How a one-shot character became a series mainstay.
It was exciting right from the start because, when Wesley joined Buffy, Joss really had just invented that character to be around for one or two shows. He ended up being a little funnier and a more enjoyable foil for the other characters than they expected.
So every week he would sidle up to me and say "I think we might have something for you in the next show, so are you going to be around?" I’d say "Yeah, yeah, I’ll be around", so that whole season ended up going by with Wesley finding something or other to do.
But, it wasn’t going to work to have him stay at Sunnydale. There was already a Watcher there, so it wouldn’t really be practical for him to stay there on a permanent basis.
Angel was just getting up onto its feet, so when they did see the way in which they wanted Wesley to join Angel investigations it opened up a world of possibilities for my character. Obviously we had to reshape him a lot because the man who was on Buffy was not a character that you would want to have around all the time on Angel.
There was a lot of reshaping and a lot of qualities that we talked about, that in the long run we would want to explore. We’re still in the middle of that. We’re shooting season three and there are some very radical differences in the character that have grown organically through the seasons. So it’s really been a nice journey and I’m so fortunate to have these creative people making it possible.
