Exclusive: ALYOSN HANNIGAN TALKS 'HOW I MET YOUR MOTHER' & 'BUFFY THE VAMPIRE SLAYER: SEASON 8'

The actress grooves in a new season on her CBS sitcom and is nervous about the fate of Willow in comics

By T.K. DEHN, Contributing Writer
Published 11/3/2007

Alyson Hannigan is now in her third season on the hit CBS sitcom HOW I MET YOUR MOTHER, playing Lily, one half of the relatively stable couple of friends who contrast hero Ted's tumultuous love life. Hannigan is also beloved of comedy film fans for her turns as naughty band camper Michelle in the AMERICAN PIE series, and she has a permanent devoted following as a result of her seven years as Willow the witch on BIFFY THE VAMPIRE SLAYER. At a recent (albeit pre-WGA strike) press gathering, Hammigan talked about MOTHER's Season Three and BUFFY's comic book Season Eight.

IF MAGAZINE: Do you feel like HOW I MET YOUR MOTHER has hit its groove in the third season?

ALYSON HANNIGAN: Oh yes. I feel like we had a very strong first season, but then second season, we just came out of the gates kicking and we got stronger and stronger, and it was a phenomenal second season, and I'm sure the third season can only be as good if not better.

iF: Are you looking forward to the possibility of having the ensemble cast expand?

HANNIGAN: Is it going to expand?

iF: Well, the series creators, Carter Bays and Craig Thomas, said they're getting closer to identifying the mother of the title, so once she's introduced, it's possible she'll be added to the cast...

HANNIGAN: Yes. Well, I'm all for it, because let's even out the sexes. We;ve got a little boy-heavy cast, and Cobie [Smulders, who play's Ted's on-again/off-again girlfriend] and I need as much support as we can get, because sometimes it turns into a boy-fest. And we need our girls, so get another girl cast member - c'mon!

iF: What does the relationship between your character Lily and her now-husband Marshall [Jason Segel] do for Ted's character in story terms?

HANNIGAN: It probably reiterates the longing that [Ted] has to find [that kind of love] for himself.

iF: What is the rhythm of the humor on HOW I MET YOUR MOTHER compared to the stuff Joss Whedon was writing for you on BUFFY?

HANNIGAN: Oh, that's a hard question. I mean, Joss is a genius. With BUFFY, there was a lot of humor, but there was also the monster factor and the drama factor. But the two shows are similar in that I can be funny one moment and then dramatic in the next. I really love and appreciate that they don't ever shy away from the true emotion and it's got the heart that I alwayss respond to as well.

iF: Have you seen the BUFFY Season Eight comics?.

HANNIGAN: My friend Tom Lenk [who played Andrew on BUFFY] has brought them to my house, so I have flipped through them, but I haven't sat down and read them yet. I'm saving that for a nice Sunday day.

iF: How do you feel about learning about Willow's further adventures from comics?

HANNIGAN: I'm a little nervouse, probably. You know, when I first went through them with [Lenk], I was like, 'Well, who's that?' He hadn't read them all either, and he said, 'I think that's you.' I said, 'Why am I so big? That's not me, that's Dawn! She's a giant. I don't know what's going on.' Joss had emailed me months and months before they ever came out, and he had emailed me the one where I was on the cover, or Willow was on the cover, and I was, 'Wow, that's a really cool drawing - I have no idea who that is or where he's going, but awesome!' And then I talked to him, and he said, 'That's Willow.' I'm like, 'Awesome! She's done very good things to her body in the last year [laughs].'

iF: In both BUFFY and the AMERICAN PIE movies, you're cast as someone who is very demure on the surface and then very sexual underneath. Does HOW I MET YOUR MOTHER continue that tradition?

HANNIGAN: [laughs] Well, I think that was the pilot. [They still do it] occasionally. But thankfully they don't go fully into the AMERICAN PIE realm. I don't think they could at eight o'clock.