[on Buffy the Vampire Slayer (1997)'s sixth season] We never wanted to make her too... perfect. I certainly did push for some pretty nasty business. That made a lot of people really mad. Sarah Michelle Gellar came to Joss (Whedon) and she was like "We pushed it too far, I don't feel like a hero anymore". (...) It was always that balance, you know, 'cause if she doesn't make mistakes, that's not drama. That's Superman in a way. And I've always loved him, but there's a reason why Batman's more popular.

Many, many films kept me up at night as a child, not the least of which was Soylent Green (1973) half-viewed from under our backseat at a drive-in theater. 'Soylent Green is people!' was seared into my young mind, and I still think of it when faced with an unidentifiable food product. But I recall only two movies that have kept me awake as an adult: The Exorcist (1973) and The Blair Witch Project (1999). Both stay really grounded in characters we like and relate to while delving into a supernatural world. Their helplessness and human failings in the face of something truly malevolent gets under my skin every time. And "The Exorcist" remains one of the most visually creepy films around. Those flashes of demonic faces, the suffocating fog. It's brilliant.

I definitely am drawn more to the darker side of things. The things I'm definitely drawn to are more melodramatic, and that's OK - we all have our favourites. It takes me a long time to write a good joke.

"Honestly, I identify the most with Buffy. Not because I can crush things with my hands, or I am super-strong. But because, like Buffy, my love life was a mess for years and years, and I just couldn't get it together. So I'm constantly identifying with her." (season 6 interview when asked which character she most identifies with.)