Slayers: Charisma Carpenter, Amber Benson Talk Reimagining Cordelia’s Fate and Finally Seeking Justice

Amber Benson wanted nothing more than to see Cordelia Chase become a vampire slayer, so when the opportunity presented itself, the Buffy actress-turned-writer didn’t hesitate to make her dream come true.

Slayers: A Buffyverse Story — an Audible Original that releases all nine episodes Thursday, Oct. 12 — follows Spike (voiced by James Marsters) as he goes deep undercover in Los Angeles, convincing the forces of darkness that he’s back to his evil ways. There, he meets 16-year-old newly appointed slayer Indira (The Equalizer’s Laya DeLeon Hayes) and a parallel universe’s Cordelia (Charisma Carpenter), who is the one-and-only slayer back home. And she needs Spike’s help to take down her world’s ultimate Big Bad: a hungrier-than-ever Drusilla (Juliet Landau).

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“I feel like this is #JusticeForCordelia in a big, big way,” Carpenter tells TVLine. “The way that things ended for her was absolutely not what I wanted for that character.”

The series, which was written by Benson and Golden (who also directed alongside Kc Wayland), welcomes back many of the original Buffy the Vampire Slayer cast members voicing their old roles. In addition to Marsters, Carpenter and Landau, the series sees the return of Benson as Tara, Emma Caulfield as Anya, Anthony Head as Rupert Giles, James Charles Leary as Clem, and Danny Strong as Jonathan. The podcast series fuses the Buffyverse world that fans know and love with new Cordy’s alternate reality, creating for one wild bizarro-world where Buffy Summers never existed. (Reviving some dearly departed Scoobies is always something we can get behind!)

Below, TVLine talks to Carpenter and Benson about all things Slayers, including why the fandom is going to be “thrilled,” finally getting justice for the wronged Cordelia, and whether Benson and Golden might be conjuring up more Buffyverse stories in the future.

TVLINE | Amber, this new story could’ve taken many forms. How did you land on it becoming an Audible Original?
AMBER BENSON | My collaborator on this, Christopher Golden, was actually working with Audible UK on another project and we discovered that they had the license. So Lydia, our executive at Audible UK, and Chris were like, “What can we do? What magic can we throw at Disney to let us do this with Amber?” We put together a couple of ideas and they liked it and said, “Let’s do it!”

And for me — I’ve said this before and I’ll say it again — I worked with Charisma on a project a few years ago and we had this scene that was so transcendent, and I was just so blown away with her as an actor. I think the seeds were sown for this story because I was like, “I want to see her be a vampire slayer!” I really wanted to use this opportunity to make my dreams come true of having Cordelia the Vampire Slayer. The best way to do that was to have a multiverse story. That was our way of maybe righting some wrongs that we saw, that we wanted to change.

TVLINE | Charisma, it’s been a while since we saw Cordy in any iteration. What was it like stepping back into her shoes, and how does this story’s Cordelia differ from the one we knew in the past?
CHARISMA CARPENTER | It was complicated. It was a little bit tricky to slip back into this version of Cordelia because in the beginning, I wasn’t exactly sure how to create the character that is now a world-weary slayer, while also holding on to her snark, wit and humor. I was really challenged by that and I had to tell Amber and Chris, “I really don’t understand how to deliver this line right now.” I’m like, “I don’t know what I’m doing,” and Amber was like, “You’re doing it! What you’re doing is working!” And I was like, “OK, OK, so just more of that. Alright!”

So, it was challenging and I never thought I would find that Cordelia had another layer to excavate and dig into. I just was floored. It felt really delicious. I love to kick ass, but I love that she’s grounded in the kicking of ass, where she understands the consequence of the kicking of ass and all that. [To Amber] I love that you’re laughing!

BENSON | That’s like, the pull quote right there!

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TVLINE | Charisma, what does it mean to you to reclaim this story and these characters, and to do it now on your own terms?
CARPENTER | I feel like this is #JusticeForCordelia in a big, big way. The way that things ended for her was absolutely not what I wanted for that character that I had played, and all the blood, sweat and tears that went into her. And also the life that I personally was living and sacrificing for. To bring this character to life and to have it go the way that it did was like a part of me died. And so to be able to bring this about in this way was the ultimate justice for Cordelia.

The way this story is told and the world-building skills of Christopher Golden and Amber Benson along with [co-director] Kc [Wayland] being there on the day-to-day helping with the performances, it’s so satisfying and I am so confident that the fandom is going to be so thrilled. It speaks to the origin story of the shows and that is female empowerment and working in and honoring your purpose, and the humanity and gravity of all that. It’s beautiful and touching and funny, and that’s all in line with the original Buffyverse story. I’m so excited to bring this to the world and I’m sure Amber, Christopher and Kc are grateful to see it finally being birthed this week.

TVLINE | How did recording the series together in person add to the production experience?
BENSON | This Audible Original podcast would not work if we weren’t all together. It was the synergy of getting all of these disparate characters who, a lot of them, we don’t know each other. We know each other through conventions, but maybe we never worked together. To be able to look Juliet Landau in the eye when she’s coming on to you is pretty amazing — I mean, woo! Sexy, hot, wow. — which we wouldn’t have had, had we not been all together. Hopefully we will do another season and we can bring Tony [Head] in. He was in the UK recording, but he was on the screen, so he was there too, but it’d be nice to have him in person. Danny Strong comes in and he was in New York, so he was doing his stuff and Juno Dawson was in the UK. So the main group was together, but then we have these ancillary other characters who we were like, “Next time, they come in the room with us!”

CARPENTER | Being in the room was essential for chemistry. Just what she said about the synergy, it was incredible. It was palpable. I had this scene with Spike and we’re outside of a hospital and we’re in the car talking — and I would have never felt this if we weren’t in the room — where I’m looking at him, he’s looking at me, and I honestly felt like there was chemistry. Like are Cordelia and Spike gonna get together? Inquiring minds want to know because I felt like, “Holy s–t! Is there something going on here? I didn’t expect this.” That would never had occurred or even crossed my mind had we not been in the room together.

It was remarkable. So because you don’t see us, you only hear us, watching Juliet kind of like, gnaw and suck on her hand to give the sound and the effect of feeding as a vampire, feeding on the victim… to watch that process, you are one, an actor in a scene, but there’s this other thing happening where you’re watching the process of another actor. It only heightens and informs me as an actor going forward and helps me appreciate the process of acting that much more, and the skill sets of the people and the caliber of talent I’m working with.

TVLINE | Amber, you now have multiple Buffyverse tales under your belt as a writer, between this and the Willow & Tara comics, Tales of the Slayers and more. Is there any chance for more stories down the line, or perhaps a continuation of Slayers: A Buffyverse Story?
BENSON | We would love to do a second season. We beg you Disney and Audible to let us do more. We love you guys so much. You’ve been such wonderful collaborators. Please let us do a second season! Now we have Laya [DeLeon Hayes], who plays Indira, who’s now a BAFTA-award winning artist, so we’ve gotta put that on the poster! [Laughs] We have this incredible group of people. It’ll be sad to squander that if we don’t do more.

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