I Am All In with Scott PattersonIn every generation, there is a chosen one. She alone shall stand against the vampires, demons, and forces of darkness. She is the podcast. We’re going into the Hellmouth to explore the world of Buffy the Vampire Slayer with “Darla” herself, Julie Benz!
Buffy is mentioned in S5E10 “Not as Cute as Pushkin”, and Amy Sherman-Palladino said she used to write Gilmore Girls while watching Buffy the Vampire Slayer! We’re talking to Julie about her iconic career in Dexter, Angel, and she shares some memories of filming the Saw movies with our own Scott Patterson!
Plus, we find out what would happen if vampires showed up in Stars Hollow, on this week’s episode of I Smell Pop Culture!
I Am all In again.
Oh it's just you.
I Smell pop Culture with Easton Allen and I Heeart Radio podcast. I Smell pop Culture, Yes I do. I smell it. Not you, you don't smell it. I smell it. My name is Easton Allen. It's the I Am all In Podcasts I Smell pop Culture, one of eleven productions. iHeart Radio, iHeart Media, iHeart podcasts. Thanks again for coming back. We're doing a lot of fun stuff over here. We're talking to some really cool people that created some of the pop culture references that we loving Gilmore Girls. If this is your first time checking us out, I know my voice isn't familiar to you, and that's okay. My mother says the same thing. My name is Easton. I'm the sound guy here at the I Am all In Podcast and we're talking to some really incredible people that created, or were involved with, or are the pop culture references from Gilmore Girls. But this week, this week, I want to talk about an influential show on the WB in the two thousands. This shows about a single mom that moves to a small town with their daughter, trying to improve their lives. The first few seasons follow their high school experience, then moving on to college, and then some you know, controversial final seasons suns at Gilmore Girls. Right, I'm not talking about Gilmore Girls. The show I'm talking about is very similar and the only real difference are the stakes. You'll know what that means in a second. So grab your garlic, grab your holy water, and just to make sure we're five by five. I'll explain what I mean after these words.
iHeart podcasts. Listen on the iHeartRadio app.
Wow, that was a lot of fun. You know it was some other podcasts. I know the skip fifteen seconds button. I know that gets you get the thumb work out doing that. You skip ahead. You don't listen to that. To the commercials, sometimes it's like a different voice. It's kind of jarring. Sometimes it's the host doing them last minute on a voice memo in a parking garage or on a boat. Not with us, baby, the I am all in podcasts. These commercials are pure entertainment. I enjoyed them. You enjoyed them. I hope you get to hear more later on. In spoiler alert, you might my name's East and Allen. This is the I Smell pop Culture podcast under the I Am all in Umbrella, the I Am all in Network. Thank you so much Scott for letting me do this. I wouldn't spook you too much with that little teas right before those commercials. There a little scary with the garlic in the in the holy water. But we're going into the world of vampires this week. We're talking about a show that is intrinsic to Gomer Girls. I show that helped grow More Girls become what it was. And you may or may not know that, but I'm talking about Buffy the Vampire Slayer. That's right. A lot of people say that Sunnydale, that's the town Buffy takes place in. It's the West version of Stars Hollow. They have a lot of similarities. Obviously, sunny Dale has a bit more vampires than stars Hollow does. There are a ton of Buffy mentions in Gilmore Girls, and deeper than just saying five by five. You can really hear the Buffy and Joss Whedon influence in the Quippi writing that we love. Amy Sherman Palladino actually said that she would watch Buffy while writing Gilmore Girls. That's something that she enjoyed doing and something that definitely influenced how she wrote. She said that she loved that Buffy was appointment television. It was something everybody made a plan to watch. You couldn't miss Buffy every week. She loved the humor, she loved the weird cast. But the reference that a lot of fans get excited about Buffy fans and Gilmer Girls fans alike. It comes in season five, episode ten, but not as cute as Pushkin. So to set the scene to help you visualize it, maybe you're writing to your Netflix to que it up right now. But Paris is going out and says to Rory, I'm putting myself out there Rory, and Rory replies, it's eleven o'clock it now. Who are you hoping to hook up with? Now? Spike and Drusilla And Spike and Drisilla are Vampires introduces the main antagonist in Buffy the Vampire Slayer season two. They appear in the spinoff show Angel as well. But we're gonna talk to another crucial vamp from the Buffy verse this week. We're talking to Julie Ben's. She played Darla in Buffy the Vampires Layer and an Angel to spinoff and Darla is the first character you see in the first episode of Buffy the Vampires Slayer. You see her before anyone else. I mean, the show opens and it's like camera pans down and you see Darla. So she I mean, she's an icon the character, and Julie she's an icon in the world of Buffy and in the world of television at large if you ask me. But she's had so many iconic rolls. I mean, she was in the movie Jobbreaker from nineteen ninety nine, she was Dexter's love interest Rita in Dexter, the Showtime series Dexter, and of course she started us alongside our beloved leader Scott Patterson in the Hollywood blockbuster Saw five. We're going to hear all about that and more with Julie Ben's the great Julie Bens. And I mean, I can go on and on talking about this, but let's hear it from the lady herself. Julie Ben's She's here with us. How are you doing. Thanks for doing this.
I'm good, Thank you for having me.
We're so excited. There's so much to get into here, but I just I want to go back to the beginning. First of all, I want to find out how Julie Bens became Julie Bens. I was born Okay, okay, step one, Okay, we got that out of the way. You grew up in Pittsburgh, Steel City. Yes, And I wonder if this is true. I read that when you were young, you were an ice skater, but you had an acting coach that said you would never succeed as an actor. Is that true?
