Mars Bombshell Is Still Wonder-ing
Matt Webb Mitovich
TVGuide.com
September 6, 2006

Earlier this week, Charisma Carpenter weighed in on one Buffy reunion accomplished (ABC Family’s Relative Chaos, costarring Nicholas Brendon) and another perhaps to come (on David Boreanaz’s Bones). Here in Part 2 of her TVGuide.com Q&A, the brunette beauty talks about where we definitely will see her next – Veronica Mars, home of Kendall’s mysterious briefcase – and updates us on how she is still Wonder-ing about donning a certain superheroine’s bullet-deflecting bracelets.

TVGuide.com: How busy is Veronica Mars going to keep you this season?
Charisma Carpenter: I don’t think I’m allowed to say…. I do suggest that people watch the first episode, though!

TVGuide.com: Will we find out what’s in the briefcase that Kendall showed Keith? The thing that made him stand up Veronica at the airport?
Carpenter: Uh-huh.

TVGuide.com: Did you know what was in it when you shot last season’s finale?
Carpenter: No. It was empty.

TVGuide.com: Did you take any guesses on what was inside?
Carpenter: We all guessed, of course! We were saying [to the writers/producers], “You guys don’t really know, do you? You’re not sure, are you?” [Laughs]

TVGuide.com: Does Kendall get in Veronica’s face at all in the season premiere?
Carpenter: No. No face-off.

TVGuide.com: What fellas might Kendall “play with” this season?
Carpenter: Keith!

TVGuide.com: No, not Veronica’s dad….
Carpenter: But that would be so funny, such an “oddball” combo.

TVGuide.com: A lot of fans are dreading that possibility, though.
Carpenter: Are they really?! I love Enrico [Colantoni]. He’s so amazing as an actor and so fun to be around. No, there’s a new guy in town, a new character [involved] with Kendall, and Keith…. There’s a whole story line there.

TVGuide.com: Did you go after any series-regular gigs for this fall?
Carpenter: Of course. I go out every pilot season.

TVGuide.com: You’re just too much woman for the small screen to handle?
Carpenter: Is that what it is? Ooh, I really like that line. It really works for me! But I do have an interesting audition coming up soon, so I’m hopeful.

TVGuide.com: Is it for TV? A movie?
Carpenter: Movie, movie, movie… I’m excited.

TVGuide.com: Is it with Joss Whedon, and you’re holding a golden lasso? [Carpenter's name often comes up in discussions about the Buffy creator's in-the-works Wonder Woman feature film.]
Carpenter: We’re working on that [Carpenter possibly playing Wonder Woman]. I’m working on it, I’m working on it….

TVGuide.com: You did very well in a TVGuide.com poll that ran last spring. [Asked who of three candidates they'd like to see play Wonder Woman, 52.1 percent voted for Carpenter.]
Carpenter: Yeah, your poll was generous. But in some other poll – with me, Jessica Biel and Sarah Michelle Gellar – I came in last. Of course, the picture they chose showed me when I was at, like, a children’s benefit covered in [conservative clothing]. I should have been wearing something more Wonder Woman-y!

TVGuide.com: Well, TVGuide.com’s poll showed you love – and I didn’t even tamper with it.
Carpenter: I’m so grateful for that. I’m dying to kick butt as Wonder Woman. Itching to kick butt! In my last year of Angel, I was really pregnant and I couldn’t do any butt-kicking, so I would really like this opportunity to work with Joss and take it to a new level.

Charisma Carpenter Gets a Buffy Reunion
Matt Webb Mitovich
TVGuide.com
September 4, 2006

Just as I was packing my bags to fly out to Los Angeles for the Primetime Emmys, the call came: “Can you interview Charisma Carpenter tomorrow?” As in, the moment I touched down at LAX. It was asking a lot, but, hey, we’re talking about the great-to-gab-with gal otherwise known as Buffy the Vampire Slayer/Angel’s crafty Cordelia and Veronica Mars’ man-eater Kendall, who maybe, just maybe, might channel her inner Wonder Woman to play a big-screen superheroine. I said yes and, charmingly, she seemed to have as many questions for me as I had for her. Here in Part 1 of the Q&A, we discuss a pair of Buffy reunions: ABC Family’s Relative Chaos (premiering tonight at 8 pm/ET and teaming her with Nicholas Brendon) and the Bones she might have to pick.

