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Julie Benz - About her career - Buzzymultimedia.com Interview

Webmaster — 2009-11-07T11:24:04Z

Julie Benz is one of the sweetest-looking people on Planet Earth, and yet somehow she winds up in a lot of films and TV shows dealing with violence. Yes, there are the romantic comedy and drama films she's done for Lifetime, but audiences are apt to know her for the vampire Darla she essayed throughout the runs of both BUFFY THE VAMPIRE SLAYER and its spinoff ANGEL or Rita Bennett Morgan, the role she's played on four seasons thus far on Showtime's DEXTER, a character who doesn't realize her husband is a serial killer. Then there are the female leads in THE PUNISHER : WAR ZONE and RAMBO and the dangerous realtor in SAW V. Now Benz is back on the big screen as FBI Special Agent Eunice Bloom in THE BOONDOCK SAINTS : ALL SAINTS DAY, a follow-up to the cult hit BOONDOCK SAINTS that has been ten years in the making.

Speaking in a phone interview, Benz sounds delighted about all of it. She acknowledges she hadn't known the history of SAINTS when she was first auditioning for the sequel. darla from Buffy, buffy the vampire slayer, vampires “I was sent a script that was called ALL SAINTS DAY and no one told me it was a sequel or anything about it. I read the script, I really liked it, I loved the character of Eunice Bloom, and I went in and I auditioned for it and I met with] Troy Duffy [writer/director of both the original and the sequel] a couple times. I don't usually talk about my auditions to anybody, so nobody even knew about it. I didn't tell anybody ‘I'm going into this movie' until after I got the film, and then I mentioned to my trainer, ‘Oh, I got a movie, it's going to be a sequel to BOONDOCK SAINTS,' and he just started flipping out and couldn't believe it. That's how I realized that this movie's bigger than what I'd thought,” she laughs.

There was no time to do research into the world of Federal agents, Benz notes. “I literally walked off the set of Season Three [of DEXTER] and walked onto the set of BOONDOCK SAINTS the next day,” she laughs. “I was cast at the last minute and I had no time for any weapons training. My first day on set, they literally handed me a gun, they said, ‘You're going to burst into the room, you're going to fire six rounds into camera, you're going to change the mag without looking at it and then you're going to continue firing.' And I had never fired a gun before, onscreen or off. So I was like [breezily], ‘Okay.' Troy has this amazing ability to make you think you can do it. He really has this passion. You get caught up in his energy and he'll sit there and – he swears a lot, so I'm going to quote him – he's like, ‘You're just going to go in there and you're going to fucking open up six rounds and you're going to shoot right in the fucking barrel !' He's all excited and you're like, ‘Okay, I can do this !' Actually, you're like, ‘I better be able to do this …' It's basically sink or swim, and sinking was not an option, because we didn't have the budget to sink, and we didn't have the budget to do take after take. So you get a limited amount of time and you just have to do it. I had to learn how to twirl a pistol, where I spent the whole shoot [practicing] twirling a pistol for the big pistol-twirling scene and since then, I have been to the firing range and I have learned about weapons and guns, and I'm actually really good at it naturally, but I figured, I'd better become better at it so I can just step in and just do it and not have to think about it. [In the scenes], I was shooting blanks. You can't shoot live ammo – you shoot blanks. I mean, it's still gunpowder, it's still loud, it still gives the gun a kick, but you can't use a real bullet – they're not going to let you !” she reminds with a laugh.

buzzy multimedia, sci-fi audio books, science fiction audio books Besides using guns, was there anything else Benz needed to learn for SAINTS ? “The accent,” she reports. “I had to work on the accent. I had a dialect coach who I studied with every single night, and I'd tape out all my dialogue phonetically for the next day and it was a very specific accent that Troy wanted, so I had to rely a lot on his ear. [Eunice is] from the South, but it's not a general Southern accent, it's a very specific kind of Troy Duffy Southern accent, a specific sound that he wanted. I could say that it's a cross between Georgia and Texas, but then that would really throw you off if you know anything about accents. That's how it was described to me, but at the end of the day, it was very much a very specific accent to the world that Troy created. We had kind of like a Holly Hunter/Kyra Sedgwick kind of quality accent.”

The accent may come in handy for future roles, Benz believes. “Oh, definitely. I can now do a really great Southern accent. I also know how much work it takes me to do accents. I had the same experience in THE PUNISHER : WAR ZONE – I had to do a slight Jersey accent and that also took a lot of work for me to do it. But it's fun. It's a challenge, when you're working as an actor – it's just an added challenge to conquer.”

