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Watcher's Guide Volume 1 Interview

From The Watchers Guide Volume 1

As Drusilla, Juliet Landau portrays a slightly insane, slightly clairvoyant, British vampire torn by her attraction to two other vampires. Needless to say, it’s an odd role. Which, for an actor, is a little bit like gold. Juliet is a second generation -star, the daughter of the imitable Martin Landau and Barbara Bain, neither of whom were strangers to television themselves. In an era when many actors and producers are just beginning to accept the idea that actors can work successfully on both large and small screens, it should be remembered that Juliet’s parents were among those who paved the way. In a very short time, however, this young actress has made a name for herself. Aside from her role on Buffy the Vampire Slayer, she is perhaps best known for her role in the quirky Tim Burton film Ed Wood. Juliet has also appeared in The Grifters, Pump up the Volume, and Neon City, among others. We’re fortunate enough to catch up with her for a few minutes on one of her final days of shooting. While the crew is changing the lighting for the next scene, we sneak away to an abandoned set, with Juliet in full Drusilla make up and costume. A true professional, she seems at first distracted- loath to break from character. But after a only a moment or two, Juliet relaxes, and it’s obvious she is warm and open, quite unlike the Hollywood stereotype. She is a unique actress, an observation borne out of the fact that, unlike nearly everyone else in this cast-and nearly everyone else in Hollywood making less than ten million a picture-Juliet did not actually audition for her role in the series. “Joss had seen my work in Ed Wood. He called my agent, and they sent over a reel, and I came in for a meeting with Joss and David Greenwalt , Gail Berman (both executive producers, and (casting director) Marcia Shulman. It was an incredibly creative meeting. It was great. All I had read was a couple of pages in the script about Spike and Drusilla, and the character description. And I got a real strong sense from what was written about what I felt about the character. Joss apparently had these characters running around in his brain for years. So it was this amazingly creative meeting, and then I left, and within half an hour they called my agent and said that they wanted me to do it.” Apparently, as part of that meeting, on the spur of the moment, Juliet began to go into what we would now call her “Drusilla mode”, with fluttering hands, and distant stares. The producers loved it. So did Juliet. When Drusilla first appears, in her weakened state, she is reminiscent of classical opera heroines, dying of consumption or some other debilitating disease. But the idea that she would start this way and become strong really appealed to the actress. “There are so many colours to this character: going from weak to strong; being a villain. There’s also this sweet sort of love story in a way between Spike and Drusilla. It’s a little kinky and strange, but it’s also sweet. You just have these different dynamics. She’s evil but there was a side to her when she was ill that was sort of fragile .Ethereal. Joss described us as Sid and Nancy as vampires. And the look of Drusilla is fun, this sort of cross between Victorian period heroine and Kate Moss.” Interestingly enough, Juliet does not think of Drusilla as evil. “I’ll say that to Joss, and he just says, “Yeah, and I can tell that you think so, and it shows.” She’s so creepy, but she doesn’t think of herself that way. “And so I eat a few people, it’s no big deal. Indeed, from Drusilla’s perspective, it’s perfectly reasonable to kill people and suck their blood. Juliet makes a point of discussing how fortunate she and the rest of the cast are to be working on this series, where characters do develop and change over time. “It evolves,” she says appreciatively. “Angel goes from being the good guy to where he’s come to be with Spike and Drusilla. Then there’s my character’s whole journey, and the fact that the second I become healthy, I have to take care of Spike while he’s in a wheelchair. Conversation turns to the subject of Juliet’s British accent. American by birth, she did spend four years in London as a child. It paid off. “There was an Englishman who was the double for the Judge (In “Surprise” and “Innocence”). That day I guess I had been speaking mostly in dialect. He came up to me afterwards and asked where I was from. I said, “Actually, I’m from here”, and the he said “Oh my God, I can’t believe you fooled me,” And I thought, that was really good.”

Do you have a favourite moment, on or off screen, from your time on Buffy?


Juliet: “After they hired me, they paired me with their two final choices for Spike. James (Marsters) came in and immediately we just bounced off each other. There was a moment during his audition-it was our very first scene of our first episode, and (Spike and Dru) are talking to the Annointed One. James came up to me as if we were going to kiss, and then we didn’t and we turned (away from each other).And we ended up doing it in that scene, and it was kind of fun that it came up from that initial meeting. Then they actually used it in the promo-“Evil has two new faces” They used that actual thing.”


Were you interested in horror as a child?


Juliet: “No, actually, not really. But it’s funny, because the show doesn’t feel like horror to me. The dark forces are used to show the high school experience to the absolute extreme. High school is a horror movie, which we can all relate to. It’s got this humour and this dark edge, and it bounces between being scary and funny and tragic.”


Drusilla is the most powerful villain we’ve seen on television in a long time. How come Buffy has never beaten the crap out of you?


Juliet: “Actually, what’s been interesting with Buffy and me is that (my character has) these visions and sees things, and her character has these dreams and premonitions. It’s been sort of mind-to-mind (combat), women battling with their minds. It’s been interesting.”