It is so so.
First, I was competitive figure skater from the age of three until I was sixteen, when I gracefully retired from ice skating.
And then I spent.
The summer of between my junior and senior year at Carnegie Mellon. They have like a summer program to introduce, like to see if you want to go to college to study acting, right, So it's basically kind of like a little mini semester where you get to see what it's like to go to school and study acting.
And it was.
There that this woman, she was she was like the voice coach, like the dialect coach. Yeah, she said at the end of the semester that I had a terrible voice and I would never be an actor, Like I just had no talent whatsoever.
I still have that. I still have her little report that she wrote.
Was that that means obviously that was Richer is wrong. So when you first got that feedback, like how did that feel?
I mean, I you know, I have so many thoughts on this. So back then my thought, I mean, I was hurt obviously, but I also knew the teacher didn't like me.
And there was a movie being cast in.
The city of Pittsburgh at that time and the program put forth some actors to audition for it. I was not one of them. My modeling agent put me forward for it, and I ended up getting this small part. It was my very first movie.
And so there was all this like you know.
Hubbub about how did I get the part over like people that they put forward, But.
You know, I was a Pittsburgh girl.
I had, you know, I had a modeling agent who put me in the mix. So so there was that aspect that happened. And then I had my manager who because I got a manager when I was sixteen years old and he was my manager for thirty.
Years until he retired.
And he said to me, because I was upset about it, and I told him about it, and he was like, you know, kid. He used to call me kid until the day he retired. You know, kid, He's like, the thing that makes you unique is also the thing that makes people like.
People are either going to like you or they're not going to like you. And your voice is unique. So there's people that.
Are gonna love it and there's people that are gonna hate it. But it's the thing that makes you unique.
So just know that.
And so yeah, I was kind of just rolled off my shoulders pretty much. I mean I was young, I was sixteen. I was like, I'm not gonna let somebody stand in my way of pursuing my dream. And in hindsight, now that I'm in my fifties, I'm just shocked and appalled that a teacher would tell a young student to not pursue your That's.
A bad teacher.
Yeah, it's insane. Yeah, like very important. I'm so impressed though, at such a young age that you're able to like recognize that, Oh no, this is like, like I know what I'm capable of. This person is wrong.
Well, I think, you know, having been a competitive figure skater, which is also a very subjective sport, it's not it's not like running track where you're definitely the fastest, right.
It's not on a sport like that.
It's a sport where it's there's artistry involved.
And technique and and it's a very subjective sport.
I think having been raised in that helped me deal with the ups and downs of Hollywood really, because it's.
Like you either like me or you don't like.
That's it, because there's no you know. And then that's how ice skating is. It's like, you know, people either like your style in the way you move in your grace or they don't like it.
Wow. There was a TV show that you did kind of early that that I'm fascinated by. It's called Honey, I'm Home.
High Honey, I'm home.
High, Honey, I'm home.
So I don't forget the high.
You can't forget the high. And in case you aren't familiar with High, Honey, I'm home. It was like it was a fifties sitcom family that then moves into a real neighborhood, like next to a real family. It's like a reverse Pleasantville kind of a thing.
Yeah, So it was we were we were taken off the air and put into the sitcom relocation program, which was like the Witness Protection program.
So so we were.
Taken off the air and moved to New Jersey into the sitcom relocation program.
So we were this black and white family and because of that, it was a fifty sitcom, so it was shot in black and white. But now we were living in color.
In New Jersey and trying to adjust to modern day life. And then we had this little TV remote that when life got too complicated and overwhelming, we could click it and we had turned back into black and white. And then somebody like some like we had like Gail Cordon and all these like old stars from old sitcoms, and they would come and like talk you through, like how to survive the world in color?
I love it. I love it so much. This should have ran for twelve seasons. I love this. It's such It's so incredible. Uh, and you had so many crazy guest stars on there. I want to know, what was it like working with Grandpa al Lewis.
He was a little scary. Yeah, he was a little he kept just walking into my dressing room.
Okay, yeah, check out.
It was a little weird. Yeah, that was definitely. Yeah. He was not my favorite.
Okay, Okay, that's Grandpa, I'll lose from the Monster's there. I mean, that was like major role on a sitcom, like so early in your acting career. That must have been an incredible experience, right, Yeah, it was.
So that was my I went to n YU to study acting, and within the first month of me being there, I.
Got the pilot for high Honey I'm Home.
And they tried to kick me out of n YU because technically you're not supposed to work professionally your first year as a freshman when.
You're studying acting. And I was fortunate.
I had one teacher who had a lot of seniority stand up for me, and they reinstated me back.
Into the school. I had to agree to take a D for the semester.
Wow.
Yeah, nobody's ever asked me my grade point average, so it doesn't really matter.
But but yeah, I had to agree to take a D.
For the semester because I broke the rule.
Okay, but but.
Yeah, and then when the show went into production, I took a semester off to film it, and you know, it was it was a It was a great experience overall. I mean we shot in Florida, Orlando, Florida at the Nickelodeon studios.
Down there because it was Nick at Night ABC.
And you know, I would say I learned a lot of important lessons.
Gail Gordon, who from that Lucy Show. Yeah, he was our very first guest star.
And so that very first week we had like a ten am call time, and I would show up at like ten o five. Yeah, and he pulled me aside and he sat me down and he said, listen, honey, when you have a ten am call, that means you get here at nine point thirty. You put your stuff down, you go get a cup of coffee, eat your breakfast, you start work at ten am.