Benz enjoyed working with filmmaker Duffy. She says she still hasn't seen OVERNIGHT, the feature-length documentary about events surrounding the original SAINTS that paints Duffy in a sometimes unflattering light. Benz takes issue with this. “From my own knowledge of the industry, you can edit anybody and make them look like an asshole. You can even follow me around with cameras and edit me to make me look like I'm an asshole. So I don't put any stock in that documentary at all. I went into [BOONDOCK SAINTS II] wanting to have my own experience with Troy Duffy and I have my own experience with him and he's extremely passionate about what it is he's doing. And he has no filter, so yes, he'll say things off the cuff that maybe somebody else wouldn't say, but at the end of the day, he's actually extremely sweet, very compassionate, very passionate about what it is that he's doing, and you don't get your whole crew and cast to return to work with you if you're an asshole. I base [perceptions of him] on the people he surrounded himself with and the people who love him and have known him for a very long time.”

Part of the appeal of playing SAINTS' gun-toting Fed Eunice, says Benz, is that the character is very dissimilar to DEXTER's Rita – although, the actress hastens to add, she loves that role as well. “I definitely look for characters that are outside the realm of Rita when I'm on hiatus. That's not to say that I wouldn't play characters who are similar. Mostly it's about scripts and what's written on the page. But at the same time, I love playing Eunice, be a badass. I got to play with weapons and hang with the guys and be one of the guys for a short time and that was fun for me, because in my day job [as Rita], yeah, I'm soft, vulnerable and emotional and working with children.”

Throughout DEXTER's run, we've seen Rita's two young children by her previous marriage to an julie_benz_rita abusive drug addict. This season, Rita and Dexter have a baby boy together, who is often in scenes with Benz's Rita and Michael C. Hall's Dexter. What's it like sharing the screen with a real live infant ? Oh, God, the babies are amazing,” Benz replies. “We were very lucky when we cast these two babies and both Michael and I have a special bond with them and it's enriched our jobs, I think, and it's enriched our lives, working with the babies. First of all, it really keeps you on your toes, because you have to act off of what the baby's really giving you. The baby is not reading the script,” Benz points out with a laugh, “doesn't understand the script, doesn't even know we're acting. So you really have to live in the moment and the baby forces you to be in the moment and forces you to really live with what's going on onstage while we're shooting. I find it freeing and exciting. There was a scene in [an] episode where I find that Dexter's been keeping his [bachelor] apartment, and it was brilliant the way it was written, because in many ways, just that added element of having the baby in the room forces you to handle things a little more gently. You don't want to scream and yell in front of the child. So it was a really interesting added element to the drama of the scene.”

When Benz first joined the cast of DEXTER four years ago, did she imagine the series would become such a hit “I did,” Benz says, “but then I think everything I do is going to run for a long time. I think that's kind of a funny thing – you take a project and you basically drink the Kool-Aid. You fall in love with it and you think everyone else is going to fall in love with it. Not every project warrants that kind of love, but definitely DEXTER did. I thought it was one of the best scripts I had ever read. And I also thought that this was the type of show that I'd like to watch, so that's pretty much all I can base it on. But yeah, I really thought it would be the interesting phenomenon that it is. I think it keeps growing, too, and it's really cool to have a show that keeps growing and growing and growing.”

james marsters, spike from buffy, buffy the vampire slayer There was a recent article on DEXTER in the Los Angeles Times that referred to the series as “Can't Wait TV.” Benz agrees with the assessment. “It's true. You're on the edge of your seat and I think especially this season – we have an amazing season, we have an amazing addition to the cast in John Lithgow and I think we have probably one of the most shocking season finales that we've ever had and I think people are interested to find out what happens and want to see how it's all going to turn out in the end. It's like a train wreck !” she laughs, withholding anything more that could be construed as a spoiler.

Benz acknowledges being quite a fan of DEXTER guest star Lithgow. “Who isn't ?” she asks rhetorically. “He's John Lithgow. He just does everything – comedy, drama, stage, television, film, he writes children's books. He's a true Renaissance man, and no one plays creepy like he plays creepy, so I was shocked when they told us he was joining our cast. I was like, ‘You're kidding me. John Lithgow ?' I was even more shocked when he came up to me and told me he was a fan of my work on the show, and I was like, ‘Are you sure you're talking about me ?'” she recalls, laughing. “He's extremely generous and kind and warm, It's shocking that he plays creepy so well, because there's not one creepy bone in his body.”

