StarFury Interview (11/11/2001)
- but only put online 4/21/2002.

From posts at:   http://groups.yahoo.com/group/clarekramer/
& Clare News:  http://gloryisagod.com/clarenews.html
"The Path to Miracle Worker and Goddess"- Spotlight on Clare

Another Clare Quite Personal and Quite Professional  Interview -
From Last November, but only put online 4/21/2002.

Just in time for her May 3-13, 2002 UK SF Tour...

 Aeris    http://www.clare-kramer.fr.st/
              http://www.buffys-spirit.fr.st/

 just told us about a 'new to us'  personal interview of Clare that's
online. It's from Nov 2001 behind the scenes at StarFury and focuses on her
personal and professional life, not just on her Glory Role as the other StarFury
Q&A did. Lots of personal/professional details and stuff.

Some nice images. Including one small one of her as Helen Keller.

At the end of the interview, there are references to her
second StarFury visit this week and the UK Tour that
follows. (May 3-13, 2002)

We'll get this one reformatted and on our site like the
companion StarFury Q&A one. They complement one
another well. (And here it is!)

http://www.gloryisagod.com/claresstarfury110901.html
http://gloryisagod.com/claregallery3.html
http://gloryisagod.com/clarenews.html

Reformatted and enhanced for readability from-
SOURCE:
http://www.cityofangel.com/behindTheScenes/news.php
http://www.cityofangel.com/behindTheScenes/bts2/kramerSpot.html
http://www.cityofangel.com/behindTheScenes/bts2/kramerSpot2.html

The images are really that small. For bigger photos see our StarFury gallery at:
http://gloryisagod.com/claregallery3.html

The Path to Miracle Worker and Goddess:    an Exclusive Spotlight on Clare Kramer                   4/21/2002 If variety is the spice of life, then Clare Kramer's career has one tasty future! In the middle of   her first Starfury Convention with British fans, the God who kicked Buffy's butt sat down with   CoA for a rare talk about stage, film, inspirations and of course, Glory.   Written by CoA Head Writer, Kristy Bratton   Read our Exclusive Spotlight

..

 "The Path to Miracle Worker and Goddess -
   an Exclusive Spotlight on Clare Kramer"

Take into consideration that her range has spanned such classical characters as Helen Keller,
a young girl without sight, hearing or speech, to the immortal Glory, a god hell bent on destroying
the world.

Not a bad resume for a young actress from Delaware, Ohio.

She took her love for the stage in a direction many attempt yet few conquer, but Clare Kramer
is an outstanding actress who has a unique outlook on her profession, or maybe that should
be 'inlook'.

She's the consummate professional, highly articulate and thought out in her responses;
then the relaxed young girl kicks in and she'll let drop a classic, 'Rad' or 'Dude, that's so awesome'.
Make no mistake, this is no valley-girl, Clare is just your average, easy going, 20-something
who is enjoying life.

There are a band of actors who'll study their craft; exploring it, discovering what it has to offer
them and what they can offer it in return, Clare is one of those unique individuals who sees
just a bit beyond the camera lens. She understands her characters, she reasons and connects
with them and she finds ways to portray them that are honest, colorful and quite a pleasure
for her fans to watch and explore.
 

During the Starfury Bad Girls Convention last November [i.e.,Nov 9-11, 2001] upstairs of the con
in the 'green room', our UK staff writer/photographer Julie Reynolds and myself had the unique
opportunity to interview someone who's never been on Angel, in fact, Glory had never
even met the guy, yet a character just as admired by his fans as the fans of his counter
vampire slayer, Buffy.

We started out the interview with a little bit of levity.

Two of the wonderfully overwhelming things about visiting England are the politeness of its people
and their accents! Julie, who has a Yorkshire accent but resides in Milton Keynes, asked Clare if
she would mind her snapping a few photos during the interview, to which Clare stared blankly
and asked after a brief pause, "What'd you say?"

To which I whispered, 'It's the accent.' "I know!"

Clare laughed, "Isn't that awful? I'd be like [during her previous question and answer panel],
'I'm sorry could you repeat that?' " Julie admitted that, "There're actually quite a lot of accents
down there [in the conference hall] as well. Even I don't understand some of them."

