Alyson Hannigan in reviving Buffy, acting with CGI squirrels and why she wants to move to Australia
Alyson Hannigan reveals how she feels about the long-speculated Buffy reboot and how she would feel about a move to Australia.
Alyson Hannigan says she’s open to being part of a revival of Buffy the Vampire Slayer – but quite frankly, she’ll believe it when she sees it.
Plans for a return of the cult fantasy-drama, which ran for seven seasons from 1997 to 2003, have been circulating for years, but so far nothing has come to fruition. And with some original cast members recently accusing show creator Joss Whedon of inappropriate behaviour on set, it seems further away than ever.
“I am always like ‘I will believe it when I see it’ but always open and optimistic someone is going to do something,” says Hannigan, in an interview that took place just before the drama unfolded. “I’ll definitely be the first one at my set watching and it’s cool there is an audience that wants it to happen. So hopefully it does take off.”
Hannigan says she would even consider reprising her part as Buffy’s best friend, witch Willow Rosenberg, but she’s also wary of messing with the beloved show’s legacy. The trailblazing teen drama – where she also met her husband Alexis Denisof – is still close to her heart, and she has so far remained silent on the claims raised by castmate Charisma Carpenter that Whedon “abused his power”. “I never say never and I am always open to it but I am also very particular, especially with Buffy, where it would have to be good enough for the fans,” she says. “I wouldn’t want to tarnish what was so special to so many people.”
Hannigan, who went on to star in the hit American Pie franchise and the long-running sitcom How I Met Your Mother, says the skills she learned on Buffy held her in good stead on her new family comedy Flora & Ulysses, based on the children’s novel of the same name about a young girl and her friendship with a super-powered squirrel.
As the magical Willow, Hannigan frequently had to face fantastical beasts threatening suburban Sunnydale, so acting opposite a computer-generated rodent was relatively simple.
“I guess I am used to it because of all my years on Buffy when there was a lot of looking at things that were not therem,” she says with a laugh. “So a squirrel was rather easy because I am familiar with squirrels and I love squirrels.”
“It’s influenced my decision-making 100 per cent,” she says of being a mother. “Even if it’s not a project I am going to do because I know they are going to like it or will be able to watch it, it’s just taking something because ‘is it going to fit in with our life?’. I am not the parent who is just going to be ‘OK – I am going away for three months, see ya!'”
With travel off the agenda for the foreseeable future and her adopted home in los Angeles still in various stages of lockdown, regular visitor Hannigan says she cast her gaze Down Under more than once over the past year.
“There was a point in the pandemic where I started researching schools in Australia,” she says. “I was like, ‘maybe we can move over there’. I found a great school that I wanted to enrol myself in because the electives were street art and barista. I was like ‘kids are learning how to make coffee – this is awesome. Let’s go!’ Sign us up, we’re all there, I’m ready and packed.”
Flora & Ulysses is now streaming on Disney+
Original article at News.com.au
This article has been reproduced for archive purposes.