As far as her penchant for winding up in violent fare, Benz says, “Well, I don't sit there and search for it, I don't say, ‘Oh, give me another violent movie, I want to shoot ‘em up.' It just seems to be where the interesting characters lie for me. Each one of the projects was an interesting character, struggling with [issues and emotions] that interested me as an actor, so they just happened to be in action movies or action shows, they just happened to be in that genre. It wasn't because I seek them out. In [the TV series] SUPERNATURAL, I played this woman who had tremendous faith, and that was so interesting to me, to play someone who just really believed in God, not questioning at all. In DEXTER, Rita is a very damaged and fragile bird who has managed to grow some balls through the love of a serial killer, but she started out as this real fragile, damaged bird, and that interested me. And then in RAMBO, another woman who has tremendous faith who drives into a war zone and tries to save people, and meanwhile, in many ways, she's responsible for a lot of people getting killed and having to live with the weight of that. In THE PUNISHER, she's Mama Bear who's trying to protect her child after her husband gets murdered, and in SAW, you have a woman who set the whole thing in motion and has to live with the knowledge of that. And in BOONDOCKS, you have Eunice, who's fun. She's the lightest character of them all. I think what's so great about her is, BOONDOCKS is a fantasy movie in many ways. It's a movie made for pure entertainment. It's campy at times, it's dramatic at times, it's action-packed, it's funny – it's not meant to be set in the real world. You're not supposed to actually believe that the Saints are out there. You're supposed to go and enjoy it and go on the ride and take it for the entertainment that it is. And it's creative and fun. And the great thing is, the Saints steal all of their ideas from movies. It's kind of a play on movies as well. There's lots of interesting layers to it, but at the end of the day, it's pure entertainment.”

There aren't any in-jokes about Benz's career in SAINTS, she says, “But on DEXTER, they've mentioned SAW right in front of me. There's a scene where Deb [Jennifer Carpenter] was babysitting the kids and she said that she let them watch SAW. They have a lot of that. They had a TWILIGHT poster hanging up in Astor's Rita's daughter, played by Christina Robinson] room. Melissa Rosenberg, who's our head writer on DEXTER, is the one who adapted the books into the screenplays for the TWILIGHT movies, so they have a little bit of that kind of like humor.”

darla, buffy, buffy the vampire slayer Mention of vampire movies naturally leads to thoughts of Benz's work as the sanguinary Darla on BUFFY and ANGEL. These days, is she more recognized for her work on DEXTER or on the earlier shows ? “You know, I think it's a very similar audience,” Benz muses, “so I think both. It's funny – a lot of people don't recognize me as Rita when I'm out and about. I think because I don't dress like her – Rita's always in a sundress and I'm always in jeans. Surprisingly, most people off the bat will see Darla and then they make the connection to Rita. Maybe it's because I look more like Darla than Rita,” she laughs. “I feel like with Rita, she's more kind of a character kind of role for me, kind of lets me know what it feels like to be a character actor. She really is so far removed physically from who I am. Darla was tortured, she's been around four hundred years – I'd feel a little jaded, too,” Benz laughs. “You can't blame her. Plus, she was in search of her love. Every character has a mix [of emotions] in them somewhere. Obviously, I'm playing them. But I'd say Rita definitely has some of my softer side, my more vulnerable side, and Darla obviously has my fantasy tougher side. And Eunice Bloom is just totally a fantasy – she's just a person I would like to think I am.”

Is coming into a film sequel like BOONDOCK SAINTS II, SAW V or RAMBO anything like guest-starring on a TV series, as far as coming into a group of people who've all been working together for awhile ? Benz opines the film experience is sometimes better. “Sometimes on a TV show, people have been working on it for a long time and everyone's jaded, like a totally dysfunctional family. People are not going to be as open to something you're going to do for a short period of time. When you're doing a sequel to a film, those people are just very excited to be doing it again. There's a bit of a different atmosphere, a bit more of a welcoming atmosphere. Not to say that every TV show has that [jaded] quality, because they don't, it's just some do. I've done quite a few [film] sequels and they've all been amazing experiences, because everyone was so excited to be back and revisiting the characters and they usually have the same crew back and it's like a giant family reunion. ”

During the filming of RAMBO, Benz became passionate about educating people about the blight of the population in Burma. “I'm still very much involved,” she says. “I know the situation over there is getting worse and worse, so until it gets better, I'm involved.” For more information, Benz recommends visiting the website uscampaignforburma.org. julie benz, julie benz interview

On the professional front, Benz adds, “I have a Hallmark movie coming up Christmastime, good family fun, with JoBeth Williams and Elliott Gould called UNCORKED, a little romantic comedy, and I also have an indie film that is going to be hitting the festival circuit called BEDROOMS with Xander Berkeley and Jesse Garcia. I'm getting ready to start another movie, but I don't want to talk about it yet. I keep saying I'm going to take a vacation, but I keep getting offered stuff and going to work !”

Julie Benz - "Dexter" Tv Series - Season 4 - Backstage.com Interview

Webmaster — 2009-06-20T09:09:15Z

Julie Benz is a woman of many talents. She's played a shady FBI operative (Roswell), a plucky missionary (last year's Rambo), and a centuries-old vampire with a penchant for Catholic schoolgirl uniforms (Buffy the Vampire Slayer, Angel). Currently, she's spending her days as the emotionally fragile Rita, the girlfriend-turned-wife of serial killer Dexter Morgan (Michael C. Hall) on Showtime's hit series Dexter. Yet for all her talent in the acting realm, there's at least one thing Benz is most definitely not good at. "I have to sing in next week's episode," she says, laughing. "I can't sing ! I'm hoping there's a rewrite on that one."