Still not quite sure of our present situation she asked Julie, "So, take pictures now? Or later?"
so Julie made it easier on Clare by saying, 'I was just going to take them sort of natural as we
go along.' "That's totally fine," responded Clare with a smile as she relaxed and settled in.

Growing up, Dancing and NYU ~

One of the more interesting aspects about the work that Clare involves herself in is the true
variety of it. It seems by looking at the film work she had done of late and her involvement in
Buffy, that she chooses her projects based on the pure enjoyment factor.

The characters may be similar but they aren't constantly the same and there is always a quality
that is challenging. It seems that she is always craving something different.

"I am, you hit the nail on the head," Clare affirms. "I want diversity, I want characters that are
different and I want projects that I'm going to enjoy doing, you know? Because if you're not
enjoying your work, what's the point?"

No bones about it, Clare cuts it right to the quick.

As a young girl, while figuring out what direction she wanted to follow, Clare was inspired by a
profession not so unlikely for little girls with dreams of being in the spotlight, only it's not what
you'd expect.

Her ultimate career choice wasn't so much a result of what influence brought her into acting as
what the option was that drove her away from her first passion. "Well, when I was young-young,
I always wanted to be a ballet dancer," admits Clare. "My mom was a ballet dancer up until before
I was born then she, obviously, stopped dancing and started teaching Kindergarten. I always took
ballet and loved it, and thought this was going to be fabulous and a great career. Then the older
I got I was like, 'That's a really hard job, where you can't eat,' " she emphasizeswith a giggle."

"So I was kind of looking at different things and just settled into acting. And then once I started
studying the craft and the history of acting, that's when I really fell in love with it."

Clare started to become serious about action [acting?] during her freshmen year of college.

An interesting fact of the Joss Whedon alumni is that both Clare and Julie Benz (Darla) went to
New York University. Although the two never worked together, nor had met until the Starfury
Convention, they became fast friends over the course of the weekend.

The West Coast has always been considered an actor's haven, and the University of Southern
California the utmost in film schools to attend. But the East offers its own unique drive and
opportunity that tends to tarnish the Hollywood shine for some and yet raise the bar for others.

Clare agrees that NYU is a more definitive school for acting in terms of its distinctive benefits.

"I definitely think so. The beauty of that school is you spend two days a week at NYU and you
spend three days a week studying at a studio, which is where you learn your craft. You don't
learn it from the 'college', you actually go out into the community and study things at different
places. That's what drew me to the school and I think that's what draws a lot of different people,
because there's the history of the studios as well as the University for your academics."

The Miracle Worker ~

Earlier in the day, while Clare was holding her Q&A panel she spoke to fans of her performance as
Helen Keller in the stage version of The Miracle Worker. The true-life story depicts the early life of
Helen (1880 - 1968), although blind, deaf and mute from the age of six months, she learned to read,
write and speak.

Anne Sullivan taught Helen the principal of symbolic communication, their story shows the strength
and power of human will and its ability to triumph over the most devastating disabilities. I was unaware
that Clare had theatre experience and was very eager to ask her about this portion of her background.

As it turns out she has been doing it for about seven years prior to getting into film work.

"I did the National tour [of The Miracle Worker], I did (she pauses to reflect a moment) close to one
hundred performances of that. It was awesome."
 

The Miracle Worker,  stage presence personified

"I don't know why I connected so deeply with [Helen], but I just felt like I knew the pain she'd been through."

The story is one production that offers a lot of material if you're one to examine a role for a specific
approach to the characters. Classic stage performances have previously featured Patty Duke
and Anne Bancroft as well as the later film adaptation with Ms. Duke in the opposite role and Melissa
Gilbert filling the shoes of Keller.

But Clare opted not to refer to what had already been done and did not do a heavy on the research.

"I didn't," she admits, "I didn't because I connected so deeply with that character from the beginning.
That was one of those roles where I was just like, (she snaps her fingers - not with arrogance but with
confidence) 'I got it!' I knew that I had it from the second I started doing my audition because to me,
it felt so right. That's the kind of thing that you live for as an actor.

"And I don't know why I connected so deeply with her, but I just felt like I knew the pain she'd been through.
" Hmm that's odd, I respond. "I know," Clare laughs. "It is. It's weird, then I'm all, 'What was up in my former
life?' You know?"

