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Say what you will about those scumbag lawyers at Wolfram & Hart – when they want something, they go out and get it. Sure, they all sell their souls and break countless laws of man and nature to do it, but on a devious whim, those litigious leeches gave Buffy fans what they’ve been craving for nearly three years… They brought Drusilla back. It almost wants you to send the ghost of Holland Manners and his crew a little thank-you note and maybe a fruit basket doesn’t it? Almost. Drusilla’s debut on Angel and her return to Buffy marked the first time Juliet Landau has picked up Miss Edith since the finale of Buffy’s second season. When a drunken Spike returned to the Hellmouth nursing a broken heart in season three, it fuelled rumours of Dru’s impending return as well. As time wore on, however, fans became just as shattered as William the Bloody when it seemed his deliciously delirious counter-part would be shacking up with the South American chaos demon indefinitely. But now that she’s finally back, no one seems more pleased than Landau herself. “It’s been so much fun,” she says in a voice that is neither eerie, insane, nor Cockney. “They’ve been writing such great stuff and it’s been so cool just to be back working with James (Marsters) and working with David (Boreanaz ). It’s been really inventive, and really creative, and really fun.” Landau says that slipping back into the mind and body of Drusilla came as naturally as visiting an old friend. “I’ve sort of gotten to the point where I really understand her, which sometimes is a little scary,” she says, the thought evoking nervous laughter. “I understand the logic of her illogic. It’s almost like doing a run of a play, getting to live with a character for that length of time, yet it’s different, because the text isn’t the same every time.” From her very first meeting with Buffy creator Joss Whedon, Landau has invested a tremendous amount of time developing and evolving her approach to playing Drusilla. And though the character was never the poster girl for mental stability, Landau seems to have tapped into a new reserve of insanity for the vampiress’ latest incarnation while sacrificing none of Drusilla’s evil. “ I remember in that meeting with Joss, he said a lot of different adjectives about Drusilla and they were almost kind of contrary and diametric in their nature,” Landau recalls. “I wondered how I was going to put all that into a character, and then I worked on it and all the pieces kind of came together, it’s been a real joy in that fact that she has all these qualities that are very opposing in one person. People are like that.” Landau has woven these qualities into a textured performance that can be breath-taking to watch as Drusilla maniacally switches gears from calculating killer to little girl lost. “I work with a lot of different aspects of her personality,” she adds. “Initially, I worked in terms of the dialect and body language when she was weak and when she got strong. There’s so many different aspects to the character. On one hand she’s kind of childish and then she’s also very sensual and womanly. You get to bounce between all these different things, and what motivates her to be very childlike in a moment or very evil in a moment. Any of those things are sometimes different than how other characters might react to things. When I’m working with James, there’s that whole bond and history, and when I’m working with David, there’s that other whole bond and history of his being a father figure to Drusilla as well as a lover. It’s got all that dark, twisted stuff. “The other thing that’s really nice is there’s also a lot of humour,” Landau adds. “It’s got a funny aspect as well as there being a dangerous aspect and a threatening aspect and an evil aspect. Drusilla’s kind of a sad character often, too. She’s a little lost sometimes. One of the elements of the writing that’s always been so great is that it’s very dimensional. A lot of times when you play a villain, it’s sort of one colour. Right from the beginning there was the other side to Spike and Dru that was really sort of a tender love affair as well as all of the evil stuff that we did. Of course, it’s kinky as well, but there was this sweet, true love between the two characters that, in a way, humanizes them.” This time around, the actress also finds herself in vamp-face more than ever before. No longer weakened by rioting Rumanians, Drusilla has been feasting on the blood of lawyers, young lovers and townsfolk from her earliest days as a vamp. “In so many ways, the prosthetic does so much work fro you,” she says. “It’s so scary looking. I was watching my last Buffy episode with my sister and my mom. When James and I go into the Bronze, and we’re feeding on that young couple, everyone was freaked out by that sequence. It’s scary even when you’ve done it. You’re inside the character, then you see it from the outside and it’s pretty creepy.” In her return to the Whedonverse, Landau now shares a bond among a growing list of former Sunnydale residents who’ve come to the dark side of Angel’s Los Angeles. It’s company that Landau says she’s happy to keep. “Everybody that works on both shows are such strong actors,” she enthuses. “We had tried a few times (to bring Drusilla back), but I had been working on other stuff and scheduling hadn’t worked out, so it was really nice at this time to come and do it. I knew that I was going to hook up with Julie (Benz) and that we were going to quote-unquote wreak havoc on LA together.” Landau has also shared a stage with an Angel castmate, although their personal friendship couldn’t save him from Drusilla’s wrath. “I had done a reading with Sam Anderson, who plays Holland Manners, at a theartre a number of years ago,” she explains. “Then I was watching Angel and saw that he was on and thought it was great. When they called for me to do the show, I really hoped that I would work with Sam and we did. It’s a real joy to work with the whole group of actors that are there” Although Landau is currently back to working on her film career by shooting as new movie called From The Ground Up, the actress doesn’t intend to wait another three years before reprising her vampire role. “They’ve definitely talked about me coming back and creating more trouble,” she says coyly. “Maybe next season.” We’ll be waiting.