To what length would you go to make your biggest dream come true? Would you dress up like Madonna and sing "Material Girl" during a halftime at the Super Bowl to be a television star? Maybe guzzle a quart of motor oil every morning for one shot at becoming a professional athlete? How about wearing a bunny suite to school just to get a girl like Sarah Michelle Gellar to notice you?
Marc Blucas has already accomplished all three of theses goals, and the only embarrassing thing he ever had to do was show up to audition for the role of Riley Finn on Buffy the Vampire Slayer sporting a severe back injury.
Several days before he was scheduled to read with Gellar in front of Joss Whedon and the top network brass, Blucas was playing in and adult league basketball game when he threw his back out taking a bone rattling charge. Blucas was barely able to walk. He slept on the floor and did excercise to try and loosen up, but to no avail. When the day came, he hobbled to the audition and ran through his lines while leaning up against a bookcase.
"This was a very intimate scene, and I was terrible," he recalls. "Obviously, there was no connection, there was no intimacy."
When it was over, Blucas thanked everyone for there time and left expecting never to hear from Buffy the Vampire Slayer or the WB ever again. Then a couple days later, his phone rang. It was Whedon on the other end inviting him to come back and try again.
"The first think he said to me was 'How's your back?'"Blucas says. "It made me fall in love with the guy right away as a person. Second chances don't happen in this business. It's just not the norm, and the fact that he went to bat and gave me another one."
Blucas is living proof that good things happen to good people. He's the kind of guy Buffy deserves to be dating -- personable, funny and full of stories from his days playing college basketball at Wake Forest and professionally in Europe. But perhaps more than anything, Blucas loves to talk about his friends and family in his hometown of Girard, PA, on the shore of Lake Erie -- all the stuff that keeps him grounded in an otherwise fairy tale life.
"I'm kind of a small town guy," he says. "I love the energy of my town. I love being there. My first winter in L.A., I'm driving around with my windows down, sunglasses on and singing 'Jingle Bells.' It just wasn't doing it for me, so I got on a plane and flew back home. Now every year at church on Christmas Eve, it seems like the whole town is there, and we're holding our candles singing 'Silent Night.' That first year back, I leaned over to my mom right before it started and said 'This is the best five minutes of the year.'"
The best time of Blucas' already amazing life, however, is definitely yet to come. After living out most of his hoop dreams (a tour in the NBA would have been the icing on the cake), he's moving on with his second passion, on that has been left on the back burner for 15 years. And while he recognizes that a spot in the Buffy lineup in a huge break, Blucas is simply anxious to continue learning and improving as an actor.
"I'm the first to recognize that in order to have a good senior year, you have to struggle in your freshman year," Blucas says. "I believe in that work ethic where you work hard and go to the school of hard knocks for a while, and hopefully you come out with something positive at the end. But at the same time, being a freshman sucks. I hate it. I hate not being in the game. Basically, I'm not patient, and the patience is the hardest thing for me. And it takes time. I haven't been here that long, but I feel like I'm on the fast track, especially with a break like this.
"I'm having the time of my life," he adds. "I've never been happier. I've gotten to this unbelievable spot in a short amount of time, but I've worked hard, and I believe things happen for a reason."

Buffy the Magazine: It took quite a while to cast the role of Riley. Where were you when you found out that you were about to become the newest member of the Buffy the Vampire Slayer cast?
Marc Blucas: It was 9:15 at night Saturday, June 26 -- I will not forget this day. I had just flown home that morning, back to Girard, PA, and that afternoon, my manager called and said, "Hey, Joss [Whedon] wants to talk to you just to give you an update, so I gave him your home and cell phone numbers. It's not going to be an official yes or no, because that would come through me." Well, I didn't hear from him all afternoon, so I went out with my parents and did my thing, and then I was at a barbeque that night with about 30 of my high school friends, and my cell phone rang. It was Joss. He said, "Hey, is this a bad time?" and I said, "I'm at a party with 30 of my friends, it's a really good time. How are you?" He said, "I just wanted to let you know that you're my guy, I want you on the show."

BTM: When you least expect it, expect it. You must have been blown away.
MB: It's very rare that I'm rendered speechless -- I can pretty much talk to a lamp shade. I can't tell you how excited and thrilled I was. It's hard to explain the feeling. The feeling just overtakes you. You're just overrun with emotion. It's like getting hit in the nose. Your eyes water, your hair stands up on your body.

BTM: How was the role described to you when you first auditioned?
MB: I'm still waiting to hear about that. [laughs] I'm still learning as I go. to be honest, there wasn't much of a description other than pretty much the opposite of Angel. [laughs] A nice, charming guy, and there's going to be some kind of dichotomy, some kind of double role going on. But that was never really specified. I think Joss is more of an in-the-room, get-the-feel-for-you kind of guy. He's a mastermind. It wouldn't surprise me if he knows exactly what he wants in the year 2004. He's such a great forecaster. Of course, there's spontaniety that comes in and out of that -- that's just how that creative mind works -- but it's like he has a grand plan, and I don't know how many other people know it. We're on a need-to-know basis.