A role such as this one is challenging on many different levels. It offers not only a physically demanding
performance but an emotionally draining one as well.

The biggest challenge and most rewarding factor about the stage is that, unlike film and television,
the actors don't 'break' until the act ends. Include the additional element of Clare having to feign
her missing senses and you find she relished in her audiences reaction.

"I would have people come up to me after the performances," she explains, "which was a huge compliment,
and they wouldn't know if I really was blind and deaf because I was somehow able to like 'un-focus' my eyes
almost. I could only use the peripheral vision to just have the basics of where I was, but then everything is
touch and stuff like that." Clare also spoke of how she prepared for the role by submerging herself in a
pool to experience and grasp hold of the sensory deprivation (which Helen lived with her entire life) and
took that method acting acuteness into her performance.

Stage vs. Screen ~

Taking the knowledge of the stage and putting it to work for you on the screen is an easy one, but there
are few skills that one can bring back to the stage from the hours of production experience on a television
series.

"I don't think I'll use any tactics," she explains, "any of the logistics from film and TV with theatre.When I work
[in theatre] I don't even really pay that much attention to the blocking. It's so far out of the level of important
and with film and TV that comes first. You have to be where you say you're going to be or the camera is
going to screw up and you're going to waste money. Which is what it's all about in that side of things."

There are comparable differences between stage and screen and the transition between the two can be
daunting for some actors. Once having experienced it, most prefer the stage and the challenges it offers;
a live audience with immediate genuine feedback, the continual run of a scene, and the opportunity to develop
a character over a period of time while doing the same performance again and again.

Actors who have done both stage and film usually have a preference for one or the other, and always for
different personal reasons. Clare's preference has to do with her familiarity with the medium.

"I'm just beginning to feel comfortable with film," confides Clare. "Film and TV I kind of use as one term
because there isn't any difference in actually shooting it, it's the other things that are different. In fact,
Buffy was the best training ground I could have ever asked for to learn how to work in front of a camera
because it was week in and week out; monologues, dialogue, special effects, stunts, everything all compiled
into one show."
"
I'm very thankful just on that aspect alone because now I feel comfortable in front of a camera where as
when I first got the part, even though I'd done Bring It On [2000] and another movie [the independent
film, Hangingaround (Ropewalk), released in 2001] I really didn't. I was still new to it, 'You want me to walk
and hit a sandbag?' " she offers with a laugh, " 'With my foot? How am I supposed to do that?' "
 

Clare with Bring It On co-star, Eliza Dushku

As Glory, Buffy's  Season 5 Big Bad!

Gracing the pages  of Maxim, it's all Clare

The Glory of Buffy ~

It's not easy being a God!

And when talking with Clare how can you not talk about Glorificus, "Most beauteous and supremely
magnificent one!" according to her minion Dreg.

Ironically, you could say the supernatural preceded Clare; while attending Delaware Hayes High
School she worked on the school newspaper, aptly titled: The Talisman.

We venture into the Buffy-verse to deconstruct Glory by beginning with the man behind the red dress.
Doug Petrie, one of Buffy's more prolific writers, was mostly responsible for Glory's dialogue as, well
known to Buffy fans, for the majority of Faith's [Eliza Dushku].

A good friend of Clare's, Eliza also starred with her in the feature film comedy Bring it On.

What Doug gives the actors to work with, in terms of script, is amazing and what Clare was able to
accomplish with that was even more outstanding. But when she would receive these scripts, wherein
each week she was expected to do, as she put it, 'a montage of monologues', and some great one-liners:
'Sunnydale's got too many demons and not enough retail outlets', the one thing that would go through
her mind was dread!

"Right," she laughs and remembers saying, " 'Oh Lord, I better start practicing!' That's exactly what
I was thinking. You know, I recruited everyone I knew to be my rehearsal partners because there's
no way I could have shown up without having rehearsed. For that I just had to rehearse on my own
and never expect to do it with the director, with whomever, the other characters.

"But I would have my friends come over to my apartment and be like, 'Alright, now we're gonna pretend
this is this and that,' which was actually good because then when I got there for the blocking of the scene
I felt clear to throw out ideas because I felt like I'd already kind of dissected the material."

