Buffy’s Charisma Carpenter Says ‘Slayers’ Is ‘Personal’

Charisma Carpenter is again as Cordelia Chase — and returning to the Buffyverse in Audible Unique Slayers wasn’t a call she made flippantly.

“[I had] little little bit of apprehension after I first was requested to hitch, however these feelings and emotions, open wound emotions had been instantly massaged by Amber [Benson]’s pitch in that I heard her enthusiasm,” Carpenter solely informed Us Weekly whereas on the Slayers activation at New York Comedian Con on October 14.

Benson, who portrayed Tara Maclay, and Christopher Golden began engaged on Slayers in 2020 after studying Audible had rights to work on an unique challenge set within the universe of Buffy the Vampire Slayer (which aired from 1997 to 2003). They created a nine-episode audio story set in 2013 that introduces a brand new slayer, Indira (Laya DeLeon Hayes), who crosses paths with a unique Cordelia from an alternate universe — one the place she wasn’t the imply cheerleader in highschool. She was as a substitute destined to be the lone vampire slayer, and Buffy Summers doesn’t exist.

Buffy followers is perhaps shocked to see Carpenter return to the Buffyverse after she opened up about her experiences behind the scenes. In 2021, Carpenter was the primary of a number of stars who got here ahead to accuse Buffy showrunner Joss Whedon of abusing his energy and exhibiting “hostile and poisonous” conduct. It could’ve been comprehensible if she selected to go away Cordelia previously, however Carpenter wished to embrace Cordy’s power as a substitute.

“It’s private for me. I’ve lived with Cordelia,” Carpenter informed Us. “I carried out her for about 10 years of my life, and I really feel she, as a personality, knowledgeable me, the girl that performed her. It’s wealthy to me. The thought of coming into my very own energy as a younger girl by way of a personality that then I ended up utilizing that energy in a method to converse out towards the creator of that energy. … What I imply to say is that in plenty of methods, Cordelia gave start to Charisma and actually knowledgeable who I’m right this moment, and it was so highly effective that I used to be capable of do very onerous issues at a really crucial time in my life. And I feel that’s the final Buffyverse story — discovering out what your objective is and utilizing it to make the world a greater place.”

In the end, it was Benson and Golden who satisfied Carpenter to hitch.

“[Amber is] a nurturer, and so is Christopher,” Carpenter defined. “Figuring out that I’d be secure in that function once more was actually the factor that gained me over. I knew I might belief them.”

Emma Caulfield, who returns as an alternate universe Anya, was slightly extra blunt when she informed Us about her response to coming again: “I mentioned, ‘F—ok no.’”

Benson’s pitch, nevertheless, had her hooked. “I really like her. We’re buddies, so we all know our bags. We all know the historical past, we’ve lived it,” Caulfield, 50, shared. “After which she simply gave me the complete pitch and that was it. I used to be like, ‘Oh honey, I’m in. one hundred pc. I’ll do no matter you do.’”

Followers watched Cordelia die on Buffy spinoff Angel whereas Anya met her demise within the unique collection finale. Benson wished to make use of the Audible collection to work with characters who didn’t have pleased endings within the TV present universe.

“For me, the inroad to being like, ‘OK, I actually need to do that,’ is the concept of Charisma Carpenter, being Cordelia the Vampire Slayer. … Due to the best way plenty of these characters didn’t fairly have the endings that we might’ve wished them to have, so we’re like, ‘Nicely, we’d like a multiverse.’”

Benson added, “We are able to reside on this world. The followers get to have one thing that feels secure and great.”

Along with Benson, Carpenter and Caulfield, returning stars embody James Marsters as Spike, James Charles Leary as Clem, Juliet Landau as Drusilla, Anthony Stewart Head as Giles, Phina Oruche as Olivia and Danny Robust as Ghost Jonathan.

The solid hopes that followers need to return to their nook of the Buffyverse for Slayers season 2.

“After every single day, we had been like, ‘We’re going to do one other one, proper?’” Caulfield recalled to Us. “We now have to do as many as we will. There’s a lot to say on this house. … I’d like to begin tomorrow.”

The primary season of Slayers is accessible now on Audible.