And I've lived by that rulenel ever since.
I'm like, I'm always a half hour early for my calldime, put my stuff down, like, get my coffee, I have my breakfast, and then I.
Go to work.
Wow. I mean getting that kind of advice from TV legends like that, that's one incredible experience for you. Yeah, that's awesome. So anyway, I mean, hi, honey, I'm home. I wish it was still in the air, and we'll talk about Buffy the Vampire Slayer we need to get to obviously, and we'll talk about that a bit later, But there's so many things in your resume that are just so impressive. Jawbreaker nineteen ninety nine, it just celebrated it's twenty fifth anniversary. Congratulations, thank you an iconic movie. I mean, how did you get involved with Jawbreaker?
Well, I auditioned for it like every other young woman in Hollywood, and thank god it was Lisa Beach casting. Thank god she brought me in to play the role of Marcy. I owe her, I owe herself. But yeah, it was it was a long audition process. And by the time when I finally got to meet Darren Stein, the director and writer Jawbreaker, I mean, and I was auditioning in front of him, he was just like every time I opened my mouth, he'd start laughing, and I was like, Okay, I.
Think I think I'm gonna short.
So it turned out it worked out, which was great, and it was a lot of fun. I mean, yeah, we were just honored at the Academy Museum twenty five years later. And what was you know. It's always bubbled my mind about that movie was when it opened, it didn't do very well and the reviews actually weren't very good, and it only lasted three weeks in the and you know, my manager, you know.
He was like, hey kid, you know you win some, you'll lose some. Let's move on. I'm like, okay, didn't think about it.
And then you cut to now, twenty five years later, young people have found it, have discovered it, and it's almost like it was a movie that was a little ahead of its time.
Yes, I completely agree.
Yeah, so it's so exciting for all of us now to have it just being considered this iconic film. When when it came out, like we were all like, oh, well, got we thought. I mean, listen, I had so much fun filming it, and I really I saw, like in my mind when I read this script.
I was like, this is going to be great. Like I saw what Darren's.
Vision was and just could hear the rhythm of the dialogue and all of that and just be like, this is incredible. So when it kind of fell flat at the box, it was a big disappointment. But now you know, it's just the audience is just growing and growing and growing and it's.
Kind of fun.
Yeah. I was interested, like how it feels to have this like new audience. It feels like every year people are like posting about Jawbreaker and like discovering it for the first time. It's so it's exciting because like I remember when it came out in theaters and I loved it. It was one of the first first times where I like went and saw a movie, loved it, and then realized the critics didn't agree with me. And I'm getting really frustrated about that. But people are rediscovering it now and it's so cool to see twenty five years later.
Yeah, it's it's fun. I never would I mean, it just it bothers my mind because it's good because it was panned. But you know, Darren didn't write it for critics, like you know, the critics back then they.
Were like old men.
Yeah seriously, I mean the world has changed, yes, yes, absolutely, and when you have something good, the audience will find it, you know. So uh. You know again going through your resume here that I was also a huge Dexter fan. You're Rita Bennett on Dexter. What a complicated role for you to, uh, to play the love interest of a serial killer like that? How did you prepare for Rita? How did you bring that character to life?
Well, you know, so Originally when I auditioned for the show, they originally had me auditioned for the role of Deb and Rita. Wow, And I'll be honest, I thought I was a Deb. I mean, I worked so hard on that material.
I changed the way I walked, the way I talk like. I all the tools that I learned in acting school I put into that and and I really wanted I loved I really wanted to swear I'm not gonna lie.
I really wanted to say all those care So.
When I and I had to read, you know, for every audition because they didn't know which direction they were going to go in, so I was every time I go into the room to read, it was like I did read, I would do Deb, and then they would do Rita. And I barely worked on Rita. It was just like I don't need like I just that's that's easy. I don't need to do that. And here I was trying to shove me. It was like trying to shove a square peg into a round hole. I am not a dead I didn't see that at the time. So but when I finally got to read for Jim Manos, who was our show creator at the time, and literally walked in our room in the room and he took one look at me and he goes, oh my god, you're our Rita And I.
Was like no, no, no, no, I'm reading deb too.
And he was like you're Riada and I'm like okay. And the important lesson for me was that was that sometimes just being is enough for acting, you know what I mean.
Rita too easy for me. It felt like I wasn't I wasn't putting spin on the ball. I wasn't.
I didn't have to change anything. I just had to be and that she like, I just resonated her. Does that make sense?
Yeah, I know, it definitely does.
But Deab I was just like, I mean, boy, I was shmacking all over that room. No wonder I didn't get the part.
But it was an important lesson for me to learn that.
Sometimes when things feel so simple, but that's where like, that's like I used to pooh pooh that I used to be like, Oh that's just too easy.
That's not that's not challenging enough.
I need to you know, because I came off of Buffy and Angel, which that character there was a lot of spin on that ball.
Playing dutless so playing Rita all of a sudden was just it was just being and just knowing that I resonated her so.
Many life lessons I'm learning from you just this conversation. But like it's I mean, it's kind of like Alcome's Razor, right, The simplest explanation is the is the best usually, I mean it makes sense. You know, there's this like internal struggle with how to talk about a show that like ended years ago, but like you know, like Dexter, you know, the original run. I can't remember now, but it's been over a decade since I think the original run ended. So I don't want to spoil anything. But if people are going especially you.
Know, hey listeners, if you haven't watched it, there's gonna be some spoilers coming up. So turn it off, turn this off, go watch the show, and then come back to.
The past thing.