Does that mean she's practicing in the meantime ? "No, you know what ? Rita's just going to sound like me," she says. "It's not like they're asking me to be a phenomenal singer ; it's, like, a singing along to the radio kind of thing. It's totally embarrassing for me to have to sing in public. But Rita likes to rock out a little bit."

And who can blame her ? For the past three seasons, Benz's Rita has been on a whiplash-inducing emotional roller coaster, evolving from damaged doormat to iron-willed survivor. "She started out as this very fragile woman and has managed to grow self-esteem through the love of a serial killer," says Benz, chuckling. "Unbeknownst to her, of course."

Recently, Benz—who also stars in the Lifetime movie Held Hostage, premiering July 19—took a break from shooting Dexter's highly anticipated fourth season to chat about connecting to characters, auditioning, and the joys of finally being liberated from false eyelashes.

Back Stage : How much input do you have on Dexter ? Do you ever offer up suggestions for the character ?

Julie Benz : I don't give much input into the character, because I really feel that they've tailored the role to me. I feel that our writers are very intuitive. They're very much in tune with who I am as an actress and what I do, and they pretty much write the role for me. As far as plot points and stuff, I like being in the dark—I'm probably one of the few actors that doesn't ask, "So what's in store for the new season ?" I love getting the scripts. They were handing out new scripts last week on set. Oh my God, I raced over and grabbed mine ! It's very exciting.

Back Stage : The writers have really put Rita through a lot. As an actor, how do you connect to her ?

Benz : This is a character I can relate to on many levels. In Season 2, when Dexter had an affair, I think that's something we can all relate to : We can all relate to being rejected in some way by someone we care about. The majority of my work, the majority of how I approach Rita, is I really just try to be as relaxed as possible and work off of Michael.

This last season, when he proposes to me, I had no plan on how I was going to react to that. Right when we started to rehearse it, I got filled with all this emotion, thinking about the journey this woman's been through and then to have this man that she loves so much propose. It was so overwhelming ; magic happened. It was one of those moments where I keyed right into Michael and really listened to what he was saying. Even though he stole the speech from a psycho killer, it doesn't matter ! I didn't know that ! [Laughs] I think that's what makes her so lovable : She doesn't know these things. She bought the speech.

Back Stage : I understand you really fought to play this character. What was your audition process like ?

Benz : It was long. In the very beginning, I pre-read for the casting director. I know so many actors won't pre-read, but I loved the script so much, I was like, "Of course." They originally had me read for the role of Rita and for the role of [Dexter's tough, foulmouthed sister] Debra. In the very, very beginning, I thought I was Debra. I just wanted to swear on TV—this woman gets to say "fuck" ! I was totally excited about it. And it was just like shoving a square peg into a round hole. This was not a fit at all. I worked my ass off on that character, and with Rita, I really didn't have to work at anything. With Rita, I just was and am. I could just be. It felt too easy, in many ways.

Then they had to go through the process of auditioning for casting directors and producers and producers again. I tested for it, and Showtime thought that I look too pulled together to play this damaged woman and struggling mother of two. So after my test, I got a call from my manager, who said, "We just got the funniest note for you. They want you to come back with no makeup on, not looking attractive." I went back the next day, and they didn't even recognize me. Our director at the time thought I was wearing a prosthetic. I was like, "Do I really look that awful without makeup on ?" [Laughs.] But it was so refreshing. Season 1, I had a five-minute hair and makeup call. For the first time, I knew what it was like to be a guy. It was great : taking that mask off and just being able to be this raw, real woman. I had come from working on the WB, where when you're on your deathbed you have false lashes and lip gloss. It was a relief in many ways to strip all that away and not to have to worry about that.

Back Stage : Speaking of the WB, here's a final, silly question. Rita is so different from Darla, the vampire you played on Buffy and Angel. What do you suppose Darla would think of Dexter ?

Benz : I think she'd kill him. [Laughs.] No contest. She's a vampire ! She's got superpowers ! She would just suck the blood right out of him. She might turn him into a vampire : He'd be a fun playmate for her. And then he might kill her.

Julie Benz - About Twitter - Pepsicointernetweek.com Interview

Webmaster — 2009-06-03T12:01:19Z

Julie Benz, a self described Twitter addict, plays Rita Bennett on Showtime's Dexter. The 37 year-old Pennsylvania native is working on the 4th season of the hit show while she skims Perez Hilton.com daily and visits New York for fashion week. While Julie wishes she could steal away from the LA set of the show for Internet Week, she was forced to use email to get her answers to our inquiring minds instead.

Kelly Will : What is your preferred method of communication with fans ?

Julie Benz : I love to Twitter with fans, family and friends ! I use Facebook as a way to keep in touch with extended family and friends that I don't get to see very often. Since I spend half my life on set the best way to communicate with me is through text, email or Blackberry messenger. I'm terrible at listening to voicemails and returning phone calls. (Especially since Los Angeles went handsfree in the car !)

