Thousands of Star Trek fans have geeked out upon meeting Jean-Luc Picard in the flesh. But for Spike from Buffy the Vampire Slayer, meeting Patrick Stewart actually blew his chances of acting alongside him.
Image: WB
In an interview with Syfy, James Marsters went into a little more detail about his failed audition for Star Trek: Nemesis. Marsters claimed he was a frontrunner for Shinzon, the Picard clone that served as the main antagonist for the film, saying that he was auditioning as a formality but the part “was basically mine”. This is debatable, as Jude Law has been cited as an early frontrunner and the part eventually went to Tom Hardy, with his infamous audition.
In any case, it looks like Marsters did audition with Stewart himself, which means he was a serious contender for the part. While the actor previously said in 2012 he didn’t think he “sucked eggs” during his try-out, it sounds like time has encouraged a bit more introspection. Mainly, the self-professed fanboy’s love for Stewart and Star Trek ended up screwing him over.
“I was horrible. I was God-awful in the audition, because I was fanboying out so hard to be in the same room with Jean-Luc Picard,” Marsters said. “I could see his face and he was pulling for me, he’s trying to get me to act with him. And I could see in his eyes, ‘Wow this is not working at all, this kid is terrible.’”
Marsters added that he’s never gotten a chance to make amends with Stewart for his terrible audition, though he’s been tempted to get other Star Trek actors to plead his case for him. Luckily, Spike seems to be doing all right now. He’s playing Victor Stein, the villainous scientist father of Chase in Hulu’s upcoming superhero series Marvel’s Runaways.
[Syfy]