Charisma Carpenter Recalls Working with Ryan Murphy, Sylvester Stallone, Jeremy Renner, and More

October 5th marks the 20th Anniversary of Angel, the Buffy the Vampire Slayer spin-off, which premiered the same day as Buffy‘s fourth season on The WB. The series saw David Boreanaz (Angel) and Charisma Carpenter (Cordelia Chase) leaving behind their pals in Sunnydale to “help the helpless” in Los Angeles. ComicBook.com recently had the opportunity to speak with Carpenter about Angel as well as some of her other onscreen appearances, which includes Sylvester Stallone‘s The Expendables and Ryan Murphy‘s Scream Queens. We asked the actor what it was like working with these iconic creators as well Jeremy Renner, who appeared in the season one episode of Angel, “Somnambulist.”

“I remember walking on that site and seeing multiple cameras at the same time, and I remember lots of lights, very expensive locations, and just really seeing first hand what a Ryan Murphy production entails,” Carpenter said of Scream Queens. “I was not on The WB anymore. It was evident that he’s wildly successful, and whatever he needs or wants to get the look, or the caliber of actor, or whatever it is, that they are willing to facilitate, and I really felt that. I was like, ‘Wow, this is like working on Expendables.’ It was like working on a $100 million film. This is high-level stuff.”

In the Scream Queens episode, “Chainsaw,” Carpenter teamed up with Roger Bart (The Producers) to play the parents of Ariana Grande’s character.

“It was incredible working with Roger. I think he’s one of the funniest, brilliant character actors I’ve ever met. He’s highly entertaining, he’s lovely. When you’re on a production like that, you’re dealing with A-gamers, and it’s such a compliment. You’re like, ‘Oh my God, I get to play with them.’ By proxy, you get to feel special too.”

From there, the discussion moved to The Expendables, where Carpenter explained what it was like working with Stallone as a director.

“He’s the first one there and the last one to leave,” she shared. “He’s willing to do off-camera for other actors that aren’t able to be there. He knows what he wants, he knows how to get it, he won’t settle for less… It was such an education. I remember him asking me at one point in time when I was on the set, ‘How do you want to be remembered? Because this is literally a time capsule, so you’re going to look at this film 20 years from now and you’re going to go, is this the way I want to do it, is this the way I want to look, is this the way I want to be wearing. You want to be aware of these things. You have to think big picture, long term.’ That was educational to me.”

During the chat, we also discussed Renner’s appearance on Angel, which occurred long before his days as the Marvel Cinematic Universe’s Hawkeye. We asked Carpenter if she remembered him, and her response was absolutely perfect.

“Yes. For sure. He’s a very sexy guy. He carries himself in a very alpha way I guess, or, he’s got BDE,” she explained.

Stay tuned for more from Carpenter’s interview, which includes her thoughts on Cordelia’s arc and death on Angel as well as some heartwarming stories about the late Andy Hallett (Lorne).

In honor of the Angel anniversary, Carpenter will be a guest at New York Comic Con next week where she’ll be taking part in the Angel panel as well as doing signings and photo ops. She also has a podcast called The Opposite Sex Show, which she records alongside web developer, Christian Majewski. You can follow them on Twitter here.

Carpenter is also involved with The Thirst Project, a water charity bringing safe clean drinking water to the world as well as the Ronan Thompson Foundation, which deals with pediatric cancer.

You can catch Charisma Carpenter next on The CW’s Pandora.