KW : Tell us about your new hobby, Twitter.

JB : I am a twitter addict ! It's a great way to keep in contact with my fan base. I read ALL their messages and look at their profiles !

KW : Who are your fellow celeb favorites ?

JB : I follow Harvey Levin from TMZ, Rachel Zoe, Oprah, and Joel McHale… but I would have to say my favorite is Perez Hilton.

KW : Does that mean you read Perez Hilton ? Daily ?

JB : Yes !!! Love, love, love Perez !

KW : What's your take on new technology and what's your latest gadget ?

JB : I am fairly tech savvy. I love how technology has simplified my life. I just got a Kindle and now I don't have to carry around a heavy bag filled with scripts and books !

KW : So other than Dexter, where can we see you this year ?

JB : Held Hostage on Lifetime on July 14, Boondock Saints 2 in theaters this fall and of course the new season of Dexter September 27 on Showtime !

Julie Benz - "Punisher War Zone" Movie - Metronews.ca Interview

Webmaster — 2008-11-30T10:56:23Z

Not only does Julie Benz play yin to a serial killer's yang in the hit TV show Dexter, but she also starred opposite the most macho of manly men earlier this year in Rambo. Now the soft-spoken actress is playing accomplice to yet another rugged he-man in Punisher : War Zone — hitting theatres next Friday.

“I seem to be getting vigilante themes surrounding me in my work,” says Benz over the phone from New York recently. “It's because I'm so light in real life.”

She may be joking but there isn't much to laugh about in Punisher : War Zone. Although it's the third cinematic adaptation of the vengeance-filled Marvel Comics character, Benz insists this is not a sequel — “It's just a very gritty urban retelling of the Punisher tale,” she says.

“This is not just an action film, this is a film about a man whose family was completely annihilated,” says Benz of the Punisher's origin. “He takes on vigilante justice and is still struggling with the loss of his family so there's real heart to the role of Frank Castle (The Punisher).”

In War Zone, an evil mob boss that Castle (Ray Stevenson of HBO's Rome) left horribly disfigured forms a vengeful crime syndicate. When a cop's wife (Benz) and her child are kidnapped by the foe, the unpredictable Punisher must reluctantly rescue the pair.

“Even though you could look at (my) films and say genre-wise they're very related, the characters I play in them are very different,” says Benz. “In The Punisher, my character's a lot tougher. She's a fighter and she's willing to do anything to save her daughter.”

As if its legacy wasn't enough, Punisher is also gaining notice with its female filmmaker Lexi Alexander. Not only is the former kickboxing champion-turned-director making her big studio debut, but many say she's an unusual choice to helm such a violent movie.

“On many levels, (she's) very appropriate. I mean, she is a martial artist so when it came to the fight sequences — these sequences look like street fighting, not stunt fighting,” defends Benz.

“Also I think you needed a woman to wrangle all the (male) egos floating around — the fact that they knew she could kick their ass, they did what she said.”

Julie Benz - About Her Movies - CW 11 Morning News - November 24, 2008 - Watch The Video

Webmaster — 2008-11-28T08:13:44Z

Julie Benz - "Boondock Saints II" Movie - Boondocksaints.com Video Q&A

Webmaster — 2008-11-13T12:14:36Z

Julie Benz - "Dexter" Tv Series - Usatoday.com Audio Intervew

Webmaster — 2008-08-20T09:54:36Z

On the new season of Dexter, pretty much anything could happen to Rita, Dexter's trusting girlfriend. It's that kind of show.

DexterBut Julie Benz is used to surprising series — she played vampire Darla on Buffy, then reprised the role on Angel. (One of my all-time favorite episodes was the one where she ... well, I hope you've seen it, too.)

Dexter's second season arrives on DVD today, so you have time to catch up before the third season debuts on Showtime Sept. 28. Last week, Julie called me to chat about the new episodes and answer some Pop Candy readers' questions.

I've included a portion of that Q&A below. You can hear the entire thing in this week's podcast ; more details follow.

I'd be really interested to know how different it is for Julie to play a vulnerable character in Rita, vs. a strong one like Darla — Devindra

Benz : I think Rita and Darla are very similar at their core. They're both very damaged women by men : Rita at the hands of Paul, and the damage that she suffered from that. Darla, obviously, before she was made a vampire, was very damaged. She was a prostitute and had bad relationships and all of that. So, what's interesting is, at their core they're similar, it's just one chooses to turn left and the other chooses to turn right. Darla was a very vulnerable woman, she just masked it very well.

I'd like to ask her about doing two action pics (Rambo and Punisher) back to back. What's the attraction — is it the scripts or the buff leading men ? — RandomTroy

Ooh. For me, I was an athlete growing up, and I love being challenged physically. ... It's exciting to try to do your own stunts and to see if you can face your fears. When I did Rambo, I had to run through a ball of fire. And I was like, "OK, I'll try it once." (Laughs)

Is it true that Sylvester Stallone is a huge Dexter fan, and that's how you got the role in Rambo ? — BIG BUSINESS

Yes, that is the truth. He was a big fan of Dexter, and I got the call that he was interested in me taking on the female lead. And I was like, "Seriously ? Wow." I mean, that's one of the coolest things that's ever happened to me.

