Posted in: CW, Showtime, TV | Tagged: alyson hannigan, btvs, buffy, buffy the vampire slayer, Melanie Lynskey, willow, yellowjackets

Buffy: Melanie Lynskey on Willow Audition, Joss Whedon Meeting & More

Yellowjackets star Melanie Lynskey on her interest in & auditioning for Willow on Buffy the Vampire Slayer, meeting with Joss Whedon & more.

Published Wed, 19 Jul 2023 14:04:15 -0500

by Ray Flook

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We've made no bones about the fact that we've been fans of Melanie Lynskey since Heavenly Creatures, with Hulu's Castle Rock further solidifying her status (and don't get us started on the bonus points she gets for being an official member of the It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia ensemble). So we've been having a pretty good year enjoying Lynskey's work in both HBO's The Last of Us and Showtimes' Yellowjackets – two of the biggest premium geek franchises going. But in a recent interview, we've learned that Lynskey was a lot closer to an iconic role than we ever realized – that of Willow Rosenberg from Joss Whedon's Buffy the Vampire Slayer, a role that would go on to played amazingly by Alyson Hannigan.

In an interview for Evan Ross Katz's Shut Up Evan: The Newsletter that was conducted before the SAG-AFTRA strike, the author of Into Every Generation a Slayer Is Born: How Buffy Staked Our Hearts (an amazing book that every "Buffy" fan needs to read) brings up series star Sarah Michelle Gellar mentioning in his book that Whedon wanted her for the role but that Visa issues complicated the audition process. While part of that was true, Lynskey revealed that there were other factors at play, too. "It is basically true. It was kind of a visa issue, but not really; I also was not sure about doing television at that time," Lynskey explained.

The actress continued, "It was very early in my career. I had a very old-school agent who was like, 'TV? That's for has-beens!' and I was like, 'I don't think it is anymore.' Certainly, now things have really changed, but I just wasn't super into it at the time." Lynskey even met with Whedon to discuss her interest in the part – and stayed in contact with her after recasting was done after the pilot. "I had a dinner with Joss [Whedon], and I don't remember if it was an offer or if it was like, 'Would you come read for it?' or what it was, but we stayed in touch after that. And then I guess they were replacing the person from the pilot at a certain point, and I had stayed in touch with [Joss], and he said, 'Now do you think you would want to do it?' And I had seen the pilot, and I was like, 'Oh, this is good,' and I kind of took my agent into it. And then, it became this whole thing of, 'Well, now you have to audition.' So I auditioned. Then: 'Oh, they didn't like what you were wearing.' It was a whole process. And then I didn't get it! Alyson Hannigan got it, who was absolutely wonderful, and all was [cast] as it should have been. That was the actual story."

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