New Amber interview at BBC Cult

[kajo 2000]

Excerpt of a message posted by Rob, the moderator at the GoA Message Board:

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What we CAN say is that we're very close to announcing some cool news about GOA.



Be sure to check the Cult News around noon tomorrow!

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I'm guessing that they are either going to announce that GoA will be available to buy on DVD or that the BBC has commisioned more online episodes. Or maybe both!

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"I want to be Byron... because I want to date young boys." Amber Benson

Edited by: kajo 2000 at: 5/22/03 12:14:07 pm

[urnofosiris]

Well I'm hoping for both. The ending was begging for a sequel, or rather a continuation.

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Coffee, Food, Kisses and Gay Love........Get it while you are hot

[sam7777]

I hope they do a sequel and I will definitely get the DVD. I hope this leads to more writingd and/or directing projects for Amber with the BBC.

_____________________

I see dead lesbian cliches

[feena191]

BBC Cult News

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Ghosts of Albion novella



The next phase of Ghosts of Albion, Cult's original online adventure, has been revealed.



Although BBCi are looking into the possibility of further animated adventures for William and Tamara Swift, we are bridging the gap with an original online novella from creators Christopher Golden and Amber Benson.



"Of course it's our hope that the animated serial Legacy was just the first Ghosts of Albion episode," said Chris. "The first foray for this world we've created [which we] hope to explore further in this and many other mediums.



The as-yet untitled story will be a smaller scale adventure of William and Tamara Swift as they begin to understand what it means to be Protectors of Albion and settle in to their new lives. Expect old friends and new, mysteries and myths, and some of those pesky, naughty supernatural beings as well.



The novella is expected to run for around eight weekly instalments from July, and will feature new illustrations.

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Feena

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How's he gonna read that magazine rolled up like that?

~ Famous last words of an insect

[xita]

Oh awesome it's not the end!

[maudmac]

Whoa, Amber, check you out, you're unstoppable.



I liked Ghosts of Albion a whole lot. And there's really an infinity of stories they can tell within its mythology. I hope this new thing is a super-huge success and leads to even super-huger success for Amber.

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there's only one thing
that I know how to do well and I've often been told that you only can do what you know how to do well and that's be you,
be what you're like, be like yourself -TMBG

[Warduke]

This is such great news, I love GoA, and I'm very happy to see it's not the end of it. There are still so many stories to tell within this universe and it will be a such a thrill to see where Amber and Chris take us next

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Lil' Trevor : Always the life of the party.

[kajo 2000]

Excerpt from a message posted by Christopher Golden on the GoA Message Board:

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Thanks for Hanging On Christopher Golden - 35th post - 23 May 2003 20:53



Hello All. :) Glad to see you're happy about the novella news. Hopefully that's just the beginning of good news for GoA. Amber and I are already at work.

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Edited to add: Chris posted to the GoA Message Board again regarding Amber's current whereabouts (sounds like she is on another road trip):

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re: AAMMMM-BERRRR!! Christopher Golden - 36th post - 28 May 2003 15:11



Just so you all know, Amber's been out of net access range for a while.







re: AAMMMM-BERRRR!! Christopher Golden - 37th post - 28 May 2003 15:38



She's back from her trip for a couple of days and then she's going to be gone again, off on a long trip that includes Moonlight Rising.

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"I want to be Byron... because I want to date young boys." Amber Benson

Edited by: kajo 2000 at: 5/28/03 9:43:06 am

[kajo 2000]

[Mods, I hope it is OK to start a new thread for this]



There is a new Amber interview at BBC Cult (it was given at the time she was recording Ghosts of Albion but has only just been released).



You can find the video clips of the interview here. This is the text version:

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Amber Benson - Interview at Madame Tussaud's - 10th December, 2002





What's it been like being a role model for young girls who are exploring their sexuality?



I've gotten the most amazing letters from young women who have come out because of the relationship that Tara and Willow had on Buffy. If you can make an impact on society in a positive way, it's the most amazing experience.



Because I'm not doing anything other than what I would do as an actor or as a normal person, it's just that people respond to it. I'm not out there pandering for it.



People became embroiled in the relationship and it made them realise that it was okay to be what they were. It doesn't matter who you sleep with, it's how you treat other people in this world.



Did the fan reaction change after Tara died?