Yes, okay, great, okay, now that that's out of the way.
By the way, by the way, I honestly feel seriously, oh, it's like it's over ten years if you haven't watched it, Like sorry.
Yeah, it's exactly. Also, like you know, I knew I hadn't watched the Pranos until recently but like I know, like it ends with fade to black, and you know, like I know, there's there's certain things you just kind of know. I think every at this point, I'm going to say it, everybody knows that read it dies. I remember like where I was. That was the most shocking thing I had ever witnessed on television. I was like, I was texting my sister and I watched it, like as it aired, I was texting, like, I'm talking to Julie Bens tomorrow. My god, She's like, oh, do you remember when that moment? Like, how did when you found out that was going to happen? I mean, what was your reaction?
I was devastated.
Sure, I only found out a couple of days before the end of filming of season four, and I was completely blindsided by it, completely devastated by it. And I remember my initial reaction when they told me there was There's two things that happened, like there there's this weird synergy that happens when.
You're playing a character for a long time.
And that you know, there's like a weird just this synergy that happens, and so my first reaction was, oh, my god, I just lost my job, And the second thing out of my mouth was, but who's going to raise the baby?
Oh my god?
Like that, those are the two thoughts of like, who's raising Harrison?
Yeah, you're killing me.
Who's going to raise Harrison? What's going to happen to him? So and that's like the.
Weird response that happened, you know, And yeah, I was. I was unprepared for it. I always say nobody was more shocked than me. Yeah, And then my concern was because after we filmed it and everything there's there was like maybe like two months lag time before it aired, and my concern was that the audience wasn't going to care because Rita had kind of become the nemesis to Dexter at that point structure in the script. And so I started worrying that it wasn't going to have an impact.
And I remember they had this big, big finale premiere party Showtime did with fans and they wanted me to be there, and I agreed to go, but I only agreed to go for the first half and I left.
My contract said I would leave as soon as they started airing the show because I did not want to be in that room with everybody when for that scene, because I was I was so concerned that like, what if people started cheering and like here I am still like reeling from the fact that this happened.
And yeah, so I went at.
The beginning and met the fans and was there and did the social thing and everything, and then they went back to my house and so I didn't know really anybody's reaction until the next night. I went out to with a bunch of friends and we walked into this restaurant in West Hollywood and literally, like the restaurant like went silent, and then people started coming up and hugging me and crying. And that's when I was like, what's going on?
And they were just like and then they were talking about the show and oh my god and like and then that has carried on now through the majority of my life.
Most people when they meet me, they need a hug. They need a hug from me and me to tell them it's okay.
I'm not just saying this because you're on here, but that you know, I'm like looking back through like my memories of Dexter, and that is truly the most shocking part of the entire series. I think is is Reta's death, and I think that, uh, the character of Skyler and Breaking Bad has a similar problem. I think when you have like an anti hero as the protagonist, I think that the especially their romantic partner, who is often the voice of reason and like the pirst, you know, the person keeping them good. Uh, is divisive among the fans. But like, I think everyone loved Rita, like for real, I wanted I wanted to see you, and like I wanted to see Dexter renounces his killing ways and right up into the sunset to read to just be a family man. But then I know there to be no show.
Part of me, you know, part of me feels it was a little premature, yeah.
Just because.
Like it could have been a really great series ending. I agree, right, but like in a way it was premature because then after that, everybody else who died, they never were able to recreate that impact because the audience then just kind of was like at that point, the audience is like, well, anybody.
Can die at this point.
Yeah, Like if you're going to kill Rita, then then anybody can die.
So then when when dev dies, when La Guarda, yeah.
They don't have the same impact because you reap the like you took the one. And I'm biased here obviously, but to me, Rita was the vessel through which the audience could fall in love with Dexter. Without her, he's just a serial killer. But her whole purpose in the show was to bring the audience in and for them to love him the way like she viewed him. Right, Yes, and that allowed the audience to fall in love. I mean, you don't know how many women I have met.
In my lifetime who have said to me, oh my god, I love I love Dexter like I would, you know, I would love it. I'm like, Okay, that's weird.
But that's what she allowed the audience to do, was to fall in love with him. And when you take that away, then you can't. It's it's hard to build the trust up in the audience again for any kind of connection that they have to you know what I'm saying.
Yeah, yeah, no, absolutely, I think that's that's such an interesting way to look at it, and I completely agree with you. Julie Ben's is with us. This is I smell pop culture. We're gonna we have so much more to get into. We gotta talk Buffy. We got it. So much more. But we're gonna take a quick break and we'll be right back. Julie Ben's here with us. I smell pop culture. My name's Lisa Allen. Thanks for joining us here. Thank you to Julie. This has been so much fun. We gotta talk Buffy. We gotta go to Sunnydale here.
Yeah.
So most of us know you as Darla the Vampire, and it's you're the first I rewatched the first episode of the Other Day. You're the first character we see in the series, like the first first person. It's like it pans down from like the closet or something that shows you. That's It's just it's incredible, such a popular character, and you know, I I'm just so interested, Like when you take these people that are so integral to a TV show like that, how did you I'd like to know the process, how'd you get involved, how did you get turned into a vampire? How did that happen?
Okay, So I originally auditioned for the role of Buffy like every other girl in Hollywood at that time. I mean they saw thousands and thousands and thousands of us, and Joss Whedon really liked my audition. I made some really bold choices, and he brought me in to meet with the head of casting for twentieth Century Fox and I read for her and then they decided. And it's true, I was about five years too old to play Buffy because they wanted Buffy to be a freshman.
