Speaker 1: I Am all In again.
Speaker 2: Oh it's just you.
Speaker 1: I Smell pop Culture with Easton Allen and I Heeart
Speaker 1: Radio podcast. I Smell pop Culture, Yes I do. I
Speaker 1: smell it. Not you, you don't smell it. I smell it.
Speaker 1: My name is Easton Allen. It's the I Am all
Speaker 1: In Podcasts I Smell pop Culture, one of eleven productions.
Speaker 1: iHeart Radio, iHeart Media, iHeart podcasts. Thanks again for coming back.
Speaker 1: We're doing a lot of fun stuff over here. We're
Speaker 1: talking to some really cool people that created some of
Speaker 1: the pop culture references that we loving Gilmore Girls. If
Speaker 1: this is your first time checking us out, I know
Speaker 1: my voice isn't familiar to you, and that's okay. My
Speaker 1: mother says the same thing. My name is Easton. I'm
Speaker 1: the sound guy here at the I Am all In
Speaker 1: Podcast and we're talking to some really incredible people that created,
Speaker 1: or were involved with, or are the pop culture references
Speaker 1: from Gilmore Girls. But this week, this week, I want
Speaker 1: to talk about an influential show on the WB in
Speaker 1: the two thousands. This shows about a single mom that
Speaker 1: moves to a small town with their daughter, trying to
Speaker 1: improve their lives. The first few seasons follow their high
Speaker 1: school experience, then moving on to college, and then some
Speaker 1: you know, controversial final seasons suns at Gilmore Girls. Right,
Speaker 1: I'm not talking about Gilmore Girls. The show I'm talking
Speaker 1: about is very similar and the only real difference are
Speaker 1: the stakes. You'll know what that means in a second.
Speaker 1: So grab your garlic, grab your holy water, and just
Speaker 1: to make sure we're five by five. I'll explain what
Speaker 1: I mean after these words.
Speaker 2: iHeart podcasts. Listen on the iHeartRadio app.
Speaker 1: Wow, that was a lot of fun. You know it
Speaker 1: was some other podcasts. I know the skip fifteen seconds button.
Speaker 1: I know that gets you get the thumb work out
Speaker 1: doing that. You skip ahead. You don't listen to that.
Speaker 1: To the commercials, sometimes it's like a different voice. It's
Speaker 1: kind of jarring. Sometimes it's the host doing them last
Speaker 1: minute on a voice memo in a parking garage or
Speaker 1: on a boat. Not with us, baby, the I am
Speaker 1: all in podcasts. These commercials are pure entertainment. I enjoyed them.
Speaker 1: You enjoyed them. I hope you get to hear more
Speaker 1: later on. In spoiler alert, you might my name's East
Speaker 1: and Allen. This is the I Smell pop Culture podcast
Speaker 1: under the I Am all in Umbrella, the I Am
Speaker 1: all in Network. Thank you so much Scott for letting
Speaker 1: me do this. I wouldn't spook you too much with
Speaker 1: that little teas right before those commercials. There a little
Speaker 1: scary with the garlic in the in the holy water.
Speaker 1: But we're going into the world of vampires this week.
Speaker 1: We're talking about a show that is intrinsic to Gomer Girls.
Speaker 1: I show that helped grow More Girls become what it was.
Speaker 1: And you may or may not know that, but I'm
Speaker 1: talking about Buffy the Vampire Slayer. That's right. A lot
Speaker 1: of people say that Sunnydale, that's the town Buffy takes
Speaker 1: place in. It's the West version of Stars Hollow. They
Speaker 1: have a lot of similarities. Obviously, sunny Dale has a
Speaker 1: bit more vampires than stars Hollow does. There are a
Speaker 1: ton of Buffy mentions in Gilmore Girls, and deeper than
Speaker 1: just saying five by five. You can really hear the
Speaker 1: Buffy and Joss Whedon influence in the Quippi writing that
Speaker 1: we love. Amy Sherman Palladino actually said that she would
Speaker 1: watch Buffy while writing Gilmore Girls. That's something that she
Speaker 1: enjoyed doing and something that definitely influenced how she wrote.
Speaker 1: She said that she loved that Buffy was appointment television.
Speaker 1: It was something everybody made a plan to watch. You
Speaker 1: couldn't miss Buffy every week. She loved the humor, she
Speaker 1: loved the weird cast. But the reference that a lot
Speaker 1: of fans get excited about Buffy fans and Gilmer Girls
Speaker 1: fans alike. It comes in season five, episode ten, but
Speaker 1: not as cute as Pushkin. So to set the scene
Speaker 1: to help you visualize it, maybe you're writing to your
Speaker 1: Netflix to que it up right now. But Paris is
Speaker 1: going out and says to Rory, I'm putting myself out
Speaker 1: there Rory, and Rory replies, it's eleven o'clock it now.
Speaker 1: Who are you hoping to hook up with? Now? Spike
Speaker 1: and Drusilla And Spike and Drisilla are Vampires introduces the
Speaker 1: main antagonist in Buffy the Vampire Slayer season two. They
Speaker 1: appear in the spinoff show Angel as well. But we're
Speaker 1: gonna talk to another crucial vamp from the Buffy verse
Speaker 1: this week. We're talking to Julie Ben's. She played Darla
Speaker 1: in Buffy the Vampires Layer and an Angel to spinoff
Speaker 1: and Darla is the first character you see in the
Speaker 1: first episode of Buffy the Vampires Slayer. You see her
Speaker 1: before anyone else. I mean, the show opens and it's
Speaker 1: like camera pans down and you see Darla. So she
Speaker 1: I mean, she's an icon the character, and Julie she's
Speaker 1: an icon in the world of Buffy and in the
Speaker 1: world of television at large if you ask me. But
Speaker 1: she's had so many iconic rolls. I mean, she was
Speaker 1: in the movie Jobbreaker from nineteen ninety nine, she was
Speaker 1: Dexter's love interest Rita in Dexter, the Showtime series Dexter,
Speaker 1: and of course she started us alongside our beloved leader
Speaker 1: Scott Patterson in the Hollywood blockbuster Saw five. We're going
Speaker 1: to hear all about that and more with Julie Ben's
Speaker 1: the great Julie Bens. And I mean, I can go
Speaker 1: on and on talking about this, but let's hear it
Speaker 1: from the lady herself. Julie Ben's She's here with us.
Speaker 1: How are you doing. Thanks for doing this.
Speaker 2: I'm good, Thank you for having me.
Speaker 1: We're so excited. There's so much to get into here,
Speaker 1: but I just I want to go back to the beginning.
Speaker 1: First of all, I want to find out how Julie
Speaker 1: Bens became Julie Bens. I was born Okay, okay, step one, Okay,
Speaker 1: we got that out of the way. You grew up
Speaker 1: in Pittsburgh, Steel City. Yes, And I wonder if this
Speaker 1: is true. I read that when you were young, you
Speaker 1: were an ice skater, but you had an acting coach
Speaker 1: that said you would never succeed as an actor. Is
Speaker 1: that true?
Speaker 2: It is so so.
Speaker 3: First, I was competitive figure skater from the age of
Speaker 3: three until I was sixteen, when I gracefully retired from
Speaker 3: ice skating.
Speaker 2: And then I spent.
Speaker 3: The summer of between my junior and senior year at
Speaker 3: Carnegie Mellon. They have like a summer program to introduce,
Speaker 3: like to see if you want to go to college
Speaker 3: to study acting, right, So it's basically kind of like
Speaker 3: a little mini semester where you get to see what
Speaker 3: it's like to go to school and study acting.
Speaker 2: And it was.