It was really tough. The way she died was awful, it was really, really horrible and I wish that it hadn't happened, but I understood from a story standpoint why it had to go in that direction.



The only way that Joss could get Willow's character to that level of desperation was to take the one thing away from her that she loved which was Tara. As awful as it was, he was really trying to put the message out that Willow's problem with magic was an allegory for drug abuse.



[It was an allegory for] anything where it's an addictive, obsessive thing, when you drink too much or you do drugs, you sleep around and have no care for yourself. That's what Willow was going through, this mad obsession, this addiction, and the only way she could go back to reality was to bottom out. Then she could return to the Willow that we all know and love.



Did you like the way season six became about the horror of real people?



I thought season six depressing as a cast member and as an audience member, because everybody was going through these awful experiences. I think it was a really dark season. It was a lot of fun to do, acting-wise, but I thought it was emotionally very unsettling.



You have the Troika, the three guys running around doing all these horrible things for God knows what reason. It was interesting to have humanoid villains that were rooted in our three-dimensional reality... or four dimensional reality, I'm not sure which!



Can you tell us why you chose not to return for season seven?



I wish that we could have worked it out but there were extenuating circumstances that I don't really want to go into.



I would love to have come back but sometimes there are things in your life that you have to stand up for and to tell you the God's honest truth, I really didn't want Tara to be bad, and that would have been a component of me coming back.



As much as I wanted to come back - and I almost did - that was something that was dogging my not wanting to come back. I just felt like people really loved that character and for her to be bad would just destroy people. So that was one of the reasons I didn't go back.



Before Once More, With Feeling, what sort of musical background did you have?



I actually started out doing theatre when I was a kid, so I did a lot of musicals, but nothing professional with the singing until Buffy, which was kind of fun.



I gather you and your sister sang a song at one of Joss Whedon's Shakespeare readings, which became a catalyst for him to write the musical?



Yeah totally. We would all go to Joss's and we would read Shakespeare and afterwards it would kind of regress into musical theatre craziness.



We would all be singing around the piano while Joss played, and because Tony was an amazing singer, and I could sing and Emma sings, it was kind of a natural progression toward doing a musical.



In season six, Willow famously made Tara forget about an argument they had. Anything you'd actually like to forget?



Right now, no. I think we're the sum of our experiences, so I wouldn't change anything, I wouldn't want to forget anything, even the weird stuff and the bad stuff. It makes you who you are.

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"I want to be Byron... because I want to date young boys." Amber Benson

Edited by: kajo 2000 at: 6/8/03 2:34 pm

[J uk]

That's a really creepy SMG waxwork staring at Amber.



I liked how she put this:

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The only way that Joss could get Willow's character to that level of desperation...

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Not the only way it could be done, but the only way Joss could do it.

Edited by: J uk at: 6/6/03 9:47 am

[tommo]

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I wish that we could have worked it out but there were extenuating circumstances that I don't really want to go into.

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Uh-hm. There certainly were. And god love her for being discreet about it.

"Cheese board now." ~ Blue Stilton Willow

[Domaris]

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I just felt like people really loved that character and for her to be bad would just destroy people. So that was one of the reasons I didn't go back.

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She's just amazing

"Rock my world!" - Gia

"Before you criticize someone, walk a mile in their shoes. That way, you'll be a mile from them, and you'll have their shoes!" - Somebody

[daddykat]

Amber's discretion, in a town where almost everyone will say nearly anything about anyone else as long as the "almost everyone" can say it in a way that puffs themselves up, is a more than pleasant thing and exactly what I'd expect of her. (Personally, I would never want to see an evil pseudo-Tara, but I'd *love* to see what Amber could do with a villain part in general, and I have my unspokewn hopes about soemthing, for another day.)

But, to make a hypocrite of myself, I hope the discretion only lasts long enough for the hardest fo the hard feelings to settle down. I turned 47 last November but have every intention of lasting long enough until EVERYbody connected with the whole effort has written their autobiographies and I've read them. I do NOT want to stick around to 106 and be cheated of the inside-and-straight!

[BFR from Paris]

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Then she could return to the Willow that we all know and love.

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Except she didn't



Amber's great as always, and that SMG statue is creepy!



