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Taken from the UK Angel magazine January 2005
Two of a kind
An interview with Juliet Landau and Julie Benz.
Buffy and Angel may have graced our screens for eight years, but the show's mythology spans a much longer time period- over 250 years- and Darla and Drusilla played an important part of that. Angel magazine managed to catch up with the two extremely busy actresses behind these vamps to talk about their time on Buffy and Angel.

Angel magazine: You both worked on Buffy, but never actually worked together until Angel season two's "Dear Boy". Had you met before then and did you know that your characters would meet somehow?
Julie Benz: I met Juliet at an audition and I introduced myself because we both worked on Buffy. I don't think nearly as creatively as the writing staff, so when I read that (Darla) was dead, I figured, "I'm dead." And since I cooked, which is my technical term for being dusted, I really thought there was no way to be put back together. So I was surprised every time I got called!
Juliet Landau: When I got (the role of) Dru, right afterwards, we had a creative meeting where Joss filled me in on the whole vampire lore of the Buffy universe, and my character's history with Angelus, so I was aware it would happen, but I wasn't sure when we would get to it.
A M: In "Dear Boy", Dru is terrorised by Angelus and then she watches him and Darla make out with one another on top of her. Quite the introduction...!
Juliet: (Laughs) It was a bizarre sequence, I'm profusely weeping and they are having a sexual encounter on top of me! Can it get any stranger than that? But it was perfect in terms of Dru's madness and showing the inception of those elements and why she became what she became.
Julie: Oh, I felt so bad for Juliet when we were doing that scene! The funny thing is that I was in a corset and they wanted David and I to passionately kiss and fall to the ground, and roll around on top of Juliet as we are enjoying ourselves. I couldn't bend at the waist so I would literally fall over like a ton of bricks onto David and we just kept laughing every time. Poor Juliet is crying, and we are there laughing at my sack-of-potatoes fall.
Juliet: Yeah, Julie was all glammed up in the corset and I'm in a potato sack with my hair all kinked and having a nervous breakdown. It was perfect! (laughing.)
A M: The chemistry created by the fanged four was such a new and fresh dynamic in the show's vampire mythology. Were you surprised how well the four of you worked together?
Juliet: We all felt the chemistry and I'm glad it translated to the screen. It was palpable between us and felt like a great doubles tennis match.
Julie: It is rare for that to happen, but I think when you have four actors on set who take the work seriously and are trying to be true to the characters and what they are revealing, the chemistry comes out of that naturally. There were no egos and we were all there for the work- not for the fame. There was always something magical when we were in period costume, too. Each and every flashback we did, there was something in the air and it was exciting with the horses and the hay and corsets and lots of hair. We all had lots of hair. (Laughs.)
A M: You eventually got to just work together and explore the feminine side of your characters' chemistry during Angel season two. Was it nice to get some alone time?
Julie: I absolutely loved working with David, but it was wonderful to explore this other side to Darla and her relationship with women through another female vampire. We had some of that in season two and it was really wondeful to work with Juliet. We come from the same training background so we speak the same language as actors. She takes it just as seriously as I do and she is just extraordinary. Some of the stuff she does as Drusilla just tickles me, and I find it hard not to laugh.
Juliet: Julie is great and right from the get-go, there was a creative spark that we were able to just bounce off each other. Our characters shared so much and are so very different. having that commonality of history and yet the disparate natures gave us a lot of room to play.
A M: Were there any moments you created on the spot that came out of your ease and rapport with one another?
Julie: In "Fool For Love" in the scene where Drusilla is crying about wanting her own play-thing, she calls me "Grandmamma." David started laughing at that and I hit him with my purse and that was all improv. I always feel it was charming to see the relationship between the three of us.
Juliet: I would come up with all kinds of things and a lot was kept and used. I do remember in "Reunion", we were shooting a sequence where I'm rubbing up and down a pole. Then Julie strung together all the things I had done that day into a charades-like move, and then the crew was running around doing it too. Looking at it from the outside was really funny. (laughs.)
A M: Speaking of those >i>Dru/Darla Angel episodes, did you have a favourite moment in them?