Speaker 3: There that this woman, she was she was like the
Speaker 3: voice coach, like the dialect coach. Yeah, she said at
Speaker 3: the end of the semester that I had a terrible
Speaker 3: voice and I would never be an actor, Like I
Speaker 3: just had no talent whatsoever.
Speaker 2: I still have that. I still have her little report
Speaker 2: that she wrote.
Speaker 1: Was that that means obviously that was Richer is wrong.
Speaker 1: So when you first got that feedback, like how did
Speaker 1: that feel?
Speaker 3: I mean, I you know, I have so many thoughts
Speaker 3: on this. So back then my thought, I mean, I
Speaker 3: was hurt obviously, but I also knew the teacher didn't
Speaker 3: like me.
Speaker 2: And there was a movie being cast in.
Speaker 3: The city of Pittsburgh at that time and the program
Speaker 3: put forth some actors to audition for it. I was
Speaker 3: not one of them. My modeling agent put me forward
Speaker 3: for it, and I ended up getting this small part.
Speaker 3: It was my very first movie.
Speaker 2: And so there was all this like you know.
Speaker 3: Hubbub about how did I get the part over like
Speaker 3: people that they put forward, But.
Speaker 2: You know, I was a Pittsburgh girl.
Speaker 3: I had, you know, I had a modeling agent who
Speaker 3: put me in the mix. So so there was that
Speaker 3: aspect that happened. And then I had my manager who
Speaker 3: because I got a manager when I was sixteen years
Speaker 3: old and he was my manager for thirty.
Speaker 2: Years until he retired.
Speaker 3: And he said to me, because I was upset about it,
Speaker 3: and I told him about it, and he was like,
Speaker 3: you know, kid. He used to call me kid until
Speaker 3: the day he retired. You know, kid, He's like, the
Speaker 3: thing that makes you unique is also the thing that
Speaker 3: makes people like.
Speaker 2: People are either going to like you or they're not
Speaker 2: going to like you. And your voice is unique. So
Speaker 2: there's people that.
Speaker 3: Are gonna love it and there's people that are gonna
Speaker 3: hate it. But it's the thing that makes you unique.
Speaker 2: So just know that.
Speaker 3: And so yeah, I was kind of just rolled off
Speaker 3: my shoulders pretty much. I mean I was young, I
Speaker 3: was sixteen. I was like, I'm not gonna let somebody
Speaker 3: stand in my way of pursuing my dream. And in hindsight,
Speaker 3: now that I'm in my fifties, I'm just shocked and
Speaker 3: appalled that a teacher would tell a young student to
Speaker 3: not pursue your That's.
Speaker 2: A bad teacher.
Speaker 1: Yeah, it's insane. Yeah, like very important. I'm so impressed though,
Speaker 1: at such a young age that you're able to like
Speaker 1: recognize that, Oh no, this is like, like I know
Speaker 1: what I'm capable of. This person is wrong.
Speaker 3: Well, I think, you know, having been a competitive figure skater,
Speaker 3: which is also a very subjective sport, it's not it's
Speaker 3: not like running track where you're definitely the fastest, right.
Speaker 2: It's not on a sport like that.
Speaker 3: It's a sport where it's there's artistry involved.
Speaker 2: And technique and and it's a very subjective sport.
Speaker 3: I think having been raised in that helped me deal
Speaker 3: with the ups and downs of Hollywood really, because it's.
Speaker 2: Like you either like me or you don't like.
Speaker 3: That's it, because there's no you know. And then that's
Speaker 3: how ice skating is. It's like, you know, people either
Speaker 3: like your style in the way you move in your
Speaker 3: grace or they don't like it.
Speaker 1: Wow. There was a TV show that you did kind
Speaker 1: of early that that I'm fascinated by. It's called Honey,
Speaker 1: I'm Home.
Speaker 2: High Honey, I'm home.
Speaker 1: High, Honey, I'm home.
Speaker 2: So I don't forget the high.
Speaker 1: You can't forget the high. And in case you aren't
Speaker 1: familiar with High, Honey, I'm home. It was like it
Speaker 1: was a fifties sitcom family that then moves into a
Speaker 1: real neighborhood, like next to a real family. It's like
Speaker 1: a reverse Pleasantville kind of a thing.
Speaker 3: Yeah, So it was we were we were taken off
Speaker 3: the air and put into the sitcom relocation program, which
Speaker 3: was like the Witness Protection program.
Speaker 2: So so we were.
Speaker 3: Taken off the air and moved to New Jersey into
Speaker 3: the sitcom relocation program.
Speaker 2: So we were this black and white family and because
Speaker 2: of that, it was a fifty sitcom, so it was
Speaker 2: shot in black and white. But now we were living
Speaker 2: in color.
Speaker 3: In New Jersey and trying to adjust to modern day life.
Speaker 3: And then we had this little TV remote that when
Speaker 3: life got too complicated and overwhelming, we could click it
Speaker 3: and we had turned back into black and white. And
Speaker 3: then somebody like some like we had like Gail Cordon
Speaker 3: and all these like old stars from old sitcoms, and
Speaker 3: they would come and like talk you through, like how
Speaker 3: to survive the world in color?
Speaker 1: I love it. I love it so much. This should
Speaker 1: have ran for twelve seasons. I love this. It's such
Speaker 1: It's so incredible. Uh, and you had so many crazy
Speaker 1: guest stars on there. I want to know, what was
Speaker 1: it like working with Grandpa al Lewis.
Speaker 2: He was a little scary. Yeah, he was a little
Speaker 2: he kept just walking into my dressing room.
Speaker 1: Okay, yeah, check out.
Speaker 2: It was a little weird. Yeah, that was definitely. Yeah.
Speaker 2: He was not my favorite.
Speaker 1: Okay, Okay, that's Grandpa, I'll lose from the Monster's there.
Speaker 1: I mean, that was like major role on a sitcom,
Speaker 1: like so early in your acting career. That must have
Speaker 1: been an incredible experience, right, Yeah, it was.
Speaker 3: So that was my I went to n YU to
Speaker 3: study acting, and within the first month of me being there, I.
Speaker 2: Got the pilot for high Honey I'm Home.
Speaker 3: And they tried to kick me out of n YU
Speaker 3: because technically you're not supposed to work professionally your first
Speaker 3: year as a freshman when.
Speaker 2: You're studying acting. And I was fortunate.
Speaker 3: I had one teacher who had a lot of seniority
Speaker 3: stand up for me, and they reinstated me back.
Speaker 2: Into the school. I had to agree to take a
Speaker 2: D for the semester.
Speaker 1: Wow.
Speaker 2: Yeah, nobody's ever asked me my grade point average, so
Speaker 2: it doesn't really matter.
Speaker 3: But but yeah, I had to agree to take a D.
Speaker 2: For the semester because I broke the rule.
Speaker 1: Okay, but but.
Speaker 3: Yeah, and then when the show went into production, I
Speaker 3: took a semester off to film it, and you know,
Speaker 3: it was it was a It was a great experience overall.
Speaker 3: I mean we shot in Florida, Orlando, Florida at the
Speaker 3: Nickelodeon studios.
Speaker 2: Down there because it was Nick at Night ABC.
Speaker 3: And you know, I would say I learned a lot
Speaker 3: of important lessons.
Speaker 2: Gail Gordon, who from that Lucy Show. Yeah, he was
Speaker 2: our very first guest star.
Speaker 3: And so that very first week we had like a
Speaker 3: ten am call time, and I would show up at
Speaker 3: like ten o five. Yeah, and he pulled me aside
Speaker 3: and he sat me down and he said, listen, honey,
Speaker 3: when you have a ten am call, that means you
Speaker 3: get here at nine point thirty. You put your stuff down,
Speaker 3: you go get a cup of coffee, eat your breakfast,
Speaker 3: you start work at ten am.