One thing Clare wishes is that she had been more privy to the early stages of the character's development;
the depth of the character, where she was going and what she was all about.

Perhaps the producers and writers didn't quite know where Glory would take them but having that
knowledge upfront, Clare might have played her differently. Although considering where she did go,
Clare's performance was complete and memorable.

During the annual Buffy Posting Board Party of 2001, Doug had commented that what Clare brought
to the character helped to develop Glory as well. It wasn't a case of, 'Here's what's on the page and
this is what you're expected to do and nothing more.' There was an open rapport with Doug that allowed
Clare to add her own personal touches and depth to make this evil adversary of Buffy just that much
more endearing to fans. "That was cool because I did feel like I'd do something and then the next week
I'd get the script, I'd be like, 'ah ha, uh huh,' " she laughingly recalls.

Fanning the flame of Success ~

Although Clare was unable to attend this year's Posting Board Party she was present in 2001 and it
marked her first experience of encountering fans en mass. But unlike some of her co-stars before her
who may have gotten a cooler reception at first due to character arcs (Willow's long-time boyfriend
Oz was replaced by girlfriend Tara [Amber Benson] and a never-before-seen sister of the Slayer
Dawn [Michelle Trachtenberg] appeared), Clare's Glory had no problem with fan acceptance and
was a rather hip villain during Season 5.

After all, who wants to offend a God?

"I was totally honored," she sincerely replies, "and just felt very grateful that everyone liked the show
and that people were receptive to my character because coming in--in the fifth season--I was really
scared to do that. Everybody had been established for a long time." As witness, fans continually
surrounded Clare during the evening and gave her much deserved praise.

Recalling some of the more humorous happenings of the night, she indulges Julie and myself by telling
us a story; the security was high and the manhunt was on but Clare was left holding the conversation.

"Well it's funny," Clare begins, "because they assigned this Buffy fan who happened to be a Secret
Service Agent (who she believes is now guarding Jenna Bush). He showed up and he was like, 'I want
to volunteer my services,' they're like, 'Okay, stay with her.' Well of course then, my friends who I brought,
take him aside and they're quizzing him about the FBI and Secret Service and I'm like, 'Hello!?' "
she laughs.

Clare Horizon Ahead ~

A most impressive quality about Clare: is her depth as an individual.

She doesn't rely on her acting career alone and her personal interests far exceed the fulfillment that
Hollywood tends to endow on their up and coming talent.

There's always the 'what if' questions; what if Clare had found dancing to be her true love of performance,
what if she hadn't found her niche in acting. What profession would she find herself in today? The answer
might just surprise you!

In addition to her studies in the Arts, Clare also has a major in Psychology and a minor in Special
Education. "I probably would have been a Special-Ed teacher. I always enjoyed - I worked at camps for
'special needs' kids growing up and actually still do so it's just something I feel I'm good at and I like.
I could easily see myself doing that if I weren't acting," she confesses.

Of course this set us off-topic but in a direction to a few more laughs that truly reveal the charm which
Clare possesses.

Did Psych 101 help you with Glory?

"I tried to forget all the Psychology 101," she admits laughing.

"I know, you're like, 'I don't need to analyze my life every second of the day.' " You get too over analytical.
"Exactly and then I'm like, 'I'm gonna drive myself nuts.' " No, then you realize you are nuts.

"Yeah, you're like, 'I'm doomed!' "

Well Clare is certainly doomed, doomed to have a very long and enlightening career.

Be sure to see her in the upcoming film: The Rules of Attraction, set for release this September
and co-starting [starring] James Van Der Beek and Jessica Biel. She'll also be touring the UK this May
[3-13, 2002] to meet and greet her fans starting with the Starfury Convention: Bad Girls & Wild Boys,
May 3-5, once was not enough!

And for all the info on the Clare Kramer UK Tour 2002, May 7-13, visit the Starfury website!

CityofAngel.com would like to Gloriously thank Clare Kramer for allowing us a part of her busy
schedule and for such a wonderful time.

Special thanks to Allison Dolan for all her timely assistance.

Continued thanks to Titan Publishing and Starfury's Sean Harry for squeezing us in.

If you have any comments for CityofAngel.com regarding this 'Spotlight' feature, we
would love to hear from you. Just email us at: comments@CityofAngel.com