Samwise Gamgee
"Soulless" was directed by actor Sean Astin, who played Samwise Gamgee in Peter Jackson's "The Lord of the Rings". After Astin told writer/director and close friend Doug Petrie about his "fervent desire to be directing episodic television," he shadowed producers David Greenwalt and Tim Minear for several weeks to get a feel for the series before he was given this episode to direct. "Television sort of mandates that you keep moving," Astin says, "but you don't want to stop. Angelus [has] so many layers and so many different shades and qualities, you want to keep exploring them and mining them and pulling them out. It's such a rich, meaty character for him to do. He's good at evil. It's a little creepy."