Fast and Furious

Big-shot Buffy scribe David Fury discusses monsters, evil divas and kung-fu grip.

December 6, 2000

If you're a fan of Buffy's behind-the-scenes Scooby Gang -- that is to say, the sharp-witted writing staff that puts the sassy quips in the mouths of Slayer and Co. -- then you are no doubt well-acquainted with the Fury Mystique.

The Fury, aka supervising producer and writer David Fury, is the man who put Anya in that bunny suit in "Fear, Itself," turned the Sunnydale High swim team into fish-boys in "Go Fish," and blew a bunch of stuff up in "Primeval." And because of these antics, he's become a favorite of the fans, often stopping by the Buffy posting board to spread a little goodwill...and maybe a fake spoiler or three. "Fake rumors?" queries Fury, feigning wide-eyed innocence. "Me? Who? What??"

Yes, you, Mr. Fury. Though he's the subject of several devoted Web sites (including Fury's Fanatics) and the namesake of the "David Fury Fanfic Award," Fury says that the whole mystique thing is purely accidental. "Honestly, I've done nothing intentional to create a mystique about me!" he laughs. "Certainly, I like to have fun when I'm on the boards, as opposed to going on and simply answering questions in a straightforward manner -- it's a little playground, as far as we're concerned, and I enjoy going on."

Fury, who grew up in Old Bethpage, New York, honed his writing chops in the comedy troupe Brain Trust, and on sitcoms such as The Jackie Thomas Show and Life's Work before landing on Buffy.

In a recent phone conversation, he chatted it up with me about spoilers, monsters, and of course...the soon-to-be-world-famous Whedon Players.

IGN Sci-Fi: You seem to have a knack for writing the evil divas on the show, like Harmony (Mercedes McNab) in "Real Me" and then Glory (Clare Kramer) in "Shadow." Where does that come from?

Fury: Um...my intense fear of women? No! They're two really funny characters. And until this season, I never really had the chance to write for Harmony -- or for Glory, obviously, since she didn't appear 'til this season. It was great fun writing Harmony as evil villain -- we weren't sure how to accomplish that, we knew [Buffy mastermind] Joss [Whedon] had the idea of Harmony being the villain, and since we'd never see her do that...how does she talk to her minions? I came up with the idea that she's president of the prom committee. She talks to them like they just decorated the gymnasium [affects sunny Harmony voice]: "Good job, everyone!" And that became the key to writing her.

As far as Glory, Doug Petrie wrote her first in episode five, and he kind of set the standard for the rest of us. Some of it was written by Joss, and some of it was written by Doug, and I'm just following their lead with that one.

IGN Sci-Fi: So what's coming up for our beloved Scooby Gang?

Fury: I can tell you nothing! You will get nothing out of me! Things will change drastically on the show, whether it's losing characters or gaining new characters -- there will be some major events that happen that will change the focus of the series. And how that comes about...we'll just have to wait and see. As usual, at the end of the season, there will be a huge cataclysmic, apocalyptic event and it will drastically alter things for the future.

IGN Sci-Fi: And is it safe to say that Glory is the Big Bad for this season?

Fury: I think it's safe to say that, yeah. There will be other surprises within that. We don't quite know what Glory is about yet. We know she's after The Key, which is Dawn. But we don't know what The Key is yet, and it will all become clear. And some other people will reveal themselves to be a part of her plans, and then some new characters will enter into the scene. [Pause] How vague is that? Could I be a little bit more vague? Is this how I'm creating the mystique about me?

IGN Sci-Fi: Nah, pretty much everyone I talk about involved with Buffy has to be that way...they fear the wrath of Whedon.

Fury: [Laughing] Well, yes we do! But, early on in this season, I had said much about what was going to happen this season, and I regretted it later. Not that I was in any trouble, but I want people to kind of discover it on their own, and to everybody who's into spoilers, I just say, "Stop! Just say no to spoilers!" You know, enjoy the show, be surprised by it, it's much more enjoyable that way.

IGN Sci-Fi: Now I heard that you'd actually like to make a cameo on the show...

