ulie Benz is probably one of the most down-to-earth, funny, naturally talented and - gosh darn it - beautiful women on the planet! She is so cool; it's not fair. And she plays the stunning, whacked-out vampire Darla who gets to kiss Angel [David Boreanaz], a lot. I am most definitely in the wrong job. Even better, she loves my hair! (For those of you watching in black and white, it's honey blonde with auburn highlights) Someone who gets paid to kiss Angel likes my hair. My stylist will be ecstatic. This aside, Julie kindly agreed to speak to us at the Starfury Bad Girls Convention in London back in November! CoA Staff members, Kristy (who had come over from the USA for the event), Julie R. (photographer), and I were taken away from the distractions of the ongoing convention to a plush green room upstairs for a highly entertaining chat. Introductions are made, greetings exchanged, and we seat ourselves down on some comfy sofas and chairs to get started. During the weekend of the Starfury event, Julie had her share of interviews and we apologized for adding yet another one to her busy London agenda and that we promised some fresh and fun questions. "That's okay," she replies, "I've done so many interviews these past two days, it's fun though. Although I'm bored talking about myself," Julie jokes. First up, we explain to her about our cozy little corner of the ether that we call CityofAngel.com to which Julie gives a sideways smile, "I've seen it; I browse! I read!" Fantastic, she's lurks. And with that, off we go...

For such a young woman, Julie Benz has quite a hefty career resume with both film and television credits to her name. From the critic and cult favorites of, As Good As It Gets (1999), Inventing the Abbotts (1997), and Jawbreaker (1998), and working along side some of the hottest names in the industry as Jack Nicholson, Liv Tyler, and Rose McGowan, respectively; my first question was an obvious one: How does she keep herself so grounded? Julie's eyes light up as she tells us, "My husband, my personal life. I think it's so important to have that balance of a strong personal life, as well as work. My husband (John Kassir), is such a wonderful supporter of mine, probably my biggest fan, and my greatest love," she enthuses. "And he's also my absolute best friend in the entire world! Since we've been together my career has really started to take off, and for me it's having that rock, that anchor and knowing that when I go home my husband's there, my dogs are there, my house is there; that helps me then go off and do the work I have to do and be all these different, crazy people!"

John Kassir and Julie Benz at home

Their house holds extra pride for Julie; over this past Halloween House & Garden television replayed its coverage of their home. Kristy - an architect by profession - purposely watched the program, commenting on how much work they must have put into it, particularly how much she loved the open beam style of the main living area. Julie is obviously delighted by this compliment, "Thank you! John designed it," she's quick to inform us. "He definitely had a vision in his head of how he wanted it to look, the feel he wanted to create and he worked with the architect on it, but it was definitely his vision." Laughing, she goes on to tell us, "I'm kind of an idiot when it comes to all of that, 'Interior decorating? Not my thing!' "

Maybe not, but pushing her acting threshold is. Along with last season’s Angel, Julie also appeared in Season 1 of Roswell, portraying Kathleen Topolski, who she took to the limits; from undercover FBI agent to alien adherent then psychological breakdown, only to ultimately be killed during a fire in a mental institution, or was she? Many fans wonder if Topolski still lives, and in one instance she does. Was Julie sorry to see her character end this way? "Oh definitely! Although I think it was a great ending for her," she states. "It was a great experience working on Roswell, especially their first season and with such a talented young cast and working with my absolute favourite, Bill Sadler (Jim Valenti). He raises the bar when you work with him, your work just gets so much better." Julie informs us that her character was only supposed to be in two episodes, "so the fact that it turned into seven was just really a fun, fun gift, and when they made her go crazy, it was even more fun as an actor to play." Warming to the theme, Julie tells us of one scene in particular which makes her laugh, "In the one scene where the FBI agents come out of the car; I'm going nuts and I'm trying to get away from them. Well, they got these stunt guys to do it - these big stunt guys - and I told them, 'I'm really going to fight you, I'm really going to run away, so really grab me and catch me because otherwise you're not going to!' So we did one take where I actually got away!" thrilled she continues, "And I just kept running! I was like, 'I told you I was going to run!' They were too afraid to grab me so I just had to prove to them, I fought them and I got away and it was like, 'Topolski Lives!' ", as she punches the air in victory. We all chuckle at Julie's obvious delight at out-smarting her beefier co-stars. This sets the scene for the rest of the interview. We were all laughing pretty much the whole way through a highly entertaining dialogue.

Among Julie's film credits is a hysterical spoof on the teen-slasher films, Shriek If You Know What I Did Last Friday the 13th, which also featured Buffy alumnus, Danny Strong [Jonathan]. "Oh, that was great! Danny Strong and I had so much fun together." With a big grin, she tell us about some of the amusement they had behind the scenes, "They have these drinks called Emergencies, they're just vitamin-packed drinks, and every morning he'd knock on my trailer door and he'd be like, 'You got the -C?' and I'm like, 'I got it' ", she whispers, "and we'd do an Emergency together," Julie laughs as they made sure they got their vitamins in the morning. Obviously, she regards the memory of working with our favourite nerdy villain and the rest of the cast and crew with great fondness as she continues, "Danny's awesome; he's so awesome! I also worked with Majandra [Delfino] (Maria) from Roswell. That's where I first met her; she'd just done the pilot of Roswell. I hadn't been cast yet but during the filming [of Shriek] I kept going, 'If your pilot gets picked up, I better be on it. You better think of me!' So when they hired me on Roswell they didn't tell her until the first day I showed up and she was looking at me like," Julie whispers, " 'What are you doing here?' I'm like, 'I'm playing Topolski!' 'Oh my god!' " Julie laughs recalling Majandra's response. As the huge success of Buffy follows its lead actors around like SAG, it also found its way into the most recent film of Julie's, Brothers. Ironically, something that wasn't even part of the script was added due to her overall connection with such a powerful influence. There's a scene in the movie, staring Bill Bellamy and Gabrielle Union from Bring it On, where a Buffy PCR (pop-culture reference) occurs; as Julie's character is arguing with her boyfriend, his ex-girlfriend shows up and she does a couple Kung-fu moves. Julie informs us, "He knew that I had worked on Buffy and Angel and he just improvised the line and everybody loved it and left it in!"

