Buffy the Vampire Slayer Trivia Facts

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"'Something weird is going on.' Isn't that our school motto?"
Xander Harris, Buffy the Vampire Slayer

1. Bianca Lawson (Kendra Young) is the step-sister of Beyoncé


Bianca Lawson is an American actress who is best known for her work in television. She has had roles in a number of different television series, such as Saved by the Bell: The New Class, Goode Behavior, Pretty Little Liars, Rogue, Sister, Sister, Buffy the Vampire Slayer, The Steve Harvey Show, Dawson's Creek, The Secret Life of the American Teenager, The Vampire Diaries, Teen Wolf, Witches of East End and Queen Sugar. In 1997, Lawson was cast in the role of Kendra Young, a Vampire Slayer, in season 2 of Buffy the Vampire Slayer. Kendra was a vampire slayer from Jamaica who was activated in 1997 after Buffy Summers died briefly while fighting the Master. Kendra was a very different fighter to Buffy, but the two of them were still able to become close friends and form a powerful fighting combo. Lawson was born in Los Angeles, California on 20 March 1979 to Denise Gordy, an actress and singer, and Richard Lawson, a film and television actor. Her parents were married in 1978 and divorced in 1989. Her father then went on to take a second wife, Tina Knowles, in 2015. Tina Knowles is the mother of singers Beyoncé and Solange Knowles, which makes Bianca Lawson their step-sister.

2. A different actress played Willow in the unaired Buffy pilot


The Buffy the Vampire Slayer pilot was a thirty-minute video that was written and directed by Joss Whedon that was used as a pitch to get the series picked up by a television network. The pilot is pretty rough and has some cannon changes, but the overall story and dialogue are mostly the same, which are later seen in the series premiere “Welcome to the Hellmouth”. One of the most fascinating things about the pilot is we get a glimpse of the original actress who won the role of Willow Roseberg before the role was recast and Alyson Hannigan took over the part. Riff Regan plays Willow Rosenberg in the pilot. She tries her best in the role but fails to bring the same charm to it that Hannigan did.

3. Pedro Pascal was a guest star in the episode "The Freshman"


Pedro Pascal is a Chilean-American actor best known for his work in television as Din Djarin in the Star Wars television series The Mandalorian (2019) and as Joel Miller in the HBO drama series The Last of Us (2023). What some people might not know is early in his career, Pascal appeared as a guest star on Buffy the Vampire Slayer as the character Eddie in the season four episode "The Freshman". Buffy meets Eddie, a Freshman at the University of California, Sunnydale, in 1999 when she was first starting life as a student at college. Not long after meeting Buffy, Eddie was sired into a vampire and disappeared from campus. His absence worried Buffy, who had hoped the two of them could become friends. When the two of them meet again, Eddie has risen as a vampire. Buffy tells him she is sorry for what happened to him and then dusts him.

4. Amber Benson and James Marsters starred in a movie together called Chance (2002)


Amber Benson is an American actress, writer, director and producer who is best known for her role as Tara Maclay on the television series Buffy the Vampire Slayer. In 2002, Benson made her directing debut when she released an independent film project, Chance, which she also wrote, produced, and starred in. Benson starred in the film along-side James Marsters, her Buffy the Vampire Slayer co-star, who is known for his portrayal of the vampire Spike in the series. Chance explores the themes of sex, relationships, and reversing gender roles. Benson plays Chance, a 20-something slacker living in Los Angeles, who has gotten out of a bad relationship in which her boyfriend used sex for manipulation. Marsters plays her flatmate, Simon, who feels insecure about his body and needs to feel a real connection to a woman before being intimate. It is really interesting watching clips of Benson and Marsters act together in Chance. It is so weird seeing James Marsters look like Spike but speak with an American accent!

5. When Willow and Tara kiss and make up in "Entropy" Amber Bensen (Tara) got so swept up in the moment she accidentally slipped Alyson Hannigan (Willow) the tongue.


One of the most ground-breaking things that Buffy the Vampire Slayer did was introduce TV's first long-term lesbian relationship in the early 2000s. The relationship between Willow Rosenberg and Tara McClay was ground-breaking, but also suffered some problems. In season six, the couple suffers a break-up. In the episode "Entropy" we see them get back together again and it's an emotional moment. At ClexaCon 2019, Amber Benson spoke about the episode and how she felt about the emotional reunion. If you watch the video above and skip ahead to 39 minutes 29 seconds, a person in the audience asks Benson what was one of her favourite moments working with Alyson Hannigan. A giggling Benson confesses that when they had their big kiss in Entropy, she got a little bit too into the moment, and accidentally slipped Hannigan the tongue.