TVGuide.com: So I’m in L.A., you’re in L.A… Why are we doing this interview over the phone?
Charisma Carpenter: I’m on my way to my friend’s pool.

TVGuide.com: Your friend’s pool? Why is it that we picture you lounging around your own pool all day long?
Carpenter: Because you saw me do that on Veronica Mars. [Laughs]

TVGuide.com: Did you feel my offer to “meet at the hotel for drinks” was untoward? Because I’m married, you’re married, I’m rather resistible…. What could have happened?
Carpenter: [Laughs] It was very, very tempting, but I am meeting my husband, my brother’s in town, and I have a 3-year-old to think of…. I would have loved to go otherwise!

TVGuide.com: I watched Relative Chaos on my DVD player on the flight out here….
Carpenter: So when you laughed out loud, was it all at Nicky Brendon?

TVGuide.com: Yes, he was very funny. How was that little Buffy reunion?
Carpenter: It was lovely. My last interviewer pointed out that it had been seven years since we last worked together. I thought that seemed rather odd, and off, and wrong, and not possible.

TVGuide.com: Your “last interviewer”? You’re interviewing with other people?
Carpenter: [Sheepishly] I am…. Hey, what do you think of Julia Louis-Dreyfus’ new show [The New Adventures of Old Christine]?

TVGuide.com: It’s cool. I loved her on Seinfeld, of course, so I’m definitely giving the show a shot.
Carpenter: I think Elaine influenced Cordelia a lot. I found myself subconsciously doing things [and] going, “Oh, my god, that was so Elaine!”

TVGuide.com: Now that you mention it, I can see that – even with the occasional shove/”Get out!”
Carpenter: Yes! In a cemetery [on Buffy] I did that with Nicky once, and that is specifically what I thought of. Seinfeld was such a landmark show.

TVGuide.com: I was thinking on the plane ride that if Julia Louis-Dreyfus wants to do a film, she could do “Snakes on Elaine.”
Carpenter: That would be so good! She can try to shake them off and everything. What’s the deal with Snakes on a Plane, anyway?

TVGuide.com: Define “What’s the deal?”.
Carpenter: Is it purposefully tongue-in-cheek? Is it funny…?

TVGuide.com: It doesn’t take itself entirely seriously, it’s just summer escapist fare. [I explain further, and tell her about my related interview with Samuel L. Jackson.]
Carpenter: Oh, wow. Interesting. Is it fun to be an interviewer?

TVGuide.com: Well, of course I could talk to you forever.
Carpenter: Have you interviewed David Boreanaz?

TVGuide.com: Actually, I usually generously hand off David to one of my female counterparts. Was reuniting with Nicky a factor in deciding to do Relative Chaos?
Carpenter: It wasn’t a deciding factor, but it was a plus, like, “Oh, wow….” It’s hard to say because between Alyson [Hannigan, who once shared a scene with Carpenter on Veronica Mars] and Nicky now, I have often been linked [to Buffy], and it’s always a “marketing coup” when we get that to happen. I don’t think any of us purposely seeks that out, it’s not an angle we want to be living with for the rest of our lives as actors, but in [Brendon's] case, I was excited to do it.

TVGuide.com: What about you popping by David’s show, Bones?
Carpenter: Interesting… I actually just saw David today. If I did another little Buffy coup, it would be with David.

TVGuide.com: I am so sad to see that in Relative Chaos, yet again, you’re not playing the nicest girl in world.
Carpenter: That’s funny because the feedback was that I was too nice. Nobody said, “You need to be meaner!”

TVGuide.com: Why aren’t you getting the nice-girl roles? Do you go into auditions wearing fishnets and stilettos, dragging on a cigarette?
Carpenter: That’s an interesting concept, maybe I should try that! No, I do nice-girl roles, they’re just not as fun. I like being “psychotic.” And in the last ABC Family movie I did, I was nice! I have flashes of niceness.