Do you ever wonder what life would have been like if you were cast as Buffy ? — Melanism

No. I mean, I made the mistake years ago of mentioning that in an interview, that I auditioned for the role of Buffy. But so did 2,000 other women. And I wasn't right for the role, and it was obvious that I wasn't right for the role. I think Sarah's brilliant in the part. But that's how I met Joss (Whedon), was through that audition, and he liked my choices, I just wasn't right for the character. And that's how I got the role of Darla.

But I never wonder, because I believe everybody's path is different, and I love the path that my career's taken. So I'm very content, very happy.

Me : Do you still keep in touch with any cast members from Buffy ?

I do. I talk to Charisma (Carpenter) almost daily. Jenny Mollen, I was in her wedding. Clare Kramer is a very, very dear friend — I talk to her every day. Same with Robia LaMorte. Juliet Landau I speak with, J. August Richards ... all of them. We all kind of grew up together. And there's a connection there. It was all during our formative years in many ways, it was going from kid to adult, really.

Listen to the rest of the interview :

http://wm.usatoday-na-central.edgestreams.net

Julie Benz - "John Rambo" Movie - Theglobeandmail.com Interview

Webmaster — 2008-01-26T13:51:34Z

Dexter ? Rambo ? Looking for love in all the wrong places

It takes a hell of a man to upstage screen beauty Julie Benz. Specifically, a vampire, a psychotic vigilante or an aging mercenary with a questionable surgical history.

Best known to Goth nerds all over the world as Darla from the cult TV show Buffy the Vampire Slayer and its spinoff series Angel, Benz also appeared in the geek-friendly alien conspiracy series Roswell. As we speak, some guy with bad skin and a greasy Spider-Man T-shirt is mashing all his favourite Julie Benz clips with a Evanescence ballad, and will later post his adoring tribute on YouTube.

These days, Benz has been keeping company with two more earthbound bloodhounds ; playing the titular mad killer's emotionally scarred girlfriend in the cable hit Dexter and now Sylvester Stallone's damsel in distress in the latest Rambo instalment, which pits kind-hearted Christian missionaries (led by Benz's character) against sadistic, godless Burmese generals. Obvious American foreign-policy metaphors, anyone ?

Despite her penchant for gore-splattered roles, Benz is, in person, a small, bright-eyed, perky sort who speaks with just the hint of a Jan Brady accent. Juntas beware !

I'm told you filmed Rambo "in the jungle." The jungles of where, Burbank ?

Noooo, the jungles of Thailand. It was scary. First of all, I got cast in the movie and then they said, you need to go to the doctor and get, like, 17 vaccinations. I was like, what ? Typhoid, what's that ?

Rambo, the character, is often used as shorthand by critics of U.S. aggression. Is this a good time politically to be releasing another Rambo lock 'n' load movie ?

[Crinkles face] I was always under the impression Rambo represented reluctant American aggression, because he's always reluctant to get involved, especially in this movie. He wants to be left alone, he doesn't want to get involved, he doesn't believe in war. But of course he ends up getting involved.

Had you seen the other films ?

I watched them after I got cast, but only [the first and second]. I was told not to watch No. 3. He said not to watch No. 3 and he was my boss, so I listened to him.

"He" being Sylvester Stallone ?

Yes, and he's a big guy.

Still ? Or is it all CGI now ?

He's not CGIed at all ! He's still that big !

You're in Rambo, Dexter, and the upcoming Punisher 2 - you're cornering the vigilante heroine market.

Hee-hee ! I think all the characters are very different, but they just happen to be in these dark, anti-hero movies. It's not a subconscious choice ; I just choose projects that seem interesting to me. I'm not really sitting there saying, 'Oooh, this is another dark one.'

Because, really, I want to do romantic comedy. It just hasn't fallen into my lap yet. It's always been a dream of mine to be the girl in a romantic comedy, to shoot a movie in New York City and play a fashion designer and keep all my wardrobe after - to actually experience the glamour side of the business. I'm always in these jungle movies, playing characters who wear clothes from Target and don't wear any makeup.

Did you keep your jungle clothes ?

They offered them to me, but I said, you know, you can keep them. I mean, who negotiated that ?

This film is set in Myanmar.

Let's call it Burma. I've been educated that the Burmese military government changed the name to Myanmar when they took over. By saying Myanmar, you are basically supporting them, rather than the democracy that should be there.

Did you know about Burma

before being cast in Rambo ?