Speaker 2: And I've lived by that rulenel ever since.
Speaker 3: I'm like, I'm always a half hour early for my calldime,
Speaker 3: put my stuff down, like, get my coffee, I have
Speaker 3: my breakfast, and then I.
Speaker 2: Go to work.
Speaker 1: Wow. I mean getting that kind of advice from TV
Speaker 1: legends like that, that's one incredible experience for you. Yeah,
Speaker 1: that's awesome. So anyway, I mean, hi, honey, I'm home.
Speaker 1: I wish it was still in the air, and we'll
Speaker 1: talk about Buffy the Vampire Slayer we need to get
Speaker 1: to obviously, and we'll talk about that a bit later,
Speaker 1: But there's so many things in your resume that are
Speaker 1: just so impressive. Jawbreaker nineteen ninety nine, it just celebrated
Speaker 1: it's twenty fifth anniversary. Congratulations, thank you an iconic movie.
Speaker 1: I mean, how did you get involved with Jawbreaker?
Speaker 3: Well, I auditioned for it like every other young woman
Speaker 3: in Hollywood, and thank god it was Lisa Beach casting.
Speaker 3: Thank god she brought me in to play the role
Speaker 3: of Marcy. I owe her, I owe herself. But yeah,
Speaker 3: it was it was a long audition process. And by
Speaker 3: the time when I finally got to meet Darren Stein,
Speaker 3: the director and writer Jawbreaker, I mean, and I was
Speaker 3: auditioning in front of him, he was just like every
Speaker 3: time I opened my mouth, he'd start laughing, and I
Speaker 3: was like, Okay, I.
Speaker 2: Think I think I'm gonna short.
Speaker 3: So it turned out it worked out, which was great,
Speaker 3: and it was a lot of fun. I mean, yeah,
Speaker 3: we were just honored at the Academy Museum twenty five
Speaker 3: years later. And what was you know. It's always bubbled
Speaker 3: my mind about that movie was when it opened, it
Speaker 3: didn't do very well and the reviews actually weren't very good,
Speaker 3: and it only lasted three weeks in the and you know,
Speaker 3: my manager, you know.
Speaker 2: He was like, hey kid, you know you win some,
Speaker 2: you'll lose some. Let's move on. I'm like, okay, didn't
Speaker 2: think about it.
Speaker 3: And then you cut to now, twenty five years later,
Speaker 3: young people have found it, have discovered it, and it's
Speaker 3: almost like it was a movie that was a little
Speaker 3: ahead of its time.
Speaker 1: Yes, I completely agree.
Speaker 3: Yeah, so it's so exciting for all of us now
Speaker 3: to have it just being considered this iconic film. When
Speaker 3: when it came out, like we were all like, oh, well,
Speaker 3: got we thought. I mean, listen, I had so much
Speaker 3: fun filming it, and I really I saw, like in
Speaker 3: my mind when I read this script.
Speaker 2: I was like, this is going to be great. Like
Speaker 2: I saw what Darren's.
Speaker 3: Vision was and just could hear the rhythm of the
Speaker 3: dialogue and all of that and just be like, this
Speaker 3: is incredible. So when it kind of fell flat at
Speaker 3: the box, it was a big disappointment. But now you know,
Speaker 3: it's just the audience is just growing and growing and
Speaker 3: growing and it's.
Speaker 2: Kind of fun.
Speaker 1: Yeah. I was interested, like how it feels to have
Speaker 1: this like new audience. It feels like every year people
Speaker 1: are like posting about Jawbreaker and like discovering it for
Speaker 1: the first time. It's so it's exciting because like I
Speaker 1: remember when it came out in theaters and I loved it.
Speaker 1: It was one of the first first times where I
Speaker 1: like went and saw a movie, loved it, and then
Speaker 1: realized the critics didn't agree with me. And I'm getting
Speaker 1: really frustrated about that. But people are rediscovering it now
Speaker 1: and it's so cool to see twenty five years later.
Speaker 3: Yeah, it's it's fun. I never would I mean, it
Speaker 3: just it bothers my mind because it's good because it
Speaker 3: was panned. But you know, Darren didn't write it for critics,
Speaker 3: like you know, the critics back then they.
Speaker 2: Were like old men.
Speaker 1: Yeah seriously, I mean the world has changed, yes, yes, absolutely,
Speaker 1: and when you have something good, the audience will find it,
Speaker 1: you know. So uh. You know again going through your
Speaker 1: resume here that I was also a huge Dexter fan.
Speaker 1: You're Rita Bennett on Dexter. What a complicated role for
Speaker 1: you to, uh, to play the love interest of a
Speaker 1: serial killer like that? How did you prepare for Rita?
Speaker 1: How did you bring that character to life?
Speaker 2: Well, you know, so Originally when I auditioned for the show,
Speaker 2: they originally had me auditioned for the role of Deb
Speaker 2: and Rita. Wow, And I'll be honest, I thought I
Speaker 2: was a Deb. I mean, I worked so hard on
Speaker 2: that material.
Speaker 3: I changed the way I walked, the way I talk like.
Speaker 3: I all the tools that I learned in acting school
Speaker 3: I put into that and and I really wanted I
Speaker 3: loved I really wanted to swear I'm not gonna lie.
Speaker 2: I really wanted to say all those care So.
Speaker 3: When I and I had to read, you know, for
Speaker 3: every audition because they didn't know which direction they were
Speaker 3: going to go in, so I was every time I
Speaker 3: go into the room to read, it was like I
Speaker 3: did read, I would do Deb, and then they would
Speaker 3: do Rita. And I barely worked on Rita. It was
Speaker 3: just like I don't need like I just that's that's easy.
Speaker 3: I don't need to do that. And here I was
Speaker 3: trying to shove me. It was like trying to shove
Speaker 3: a square peg into a round hole. I am not
Speaker 3: a dead I didn't see that at the time. So
Speaker 3: but when I finally got to read for Jim Manos,
Speaker 3: who was our show creator at the time, and literally
Speaker 3: walked in our room in the room and he took
Speaker 3: one look at me and he goes, oh my god,
Speaker 3: you're our Rita And I.
Speaker 2: Was like no, no, no, no, I'm reading deb too.
Speaker 3: And he was like you're Riada and I'm like okay.
Speaker 3: And the important lesson for me was that was that
Speaker 3: sometimes just being is enough for acting, you know what
Speaker 3: I mean.
Speaker 2: Rita too easy for me. It felt like I wasn't
Speaker 2: I wasn't putting spin on the ball. I wasn't.
Speaker 3: I didn't have to change anything. I just had to
Speaker 3: be and that she like, I just resonated her. Does
Speaker 3: that make sense?
Speaker 1: Yeah, I know, it definitely does.
Speaker 3: But Deab I was just like, I mean, boy, I
Speaker 3: was shmacking all over that room. No wonder I didn't
Speaker 3: get the part.
Speaker 2: But it was an important lesson for me to learn that.
Speaker 3: Sometimes when things feel so simple, but that's where like,
Speaker 3: that's like I used to pooh pooh that I used
Speaker 3: to be like, Oh that's just too easy.
Speaker 2: That's not that's not challenging enough.
Speaker 3: I need to you know, because I came off of
Speaker 3: Buffy and Angel, which that character there was a lot
Speaker 3: of spin on that ball.
Speaker 2: Playing dutless so playing Rita all of a sudden was
Speaker 2: just it was just being and just knowing that I
Speaker 2: resonated her so.
Speaker 1: Many life lessons I'm learning from you just this conversation.