Julie: For me personally, the scene I loved the most was when we got set on fire in "Redefinition."
Juliet: Yes!
Julie: I loved that scene because we were dealing with an element, which we hadn't faced before- being doused with water. We didn't get to rehearse and it was a freezing cold night, below 30 degrees.
Juliet: And I don't know if Julie remembers, but she had the flu and we were working so closely, of course I came down with it too.
Julie: We were flying by the seat our our pants and we didn't know what to expect and they yell "Action!" and the water starts and it was a ton of water! Juliet had a lot of emotional work to do, and she is looking at me and the water is drowning me! I'm trying to protect her from some of it by covering her, but at the same time keeping her open for the camera.
Juliet: And I was closer to the water source! During one of the takes, there was so much water I couldn't speak. (laughs.) When they yelled "Cut!" I just remember us laughing! They didn't tell us it would be that much water! I don't think I would have made it through the scene with anyone else but her.
A M: After those episodes, you didn't work together again until "The Girl In Question". The cancellation was known, so how did you get called to come back one last time?
Julie: I was hoping to be able to return to play Darla for one last time, but I was pleasantly surprised when they called and asked if I would. I was very excited when I got the call. Juliet and I talk on the phone once a week, and she mentioned that she got a call to and we wondered if it would be for the same episode. I was hoping it would work out and it did. I was hoping to go back and play one last time with everybody, especially David, because he is one of my most favourite people to work with, and to be able to work with James and Juliet was amazing.
Juliet: It was great that it was the four of us together, getting to be there with David and Julie and James. You couldn't ask for a better end. Plus, David Greenwalt was directing the episode and he was fantastic. I never read for Dru originally, but I had a meeting right at the beginning with Joss and David where we threw around ideas, and then he was doing my last episode!
A M: That last episode was played for the comedy and it hysterically addressed all the sexual subtext alluded to over the years. Were you shocked?
Julie: When they sent me the script and I read that I would be naked and all this other stuff, I was like "Whoa!" We thought it was something with The Immortal that they never let the guys do. The guys were really upset about it!
Juliet: It was so fun! We were laughing at the boys and their responses and we'd have to hold our laughter until they said cut because they were cracking us up. When we walk off and are giggling, we really are giggling because there was that sense of mischief and fun.
Julie: I'm very klutzy on-set. My sheet got stuck on the camera dolly and I fell off the bed. But it was nice to play the comedy side of Darla.
A M: In all the years you played these women, was there a scene that was hardest for you to do?
Julie: For me it was this one, because I had to change into a robe on set and David Greenwalt wanted a bareback shot, so obviously I was bare-fronted...in front of David and James. I was nervous, but everyone was really kind and respectful and I knew that Juliet was right behind the curtain, so that was good. The first time I did it, I was supposed to be talking while I dropped the robe, but I forgot all my lines!
Juliet: She was really brave, and it was tastefully done. I didn't even know she was shy because she did it so comfortably!
A M: was there another time period you wanted to explore?
Julie: I always wanted to do the '70's because I believe that Darla hung out with Andy Warhol and the Studio 54 crowd. Maybe she was a roller disco queen. I imagine her with a big blonde 'fro!
Juliet: I think the flapper era '20's or '30's would have been a fun Dru era. can't you see Druin a little bob?
A M: What do you think was Julie's finest moment on the show?
Juliet: Oh, there are a lot of them! In "Dear Boy", there is a whole sequence where she confronts Angel in the pillars and she was incredible.
Julie: I have to go back to that first scene in "Dear Boy" where we are rolling around on top of her when she is sobbing. She had so much focus and wasn't distracted and really worked off it, that just blew me away from the start!
A M: Dru is still around- where do you think she is today?
Julie: I think Darla would have been very smart to stick with her. Druis probably off raising hell somewhere. (Giggles.)
Juliet: I tend to think that Druand Spike are reconciled somewhere. I would bring him back to evil. Evil Spike is lots of fun.
A M: Lastly, if you could describe one another in three words- what would they be?
Julie: Juliet is elegant, focused and quirky, which is a weird dichotomy but so her!
Juliet: Oh Julie is plaful, intelligent and talented.
Ladies, thank you very much!