Danny Strong. Photo copyright of HBO.
I recently discovered several interviews I did a number of years ago that, for one reason or another, were never published. Rather than have them continue to gather "dust" in my computer, I thought I would share them with you. In this interview, actor/writer/producer Danny Strong talks about playing Jonathan Levinson on the hit TV series Buffy the Vampire Slayer.
When you’re in high school your peers usually see you as being a jock, one of the popular crowd, or a nerdy loner. Initially, Buffy The Vampire Slayer’s Jonathan Levinson seemed to be the latter. His fellow students never paid much attention to him, but as time passed all that changed. People began to take more notice of Jonathan when, among other things, he attempted suicide, helped Buffy defeat a demon, and decided to see what it was like to be the bad guy. Without a doubt, he has become a much more colourful character for Danny Strong to play. However, like Jonathan’s evolution, it took a while for the actor to land the role.
“My first audition for Buffy was for the part of Xander in the show’s pilot presentation,” explains Strong. “I worked on the material, went in, did my thing, and nothing came of it. I didn’t even get a callback. I must have really wowed them, huh?” he jokes. “A couple of months later, the program’s casting director had me back in to meet with Joss Whedon [series creator and executive producer]. I tried out for some of the smaller parts and was hired for a one-line role in the pilot. During the show’s first season I read for a couple of guest-star parts but didn’t get them. Then, about a year-and-a-half later, out of the blue they offered me the role of Jonathan. It was a nice surprise because I figured they’d forgotten about me. Boy, was I wrong.”
Strong’s debut in the second season Buffy episode Inca Mummy Girlcould have easily turned into his character’s swan song. In it, Jonathan meets a South African foreign exchange student, Ampata (Ara Celi), who just happens to be a 500-year-old Inca mummy that survives by consuming the life forces of others. “Here’s this lonely guy that had the chance to kiss a girl and ends up not wanting to. Luckily for Jonathan, he sensed that something wasn’t quite right with this chick,” says the actor. “Too bad, though, because the actress who played her was so beautiful and a real sweetheart. I liked her a lot.
“I really enjoyed shooting the episode. I only had a couple of scenes and after my first day of work, people like Nick Brendon [Xander] came up to me and said, ‘You’re doing a fantastic job. We’re trying to convince the producers not to kill off your character.’ Everyone was so nice and they made it sound as if there might be a future for Jonathan. Much to my surprise, he survived and since then I’ve been a part of the show.”
The actor reprised his role of Jonathan in a handful of second season Buffy episodes and was asked back a number of times the following year. A big turning point for his character came in the gripping third season story Earshot in which Jonathan tries to commit suicide. “That was the first episode that really gave me some scenery to crew on,” notes Strong. “Up to that point I’d kind of been the snappy one-liner guy, and I wanted to do more with Jonathan. Funnily enough, it was also around this time that I was becoming more established as an actor. For instance, my role on Clueless was turning into one of that show’s biggest recurring characters. I was worried that if I kept doing one-liners on Buffy I might actually end up limiting myself when it came to future jobs.
“Of course, I didn’t know how to explain this to the Buffy producers. What ended up happening was that when they asked me to do the next episode I said I wasn’t available. Afterwards, I just figured Jonathan’s time on the series was over and I completely accepted that. However, Joss and his team of writers must have read between the lines because not long after I received a phone call asking if I’d like to do Earshot. When they told me about the story I was totally blown away. Naturally, I said, ‘Yes.’ The episode was so well-written and it had such an intensity to it. I was thrilled that I had the chance to do it.”
Fortunately, Buffy (Sarah Michelle Gellar) intervenes during the climax of Earshot and stops Jonathan from killing himself. In an effort to deal with his emotional problems he decides to enter group therapy. However, in the fourth season episode Superstar, Jonathan tries taking a shortcut to happiness by casting an augmentation spell. As a result, he turns Sunnydale into an alternate reality where everyone perceives him as the ideal person. Unknown to him, Jonathan’s spell also creates an evil monster that terrorizes the town and it’s up to him and Buffy to stop it.
“Imagine how flattered I was with Earshot and multiply that by a million. That’s how I felt when I got to do Superstar,” enthuses Strong. “After all, how many TV shows do you know of where a small recurring character gets an entire story written about him or her. I even got to be in the show’s opening credits. Not only was the episode a fantasy of mine as an actor but also of Jonathan’s. I especially loved when Jonathan sang, and it wasn’t even my voice you heard because I can’t sing,” jokes the actor. “It was, in fact, Brad Kane, who’s the voice of Aladdin in the Aladdin movies. Still, I had fun standing in front of the cameras and pretending to croon like Frank Sinatra. It was a pretty good lip-sync job even if I do say so myself.”
In the sixth season Buffy episode Flooded, Jonathan joined forces with fellow nerds Warren (Adam Busch) and Andrew (Tom Lenk) and together the trio became Buffy’s newest nemesis, The Troika. At first, they were more of a tease than a threat, especially as one of their goals was to hypnotize Buffy and turn the Slayer into their love slave. However, as the season unfolded, they proved to be much more of a danger to her and the rest of the Scooby gang.