Speaker 1: But like it's I mean, it's kind of like Alcome's Razor, right,
Speaker 1: The simplest explanation is the is the best usually, I
Speaker 1: mean it makes sense. You know, there's this like internal
Speaker 1: struggle with how to talk about a show that like
Speaker 1: ended years ago, but like you know, like Dexter, you know,
Speaker 1: the original run. I can't remember now, but it's been
Speaker 1: over a decade since I think the original run ended.
Speaker 1: So I don't want to spoil anything. But if people
Speaker 1: are going especially you.
Speaker 3: Know, hey listeners, if you haven't watched it, there's gonna
Speaker 3: be some spoilers coming up. So turn it off, turn
Speaker 3: this off, go watch the show, and then come back to.
Speaker 2: The past thing.
Speaker 1: Yes, okay, great, okay, now that that's out of the way.
Speaker 3: By the way, by the way, I honestly feel seriously, oh,
Speaker 3: it's like it's over ten years if you haven't watched it,
Speaker 3: Like sorry.
Speaker 1: Yeah, it's exactly. Also, like you know, I knew I
Speaker 1: hadn't watched the Pranos until recently but like I know,
Speaker 1: like it ends with fade to black, and you know,
Speaker 1: like I know, there's there's certain things you just kind
Speaker 1: of know. I think every at this point, I'm going
Speaker 1: to say it, everybody knows that read it dies. I
Speaker 1: remember like where I was. That was the most shocking
Speaker 1: thing I had ever witnessed on television. I was like,
Speaker 1: I was texting my sister and I watched it, like
Speaker 1: as it aired, I was texting, like, I'm talking to
Speaker 1: Julie Bens tomorrow. My god, She's like, oh, do you
Speaker 1: remember when that moment? Like, how did when you found
Speaker 1: out that was going to happen? I mean, what was
Speaker 1: your reaction?
Speaker 2: I was devastated.
Speaker 3: Sure, I only found out a couple of days before
Speaker 3: the end of filming of season four, and I was
Speaker 3: completely blindsided by it, completely devastated by it. And I
Speaker 3: remember my initial reaction when they told me there was
Speaker 3: There's two things that happened, like there there's this weird
Speaker 3: synergy that happens when.
Speaker 2: You're playing a character for a long time.
Speaker 3: And that you know, there's like a weird just this
Speaker 3: synergy that happens, and so my first reaction was, oh,
Speaker 3: my god, I just lost my job, And the second
Speaker 3: thing out of my mouth was, but who's going to
Speaker 3: raise the baby?
Speaker 1: Oh my god?
Speaker 3: Like that, those are the two thoughts of like, who's
Speaker 3: raising Harrison?
Speaker 1: Yeah, you're killing me.
Speaker 2: Who's going to raise Harrison? What's going to happen to him?
Speaker 2: So and that's like the.
Speaker 3: Weird response that happened, you know, And yeah, I was.
Speaker 3: I was unprepared for it. I always say nobody was
Speaker 3: more shocked than me. Yeah, And then my concern was
Speaker 3: because after we filmed it and everything there's there was
Speaker 3: like maybe like two months lag time before it aired,
Speaker 3: and my concern was that the audience wasn't going to
Speaker 3: care because Rita had kind of become the nemesis to
Speaker 3: Dexter at that point structure in the script. And so
Speaker 3: I started worrying that it wasn't going to have an impact.
Speaker 2: And I remember they had this big, big finale premiere
Speaker 2: party Showtime did with fans and they wanted me to
Speaker 2: be there, and I agreed to go, but I only
Speaker 2: agreed to go for the first half and I left.
Speaker 3: My contract said I would leave as soon as they
Speaker 3: started airing the show because I did not want to
Speaker 3: be in that room with everybody when for that scene,
Speaker 3: because I was I was so concerned that like, what
Speaker 3: if people started cheering and like here I am still
Speaker 3: like reeling from the fact that this happened.
Speaker 2: And yeah, so I went at.
Speaker 3: The beginning and met the fans and was there and
Speaker 3: did the social thing and everything, and then they went
Speaker 3: back to my house and so I didn't know really
Speaker 3: anybody's reaction until the next night. I went out to
Speaker 3: with a bunch of friends and we walked into this
Speaker 3: restaurant in West Hollywood and literally, like the restaurant like
Speaker 3: went silent, and then people started coming up and hugging
Speaker 3: me and crying. And that's when I was like, what's
Speaker 3: going on?
Speaker 2: And they were just like and then they were talking
Speaker 2: about the show and oh my god and like and
Speaker 2: then that has carried on now through the majority of
Speaker 2: my life.
Speaker 3: Most people when they meet me, they need a hug.
Speaker 3: They need a hug from me and me to tell
Speaker 3: them it's okay.
Speaker 1: I'm not just saying this because you're on here, but
Speaker 1: that you know, I'm like looking back through like my
Speaker 1: memories of Dexter, and that is truly the most shocking
Speaker 1: part of the entire series. I think is is Reta's death,
Speaker 1: and I think that, uh, the character of Skyler and
Speaker 1: Breaking Bad has a similar problem. I think when you
Speaker 1: have like an anti hero as the protagonist, I think
Speaker 1: that the especially their romantic partner, who is often the
Speaker 1: voice of reason and like the pirst, you know, the
Speaker 1: person keeping them good. Uh, is divisive among the fans.
Speaker 1: But like, I think everyone loved Rita, like for real,
Speaker 1: I wanted I wanted to see you, and like I
Speaker 1: wanted to see Dexter renounces his killing ways and right
Speaker 1: up into the sunset to read to just be a
Speaker 1: family man. But then I know there to be no show.
Speaker 3: Part of me, you know, part of me feels it
Speaker 3: was a little premature, yeah.
Speaker 2: Just because.
Speaker 3: Like it could have been a really great series ending.
Speaker 3: I agree, right, but like in a way it was
Speaker 3: premature because then after that, everybody else who died, they
Speaker 3: never were able to recreate that impact because the audience
Speaker 3: then just kind of was like at that point, the
Speaker 3: audience is like, well, anybody.
Speaker 2: Can die at this point.
Speaker 3: Yeah, Like if you're going to kill Rita, then then
Speaker 3: anybody can die.
Speaker 2: So then when when dev dies, when La Guarda, yeah.
Speaker 3: They don't have the same impact because you reap the
Speaker 3: like you took the one. And I'm biased here obviously,
Speaker 3: but to me, Rita was the vessel through which the
Speaker 3: audience could fall in love with Dexter. Without her, he's
Speaker 3: just a serial killer. But her whole purpose in the
Speaker 3: show was to bring the audience in and for them
Speaker 3: to love him the way like she viewed him. Right, Yes,
Speaker 3: and that allowed the audience to fall in love. I mean,
Speaker 3: you don't know how many women I have met.
Speaker 2: In my lifetime who have said to me, oh my god,
Speaker 2: I love I love Dexter like I would, you know,
Speaker 2: I would love it. I'm like, Okay, that's weird.
Speaker 3: But that's what she allowed the audience to do, was
Speaker 3: to fall in love with him. And when you take
Speaker 3: that away, then you can't. It's it's hard to build
Speaker 3: the trust up in the audience again for any kind
Speaker 3: of connection that they have to you know what I'm saying.
Speaker 1: Yeah, yeah, no, absolutely, I think that's that's such an
Speaker 1: interesting way to look at it, and I completely agree
Speaker 1: with you. Julie Ben's is with us. This is I
Speaker 1: smell pop culture. We're gonna we have so much more
Speaker 1: to get into. We gotta talk Buffy. We got it.
Speaker 1: So much more. But we're gonna take a quick break
Speaker 1: and we'll be right back. Julie Ben's here with us.