Now we get to the part where we ask Julie to spill the beans on what it's really like to work in Joss Whedon's universe. CoA interviewed both Marti Noxon and David Greenwalt this past summer and they each gave much deserved praise of Julie! This genuinely touches her as she professes, "That's so sweet!" Last season - with the episodes of Darla and Dear Boy especially - we commented that Marti's 'open a vein' dialogue and Julie's over-the-top emotional performances resulted in just outstanding work. What goes through Julie's mind when she reads these scripts? She starts laughing with glee and then groans in mock-terror, " 'Oh God, I'm not going to be able to do it!' We all join in laughing with her, how can such a fine actress be daunted by anything? "I really get terrified because they write such amazing stuff, the dialogue is amazing and they really capture the core of human emotion, especially with Dear Boy. I mean it's just so raw and honestly I read every script going, 'I should quit now!' " At this point, I'm sure the rest of the convention must hear us in hysterics at Julie's terrified, humorous delivery and wonder what on earth is going on as she continues, " 'They're going to finally realize that I don't know what I'm doing and that I'm not a very good actor! I'm going to get fired this episode.' "

"They thought we were rolling, but we're really shopping."

We steer the conversation on to something Julie prefers, and yet still series related, shopping? She's in London; we've got shops! Julie's eyes light up excitedly at the thought of a spending-spree. Now we've really got her going. "I know, I know. I really want to go to Agent Provocateur." I am shamed to say I haven't got a clue where it is and I live here. Julie looks at Kristy and Julie R., "Anybody know where it is?" We draw a blank but this shameful lack of local knowledge obviously isn't going to stop her, "Definitely I'm going to hit there. I love shopping, but I'm not as bad as my bio makes it out to be. I've gotten a little more practical about what I buy now," she admits laughing. Inspired on by the theme of shopping, there's a line in Mere Smith's script from Redefinition where Darla tells Drusilla, "Let's go shopping!" A possible 'girls club' collaboration? This strikes a chord; Julie is now laughing throughout, thoroughly enjoying telling us this story. "That was fun! And shooting in the store, we were really shopping. We're like, 'Oh this is really cute! Oh my god! Hey Juliet, this would look awesome on you!' They'd be like 'Rolling!' " Julie humorously grumbles in a small voice, "We're like, 'Oh! Oh, okay!' They thought we were rolling, but we're really shopping." She holds up an imaginary item of clothing, "Where can we get this?" Four women sitting in a room talking about Angel and shopping! Oh bliss. Proudly, we've since discovered its locations here in London at 6 Broadway in Soho and 16 Pont Street in Knightsbridge.

Once we all gather our senses (Julie is a hoot), she goes on to tell us about the more emotional scenes, "It's just an insecure feeling, I mean I read the scripts and they make me cry; at the end of Dear Boy I was sobbing! When I got the script I was like, 'I can't do this justice. I don't know how - it's not possible.' Even the Darla episode, it was like, 'Oh my God! What a lot of work I have to do!" She groans in pretend pain, "Oh no!" but she is quick to seriously add, "It's really just trying not to get overwhelmed by all of it. But when you're working with directors such as David Greenwalt and Tim Minear; when they've written the script and they're directing the episode that does a lot of the work for you. They know the characters better than you even and they know the stories better than anybody and there's a safety in having them directing the scripts that they write. It's been always such a gift, it's such a joy to work with the writers when they direct; it just adds an extra something to the show, there's an extra depth, there's an extra oomph behind it." Kristy adds in, "And Tim is Darla," to which Julie replies, "He certainly is, he certainly is! He has definitely found her voice and I can definitely tell when Tim's gone and fluffed it up a bit!" This amuses Julie highly.

Joss has an amazing way with character creation. Julie isn't surprised at the longevity of the character because just when Darla (and Julie) got to a certain development, Joss takes it farther; he takes it that one, unexpected, step beyond. Darla's history could be an amazing epic alone, but would it be ecstasy or excruciating to do an entire episode set back in the day for Julie? "We kind of did that in the Darla episode of Angel, we did do Darla and Angel's past," she recalls. "It wouldn't be excruciating; it would be a joy. Darla's just an amazing character and in a way she's spoiled me for other characters. I don't know if I'll ever play a character as great as Darla or as epic - especially on television - it just doesn't happen too often that you get a gift like her. And you're right, every time you think you know what Joss, David Greenwalt and Tim Minear have in store for you, it's like they pull the rug out from under you and give you something even better! Their minds work in such a brilliant, creative way that you just never know what to expect. You know no matter what they give you it's going to be brilliant and it's going to be amazing!"