Feature: Buffy and Darkness Falls

Demon in the Dark

Fans were dismayed to learn that Emma Caulfield was quitting her much-loved role as vengeance demon Anya in Buffy. She talks about the joy of working on Buffy and her role in the thriller Darkness Falls…

Emma Caulfield thinks it’s time. It’s time to discuss Darkness Falls, the creepy thriller in which she makes her big-screen début. And, sad to say, it’s time for her to bid farewell to Buffy The Vampire Slayer. She’s been with the show for five years as Anya, the brutally honest vengeance demon who emerged as Xander’s (Nicholas Brendon) gal, a bona fide member of the Scooby Gang and one of the show’s central sources of humour. Starburst caught up with Caulfield in her trailer during a break from shooting Buffy. She was, as one might expect, straightforward and pretty damn funny.

Starburst: Let’s start with Darkness Falls. Deep down, didn’t you like ‘The Tooth Fairy’ better as a title?
Caulfield: Actually, I didn’t. The film was never going to be ‘The Tooth Fairy’. That was one of the many working titles they had for it and I knew from the get-go that that was going to change. I never got attached to that title. I never got attached to any of the titles they came up with. I was really hard-pressed to get attached to Darkness Falls until they printed the poster. I was like, “Oh, OK, it’s called Darkness Falls.”

Starburst: What made you say ‘Yes’ to the project?
Caulfield: What intrigued me was the director, Jonathan Liebesman, whose short film I’d seen and was blown away by. I said, “I’ll make this guy’s coffee if I have to – I just want to work with him.” Greg Silverman, who I went to High School with, was producing the film. We had been trying to find a film for us to work together on for a while, and everything fell into place with Darkness Falls.

Starburst: Some people might say, “Emma, a Horror-thriller, aren’t you worried about typecasting?”
Caulfield: Darkness Falls is a scarefest, but it’s not Horror. Caitlin [Caulfield’s Darkness Falls character] and Anya really couldn’t be more opposite. They have nothing in common. So that’s a long-winded way of saying, no, I’m not worried about typecasting.

Starburst: Darkness Falls filmed while Buffy was in production. How tough was it to shuttle between Buffy in Los Angeles and the Darkness Falls set in Melbourne, Australia?
Caulfield: It was complicated. It was pretty gruelling. But it was ultimately worth it. The Buffy producers were generous enough to allow me out to go and do Darkness Falls. I think they realized that it only benefited them as well. It doesn’t hurt to have the people on a show doing other projects. Ultimately it brings more visibility to what I’m doing on my nine-to-five job. They were really generous and made it work. I still don’t know how, but they did it, and I actually didn’t miss one episode of Buffy. So my doing both is really a testament to great scheduling.

by Ian Spelling

There's more from Emma on Buffy and
Darkness Falls in
Starburst #296

Image © Visual Imagination Ltd
"Darkness Falls" © Columbia Pictures
Feature © Visual Imagination 2003. Not for reproduction

Taken from

Starburst #296
March 2003
ships from Feb 17 2003
News-stand Price
UK £3.50 / US $6.99

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