”

Sarah Michelle Gellar and James Marsters in ‘Buffy the Vampire Slayer’.Jerry Wolf/20th Century Fox Tv/Kobal/Shutterstock

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 watchingBuffyis 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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James Marsters in 2023.Ilya S. Savenok/Getty

Ilya S. Savenok/Getty

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 torainn.org.

source: people.com