Speaker 1: I smell pop culture. My name's Lisa Allen. Thanks for
Speaker 1: joining us here. Thank you to Julie. This has been
Speaker 1: so much fun. We gotta talk Buffy. We gotta go
Speaker 1: to Sunnydale here.
Speaker 2: Yeah.
Speaker 1: So most of us know you as Darla the Vampire,
Speaker 1: and it's you're the first I rewatched the first episode
Speaker 1: of the Other Day. You're the first character we see
Speaker 1: in the series, like the first first person. It's like
Speaker 1: it pans down from like the closet or something that
Speaker 1: shows you. That's It's just it's incredible, such a popular character,
Speaker 1: and you know, I I'm just so interested, Like when
Speaker 1: you take these people that are so integral to a
Speaker 1: TV show like that, how did you I'd like to
Speaker 1: know the process, how'd you get involved, how did you
Speaker 1: get turned into a vampire? How did that happen?
Speaker 3: Okay, So I originally auditioned for the role of Buffy
Speaker 3: like every other girl in Hollywood at that time. I
Speaker 3: mean they saw thousands and thousands and thousands of us,
Speaker 3: and Joss Whedon really liked my audition. I made some
Speaker 3: really bold choices, and he brought me in to meet
Speaker 3: with the head of casting for twentieth Century Fox and
Speaker 3: I read for her and then they decided. And it's true,
Speaker 3: I was about five years too old to play Buffy
Speaker 3: because they wanted Buffy to be a freshman.
Speaker 2: In high school.
Speaker 3: And even though at the time I was in my
Speaker 3: early twenties, it's been like twenty two or twenty three,
Speaker 3: something like that, twenty two I think, and I.
Speaker 2: Could pass for like sixteen seventeen. I couldn't pass for
Speaker 2: a freshman in high school. That was just not It
Speaker 2: just wasn't physically possible.
Speaker 3: But Jos was like, I really like how what you
Speaker 3: came in and the choices you made, And he's like,
Speaker 3: how would you like to play.
Speaker 2: Vampire Girl Number one? And I said, okay, So how
Speaker 2: I got passed.
Speaker 3: Darla did not have a name, we didn't I have
Speaker 3: the presentation, which was just like a fifteen minute version
Speaker 3: or like a twenty minute version. So I did that
Speaker 3: and then from that it got picked up and then
Speaker 3: we went back and reshot it all because the wardrobe
Speaker 3: was terrible.
Speaker 2: I'm not gonna lie. It was my carri Darla's wardrobe
Speaker 2: especially was terrible in the pilot. Yeah, they had the gut.
Speaker 3: The person who was doing the costumes on that one,
Speaker 3: he thought I should be wearing things that looked like
Speaker 3: they smelled like moth balls and stuff, and it was
Speaker 3: it was just it was bad. So then when it
Speaker 3: got picked up the series, they brought in the new
Speaker 3: costume designer and they came up with the whole Catholic
Speaker 3: schoolgirl little uniform and so then that's how it. And
Speaker 3: then I was supposed to die at the end of
Speaker 3: the pilot. And on the day I was going to die,
Speaker 3: Jos came running over and he's like, listen, we're not
Speaker 3: going to kill you. We're going to keep you alive.
Speaker 3: He'll be back next week. I was like, great, and
Speaker 3: we're giving you a name.
Speaker 2: Great.
Speaker 3: And then again I was supposed to die in the
Speaker 3: next episode, and again it was like, we're not going
Speaker 3: to kill you. We're going to do this love triangle thing.
Speaker 3: So it's kind of how Darlt grew. It was just,
Speaker 3: you know, and I like to think, I mean, I don't.
Speaker 3: I mean I like to think that maybe I had
Speaker 3: something to do with it in part of like the
Speaker 3: choices I was making, but young after.
Speaker 2: I don't know if it had anything to do with that.
Speaker 1: I mean, I think so, having not been there, I
Speaker 1: mean that, but your performance is so incredible, So I'm
Speaker 1: really curious. The vampire makeup. That is something. Oh man,
Speaker 1: I it's it's frightening to look at and I just
Speaker 1: every time I see it, I'm like, that must have
Speaker 1: been such a nightmare to get into every day orly,
Speaker 1: you know, whenever you had to.
Speaker 2: Well, really, that's what I look like without makeup on
Speaker 2: before I have coffee. Okay, let's just be here. No.
Speaker 3: So I was the I called the test monkey. I
Speaker 3: was the test vampire for the makeup. So I went
Speaker 3: through multiple makeup tests while they tried to figure out
Speaker 3: the look and the feel.
Speaker 2: Of the vampires.
Speaker 3: So I spent a lot of time with Todd McIntosh
Speaker 3: in his chair putting a prosthetic, gone, taking it off,
Speaker 3: bring another one on, taking it off.
Speaker 2: It was a long process before they got it right.
Speaker 2: I do not like prosthetics.
Speaker 3: I have a real visceral reaction to the smells that
Speaker 3: go into all of that. I became allergic to a
Speaker 3: lot of the adhesives that they would choose. Just my
Speaker 3: my skin would just start developing an allergy to it.
Speaker 3: So on Buffy they would glue that thing on so
Speaker 3: it could stay on all day. By the time we
Speaker 3: moved to Angel, they were they had the process down
Speaker 3: where they would like tack it on with eyelash glue
Speaker 3: and we would shoot very mint like just minimal in
Speaker 3: it and then we'd go back into beauty makeup and like,
Speaker 3: but in Buffy we were I mean I was in
Speaker 3: that thing for ever it was.
Speaker 2: I mean, thank god I had young skin. Do you
Speaker 2: I swear it to go?
Speaker 1: Can you like eat with it all, like cause you
Speaker 1: eat a sandwich like halfway through the day or just
Speaker 1: a smoothie or something. So you had to do.
Speaker 3: Well because it came so it was like the nose
Speaker 3: and then it was sculpted down.
Speaker 2: I had to watch how like how much I ate.
Speaker 2: I could eat like small bites of stuff.
Speaker 3: The hardest part in my prosthetic, in particular, they carved
Speaker 3: it so it was really minus. Darla was the most
Speaker 3: violent looking one out of all the vampires, so it
Speaker 3: was a real hard line from the nose up the
Speaker 3: eyes and it cut off half my vision and then
Speaker 3: you put the yellow contact lenses in which I am
Speaker 3: not a contact lens wearer, so I had a gut there.
Speaker 3: They have a guy there on set who it's his
Speaker 3: job is to put.
Speaker 2: The lenses in and out. Wow.
Speaker 3: They had somebody else originally, and that person would tear
Speaker 3: the prosthetic. It was this whole nightmare, and it was
Speaker 3: so stressful as the actor underneath it because you're just like,
Speaker 3: I'm trying to keep my eye open and then the
Speaker 3: prosthetic would tear, and then they'd have to go in
Speaker 3: and repair and you're.
Speaker 2: Just like like overwhelming.
Speaker 3: They brought in this other guy who was incredible, and
Speaker 3: he's done lenses on like all the big stuff, and
Speaker 3: he was able to get the lens like he was.
Speaker 3: He had such a gentle touch and was able to
Speaker 3: get the lens in without disturbing the prosthetic and also
Speaker 3: keeping me calm. Somebody could keep my eye open so
Speaker 3: the lens could go in.
Speaker 2: So he was.
Speaker 3: Always he they Once they brought him on, it became easier.
Speaker 3: But once I was in it, I barely could see
Speaker 3: because with yellow con hard contact lenses and then the prosthetic, and.
Speaker 1: Then you have to act on top of that too,
Speaker 1: you know, like remember lines and blocking, Like my god, I.