TVGuide.com: Is the Carpenter clan competitive like the family featured in Chaos? Any sibling rivalries?
Carpenter: No, we’re not really competitive with one another, because I think our ages are so spread out. But with others, when the chips are down…. My favorite metaphor is from tennis: Do you have the courage to win? Do you have the courage to serve an ace? It’s sort of like that.

TVGuide.com: I was going to say that to stay as busy as you do, you must have some “eye of the tiger” in you.
Carpenter: People say that, but I don’t know. Sometimes I feel like a big pussycat. I do pound the pavement, but it hasn’t been a very fruitful experience, so I’m contemplating not doing that anymore.

TVGuide.com: Whoa, what’s that mean? You want to be a stay-at-home mom?
Carpenter: No, no, no! Let’s get this clear: I want to act for the rest of my life. I love what I do. I love, love, love going to work. I love being on the set, I love the camaraderie, I love meeting new people and going to new locations. I love the working part. I don’t like the getting-the-job part. [Laughs] That’s the hard part! It wears me down, and it’s hard to keep the momentum going.

‘Buffy’ alums reunite for ‘Chaos’
Amy Amatangelo
BostonHerald.com
September 3, 2006

There’s something nostalgic about running into your high-school flame.

Now imagine it happening on the small screen. Charisma Carpenter and Nicholas Brendon, who played sweethearts Cordelia and Xander on the hit series “Buffy the Vampire Slayer,” reunite for the first time in the ABC Family movie “Relative Chaos” (premiering tomorrow at 8 p.m.).

“It’s fun because we’ve both grown, and it’s so fun to see each other as grownups,” Carpenter said during a recent interview. “And to actually just let loose and have fun and be on a set – that’s just such a joy.”

“It was just really great,” Brendon added. “It really harkened back to a time. I felt like I was back in high school.”

“Buffy” was the big break for both of them when the series became a pop-culture phenomenon in 1997.

“We were just so green,” Carpenter said. “I didn’t even know where my light was or how to find a mark and not fidget.”

“We’re definitely not as stressed now,” Brendon said.

In “Relative Chaos,” Carpenter plays the girlfriend of Dil Gilbert (Christopher Gorham). Brendon plays Dil’s obnoxious brother Gil.

“We talked about, on-set, how hard it was for him to have me on-set with another boyfriend,” Carpenter said. “He said, ‘Next time you have to be my girlfriend.’ I said, ‘Of course.’ ”

The reunion with Brendon wasn’t the first Carpenter has had with a former “Buffy” castmate. Last season she played gold-digger Kendall Casablancas on “Veronica Mars.” Alyson Hannigan (Willow on “Buffy”) played the sister of Kendall’s much-younger boy toy. The two met up in a hilarious scene of biting one-liners.

“I adore Alyson,” Carpenter said. “Her character was really, really bitchy, and it was really funny.”

For years on “Buffy,” Cordelia picked on Willow. Now Carpenter thinks Hannigan was able to get her revenge. “I figured I had that coming for a long time,” she said and then laughed.

The part on “Veronica Mars” was an adjustment for Carpenter.

“It was fun. It was ballsy. It was brave. It was hard because there was a lot of sexuality. It was a big adjustment I think emotionally and physically. I had to get somewhat comfortable with my body. I think it’s a great show. I’ve had the opportunity to be a big part of a story line that was eager to be told by the people who write it and eager to be watched by the fans who enjoy it.”

Carpenter said her part will be smaller this season on “Veronica Mars.”

“I think you’ve got to tune in right away – catch the first episode or you’re going to miss the whole season.”

Brendon just finished his first play, “Lobster Alice,” opposite Noah Wyle with the Blank Theatre Company in Los Angeles.

“When I first started, I thought, ‘Wow, I don’t know if I can do this.’ But it’s such a beautiful medium.”

Carpenter and Brendon hope to have more opportunities to work with the former residents of Sunnydale.

“The hardest part of ‘Buffy’ ending was saying goodbye to Xander,” Brendon said. “It was like saying goodbye to a good friend of mine.”