“Flooded was the start of what turned into a great friendship between myself, Adam and Tom,” says Strong. “We immediately clicked and I’ll always remember working with those guys. The three of us were at the same point in our careers, so we wanted to do a really good job but at the same time we managed to have some fun. We were pretty much isolated from the rest of the cast until the season finale, so we formed a tight bond. It was a unique situation.
“As for Jonathan’s relationship with the guys, he was probably annoyed with Andrew because of his incompetence. With Warren, he was intimidated by him, and at the same time in conflict with him. Warren’s agenda was one of real violence, and I think Jonathan originally joined The Troika just to impress girls. However, when things began turning ugly he probably thought, ‘Wait a sec, this isn’t what I signed up for,’ but he was afraid to challenge Warren’s authority.”
One of Strong’s favourite Troika episodes is Dead Things. In it, the nerds try to turn Warren’s ex-girlfriend Katrina (Amelinda Emery) into their willing slave but their plan backfires and she is accidentally killed. They decide to cast a spell to trick Buffy into believing she is responsible.
“In the stories prior to this one the show’s writers had strayed into high comedy territory with these guys and it felt like there was nowhere else to go with them,” he says. “Then, all of a sudden, in Dead Things they went from being The Three Stooges to murderers. We were all excited to do something so dark. I found it a challenge to shoot the scenes in which the trio killed Katrina and I remember how satisfied I was with my work at the end of the day.”
Not long after Dead Things, Jonathan begins to have second thoughts about what The Troika have been up to. In the episode Seeing Red he goes behind Warren’s back and betrays him to Buffy. “Everyone always thought that Jonathan had a crush on Buffy,” says Strong. “Not me. I’d always felt that she was so far out of his league that he never thought about actually being in love with her. Jonathan does, however, love her like a sister. So much so that he helped save her from Warren. No one, either on the series or off-screen, has ever truly acknowledged that in Seeing Red he whispered in Buffy’s ear and told her how to defeat Warren. That was a major turning point in their relationship.”
At the end of Buffy’s sixth year, The Troika incurred Willow’s (Alyson Hannigan) wrath after they murdered her girlfriend Tara (Amber Benson). Warren suffered an agonizing death at her hands, but with some help from Buffy and her friends, Jonathan and Andrew escaped to Mexico. They returned to Sunnydale this (seventh) season, and in the episode Conversations With Dead People Jonathan was killed. However, in true Buffy tradition no one ever truly “dies.”
“Joss Whedon had already told me that I was coming back to do more episodes,” recalls Strong. “So with Conversations I didn’t get this sense of, ‘Oh, no, this is my last time on Buffy.’ When it came time to do the scene where my character is stabbed to death it was really late and everyone wanted to go home. So it was less about, ‘Jeez, we’re killing Jonathan,’ and more, ‘Let’s get this done so we can leave.’ Trust me, if it was my character’s swan song on the series I would have been far more sentimental.”
Born and raised in Manhattan Beach, California, Strong was a freshman when he began performing in high school plays. Upon graduating, he went on to study theatre arts at the University of Southern California. During his four years there, the actor appeared onstage in several productions, and in his sophomore year he performed with the USC Rep Company at the Edinburgh Fringe Festival. As a junior, he won the USC’s James Pendleton Award for Acting. Strong’s first paying job after graduating was a TV commercial for Doritos tortilla chips.
“I did the ad with Dean Cain [former star of Lois and Clark: The New Adventures of Superman],” says the actor. “I remember being on the set that first day and feeling completely at home.’ People said to me, ‘You’ve done this before, right?’ and I told them, ‘Nope, this is my first time.’ They went on to say, ‘Well, you fit right in.’ That helped reaffirm in my mind that I had made the right career choice.”
Strong continued doing commercials while also booking guest spots on such popular TV shows as 3rd Rock From The Sun and Seinfeld. Besides the aforementioned Clueless, he also had recurring roles on two other series, Saved By The Bell: The New Class and Over the Top. His feature film credits include Lasting Silents, Pleasantville and Perpetrators of the Crime. This April, he can be seen in the independent feature New Suit. “It’s a film about development executives in Hollywood and I play a real sleaze-bag,” chuckles the actor. “It was a lot of fun getting to do that.”
Looking back over his body of work on Buffy, Strong could not be happier with the evolution of his character. “Jonathan has grown quite a bit. He started out as a shy, lonely nebbish who desperately wanted to be accepted and have friends. Throughout the course of his villainy last season, I think he realized that there are no quick answers. I love the speech he made right before he died in Conversations With Dead People. Jonathan came to understand that life is all about being yourself and trying to do what’s right. Makes sense, doesn’t it?”
Strong's recent credits include guest-spots on Leverage and How I Met Your Mother as well as a recurring role on Mad Men. He has also written and co-produced the 2011 made-for-TV movie Game Change.
Steve Eramo
As noted above, photo copyright of HBO, so please no unauthorized copying or duplicating of any kind. Thanks!
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