Speaker 3: Know, but I will say so in the beginning, when
Speaker 3: I was trying to figure out how I was going
Speaker 3: to play her, and I was going through the various
Speaker 3: makeup tests with Todd McIntosh, you know, I'd never played
Speaker 3: up until that point, i'd never played a vampire before.
Speaker 2: I'd never played anybody scary before.
Speaker 3: Up until that point, I had been doing sitcoms, and
Speaker 3: so I was really nervous.
Speaker 2: I was like, I have no idea how I'm going
Speaker 2: to do this character.
Speaker 3: And then I had the prosthetic one and I went
Speaker 3: to the bathroom and I looked in the mirror and I.
Speaker 2: Smiled, and I was like, Oh, now that's creepy. And
Speaker 2: so that's kind of like the genesis for Darla, Like
Speaker 2: that's kind of the seed that sparked her. I was like, oh,
Speaker 2: it's really creepy when I smile. And I think when
Speaker 2: you do prosthetic work, you have to allow the prosthetic
Speaker 2: to do its job, you know what I mean. So
Speaker 2: you have to.
Speaker 3: Trust that the prosthetic is going to tell a lot
Speaker 3: of the story for you. So like, I didn't have
Speaker 3: to be too scary.
Speaker 2: I didn't.
Speaker 3: I could just like, there's kind of this interesting especially
Speaker 3: with Darla, like she would be very playful when she's
Speaker 3: full vamp because that's kind of creepy.
Speaker 1: Yeah, Versus if.
Speaker 2: I was just going around like that because the makeup's
Speaker 2: doing that, I don't have to do that. So I
Speaker 2: did the opposite.
Speaker 1: It's so fascinating. I love I love hearing this kind
Speaker 1: of stuff. Now, something that is not terrifying is, uh,
Speaker 1: you have an incredible voice. You have an incredible singing voice.
Speaker 2: Oh no, I don't.
Speaker 1: I okay, I have to bring this up. The you
Speaker 1: do a karaoke performance in Angel?
Speaker 2: Yes, I do.
Speaker 1: And a friend of mine, Sakari, is like a Buffy
Speaker 1: super fan, and I mentioned to her that where I
Speaker 1: was talking to you today, She's like, you please ask
Speaker 1: her about the karaoke scene. Why wasn't she in the
Speaker 1: Buffy musical episode You're so was that that was really
Speaker 1: you singing?
Speaker 2: In that?
Speaker 1: It was really me singing I'll wind.
Speaker 3: Still wind, thank god, there's only three notes, but I'll
Speaker 3: tell you so. So I always say working on Buffy
Speaker 3: and Angel for me was like going to graduate school
Speaker 3: as an actor, because every week there was something being
Speaker 3: asked of me that I had never done before on camera, right,
Speaker 3: so like I was buried alive, I was set on fire.
Speaker 2: I rode a horse through fire. Like there was all
Speaker 2: these things that were like.
Speaker 3: So then they came and they said, listen, we want
Speaker 3: to put Darlat in the karaoke bar.
Speaker 2: And I was like what, I don't sing.
Speaker 3: And then you know, Jos and David Greenwal were like, well,
Speaker 3: we picked a really easy song. There's not a lot
Speaker 3: of notes, and you know, we'll send it to you
Speaker 3: and you, you know, let us know.
Speaker 2: So I was like okay.
Speaker 3: So I listened to it and I was like, okay,
Speaker 3: they're right, it's not like, not a lot of notes,
Speaker 3: very simple.
Speaker 2: So I learned it and I had to deal with them.
Speaker 2: So they said, we want you to record it because
Speaker 2: you have to go in and record it first. So
Speaker 2: I I was like okay.
Speaker 3: I'll record it, and they go and then if we
Speaker 3: decide that you really can't sing, we'll just hire somebody
Speaker 3: else to do it, and then you can just lip
Speaker 3: sync to it. Otherwise you'll lip sync to your own voice, right,
Speaker 3: So I was like okay. So I went into the
Speaker 3: studio and oh, I'm so nervous to record it. I
Speaker 3: made them put like the microphone in the far corner,
Speaker 3: like so that they couldn't see me through the glass,
Speaker 3: and like I made them turn out the lights and anyway,
Speaker 3: and I did it like a couple of times, and
Speaker 3: they were in the post production people were like, that's great.
Speaker 3: And so then I never heard anything, Like I never
Speaker 3: heard from David or Joss if.
Speaker 2: They were going to actually use my voice.
Speaker 3: So when I showed up to film the scene, I
Speaker 3: didn't know if it was going to be my voice
Speaker 3: or a professional singer's voice.
Speaker 1: Oh wow.
Speaker 2: And I was too afraid to.
Speaker 3: Ask because I was like, I don't want I was
Speaker 3: just gonna I don't, you know, because part of me
Speaker 3: was a also part of me was like, if it's
Speaker 3: a professional's voice, that's gonna sound so much better, you know,
Speaker 3: because maybe Darling is a much better singer than Julie is.
Speaker 2: Right, Yeah, that's how I was looking at approaching it as.
Speaker 3: And so then I showed up on set and they
Speaker 3: started playing it over the loud speaker, right, they were
Speaker 3: just testing it out and they were playing it and
Speaker 3: I literally was like.
Speaker 2: Oh my god, that's me. It's just so mortified. And
Speaker 2: then I realized, because then you have to sing it
Speaker 2: on stage and there.
Speaker 3: Was all these extras. I forgot there were gonna be
Speaker 3: extras in the scene. I forgot like it was gonna
Speaker 3: be basically a packed house. So I made David Stan
Speaker 3: and I literally like lip sync, sanged it, sung it
Speaker 3: along just directly to David, like I couldn't look at
Speaker 3: anybody else because I was just like, this is not
Speaker 3: I'm not a singer, even though I did musicals in college,
Speaker 3: but I know how to talk sing. I know how
Speaker 3: to like sing and talk at the same time. But
Speaker 3: I was just it was, oh, my hands were sweating
Speaker 3: so bad. I think I dropped a couple of times.
Speaker 1: So no other singing besides that, for you, you never cut
Speaker 1: an album or anything.
Speaker 3: No, although recently I had a psychic reading and the
Speaker 3: psychic told me that I need to be singing more,
Speaker 3: and she said that there's a musical that's going to
Speaker 3: come down the line.
Speaker 2: And Okay, I'm like, okay, this is weird.
Speaker 1: And I don't know if you have the answer to this.
Speaker 1: But I've seen a lot of people online wondering, like,
Speaker 1: where is just the where is the track of Julie
Speaker 1: Ben singing ill Wind without like the characters talking like
Speaker 1: the one that was in the show, Like, where's the
Speaker 1: raw track? How can we get that?
Speaker 2: I have no idea.
Speaker 1: That would kill and we had so many streams.
Speaker 2: I have no idea. And I will say this, I'm
Speaker 2: so happy I was.
Speaker 3: Not in the Buffy Musical because everybody was so good,
Speaker 3: Like seriously, they were all.
Speaker 2: I mean, that's the thing. Most actors are good singers.
Speaker 2: Not this person.
Speaker 1: Well, I can only disagree with you so much here,
Speaker 1: Julie Bean's so I mean we've covered like you've done
Speaker 1: so much. You did so much as Darla in the show.
Speaker 1: Like I mean you were saying you've been lit on fire.
Speaker 1: You were like rode horses. You've killed so many people.
Speaker 1: What do you have a favorite I know this is
Speaker 1: a big question, but like, do you have a favorite
Speaker 1: moment from making Buffy? Is there something that like looms
Speaker 1: large in your head as one of your favorite memories?
Speaker 2: Well, from Buffy or from Angel.
Speaker 1: Because let's do both Buff. We'll do Buffy first, then
Speaker 1: Angel if you can separate the two.