Fury: [Laughs] There's been talk about me doing stuff. I gave up a couple of roles on Angel, and there was an opportunity on Buffy...I was an actor for many years, and I do want to continue doing that, but sometimes I feel self-conscious about taking a job away from a working actor. I feel for them. For me to take a guest star role, or even a small supporting role, is taking a job away from an actor...which isn't to say I won't do it eventually! When I feel right about it, I'll probably wind up making an appearance somewhere.

IGN Sci-Fi: And if there were no restrictions, if you could sort of write a role for yourself, what would it be?

Fury: Oh, I would definitely be a monster of some kind, I would be a demon, a thing, but one which has a good deal of humor, and is not just your run-of-the-mill rubber-masked guy screaming and throwing kicks at Buffy. I wouldn't want to be some teacher or something that appears for a scene and leaves. I would love to be swathed in make-up and get to be a part of the Big Bad [thing].

IGN Sci-Fi: So you'd get to do the whole cool monster thing, but without getting staked...

Fury: I don't mind getting staked! [Laughs] I'd get to see myself explode into dust! How many people have that opportunity in their lives? If I appear, I certainly don't expect it to be a regular role, so it wouldn't really matter to me whether I was killed or not. And if I'm not killed, maybe I'll come back a year later as something. We'll have to see if the fans call for it! If after they see my acting, they say, "We want to see more!" maybe I'll be back. If they say, "Please don't let Fury act again!" then I'll be staked or chopped into little bits.

IGN Sci-Fi: So is there anything you want to do on the show that you haven't been able to?

Fury: There have been a lot of things that I've written that were really cool that were just prohibitively expensive and we were not able to do. But if the opportunity arises for a Buffy movie...or we're in the early stages right now for a Buffy animated series, in which case, a lot of those ideas that are too expensive, we'll be able to accomplish.

I think the biggest challenge for us is to make our demons and monsters believable and interesting with a limited budget of special effects. I mean, generally, they end up being stunt men in rubber suits, as opposed to being something that doesn't look human. And I try to get away from the look of two legs, two arms, a head, two eyes, and try to something different. In fact in "Shadow," the snake creature that we wound up using, originally, I was imagining something very, very different, more amorphous, almost like a giant amoeba kind of thing, that we unfortunately can't accomplish. We can't quite get it there.

So that's one of the limited natures of doing the show, you'd like to be a little more creative with the danger on the show, and sometimes you just have to step back and say, "It's a guy in a suit of armor. There's your danger. Let's just move on." The creatures are generally the allegory, they're symbolic. It's the emotional truth of the show that's important, not the size of the creature.

IGN Sci-Fi: But if you ever make a movie: monsters all over the place, right?

Fury: Oh, yeah! Oh, my God, yes. Some really good ones. Really gross.

IGN Sci-Fi: Amber Benson said that I need to tell you that you make a great Theseus. What's that all about?

Fury: Well, Joss has Shakespeare readings at his house every week, just for fun. He gets a whole bunch of food and invites the writers and the actors and we come and read Shakespeare aloud. Theseus is the role I played in Midsummer Night's Dream, my debut in Joss' backyard! And Amber was quite the Helena. I think this week, we're reading Taming of the Shrew and I'm waiting to hear what I'm playing. Joss...I don't know where he gets his energy from! Between running two shows, he has the time to produce Shakespeare on the weekend...

IGN Sci-Fi: He's got the Whedon Players on the side...

Fury: Yes, the Whedon Players! Meanwhile, he's creating and writing comic books...I don't think the man sleeps. And I think there must be three of him.

IGN Sci-Fi: That's another plot for the show, I think...

Fury: Yes, as we did two Xanders, we'll do three Josses. [Laughs]

IGN Sci-Fi: Last question: what does the David Fury action figure come with?

Fury: Oh my God! Kung-fu grip!

IGN Sci-Fi: Everyone wants kung-fu grip!

Fury: Well, yeah, what's cooler than kung-fu grip? I mean, if you have to grab something, grab it with kung-fu grip! That and a large codpiece...no, no, forget I said that! And good hair. Give me good hair. Don't give me that painted on hair thing. If real human hair can be accomplished on my action figure, that would be nice. And I'm kind of a hairy guy, so just put it all over my body. You don't often see chest hair on an action figure, so if you can accomplish that, I think that would be a real collectible.

--Sarah Kuhn is working on her own mystique.