James Marsters Wants to Reprise TV Roles

James Marsters has a message for the producers of “Smallville” and “Torchwood”–call me.

The actor said he’d be interested in a return visit to both shows. However, talking to MTV, Marsters said that his own popularity could be a stumbling block to his returning.

“The problem is that my manager talked them into paying me a whole lot of money,” Marsters told MTV News. “When I heard how much, I thought that we’d probably be talking about Brainiac a whole lot and seeing him just a few times.”

Marsters also said he wanted to return to visit Captain Jack and the Torchwood crew, but it’d be season four at the earliest before his character was back.

Marsters also expressed an interest in heading back to work with Joss Whedon, whether it be reprising his role as Spike from “Buffy” and “Angel” or a guest-stint on “Dollhouse.” An offer to be in “Dollhouse” hasn’t come in yet but Marsters says as soon as it is, he’s there.

Marsters is also still interested in doing a spin-off featuring Spike, but says time is running out for how long he can portray the ageless vampire Spike.

“Oh, yeah, when Angel was coming down, [creator] Joss [Whedon] came to me and said, ‘Do you want to do a Spike project?'” Marsters said. “And I said, ‘Heck yes. In fact, whatever you want to do, whether it’s Spike or not, wherever I am in the world, just call me. I’ll come running. But you have seven years, Joss, because I don’t want to do Spike aging. Let’s keep him the same age, and I think that I can hold that look for about seven years before it starts to become too different.’ Maybe there’s a few more years, but at this point, really it would all have to do with a camera test. Can we light my face in such a way that it’s still in the same ballpark as what the audience is used to? If that’s possible, then I think that it would be a good thing to do.”

Marsters says he feels he’s got about one more year to play Spike before he becomes too old for the role.

Marsters’ plan for Spike is to finally step up and get what he wants. “I would like to see Spike proactively accomplish something for himself, not be a guinea pig or along for the ride, but to actually decide that he needs something and go get it for himself,” Marsters said. “That would be nice.”

Unfortunately, as it always goes with Buffy, the Spike series would be a tough sell to the networks. “I think that Buffy has always been swimming upstream,” Marsters said. “It’s always been fighting uphill. It’s no different now. You would have to really get behind it and sell it, even if Sarah [Michelle Gellar] were the lead. But asking the powers that be to put their money behind a secondary character of that show, there’s just resistance. I think if Sarah wants to come back, I’ll jump on behind her again, but I think that’s the way there would probably be something else.”