In high school.
And even though at the time I was in my early twenties, it's been like twenty two or twenty three, something like that, twenty two I think, and I.
Could pass for like sixteen seventeen. I couldn't pass for a freshman in high school. That was just not It just wasn't physically possible.
But Jos was like, I really like how what you came in and the choices you made, And he's like, how would you like to play.
Vampire Girl Number one? And I said, okay, So how I got passed.
Darla did not have a name, we didn't I have the presentation, which was just like a fifteen minute version or like a twenty minute version. So I did that and then from that it got picked up and then we went back and reshot it all because the wardrobe was terrible.
I'm not gonna lie. It was my carri Darla's wardrobe especially was terrible in the pilot. Yeah, they had the gut.
The person who was doing the costumes on that one, he thought I should be wearing things that looked like they smelled like moth balls and stuff, and it was it was just it was bad. So then when it got picked up the series, they brought in the new costume designer and they came up with the whole Catholic schoolgirl little uniform and so then that's how it. And then I was supposed to die at the end of the pilot. And on the day I was going to die, Jos came running over and he's like, listen, we're not going to kill you. We're going to keep you alive. He'll be back next week. I was like, great, and we're giving you a name.
Great.
And then again I was supposed to die in the next episode, and again it was like, we're not going to kill you. We're going to do this love triangle thing. So it's kind of how Darlt grew. It was just, you know, and I like to think, I mean, I don't. I mean I like to think that maybe I had something to do with it in part of like the choices I was making, but young after.
I don't know if it had anything to do with that.
I mean, I think so, having not been there, I mean that, but your performance is so incredible, So I'm really curious. The vampire makeup. That is something. Oh man, I it's it's frightening to look at and I just every time I see it, I'm like, that must have been such a nightmare to get into every day orly, you know, whenever you had to.
Well, really, that's what I look like without makeup on before I have coffee. Okay, let's just be here. No.
So I was the I called the test monkey. I was the test vampire for the makeup. So I went through multiple makeup tests while they tried to figure out the look and the feel.
Of the vampires.
So I spent a lot of time with Todd McIntosh in his chair putting a prosthetic, gone, taking it off, bring another one on, taking it off.
It was a long process before they got it right. I do not like prosthetics.
I have a real visceral reaction to the smells that go into all of that. I became allergic to a lot of the adhesives that they would choose. Just my my skin would just start developing an allergy to it. So on Buffy they would glue that thing on so it could stay on all day. By the time we moved to Angel, they were they had the process down where they would like tack it on with eyelash glue and we would shoot very mint like just minimal in it and then we'd go back into beauty makeup and like, but in Buffy we were I mean I was in that thing for ever it was.
I mean, thank god I had young skin. Do you I swear it to go?
Can you like eat with it all, like cause you eat a sandwich like halfway through the day or just a smoothie or something. So you had to do.
Well because it came so it was like the nose and then it was sculpted down.
I had to watch how like how much I ate. I could eat like small bites of stuff.
The hardest part in my prosthetic, in particular, they carved it so it was really minus. Darla was the most violent looking one out of all the vampires, so it was a real hard line from the nose up the eyes and it cut off half my vision and then you put the yellow contact lenses in which I am not a contact lens wearer, so I had a gut there. They have a guy there on set who it's his job is to put.
The lenses in and out. Wow.
They had somebody else originally, and that person would tear the prosthetic. It was this whole nightmare, and it was so stressful as the actor underneath it because you're just like, I'm trying to keep my eye open and then the prosthetic would tear, and then they'd have to go in and repair and you're.
Just like like overwhelming.
They brought in this other guy who was incredible, and he's done lenses on like all the big stuff, and he was able to get the lens like he was. He had such a gentle touch and was able to get the lens in without disturbing the prosthetic and also keeping me calm. Somebody could keep my eye open so the lens could go in.
So he was.
Always he they Once they brought him on, it became easier. But once I was in it, I barely could see because with yellow con hard contact lenses and then the prosthetic, and.
Then you have to act on top of that too, you know, like remember lines and blocking, Like my god, I.
Know, but I will say so in the beginning, when I was trying to figure out how I was going to play her, and I was going through the various makeup tests with Todd McIntosh, you know, I'd never played up until that point, i'd never played a vampire before.
I'd never played anybody scary before.
Up until that point, I had been doing sitcoms, and so I was really nervous.
I was like, I have no idea how I'm going to do this character.
And then I had the prosthetic one and I went to the bathroom and I looked in the mirror and I.
Smiled, and I was like, Oh, now that's creepy. And so that's kind of like the genesis for Darla, Like that's kind of the seed that sparked her. I was like, oh, it's really creepy when I smile. And I think when you do prosthetic work, you have to allow the prosthetic to do its job, you know what I mean. So you have to.
Trust that the prosthetic is going to tell a lot of the story for you. So like, I didn't have to be too scary.
I didn't.
I could just like, there's kind of this interesting especially with Darla, like she would be very playful when she's full vamp because that's kind of creepy.
Yeah, Versus if.
I was just going around like that because the makeup's doing that, I don't have to do that. So I did the opposite.
It's so fascinating. I love I love hearing this kind of stuff. Now, something that is not terrifying is, uh, you have an incredible voice. You have an incredible singing voice.
Oh no, I don't.
I okay, I have to bring this up. The you do a karaoke performance in Angel?
Yes, I do.
And a friend of mine, Sakari, is like a Buffy super fan, and I mentioned to her that where I was talking to you today, She's like, you please ask her about the karaoke scene. Why wasn't she in the Buffy musical episode You're so was that that was really you singing?