I did not. I was educated by the U.S. Campaign For Burma, who I've been doing some work for. Reading the script piqued my interest and I started doing some research online. I just felt that this was my opportunity to spread the word about what's going on in this part of the world. When you see the pictures online, it's like nothing you've ever seen - children being raped and murdered. They still do human sacrifices, they rip out hearts ! It's brutal, and you can't turn your back on that.

Rumour has it you're playing the alcoholic Sue-Ellen in the upcoming Dallas movie. Have you started drinking heavily to prepare ?

Well, the drinking heavily part has been there a long time ! It's just a rumour.

You'll neither confirm nor deny ?

Actually, I am being completely honest, it's a rumour. No one has approached us about it, there's been no talk about it. I would love it. I think it would be fun. I'm a big fan of Dallas, I grew up watching it, and Sue-Ellen would be a kick to play, but it's just a rumour.

If this Rambo is a hit, will you do the next one ?

I would definitely do it again ! It was one of the best jobs of my life.

So, I guess your character

survives.

I didn't say if she did or not - I just said if there was another one, I would do it. Maybe as a different character ? Maybe I'd play Rambo ?

A tranny Rambo !

Rambetty !

Particulars

BORN

May 1, 1972, Pittsburgh.

STAR ON ICE

As a child Benz was a competitive ice dancer and came in 13th in the U.S. Championships in junior ice dancing in 1988. (Her older siblings won it the year before.) PARENTAL GUIDANCE

"I started skating when I was three years old," Benz said in an interview last year. "Do we really know what we want at 3 ? I think what [my mom] was really trying to instill in all of us was a work ethic. A level of commitment. A lot of lessons I learned as a skater I definitely carried into my acting career. I made the decision that I wanted to be a performer."

LESSONS

Benz studied drama at New York University, and then moved to Los Angeles

Julie Benz - "Rambo 4" Movie - Nydailynews.com Interview

Webmaster — 2008-01-20T20:14:02Z

Actress Julie Benz survived camp Stallone while making the new 'Rambo'

Talk to Julie Benz about the glamorous life of a Hollywood actress and she'll tell you about being tied to a pole next to a pigpen for a scene in "Rambo" - the day the pigs broke through the fence and started coming for her.

"I was terrified, because someone had told me that if they think you smell good, they'll eat you !" Benz says. "I kept thinking, 'I hope I smell bad !' It's scary to come in contact with a 400-pound beast when you're tied up. Even as someone came to rescue me, I heard Sly say, 'Keep the cameras rolling !'"

Benz, speaking by telephone from Los Angeles, laughs - partly at the memory, partly at the fact that she's actually referred to Sylvester Stallone as "Sly." After being cast as the female lead in the first "Rambo" film in 20 years, which opens Friday, it took her a while to stop calling the action icon "Mr. Stallone" during their time filming "Rambo," which writer and director Stallone hopes will rescue one of his signature characters the same way last year's "Rocky Balboa" capped the saga of his Philly boxer.

"He hates it when I call him 'Mr. Stallone,'" Benz, 35, says of the 61-year-old star, whom she admits was a favorite of hers when she was growing up. "But anytime you meet somebody whose work you've admired for a long time - when I went to audition, it was all I could do not to show that my hands were shaking. I had to get past my shyness to play opposite him. I went through a couple of phases - calling him 'Mr. Stallone,' then calling him 'Hey, you.'

"It took a while before I could call him 'Sly' without giggling."

In "Rambo," Stallone's Vietnam-vet soldier for hire, John Rambo (first seen in 1982's relatively sedate thriller "First Blood," then elevated to iconic status in "Rambo : First Blood Part II" (1985) and last seen battling the Russians in Afghanistan in 1988's "Rambo III"), is living peacefully in a backwater of Thailand (where the film was shot), piloting a boat and catching snakes for a riverside tourist attraction.

Benz's Sarah asks him to ferry her and a group of doctors up the river to Burma, so they can help oppressed tribes. When the vicious Burmese military takes the doctors captive, it's up to Rambo to rescue them.

Bullets, blood and body parts all fly, of course - but in her part, Benz never touched a weapon.

"I'm not a gun person," she admits. "But those were big guns. On some days, it was so loud and intense - the sound just rips through your gut. You're not really acting ; you're reacting."

A slight, slim, 5-foot-4 native of Pittsburgh, Benz was nationally ranked at No. 13 in figure skating when she retired at age 16. A stress fracture derailed her as a young teen and, by the time she resumed skating, she'd discovered acting. So she put her athletic career on ice.

"Plus, figure skaters have a shorter shelf life," she notes.

After graduating from New York University, she moved to Los Angeles, where she started landing TV roles. She was eventually cast on "Buffy the Vampire Slayer" as Buffy's nemesis, the evil vampire Darla, a role that carried over to "Buffy" spinoff "Angel."

Benz, so slinky and in control as the undead, is practically unrecognizable in her latest series, Showtime's "Dexter." She plays Rita, a single mother who has survived an abusive marriage, and now is in a romantic relationship with a clean-cut police forensic scientist (Michael C. Hall) - who secretly is a serial killer who targets murderers and other nasty people.