BTM: Do you feel any sort of pressure stepping into David Boreanaz' shoes as Buffy's new love interest?
MB: I always put so much pressure on myself. I'm my toughest critic. Nothing's ever good enough for me. The day I start looking at it as a replacement to him, in my own mind that just starts a downhill battle. David's a great actor, and the chemistry he and Sarah have is great, I can only hope to have his kind of following.

MTB: As the new guy joining such a close knit cast, did the others accept you right away or do you spend your lunches eating alone? Did they put you through some sort of hazing proccess?
MB: Sarah was fantastic. Now Alyson Hannigan on the other hand, [laughs] she definitely gives me the rookie stuff -- there's no question I get that from her in a very fun-loving way. Everyone has been so nice and open-armes to me, I keep thinking I'm being set up, like I'm gonna be in a coma next episode. They are being way too nice. It's the perfect situation for me. That doesn't mean it's easy and there isn't pressure, but it's new for a lot of people. There are new cast members and new sets. Hopefully, that generates some new excitement for the returning cast members as well. They know the ropes and what they're doing, so selfishly, that makes it an easier transition for me.

BTM: Los Angeles in a long way from Girard, PA, in more ways than one. How do you like living in the fast pace of Tinseltown?
MB: I love L.A. A lot of stereotypes about it being a Me-Me-Me town are true, but if you do what I'm trying to do, this is the place you need to be. I don't feel like I'm gonna get my big break hanging out on Sunset Strip at 2:00 in the morning. I'm just not that guy. That doesn't appeal to me, but being around the energy of the business and trying to channel that energy into the right place, doing my reading, staying up to speed on what's happening in the town, I love it.

BTM: When you first arrived in Hollywood, you did the unthinkable thing of turning down reputable agents who wanted to represent you and help get your career rolling, because you wanted to concentrate on first learning the craft. Looking back, was that gutsy or foolish?
MB: I'm a very disciplined person. I'm a profesional dream chaser is what it boils down to. I played basketball for 15 years to make the NBA and didn't make it. That's heartbreaking. However, I think I've known that I wanted to act all along. It just took a back seat to another passion I had.

BTM: You also considered going to law school. What made you chose acting over practicing law?
MB: It's funny, I was accepted, enrolled and was all ready to go, but the night before the LSAT [Law School Admission Test], I'm watching A Few Good Men. I thought that movie made me want to go to law school. I was just too ignorant to realize it made me was to become an actor, not a lawyer.

BTM: Would you rather win an NCAA Championship or win an Emmy Award?
MB: [long pause] That's an unfair question, and I'm gonna tell you why. I feel that I'm very lucky, because my hometown is basically the same as the one in All the Right Moves or Hoosiers -- little, small, blue collared, but the best town on the planet as far as I'm concerned. I love it. I've seen a lot of people that like what they do and are good at it, but don't love it. At my age, I'm fortunate enough to have had two things in my life that have gotten me out of bed in the morning and that keep me up at night. I love to site down and read a script, but I'll see it sitting there and it'll be calling to me. I don't care if it's an all female cast. I read it. I felt the same way about basketball going in, but if I had to pick, I would say and Emmy now, because that is what I'm doing now. this is what's taken over. Now, basketball is my release. I can go do that now to get my mind off this. That's so important in anything you do, to have that other hobbie that can really get your mind off your stress. It's emotionally heathly.

BTM: Like yourself, early in his career, your castmate Nicholas Brendon was once cast as a basketball player in a motion picture. Had he got game?
MB: I don't know the talent of the cast and crew just yet. I was hoping I could go in and hustle 'em, but for some reason they know my history. They knew it before I got there. They shy away from that and just call me rookie and pick on me.

BTM: People might look at your career and think you're on the fast track, but you actually began acting in a production of Hansel and Gretel by your third grade class. Was it pretty intense role for an eight-year-old?
MB: Yeah, I was an extra. I was nominated for best set dressing in the school district. [laughs] It was me and my best friend at the time -- one was a cupcake, one was a marshmellow. Either way, I was some Little Debbie's treat dressed in something that made me look way too big.

BTM:How did you do in Psychology 101 when you were in college?
MB: I think I got an A. Can you believe it? Those are the fun required courses -- psych and sociology.

- Mike Stokes (Official BtVS Magazine)

Vital Signs

Birthday

January 11

Food

Anything but raw onions. "I love food. I love buying it. I love eating it. I love serving it. I love cooking it."

TV Show

Dukes of Hazzard and A-Team as a kid; ER now.

Movies

A Few Good Men, Top Gun, Usual Suspects, Scarface, Rocky. "Any inspirational underdog movie hits a nerve. I'm a sap, too. I'll sit and cry at Rambo. I'm such a wimp, it's ridiculous."

Book

Where the Red Fern Grows by Wilson Rawls. "I read it in eighth grade and it stuck with me."

Sport

Basketball

Team

San Antonio Spurs. "That's not being a front runner -- I'm allowed to say that, because my friend plays there."

Color

Blue