Buffy The Vampire Slayer Star Attacked By Real Life Monster
On the hit TV show Buffy the Vampire Slayer, Charisma Carpenter played Cordelia Chase, a member of the Slayer-led Scooby Gang who regularly fought monsters and other things that go bump in the night. When Carpenter left the show for the Angel spinoff, she fought even more creepy creatures alongside Buffy’s former beau. What most fans of this Joss Whedon franchise don’t realize, though, is that Charisma Carpenter fought a monster in real life, surviving a 1991 attack that could have easily killed her and her friends.
Charisma Carpenter Attack
It all began when the future Buffy actor was swimming with a couple of friends at Torrey Pines State Beach in San Diego. All of them had nothing on their minds except serious fun in the sun, and they had no way of predicting the horrific event that was about to occur. Charisma Carpenter and her buddies soon had to survive an attack by the last person they expected to assault them: a police officer.
The police officer in question was Henry Hubbard Jr., a 29-year-old cop who wasted no time threatening this trio of beachgoers. He pointed a gun at Charisma Carpenter but did not attack her with it directly; instead, he used the firearm to try to compel her to tie up her two friends. Incredibly, she refused to do so (you tell him, Cordelia!), and this gave one of her buddies enough time to jump up and overpower Hubbard.
As fierce as she is in Buffy the Vampire Slayer, it’s still wild to think that Charisma Carpenter is just as strong-willed in real life, surviving what could have been a gruesome 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 had been taught at a very young age. “One of the things that I was told when I was 10 was whatever they’re going to do to you when they get you alone, is going to be 10 times worse than if they had to do it right there,” she said.
Incidentally, Charisma Carpenter’s quick thinking did more than save her and her friends…it also robbed Hubbard of the chance to attack future victims. She held onto his police-issued flashlight, a choice bit of evidence that helped convict this police officer of the violent attack on the future Buffy star. He was eventually sentenced to 56 years in prison for a series of Los Angeles beach assaults that included rape, robbery, and attempted murder, and he would likely have continued attacking others if Carpenter and her friends hadn’t helped put 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 go on to later kill it (so to speak) on Buffy the Vampire Slayer and Angel, but she would later serve as the host of the appropriately named Investigation Discovery series I Survived Evil. That show featured other survivors telling their own harrowing stories, and Carpenter’s own experience helped her bring these tales to life even as it offered the victims some much-needed closure.
For certain Buffy fans, all of this is likely old news, but it’s something I just recently learned about. I honestly didn’t think I could respect Charisma Carpenter more after watching her effortlessly become the best part of every show she stars in, but knowing that she survived a violent attack in real life takes my respect to the next level. Move over, Buffy. There’s a new Slayer in town and she knows exactly how to protect her friends whenever a monster makes his move.
Source: TVLine
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