Speaker 3: Yeah, So from Buffy, I think for me, what I
Speaker 3: like to call it my badass moment on that show
Speaker 3: was when I show up with guns to fight Buffy,
Speaker 3: And first of all, I thought it was so brilliant
Speaker 3: because I was like, yeah, why wouldn't I Like, I'm
Speaker 3: why would I put any effort into like any physical effort.
Speaker 2: I'm just going to shoot her like that's so Darla.
Speaker 3: And then the stunt department they were like listen or yeah,
Speaker 3: the stunt apartment and the director they were like, listen.
Speaker 2: We want you to.
Speaker 3: Walk up to where the pool table was, and then
Speaker 3: we want you to jump and land on the pool table.
Speaker 2: Do you think you can do that? And I was
Speaker 2: like I don't know.
Speaker 3: And so I watched like the stunt I do it
Speaker 3: a couple times. And this is how I approach most
Speaker 3: stunts is I watch other people do it and because
Speaker 3: I know that if I try to do it rehearsal,
Speaker 3: I'm not going to do it.
Speaker 2: I won't do it. There's something about when the camera's
Speaker 2: on and the adrenaline. So I literally watched the mechanics
Speaker 2: over and over and over again, and then like they
Speaker 2: yell like I never I've never tried to rehearsal, and
Speaker 2: I was like, just trust me, when the camera's rolling,
Speaker 2: I'll be able to do it. They yell, action I
Speaker 2: walk up say my lines and then I go from
Speaker 2: and I jump right on the pool table and continue
Speaker 2: the scene. And everybody was like yes, and I was
Speaker 2: like yeah, because it's for me. It's the adrenaline, it's
Speaker 2: the it's you know.
Speaker 3: And because I'm, you know, an athlete, like as a
Speaker 3: child athlete, I'm able to kind of watch and then
Speaker 3: my body just knows how to do it. Like I
Speaker 3: can't explain it, but yeah that I was like, I
Speaker 3: better know this. I did crack my teeth on the
Speaker 3: vampire teeth. I did crack it in that moment when
Speaker 3: I landed.
Speaker 2: Oh my god, I'm excited.
Speaker 1: I like, so everyone, when you go back and rewatch
Speaker 1: that scene, there's teeth cracking to watch out for.
Speaker 2: Yeah. I cracked crazy. I actually broke the most amount
Speaker 2: of teeth on the show.
Speaker 1: What a feather in your cat? That's how of a
Speaker 1: stat Now, what about Angel? What was your what's your
Speaker 1: favorite from Angel?
Speaker 2: So an Angel?
Speaker 3: I think for me, you know, David and I always
Speaker 3: have this really great chemistry that like just this work
Speaker 3: chemistry together.
Speaker 2: And my my.
Speaker 3: Favorite favorite scene of the whole thing was We're It's
Speaker 3: an episode, dear Boy. And during season two and We're
Speaker 3: shooting underground in this big giant water tank and it's
Speaker 3: to Tim and I and it's this beautiful long scene
Speaker 3: about our relationship and just you know, and at the
Speaker 3: end of it, I take out across and I hold
Speaker 3: it onto his chest and I say, God doesn't want you,
Speaker 3: but I still do, and then I walk away. And
Speaker 3: that day was just it was just magic for us.
Speaker 3: Like it was that scene where we didn't have to
Speaker 3: crank the wheel and make it work, like it just
Speaker 3: flowed from us. And David Greenwalt was directing that episode,
Speaker 3: and we were all just in this really good flow
Speaker 3: with each other and just and I remember there's a
Speaker 3: lot of walking and movement and and it just was
Speaker 3: like we didn't want to leave the water tank, like
Speaker 3: we didn't want to go above ground because we were
Speaker 3: afraid we were going.
Speaker 2: To break the spell that we were under. Underground.
Speaker 1: It's a magic, but it was.
Speaker 3: It's I had lots of moments with David like that
Speaker 3: where we just kind of just stayed in our little
Speaker 3: world because we didn't want to break the spell that
Speaker 3: we were under, Like we just were like, there's something
Speaker 3: really cool going on here, and we like we just
Speaker 3: we're gonna stay in it so magical.
Speaker 1: I mean, Buffy and Angel such iconic shows that you
Speaker 1: you brought to life. Julie Ben's hanging out with us
Speaker 1: here on Ice Smoll Pop Culture where we're just a
Speaker 1: little bit more to talk to you about. If you
Speaker 1: don't mind, we have a and let's just take a
Speaker 1: quick commercial break here. Everybody stick around. Julie Ben's here
Speaker 1: with us on Ice Smoll Pop Culture. So one of
Speaker 1: so our main hosts here is as a man by
Speaker 1: the name of Scott Patterson. He played Luke Luke on
Speaker 1: Gilmore Girls. You guys shared, uh, you were in the
Speaker 1: same movie together, Saw five.
Speaker 3: Yeah, he's a badass. Talk about stunts he did. I
Speaker 3: was there that day.
Speaker 2: I was there. I was I think I was going
Speaker 2: through a makeup test.
Speaker 3: It was like my I had just arrived and there
Speaker 3: I was in like the hair and makeup room and
Speaker 3: he did that stunt with his head in the box
Speaker 3: with the.
Speaker 2: Water yes, And I went out and watched it. I mean,
Speaker 2: I was like, I could never like that. Terrified. I
Speaker 2: was terrified watching it live. Terrified.
Speaker 3: They had like the MSS there just in case, like
Speaker 3: they and I was I was so impressed.
Speaker 2: Like that's where I drew I would draw the line.
Speaker 1: I appreciate that insight because I asked him about that
Speaker 1: part and he's like, oh, yeah, you know, operate on
Speaker 1: my tricky. I just put it and he's like, so
Speaker 1: cool about it, you know, but I want to.
Speaker 2: It was so cool about it. On sets. I was
Speaker 2: like sweating buckets watching it. Like I was like terrified
Speaker 2: and like so nervous watching him do it, and he
Speaker 2: just was like, all right, let's get done.
Speaker 1: They did it, and I was like, Okay, that's the
Speaker 1: thing I'm interested in is I love the Saw movies.
Speaker 1: I think they're national treasures. But like being in being
Speaker 1: in a movie like that and being surrounded by this
Speaker 1: like these horrific traps and like crazy gory special effects,
Speaker 1: Like what is that like as an actor? I mean,
Speaker 1: being surrounded by that much blood?
Speaker 2: Oh god, it's really scary.
Speaker 3: So I've mentioned this before in an interview, and then
Speaker 3: some people on like Twitter were like, why I actually
Speaker 3: do a moment, like they were poo pooing me about this.
Speaker 2: But so.
Speaker 3: I I was friends with one of the producers from
Speaker 3: the original Saw, and I was actually.
Speaker 2: Doing his movie with him at the time.
Speaker 3: I was doing Georgia of the Jungle too, and he
Speaker 3: was telling me about his next project, which.
Speaker 2: Was going to be Saw. And he was like, Oh, it's.
Speaker 3: This really dark horror film. And I was like, put
Speaker 3: me in it, and he's like, I don't know if
Speaker 3: you want to be in it. It's like, I don't know.
Speaker 3: He goes, I don't know how it's gonna do. It's
Speaker 3: really dark. And it turned out it was Saw, and
Speaker 3: it obviously did fantastic and then like two years later
Speaker 3: he passed away from a heart attack. So when I
Speaker 3: got the offer for Saw five, I was like, oh,
Speaker 3: that's Greg.
Speaker 2: That's Creig, you know from above. But at that point
Speaker 2: I had seen the original Saw and it terrified me.
Speaker 2: Still does to this day.