Christine

[dekalog]

said before and I'm sure I'll say it again



she is truly a lovely woman



I will watch and pay money for anything I possibly can to support her in her future endeavours



and did I mention

[Fuzz WT]

She's so wonderful really. She's the most amazing person.

More importantly, she's the most amazing person with a HEART!!! A REAL GOOD HEART!!!



I just wish there were more people like her in this world. Dreaming?



We need her in this world so bad!!!!!



Geez, I want to make her a monument. A big monument.



*Fuzz*



PS. *glance at that SMG waxwork* Mommy!! It's scary!!!

*******




Hey! You're gonna back off! She said no and that's it. ~ TARA

[tyche]

City of Angel have a new interview with Amber and Chris about Ghosts of Albion at the link below:

www.cityofangel.com/behindTheScenes/bts3/albionHapps.html

[xita]

It was great seeing this all together. I can totally see why Amber and Chris want to shoot a horror movie together, this was definitely bloody but I loved the dark elements the best. I also loved the way Tamara took charge and really made things happen. There are also plans to develop this further, novella, and maybe another installment such as the one they had. I of course would love to see it developed in regular animation to see what their vision of this could be. Chris spoke wonders of Amber as a director and mentioned the actors loved working with her on this.

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"I love you all!!! -
bytrsuite

[xita]

god she rocks, i'd love to know the whole story once but I love the way she keeps saying it like it was. Intregity, I don't get tired of saying it.

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"I love you all!!! -
bytrsuite

[kajo 2000]

Chris has posted a message in his forum revealing the origin of his Big Hairy Lesbian nick-name:

Quote:

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Christopher Golden

Posted: June 11 2003,18:20

Topic: Big Hairy Lesbian, Yeah, you heard me . . .



Soooooo . . . a couple of people asked me at Moonlight Rising over the weekend, and a couple of others have e-mailed me to ask what this is all about. ("This" being Amber B. and some fans affectionately referring to me as "the Big Hairy Lesbian.")



Simply put, without going into much detail, it came about while we were working on Ghosts of Albion for the BBC. Amber and I became very friendly with members of the staff working on GoA, one of whom invited us to a housewarming party at her girlfriend's new apartment. At first, I think there was some concern that I might feel out of place as the only straight guy there. (Kind of interesting, I think, that such assumptions are made about guys but not usually about straight women . . . I think it says something about guys in general.)



Anyway, I was more than comfortable. I've always had gay people in my life, literally as long as I can remember - even longer. Nearly every single one of my books has gay characters, some of whom play significant roles and some who don't. It's just a part of my life, and a political and social issue I feel strongly about.



Since I've also always gotten along better, in a general sense, with women than with men, we kidded that I was a lesbian in a man's body. And, thus, my friends hosting the party dubbed me "the Big Hairy Lesbian," or BHL for short.



Of course, I never actually expected Amber to be calling me that in front of hundreds of people (many of them not-so-big, not-so-hairy lesbians themselves). All sweet. Some very cute couples. What made it really funny is that nobody had the first clue why Amber was calling me that. I mean, I make a spectacularly unattractive lesbian.



The truth is that given what she - and my friend at the BBC - was trying to say by coining the nickname . . . well, who ever thought a big ol' furry married daddy would be flattered by being called a Big Hairy Lesbian. ;)



So that explains that, for those of you who were curious.



More importantly, it begins a conversation, if anyone's up for it, about the importance of representing gay people as part of the landscape in our entertainment, right along with people of varying race, gender and faith.



Someone on Amazon recently complained about the ending of my novel OF SAINTS AND SHADOWS. For those who haven't read it I won't go into detail, but this person was upset because they felt a choice made by a particular character to love a person of the same sex was completely out of character and abrupt. My feeling is, whoever wrote that wanted to ignore everything I'd said about the character from the outset.



Anyway, there you have it. Gay and lesbian characters in mass entertainment . . .



Talk amongst yourselves.



Love, the BHL

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So far, nobody has taken Chris up on his offer to discuss this issue - I would but I am not very eloquent - but if anyone here would like to reply to Chris's message (maybe some of the excellent fanfic writers?), just click on the above link to get to the relevant thread in his forum.

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"I want to be Byron... because I want to date young boys." Amber Benson

[Warduke]

Like I just said somewhere else...Chris is soooo the man

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Lil' Trevor : Always the life of the party.

