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On a popular TV show Buffy the Vampire SlayerCharisma Carpenter played Cordelia Chase, a member of the Slayer-led Scooby Gang who regularly battled monsters and other things that go bump in the night. When Carpenter left the show for Angel spinoff, she even fought more ghostly creatures alongside Buffy’s former beau. However, what most fans of Joss Whedon’s franchise don’t realize is that Charisma Carpenter battled a monster in real life and survived an attack in 1991 that could have easily killed her and her friends.
Charisma Carpenter Attack
It all started when the future Buffy the actor was swimming with some friends at Torrey Pines State Beach in San Diego. They all had nothing on their minds but good fun in the sun and couldn’t have foreseen the terrible event that was about to happen. Charisma Carpenter and her friends soon had to survive an attack from the last person they expected to attack them: the police.
The officer in question was Henry Hubbard Jr., a 29-year-old cop who wasted no time threatening the trio of beachgoers. He pointed the gun at Charisma Carpenter but did not attack her directly; instead, he used a firearm to try to get her to tie up her two friends. Incredibly, she refused to do so (call him Cordelia!), giving one of her friends plenty of time to jump up and overpower Hubbard.
As wild as she is on the inside Buffy the Vampire Slayerit’s still wild to think that Charisma Carpenter is as strong in real life to survive what could have been a horrific attack because she refused to comply with an armed assailant. Years later, the actor explained that her reaction was the result of an important lesson she learned at a very young age. “One of the things I was told when I was 10 was that what they do to you when they get you alone is 10 times worse than if they had to do it right there,” she said.
By the way, Charisma Carpenter’s quick thinking did more than save her and her friends…it also deprived Hubbard of the opportunity to attack future victims. She held his police-issued flashlight, the chosen piece of evidence that helped convict this officer of a violent attack on the future. Buffy star. He was eventually sentenced to 56 years in prison for a series of attacks on a beach in Los Angeles that included rape, robbery and attempted murder, and would likely have continued to attack others if Carpenter and her friends hadn’t helped get him away.
After the Attack
As for Charisma Carpenter, she refused to let this attack define her life or who she is. Not only did she kill it later (so to speak). Buffy the Vampire Slayer and Angelbut later served as the host of the aptly named Investigation Discovery series I survived evil. The show featured other survivors telling their own harrowing stories, and Carpenter’s own experience helped her bring those stories to life, even as she offered the victims some much-needed closure.
To be sure Buffy fans, this is all probably old news, but it’s something I only recently found out about. I honestly didn’t think I could respect Charisma Carpenter more after seeing her effortlessly become the best part of every show she’s in, but knowing she survived a violent attack in real life takes my respect to the next level. Move, Buffy. There’s a new Slayer in town and she knows exactly how to protect her friends whenever the monster moves.
Source: TVLine