In that?
It was really me singing I'll wind.
Still wind, thank god, there's only three notes, but I'll tell you so. So I always say working on Buffy and Angel for me was like going to graduate school as an actor, because every week there was something being asked of me that I had never done before on camera, right, so like I was buried alive, I was set on fire.
I rode a horse through fire. Like there was all these things that were like.
So then they came and they said, listen, we want to put Darlat in the karaoke bar.
And I was like what, I don't sing.
And then you know, Jos and David Greenwal were like, well, we picked a really easy song. There's not a lot of notes, and you know, we'll send it to you and you, you know, let us know.
So I was like okay.
So I listened to it and I was like, okay, they're right, it's not like, not a lot of notes, very simple.
So I learned it and I had to deal with them. So they said, we want you to record it because you have to go in and record it first. So I I was like okay.
I'll record it, and they go and then if we decide that you really can't sing, we'll just hire somebody else to do it, and then you can just lip sync to it. Otherwise you'll lip sync to your own voice, right, So I was like okay. So I went into the studio and oh, I'm so nervous to record it. I made them put like the microphone in the far corner, like so that they couldn't see me through the glass, and like I made them turn out the lights and anyway, and I did it like a couple of times, and they were in the post production people were like, that's great. And so then I never heard anything, Like I never heard from David or Joss if.
They were going to actually use my voice.
So when I showed up to film the scene, I didn't know if it was going to be my voice or a professional singer's voice.
Oh wow.
And I was too afraid to.
Ask because I was like, I don't want I was just gonna I don't, you know, because part of me was a also part of me was like, if it's a professional's voice, that's gonna sound so much better, you know, because maybe Darling is a much better singer than Julie is.
Right, Yeah, that's how I was looking at approaching it as.
And so then I showed up on set and they started playing it over the loud speaker, right, they were just testing it out and they were playing it and I literally was like.
Oh my god, that's me. It's just so mortified. And then I realized, because then you have to sing it on stage and there.
Was all these extras. I forgot there were gonna be extras in the scene. I forgot like it was gonna be basically a packed house. So I made David Stan and I literally like lip sync, sanged it, sung it along just directly to David, like I couldn't look at anybody else because I was just like, this is not I'm not a singer, even though I did musicals in college, but I know how to talk sing. I know how to like sing and talk at the same time. But I was just it was, oh, my hands were sweating so bad. I think I dropped a couple of times.
So no other singing besides that, for you, you never cut an album or anything.
No, although recently I had a psychic reading and the psychic told me that I need to be singing more, and she said that there's a musical that's going to come down the line.
And Okay, I'm like, okay, this is weird.
And I don't know if you have the answer to this. But I've seen a lot of people online wondering, like, where is just the where is the track of Julie Ben singing ill Wind without like the characters talking like the one that was in the show, Like, where's the raw track? How can we get that?
I have no idea.
That would kill and we had so many streams.
I have no idea. And I will say this, I'm so happy I was.
Not in the Buffy Musical because everybody was so good, Like seriously, they were all.
I mean, that's the thing. Most actors are good singers. Not this person.
Well, I can only disagree with you so much here, Julie Bean's so I mean we've covered like you've done so much. You did so much as Darla in the show. Like I mean you were saying you've been lit on fire. You were like rode horses. You've killed so many people. What do you have a favorite I know this is a big question, but like, do you have a favorite moment from making Buffy? Is there something that like looms large in your head as one of your favorite memories?
Well, from Buffy or from Angel.
Because let's do both Buff. We'll do Buffy first, then Angel if you can separate the two.
Yeah, So from Buffy, I think for me, what I like to call it my badass moment on that show was when I show up with guns to fight Buffy, And first of all, I thought it was so brilliant because I was like, yeah, why wouldn't I Like, I'm why would I put any effort into like any physical effort.
I'm just going to shoot her like that's so Darla.
And then the stunt department they were like listen or yeah, the stunt apartment and the director they were like, listen.
We want you to.
Walk up to where the pool table was, and then we want you to jump and land on the pool table.
Do you think you can do that? And I was like I don't know.
And so I watched like the stunt I do it a couple times. And this is how I approach most stunts is I watch other people do it and because I know that if I try to do it rehearsal, I'm not going to do it.
I won't do it. There's something about when the camera's on and the adrenaline. So I literally watched the mechanics over and over and over again, and then like they yell like I never I've never tried to rehearsal, and I was like, just trust me, when the camera's rolling, I'll be able to do it. They yell, action I walk up say my lines and then I go from and I jump right on the pool table and continue the scene. And everybody was like yes, and I was like yeah, because it's for me. It's the adrenaline, it's the it's you know.
And because I'm, you know, an athlete, like as a child athlete, I'm able to kind of watch and then my body just knows how to do it. Like I can't explain it, but yeah that I was like, I better know this. I did crack my teeth on the vampire teeth. I did crack it in that moment when I landed.
Oh my god, I'm excited.
I like, so everyone, when you go back and rewatch that scene, there's teeth cracking to watch out for.
Yeah. I cracked crazy. I actually broke the most amount of teeth on the show.
What a feather in your cat? That's how of a stat Now, what about Angel? What was your what's your favorite from Angel?
So an Angel?
I think for me, you know, David and I always have this really great chemistry that like just this work chemistry together.
And my my.
