Some actors might find it difficult to tap into the mindset of a character like Jack from “The Shining” or Glory from “Buffy.” However, Kramer found it easy to think like Glory because she had a very singular motivation: to find the key and get back to her native hell dimension.
“Playing Glory and getting into her mindset was actually pretty easy!” the actor wrote on a Reddit thread. “She was a woman on a mission, with a singular goal in mind. She pretty much didn’t care who or what got in her way — she just wanted to go home.”
The very thing that makes the character so challenging to play — her viciousness, callousness, and incredible capacity for violence — was exactly what Kramer liked about the role. It’s rare that an actor, whose job is to mimic human emotion, gets to play a character that is so inhuman.
“She had very little, if any, social constraints — which was really refreshing to play,” she continued. “I tapped into that sense of freedom, as well as based the character a bit on Jack Nicholas’ character from ‘The Shinning’ [sic.].”
Nicholson’s influence is palpable in Kramer’s performance, from her eerie smile to her bulging eyes to her determined violence. But it isn’t just the actor’s interpretation of the role that bears a resemblance to Jack Torrance — it’s also in the writing. Crafting Glory was a collaborative effort, and regardless of whose idea it was to incorporate Jack as an influence, his presence is undeniably felt.
“[…] The beauty of the role was that nobody really knew anything about the character, so she was something I was able to create by working with the writers and the creators of the show,” Kramer said in a 2003 interview, adding that she “would take what they had written and add my twist to it.”