From: daviderl31@yahoo.com   
      
   https://www.assignmentx.com/2017/buffy-the-vampire-slayer-actor-   
   amden-toy-pt-2-exclusive-interview/   
      
   In honor of the 20th anniversary of Joss Whedon’s groundbreaking BUFFY THE   
   VAMPIRE SLAYER, we interviewed actor Camden Toy, who played three different   
   terrifying characters on that series, and a more comedic one in the final   
   series of the BUFFY spin-off ANGEL.   
      
   In Part 1 of our exclusive interview, Toy talked about playing one of the   
   silent, gliding Gentlemen in BUFFY’s near-wordless “Hush” episode. In   
   Part   
   2, Toy talks his other two BUFFY roles, the sing-songy skin-eating demon   
   Gnarl in the episode “Same Time, Same Place,” and the primal Ubervamp in   
   multiple Season 7 episodes, his work on ANGEL and a recent episode of   
   SHAMELESS, and the fan convention scene   
      
   ASSIGNMENT X: After you did “Hush” in Season 4, they brought you back in   
   BUFFY Season 7 to play Gnarl …   
      
   CAMDEN TOY: Yeah. I stayed in touch with the casting people, and for   
   whatever reason, they didn’t bring me in for anything. And [then] I got a   
   call from [casting director] Loni Hamerman in Season 7 for that role. And   
   she’s like, “Hey, I haven’t talked to you in awhile,” and I was like,   
   “Yeah,   
   it’s been awhile” [laughs]. Things had kind of slowed down in my acting   
   career, so I actually went back to one of my earlier careers, which was as a   
   film editor. I was a film editor for many years right out of high school,   
   cutting documentaries and National Geographic documentaries. I even had the   
   pleasure of working with Thelma Schoonmaker for about a year, who had cut   
   all of Scorsese’s films. I was very, very lucky. I was this wet behind the   
   ears nineteen-year-old, just in awe. Even then, she was sort of a superstar   
   [laughs], because she had cut WOODSTOCK, and we were all like, “Wow.” So I   
   returned to that.” And I had cut a number of shorts and feature films. And I   
   was in the middle of cutting a feature film with Kim Chan called ZEN NOIR,   
   which I recommend everybody check it out, because it’s a very unusual film.   
      
   Loni said, “Well, we’re having trouble casting this role” – which is   
   kind of   
   my career, in a way [laughs] – it’s like, “Oh, we’re having trouble   
   casting   
   this role, okay.” I can say this now, because of course it’s been years,   
   but   
   Jane Espenson, who wrote it, was kind of thinking of Gnarl as almost a   
   Gollum-like character, so she was thinking maybe a character actor, maybe a   
   small person, a small woman, whatever. They’re thinking “small actor.”   
   She   
   said, “We’re having trouble casting it.” So I guess what happened was,   
   everybody they had in wasn’t finding the essence of that role. “Our memory   
   is that you’re fairly thin.” “Yeah, but I’m not super-super-thin.   
   I’m not   
   fat, but I’m not thin.” “And our memory is that you’re not so tall.”   
   [laughs] “Yeah, but I’m not short, either. I’m five-nine.” I’m   
   average   
   height.   
      
   “Well, would you mind coming in and reading?” “Yeah, sure.” And of   
   course,   
   television shows often, once you’re on a show, they’re a little embarrassed   
   to ask you to read again. And I’m like, “I understand. The Gentleman was a   
   totally silent role [laughs] – you have no idea what I’m going to do with   
   dialogue.” “Oh, I’m so glad you understand.” So I went and got the   
   script on   
   Friday, and they gave me three or four pages. I was just bowled over with   
   this role. I was just, “Wow.” And I just played with it all weekend long.   
   And I’m a great believer as an actor in really just letting the role tell   
   you what it needs, really following the dialogue, following the writing, and   
   really letting it speak to you. Because there are all these gems that will   
   come up if you’re open to it. And that’s kind of what happened. I’d go,   
   “Oh,   
   he’s taunting her here. Oh, what if I do it like a sing-songy little kid   
   would – ‘No one comes to save you …’ Oh, yeah, that’s good.” So   
   there are   
   little things I kept discovering like that, all throughout. So I went in and   
   read for it and when I got the call later that day, it wasn’t even the next   
   day, they didn’t even say, “Hi, you got the role,” they said, “We need   
   to   
   get you into makeup immediately.” Because they were casting me so late.   
      
   AX: Do you know if they completely reconceived the makeup, or if Gnarl was   
   just a taller version of what they had in mind to begin with?   
      
   TOY: They had the design in drawings, so the actual design was kept, but it   
   was done on my body. And since there was a body suit, they did have to take   
   a mold of my entire body, my hands, my feet, my teeth, my head, my face. It   
   took a good part of a day to do it, but I don’t think the design was   
   altered. In the episode, I make myself very small. I’m a bit of a   
   shape-shifter, I’m a very physical performer, and that’s why often it’s   
   hard   
   for people to wrap their heads around the different characters I’ve played   
   on the show, because physically they’re so different.   
      
   AX: And later that season, you were the Ubervamp, the first of the feared   
   ancient vampires, for multiple episodes.   
      
   TOY: Yeah. That one happened kind of serendipitously. Because I think   
   originally they were thinking, “Well, we could just put a stunt guy in that.   
   He’s a killing machine, why would you need an actor?” And from what I’ve   
   heard through the grapevine, I think it was [executive producer] Marti Noxon   
   that went, “You know, we really need an actor to bring this to life, an   
   actor like Camden Toy.” And I think at that point, [special effects makeup   
   designer] Rob Hall was like, “Well, you know, we have all of his molds, so   
   we could actually start to sculpt now.” “Okay, cool.” It was really   
   sweet of   
   her to think of me for that. And then I worked with Ryan Lockman, my stunt   
   double. He and I, we used to be known on the set as [German accent] “the   
   Uber brothers,” He and I, John Medlen, who was the stunt coordinator at that   
   time, would get together every few days and continue to choreograph these   
   scenes. And they were really generous in allowing me, the actor, to give   
   feedback into the stunts and how the character moved and how he fought. I   
   just didn’t want him to be a typical chop-and-kick vampire. I really   
   conceived of him almost like the Tasmanian Devil, where when he was moving,   
   and we tried to think of swiping motions and spinning, so a lot more   
   spinning, a lot more swiping, a lot more aerial-type stuff. So we really   
      
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