"At the core, they're kind of the same. They're both very damaged women," Benz says. "They both tap into very different sides of me."

Neither, however, puts Benz into quite the state she was in at the end of a day playing a pigpen prisoner in "Rambo."

"I'd go back to the hotel and have to take three showers, just to get the first layer of mud off - and then take three more showers and a bath to finish the job," she says. "I don't think I was clean the whole time I was filming."

Julie Benz - "Dexter" Tv Series - Ifmagazine.com Interview

Webmaster — 2007-11-07T20:29:55Z

Actress Julie Benz is having a busy year. Besides co-starring as Rita, the innocent mother-of-two love interest of the serial killer hero of Showtime's DEXTER, she's appearing opposite Sylvester Stallone on the big screen in the new actioner JOHN RAMBO and is once again out on DVD as the memorable vampire Vampire Darla (the role she originated on BUFFY THE VAMPIRE SLAYER) in the complete ANGEL DVD set of all five seasons from 20th Century Fox Home Entertainment.

Benz recently took time out of her full schedule to give iF MAGAZINE this exclusive interview.

iF MAGAZINE : Did you think DEXTER would go into a second season ?

JULIE BENZ : I thought so, because I'm a fan of the show. It's the kind of programming I enjoy watching, the kind that challenges you to think and ask questions. So yeah, I definitely thought it would go into a second season. Plus, I think it's great. I think Michael [C. Hall, who plays Dexter] is amazing in it and the writing's amazing. Showtime's a really great network, too – they're very supportive of the shows that they produce and they really give their shows a chance.

iF : Is there irony in the fact that, now that Rita's a little bit stronger this season, that strength is possibly endangering her relationship with Dexter ?

BENZ : It could be. It could.

iF : How has it been working with JoBeth Williams, who plays Rita's mother ?

BENZ : We had done a series together a couple of years ago, so I was very excited when they came to me and said they were going to be hiring her to play my mom, because she's just really phenomenal.

iF : Do you enjoy playing a daughter ?

BENZ : Yes. I also enjoy playing a mother, so it's nice to play both. I am a daughter in real life, so I have a lot to draw from [laughs].

iF : Between seasons of DEXTER, you made JOHN RAMBO in Sylvester Stallone's latest sequel. Do you play the love interest, or …

BENZ : No, it's not the love interest, it's more or a spiritual kind of saving that goes on between my character and Rambo's character. I play a woman named Sarah, who's a missionary, and we hire Rambo to take us into Burma to bring supplies to the Karen tribes. I don't know if you know this, but Burma is actually having the longest-running form of genocide in the world, and it's the most under-reported war. It's a very serious issue in Burma. So we go in there to bring supplies to the people who are being persecuted by the Burmese government, and we end up getting kidnapped by them. And these are horrible, horrible people who rape and torture and pillage and the horrors that go on there are. And there's not a lot of reporting going on [about the situation]. So anyway, we go in there and we end up getting kidnapped by the Burmese and Rambo comes back in to save us. Here I am, playing a woman of faith, who believes in humanity, pure goodness, and here he is, a man who's been let down by humanity, who's pretty much a shell of a man, who has no faith, and while he's saving my life, in a way, I help save him spiritually. But it's not a love interest. It's deeper than that.

iF : Had you played this sort of part before ? Well, yes, you did – you played a woman of faith on SUPERNATURAL.

BENZ : But never to this extent.

iF : How was doing SUPERNATURAL ?

BENZ : Oh, it was a lot of fun. Those boys are adorable [laughs]. It was great. It was the rainiest week I think, in Vancouver. We were out in the mud field. It was brutal shooting, but it was fun to work on.

iF : Is it tougher to play somebody who's very sure of herself, as opposed to someone who's more conflicted ?

BENZ : I don't know. Both have challenges. I think it's challenging to make both characters full and believable. If you play somebody who's too damaged – if you see a character like Rita and you play her too damaged, then the audience is going to be unsympathetic towards her. It's finding that balance, really. And it's the same if you play a character that's very strong – you still have to find the humanity– what is their Achilles' heel ? What is their flaw ?

iF : Did you have a favorite scene as Rita last year ?

BENZ : I had a couple. I loved when she dressed up as Lara Croft and gave Dexter a blow job [laughs]. That was her first big sexual awakening, and it was such a fun scene to play and it's the first time you really saw a little bit of her strength and her playfulness, and it was so nice to do after playing so much of this vulnerable, beaten-down woman, to have this fun moment with Dexter. I also love the scene towards the end where she confronts Paul [Rita's abusive ex-husband] in prison and basically lays it on the line from a place of great strength, where she finally just tells him how it's going to be and how he needs to explain to the kids why he's in prison.

iF : Anything else you'd like to say ?

BENZ : Just watch the show !