A.V. Club has a wonderful in-depth interview with James Marsters talking about his Buffy days with great thoughts on fandom and his days filming the show.
Here he talks about his favorite episodes which are also fan favorites: "The Body," "Tabula Rasa," and "Beneath You." I especially enjoyed this insight into "Beneath You," the scene of Spike on the cross in the church and how hard it was to get the right amount of "shame" into that scene because Spike had earned back his soul:
What is your personal favorite—and least favorite—Buffy episode?
JM: Oh, I’ve got so many favorites. One of them is “The Body,” because: Wow. So different than other episodes. Really proving that the show can be just a very serious drama occasionally. And I had a week off, which, when you’re doing 12 to 20 hours of 22 episodes—I’m not joking—having the week off is life-saving. “Tabula Rasa.” That’s just an awesome show. Loved that one. I have very fond memories of the first one I was in. That was just such an intense experience. I think the director committed career suicide. He got so excited by what was happening in the episode, and birthing this character with me, that he started adding shots. And he was blowing budget, and Gareth Davies came down and told him, “If you don’t rein it in, you are never coming back on this show.” And he came to me and he said, “Look, they just told me I’m never going to be on this show if I don’t rein it in. I’m not reining it in. I don’t care. This episode is going to be amazing. And I’m going to get so much work off it in other places. But I’m going to make this really cool.” And he really did. I think part of the reason the character broke out quickly is because that first episode was so tight, as far as how many shots he got.
