Spike and Dru began their appearances with the second season of Buffy, replacing the old ruling vampire known as the Master. Series creator Joss Whedon touted the two as the Sid and Nancy of the vampire set. The reference to the punk rocker and his fatal love affair was aptly chosen. Spike, played by James Marsters, is easy to spot in a crowd with his bleached blond Billy Idol hair and punkish clothes.

"Spike enjoys hurting people," says Marsters of his character "and he enjoys people being afraid of him." Still, Spike has a soft side when it comes to his lady love Drusilla. Juliet Landau fits the bill of the seductive vampire who's just a bit 'touched'. Long flowing dresses and Juliet's exotic features and thick dark hair give her a look that borders on the ethereal.

"Dru was an obsession of Angel's [Buffy's vampire boyfriend]; he killed all of her family," explains Juliet. "He tortured her ruthlessly, then she fled to a convent. On the night she was going to take her vows, he made her a vampire."

When we first meet Dru, she is weak and helpless after an unfortunate run-in with a vicious mob in Prague. "She has a kind of neurosis," says Juliet. "She goes into these bad trips where she thinks of daisies dying or her hair falling out. Spike rescues her from these moments."

Marsters agrees saying that "Spike is someone who is doing what he's doing to save his lady. It makes him understandable." And adding in that bit of vampire love is what saves these bad guys from being all bad. Both actors enjoy the fact that they get to play sexy, flirty and even soft and sweet at times, while still acting as the villain. Marsters compares it to his favorite bad guy, MacBeth. "I think really well written villains are motivated by things we understand. That's why I think Spike and Dru make more sense then some because they are trying to help each other." **BREAK Notice that when the two are together, you won't find them in vampire face. "We only have that face in attack mode," says Juliet, "and when we're together we're sort of gentle and sexual."

Behind the scenes, James and Juliet are as complimentary to each other as they are on screen. Juliet refers to James as the "actor's actor" referring to his intensive background in theater. James, in turn, raves about Juliet's film experience (of which he has none) calling her "absolutely fabulous" to work with. Prior to Buffy, Juliet spent her time working on various film productions, the best-known of which is Ed Wood.

Marsters spent his early career working in the theater in NY, Chicago and Seattle. A friend of James' suggested that he go to LA and try to get work in movies or television if he ever planned to make a living as an actor. "Theater is always going to be for the love and not the money," he says sorrowfully. "So I came to LA completely prepared to be Alf's sidekick or something, and lo and behold I landed in a project where the writing is as deft as any of the new scripts I was doing on stage."

Marsters credits his winning the role of Spike to blind luck, saying that Joss was just tired of looking.

"I came in at the end of a very long search and I knew my lines."

Juliet remembers it a bit differently. She had already won the role of Drusilla with her faux cockney accent and that look, "a little strung out and needing a fix. Of course the drug of choice is blood." She tested against the three final candidates for Spike and James was, to quote her, "Amazing". **BREAK Spike's North London accent was taken from a fellow actor that James was performing with at the time of his audition. "North London is not quite cockney, as a matter of fact if you ask someone from North London if they're a cockney they may get a little bit pissed at you."

Suffering the torture of fangs and makeup is a given on the Buffy set. Both actors had nothing but praise for John Vulich and his crew at Optic Nerve, the designers and creators of all the monster faces you see every week on Buffy. The makeup that the vampires wear on the series starts with a full head casting that is enough to make even the strongest of men go weak in the knees. To do the process the actor's entire face, including eyes, ears and mouth, is covered in a gelatinous substance that must be left to harden.

"I like makeup and everything," James laughed. "But that was pretty weird. At first it was nice, just like sleeping with a warm pillow over my face. Then after twenty minutes when you're only breathing through your nose you're thinking if I get a stuffy nose I'm gonna die. Then it becomes a problem."

Unlike the heavy layers of makeup worn by the Master (Mark Metcalf ) in the first season, Spike and Dru get away with just a few thin pieces of rubber that allow them to move more naturally. "The makeup is wonderfully hideous," says James. "I love that I don't have to try to be scary. It's so light, I can raise my eyebrows and do what ever I want. The best thing I've found is to just forget that it's on."

When it comes to Buffy's ever-increasing popularity, both James and Juliet lay credit on snappy writing, incredible production values and Joss' genius. From the lighting to the music to the effects team, it seems that everyone is going above and beyond on a weekly basis. "The thing is," says James "everyone really enjoys working with each other. It's past a happy set. It's like daycamp!"

Daycamp in Sunnydale? Now that is a truly frightening image.