[urnofosiris]

He really is awesome. I really totally and completely trust his sincerity and ability to do right by gay characters in whatever media he works with. I am glad that I can still trust some people when it comes to that. I will support whatever project he works on, for whatever my support is worth.

Quote:

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More importantly, it begins a conversation, if anyone's up for it, about the importance of representing gay people as part of the landscape in our entertainment, right along with people of varying race, gender and faith.

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Tempting, I'd rather talk about it here though.

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Coffee, Food, Kisses and Gay Love........Get it while you are hot

[WebWarlock]

It's been said here and elsewhere, but I'll say it again.



Chris Golden does rock.



Got word that he talked to Eden about some new projects. I'll keep you all posted.



Warlock

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Web Warlock

The Other Side,
home of Liber Mysterium: The Netbook of Witches and Warlocks

"There has to be an invisible sun. It gives its heat to everyone.

There has to be an invisible sun. That gives us hope when the whole day's done." - The Police Invisible Sun

[kajo 2000]

Chris Golden has posted this message to the GoA Message Board:

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Been a while Christopher Golden - 41st post - 15 Jun 2003 19:46



Sorry I've been gone a while, friends. Very backed up, and also was away for a long weekend at Moonlight Rising last weekend. As you may have heard, it had its highs and lows, but all in all was a lot of fun. We screened GoA: Legacy in front of an audience for the first time, and if we read our audience correctly, I think it went pretty well.



Anyway, just wanted to let you know that we're hard at work on the GoA novella coming up (tentatively titled "Astray"), and we're hoping to have news from the BBC soon that will help us outline our future plans for Ghosts of Albion.



Thanks for your continued support. Feel free to spread this message far and wide to anyone who might have an interest.



Chris

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"I want to be Byron... because I want to date young boys." Amber Benson

Edited by: kajo 2000 at: 6/16/03 8:03 am

[urnofosiris]

Well the con had highs and lows for me as well and watching GoA and Chance were definitely highs. I had seen it online, but it is much better watching it on a big screen in one go, no interruptions by loading and loading an some more loading. Watched all at once you get much more into it and it becomes more of a well rounded story. I really hope there will a continuation in one form or another.

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Coffee, Food, Kisses and Gay Love........Get it while you are hot

[feena191]

Apparently the 1st chap of the novella is due to go up at the end of July, & they're broadcasting GoA on the radio this Sat



feena

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How's he gonna read that magazine rolled up like that?

~ Famous last words of an insect

[BFR from Paris]

Feena, Chris Golden posted this:

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I believe the first chapter of the novella will be going up the second week of July. Not so far off.

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[feena191]

Even better



Feena

-x-

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How's he gonna read that magazine rolled up like that?

~ Famous last words of an insect

[kajo 2000]

From BBC Cult:

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Radio Ghosts



The audio version of our web drama Ghosts of Albion will broadcast on Radio 7 on June 28th.



The original series, created and directed by Amber Benson (Tara in Buffy the Vampire Slayer) and created and written by novelist Christopher Golden, tells the tale of Tamara and William Swift. When their grandfather dies, the siblings find themselves with an unusual bequest.



The drama features an impressive cast with Jasmine Hyde as Tamara, Rory Kinnear as William, Leslie Philips as Ludlow, with Emma Samms, Anthony Daniels and Joseph McFadden as the ghosts.



Although enhanced for the web with animation from Cosgrove Hall, the series was intended to play as a gripping and exciting audio drama too. Here at Cult we're delighted that the production will be available to radio listeners.



Ghosts of Albion will be broadcast in glorious stereo on the digital radio station, which is home to comedy and drama. The channel is also broadcast on the web, with many of the programmes available to listen to in the week after broadcast.



Ghosts of Albion will be aired in a special feature-length form on Radio 7 on June 28th at 6pm and 12pm.

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Here is a link to the Radio 7 website.

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"I want to be Byron... because I want to date young boys." Amber Benson

[feena191]

If you can't get Digital Radio 7, it's also broadcast on Sky Channel 922 (I think that's it). It's weird watching radio - a nice blue screen with a caption saying what the program is. I'll be setting up my video recorder



Feena

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How's he gonna read that magazine rolled up like that?

~ Famous last words of an insect