Favorite favorite scene of the whole thing was We're It's an episode, dear Boy. And during season two and We're shooting underground in this big giant water tank and it's to Tim and I and it's this beautiful long scene about our relationship and just you know, and at the end of it, I take out across and I hold it onto his chest and I say, God doesn't want you, but I still do, and then I walk away. And that day was just it was just magic for us. Like it was that scene where we didn't have to crank the wheel and make it work, like it just flowed from us. And David Greenwalt was directing that episode, and we were all just in this really good flow with each other and just and I remember there's a lot of walking and movement and and it just was like we didn't want to leave the water tank, like we didn't want to go above ground because we were afraid we were going.
To break the spell that we were under. Underground.
It's a magic, but it was.
It's I had lots of moments with David like that where we just kind of just stayed in our little world because we didn't want to break the spell that we were under, Like we just were like, there's something really cool going on here, and we like we just we're gonna stay in it so magical.
I mean, Buffy and Angel such iconic shows that you you brought to life. Julie Ben's hanging out with us here on Ice Smoll Pop Culture where we're just a little bit more to talk to you about. If you don't mind, we have a and let's just take a quick commercial break here. Everybody stick around. Julie Ben's here with us on Ice Smoll Pop Culture. So one of so our main hosts here is as a man by the name of Scott Patterson. He played Luke Luke on Gilmore Girls. You guys shared, uh, you were in the same movie together, Saw five.
Yeah, he's a badass. Talk about stunts he did. I was there that day.
I was there. I was I think I was going through a makeup test.
It was like my I had just arrived and there I was in like the hair and makeup room and he did that stunt with his head in the box with the.
Water yes, And I went out and watched it. I mean, I was like, I could never like that. Terrified. I was terrified watching it live. Terrified.
They had like the MSS there just in case, like they and I was I was so impressed.
Like that's where I drew I would draw the line.
I appreciate that insight because I asked him about that part and he's like, oh, yeah, you know, operate on my tricky. I just put it and he's like, so cool about it, you know, but I want to.
It was so cool about it. On sets. I was like sweating buckets watching it. Like I was like terrified and like so nervous watching him do it, and he just was like, all right, let's get done.
They did it, and I was like, Okay, that's the thing I'm interested in is I love the Saw movies. I think they're national treasures. But like being in being in a movie like that and being surrounded by this like these horrific traps and like crazy gory special effects, Like what is that like as an actor? I mean, being surrounded by that much blood?
Oh god, it's really scary.
So I've mentioned this before in an interview, and then some people on like Twitter were like, why I actually do a moment, like they were poo pooing me about this.
But so.
I I was friends with one of the producers from the original Saw, and I was actually.
Doing his movie with him at the time.
I was doing Georgia of the Jungle too, and he was telling me about his next project, which.
Was going to be Saw. And he was like, Oh, it's.
This really dark horror film. And I was like, put me in it, and he's like, I don't know if you want to be in it. It's like, I don't know. He goes, I don't know how it's gonna do. It's really dark. And it turned out it was Saw, and it obviously did fantastic and then like two years later he passed away from a heart attack. So when I got the offer for Saw five, I was like, oh, that's Greg.
That's Creig, you know from above. But at that point I had seen the original Saw and it terrified me. Still does to this day.
So I was like, Oh, this will be interesting. Let's see if I can be in a movie that really scares me.
And let's just see. And I had nightmares every night. Wow.
I the traps were super real to me, like they were very real to me.
I had a hard time discerning that it was make BULLYE. I remember my first day on set.
I was in the first trap with the dog collars and we were racing for the key and that and they had the saws behind our head and we were on pulleys and it was completely it was fully orchestrated, like who was the bard whin and like because we were all supposed to be connected to each other.
It's fully orchestrated.
And we went to go film our first take and I started panicking a little bit, and I pulled the director aside and I said, listen, what's going to happen if I don't get the key first?
And he literally just looked at me and he's like cut, Like we'll just cut. You read the script, you make it ten right, Like I know.
I'm like it just like I know, Like it was real. So yeah, so through at that point had all been together through four previous Saws, so they were all like, oh.
The newbie, the nebes, welcome to Welcome to Saw. We all went through that in the first one.
I just love the idea of like if I don't get the keepers, will you die? Sorry? This are real?
Because I mean it was a real It was real. It was a real saw. That was like it was a real headshopper thing.
That's so crazy.
So I was.
Terrified, Like I was so terrified. And then my dog I had a little dog at the time, Bamboo. He has since passed away because he's good long life, but but he was a puppy at the time, and they would let me bring I bring him on to set and the crew would take photos of him in the traps.
It was really funny because he'd be there with like the decapitated head, just a little puppy and then this the fake head and like, yeah, yeah, it was very sweet.
They would do anything they could to make me laugh because I was like every trap, I was like, Okay, what if I don't survive this one?
And then I threw up.
On set on the last in the last trap because of putting my hands so that thing looked it looked so real. They made they they do magic on that because they make I mean, I've been in stuff where there's been blood and it looks so fake.
It looks so real. And that when I had to put my hand in the thing and the saw was got, it just grossed me out. Drew up during rehearsal. Oh my god, I sound like a big baby.
I am a bit of a when it comes to scary things. I get really scared.
You've been some of the scaries stuff of all time. That's so refreshing to hear though that like that you used to you get scared too.
I get really scared.
Like and by the way, what is it about watching scary movies, because like we all love, it's like I start to sweat. I get really nervous. All of a sudden, I hear a noise outside. I'm oh, my god, like.
I saw myself through it.
It's so That's something I love about movies is like it can make. It gives you that like physical reaction, like like you said, you get sweaty, like my teeth all hurt. Like watching those Saw movies especially, it's so interesting. I can't imagine being on the set.