6. Anthony Stewart Head starred in the Nestcafe "Gold Blend" couple television advertising campaign


Long before he was Giles on Buffy the Vampire Slayer, Anthony Stewart Head had a starring role in a British advertising campaign for Nescafe’s “Gold Blend” instant coffee which ran from 1987 to 1993. The campaign told a story in a serial format, with each new episode ending on a cliffhanger, about a couple named Tony and Sharon, played by Head and Sharon Maughan, who begin a relationship over a cup of coffee. The commercials were so popular, they were introduced into the American market, with Head and Maughan reprising their roles but with American accents.

7. Juliet Landau (Drusilla) is Martin Landau's daughter


Juliet Landau is an American actress, director, producer and ballerina who played the iconic role of Drusilla on Buffy the Vampire Slayer and the spin-off show Angel for twenty-four episodes between 1997 and 2004. Drusilla was a cunning, unpredictable and dangerous vampire who possessed psychic powers, suffered from childish bouts of insanity, and liked to speak in riddles. Landau brought her to life with a haunting, child-like energy, that she described as a part Victorian, part Kate Moss heroin fashion chic look. One interesting fact about Juliet Landau is that she is the daughter of Academy award-winning American actor Martin Landau. Martin Landau started his career in the 1950s with an appearance in Alfred Hitchcock's film North by Northwest (1959) alongside Cary Grant. He played major roles on television throughout the 1960s and 1970s, appearing on the series Mission: Impossible (1966 to 1969) and Space: 1999 (1975 to 1977). He continued to act until 2017 and has a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame.

8. Sarah Michelle Gellar starred in a Buffy/Seinfeld spoof on Saturday Night Live


On 17 January 1998, Sarah Michelle Gellar made her first appearance as a host on Saturday Night Live. In a highly entertaining skit, Gellar reprises her role as Buffy Summers, but in a Seinfeld-inspired reboot where all of the characters are vampires. I can’t believe I never knew about this skit. It is such a wonderful mash-up of Seinfeld and Buffy the Vampire Slayer. I love the vampire make-up, Will Farrell is excellent as vampire Jerry, Jim Breuer kills it as vampire Cosmo Kramer, and Gellar does a great job acting like Elaine Benes and Buffy Summers.

9.Sunnydale High School is a real-life high school


In season 1 to 3 of Buffy the Vampire Slayer, Buffy attended Sunnydale Highschool with her friends Willow and Xander. Sunnydale Highschool was a public high school located in Sunnydale, California. The school was located over a Hellmouth, a magical portal between Earth and Hell, that attracted vampires, demons and monsters to the town of Sunnydale. The influence of the Hellmouth was so strong, Sunnydale High School was the site of several prominent supernatural events and mysterious deaths over the course of several decades. Buffy played a huge role in helping to protect the students in the school from 1997 until she famously blew up in the school in 1999 at her graduation. The exterior shots of Sunnydale High School were shot at a real-life high school located in Torrence, California. Torrence Highschool has been a popular filming location for television shows and motion picture films for years. In addition to being featured on Buffy the Vampire Slayer, the school was used as West Beverly High School in Beverly Hills, 90210 and the spin-off series 90210. It also appeared as Ulysses S. Grant High School in The Secret Life of the American Teenager from 2008 to 2013 and was used as a filming location in the Fox Network series Skin and the NBC drama Medium. The school has since become a popular tourist spot for nostalgic fans of Buffy the Vampire Slayer to come and visit to pay homage to the show.

10. Tom Lenk was one of Harmony's vampire minions before appearing in season six as Andrew Wells.


Tom Lenk is an American actor who is best known for playing Andrew Wells (you know, Tucker's brother) on Buffy the Vampire Slayer and Angel. Lenk could arguably be described as one of the funniest actors ever to appear on Buffy the Vampire Slayer and Angel. Lenk is openly gay and was chosen for the role of Andrew because Joss Whedon considered him to be very funny and was open to the idea of letting his sexuality shape the character of Andrew. Lenk went on to portray Andrew as being hopelessly unaware of his own sexuality, which led to him being a very charming, and hilarious character. What some people might not know is that Andrew Wells was not the first character that Tom Lenk played on Buffy the Vampire Slayer. Before he joined the Trio, Lenk appeared in the season five episode "Real Me" as the vampire Cyrus. Cyrus was a member of Harmony' s gang and was part of a plot to kidnap Dawn Summers to lure Buffy Summers into a trap. He was dusted by Buffy with a crossbow when she showed up to save her sister.

More Buffy the Vampire Slayer Articles by Marisa
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The Best Joyce Summers Moments from Buffy the Vampire Slayer

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