All five is the only movie I've ever been in and I've never watched all the way through.
Really that puppet, I can't. I can't.
I go to conventions and people bring that puppet up to me and I literally have a visceral like I start to sweat, like it's.
Not it's not fun.
I did a recording at the UH the director of Saw Too. I went to his house and we recorded an episode and he had the puppet like the puppet from the movie and I had, I reacted the same way. I was like, oh god, there he is. He's scary.
No. I mean, listen, there's a reason why those movies are have transcended like audience numbers and like are going to always live in the zeitgeist of at the top of horror because what they've done so brilliantly is it grabs you on a deep psychological level. You know, it's not just a slash or thing. It's it's it it gets inside.
Your mind and it really bucks you up. Yeah, that's what they've done so brilliantly. That's why the movies are so huge. I mean it's not, you know, not to put Jason down, but it's not some guy in a mask running around with a knife exactly.
Absolutely, when you're like walking down the street, like if you got in public most and someone comes up to you that recognizes you, it is Darla number one?
Is that?
Or Rita Oh wow? Or brit from Son for that matter, I.
Would say right now, like in the past year, because Dexter has been airing on Netflix, Oh yeah, there's been a huge I mean I even't see like my nephews, who are you know, late teens, early twenties, they're all discovering it. So there's this new age bracket that's discovering Dex that wasn't alive when they were kids when we first made it, and they're now discovering it because of it being on Netflix. And so right now it's a lot of people recognizing me as Darla or as Rita sorry, which I'm surprised because it's been almost twenty years since we Shock the pilot. Wow, I think it's been like eighteen years because I was like thirty two or thirty three, thirty.
Four around there.
I'm fifty two now, so I'm just shocked when anybody I'm like that just spot me and usually this is my voice.
You have an interesting voice.
But yeah, no, So right now it's a lot of Riada, a lot of readA interesting yeah. But also I mean Buffy and Angel has a whole young audience that keeps discovering it as well.
So yeah, you know, like I said, this is a Gilmore Girls podcast, and the creator of Gilmore Girls said that she would watch Buffy as she wrote Gilmore Girls. I was like something she would do, and that's why I think a lot of the dialogue is very similar I think in I think she was. She was very inspired by Jos and the way he wrote dialogue. But yeah, and you're I mean in season five, episode ten of Gilmore Girls, they mentioned Spike and Drusilla, so yeah, and there's a lot of five by five and things like that throughout the show. So you know, you have a lot of fans in the world of Gilmore Girls, and you have a huge fan in me. Thank you so much for doing this, Julie. You just been the absolute best.
Thank you. Thank you.
If people want to keep up with you and find out what you're up to, how can they keep in touch.
I am really active on Instagram.
I am at Julie Ben's MFT, which stands for my Favorite Things not Marriage Family Therapist.
I was gonna ask you about that earlier.
Yeah, so you know, I was trying to come up with so okay, So listen, there's a lot of other Julie Benz's in the world. Okay, And there is a real Julie Benz who has the who got onto Instagram before me and has the at Julie Ben's handle. And I know people are like, why don't you offer her some money?
Take it? I can't do that because it's your name. Now, if it would, like, say you had my name, I would be like, come on, give me my name. This is my name. But this is a real person who has the name Julie Ben's. It's not her fault.
I'm not going to be like I'm more important. So I had to come up with something creative. So I came up with Julie Ben's MFT because I was like, Oh, my favorite things and I'll post about like That's kind of what Instagram was about.
It was like, You're gonna like your favorite.
Things, like things people could see, like all your favorite things. You like to do, favorite things, just like you know what I mean.
I thought.
Now everybody thinks I'm a marriage family therapist. I get people asking me relationship questions all the time. I mean, you can, you can if you want to hit me up for relationship advice.
I am on my second marriage, so I have some experience. I will give advice. I don't know if it's going to be good, but.
I saw a recipe for some gluten free crackers on there that I'm excited to try. Aunt.
Yeah, and I do a lot of I'm really leaning into the wellness space for especially for women over the age of forty going through perimenopause and menopause. I mean, I mean, listen, a lot of people are talking about it now, which is great, and the conversations need to be had to keep talking about it because every woman will go through it and every woman's journey is going to be something different, and it's need to create more of a sisterhood where we discuss these things publicly and it's not it's not embarrassing, and it's not like a secret like I remember when my mother went through menopause, like she never talked.
About it was she was going through it.
So it's nice to be able to talk, to be able to be public about it and talk and also inspire people. My whole point when I started filming, like my workouts and stuff, was I'm you know, I don't have good genetics, Like if I didn't work out, I wouldn't look like this, So I work hard at it, and I work hard at it not to be maybe in my twenties and thirties it was to be skinny. My goal now is to be healthy so I live a long life. So I live a healthy long life, not being well. I don't want to be in my seventies and not being able to walk, you know, I mean, of course I want to. I want to be dancing at eighty five, ninety, you know what I mean. So inspiring others too, because you have to put the work in to do that. You can't just think that's just going to you're going to be that old person. You have to actually put the work into it in your forties and your fifties so that when you hit your eighties. So that's you know, I've been helping, hopefully motivating people, you know, to delive a healthy.
Lifestyle, continuing to make the world a better place. The great Julie Benz once again, thank you so much for doing this. You're just the absolute greatest and I hope you have a great holiday season. Thank you so much.
Thanks bye, Hey everybody, and don't forget follow us on Instagram at I Am All In podcast and email us at Gilmore at iHeartRadio dot com.