Speaker 3: So I was like, Oh, this will be interesting. Let's
Speaker 3: see if I can be in a movie that really
Speaker 3: scares me.
Speaker 2: And let's just see. And I had nightmares every night. Wow.
Speaker 3: I the traps were super real to me, like they
Speaker 3: were very real to me.
Speaker 2: I had a hard time discerning that it was make BULLYE.
Speaker 2: I remember my first day on set.
Speaker 3: I was in the first trap with the dog collars
Speaker 3: and we were racing for the key and that and
Speaker 3: they had the saws behind our head and we were
Speaker 3: on pulleys and it was completely it was fully orchestrated,
Speaker 3: like who was the bard whin and like because we
Speaker 3: were all supposed to be connected to each other.
Speaker 2: It's fully orchestrated.
Speaker 3: And we went to go film our first take and
Speaker 3: I started panicking a little bit, and I pulled the
Speaker 3: director aside and I said, listen, what's going to happen
Speaker 3: if I don't get the key first?
Speaker 2: And he literally just looked at me and he's like cut,
Speaker 2: Like we'll just cut. You read the script, you make
Speaker 2: it ten right, Like I know.
Speaker 3: I'm like it just like I know, Like it was real.
Speaker 3: So yeah, so through at that point had all been
Speaker 3: together through four previous Saws, so they were all like, oh.
Speaker 2: The newbie, the nebes, welcome to Welcome to Saw. We
Speaker 2: all went through that in the first one.
Speaker 1: I just love the idea of like if I don't
Speaker 1: get the keepers, will you die? Sorry? This are real?
Speaker 2: Because I mean it was a real It was real.
Speaker 2: It was a real saw. That was like it was
Speaker 2: a real headshopper thing.
Speaker 1: That's so crazy.
Speaker 2: So I was.
Speaker 3: Terrified, Like I was so terrified. And then my dog
Speaker 3: I had a little dog at the time, Bamboo. He
Speaker 3: has since passed away because he's good long life, but
Speaker 3: but he was a puppy at the time, and they
Speaker 3: would let me bring I bring him on to set
Speaker 3: and the crew would take photos of him in the traps.
Speaker 2: It was really funny because he'd be there with like
Speaker 2: the decapitated head, just a little puppy and then this
Speaker 2: the fake head and like, yeah, yeah, it was very sweet.
Speaker 3: They would do anything they could to make me laugh
Speaker 3: because I was like every trap, I was like, Okay,
Speaker 3: what if I don't survive this one?
Speaker 2: And then I threw up.
Speaker 3: On set on the last in the last trap because
Speaker 3: of putting my hands so that thing looked it looked
Speaker 3: so real. They made they they do magic on that
Speaker 3: because they make I mean, I've been in stuff where
Speaker 3: there's been blood and it looks so fake.
Speaker 2: It looks so real. And that when I had to
Speaker 2: put my hand in the thing and the saw was got,
Speaker 2: it just grossed me out. Drew up during rehearsal. Oh
Speaker 2: my god, I sound like a big baby.
Speaker 3: I am a bit of a when it comes to
Speaker 3: scary things. I get really scared.
Speaker 1: You've been some of the scaries stuff of all time.
Speaker 1: That's so refreshing to hear though that like that you
Speaker 1: used to you get scared too.
Speaker 2: I get really scared.
Speaker 3: Like and by the way, what is it about watching
Speaker 3: scary movies, because like we all love, it's like I
Speaker 3: start to sweat. I get really nervous. All of a sudden,
Speaker 3: I hear a noise outside. I'm oh, my god, like.
Speaker 2: I saw myself through it.
Speaker 1: It's so That's something I love about movies is like
Speaker 1: it can make. It gives you that like physical reaction,
Speaker 1: like like you said, you get sweaty, like my teeth
Speaker 1: all hurt. Like watching those Saw movies especially, it's so interesting.
Speaker 1: I can't imagine being on the set.
Speaker 3: All five is the only movie I've ever been in
Speaker 3: and I've never watched all the way through.
Speaker 2: Really that puppet, I can't. I can't.
Speaker 3: I go to conventions and people bring that puppet up
Speaker 3: to me and I literally have a visceral like I
Speaker 3: start to sweat, like it's.
Speaker 2: Not it's not fun.
Speaker 1: I did a recording at the UH the director of
Speaker 1: Saw Too. I went to his house and we recorded
Speaker 1: an episode and he had the puppet like the puppet
Speaker 1: from the movie and I had, I reacted the same way.
Speaker 1: I was like, oh god, there he is. He's scary.
Speaker 2: No. I mean, listen, there's a reason why those movies
Speaker 2: are have transcended like audience numbers and like are going
Speaker 2: to always live in the zeitgeist of at the top
Speaker 2: of horror because what they've done so brilliantly is it
Speaker 2: grabs you on a deep psychological level. You know, it's
Speaker 2: not just a slash or thing. It's it's it it
Speaker 2: gets inside.
Speaker 3: Your mind and it really bucks you up. Yeah, that's
Speaker 3: what they've done so brilliantly. That's why the movies are
Speaker 3: so huge. I mean it's not, you know, not to
Speaker 3: put Jason down, but it's not some guy in a
Speaker 3: mask running around with a knife exactly.
Speaker 1: Absolutely, when you're like walking down the street, like if
Speaker 1: you got in public most and someone comes up to
Speaker 1: you that recognizes you, it is Darla number one?
Speaker 3: Is that?
Speaker 1: Or Rita Oh wow? Or brit from Son for that matter, I.
Speaker 3: Would say right now, like in the past year, because
Speaker 3: Dexter has been airing on Netflix, Oh yeah, there's been
Speaker 3: a huge I mean I even't see like my nephews,
Speaker 3: who are you know, late teens, early twenties, they're all
Speaker 3: discovering it. So there's this new age bracket that's discovering
Speaker 3: Dex that wasn't alive when they were kids when we
Speaker 3: first made it, and they're now discovering it because of
Speaker 3: it being on Netflix. And so right now it's a
Speaker 3: lot of people recognizing me as Darla or as Rita sorry,
Speaker 3: which I'm surprised because it's been almost twenty years since
Speaker 3: we Shock the pilot. Wow, I think it's been like
Speaker 3: eighteen years because I was like thirty two or thirty three, thirty.
Speaker 2: Four around there.
Speaker 3: I'm fifty two now, so I'm just shocked when anybody
Speaker 3: I'm like that just spot me and usually this is
Speaker 3: my voice.
Speaker 1: You have an interesting voice.
Speaker 3: But yeah, no, So right now it's a lot of Riada,
Speaker 3: a lot of readA interesting yeah. But also I mean
Speaker 3: Buffy and Angel has a whole young audience that keeps
Speaker 3: discovering it as well.
Speaker 1: So yeah, you know, like I said, this is a
Speaker 1: Gilmore Girls podcast, and the creator of Gilmore Girls said
Speaker 1: that she would watch Buffy as she wrote Gilmore Girls.
Speaker 1: I was like something she would do, and that's why
Speaker 1: I think a lot of the dialogue is very similar
Speaker 1: I think in I think she was. She was very
Speaker 1: inspired by Jos and the way he wrote dialogue. But yeah,
Speaker 1: and you're I mean in season five, episode ten of
Speaker 1: Gilmore Girls, they mentioned Spike and Drusilla, so yeah, and
Speaker 1: there's a lot of five by five and things like
Speaker 1: that throughout the show. So you know, you have a
Speaker 1: lot of fans in the world of Gilmore Girls, and
Speaker 1: you have a huge fan in me. Thank you so
Speaker 1: much for doing this, Julie. You just been the absolute best.
Speaker 2: Thank you. Thank you.
Speaker 1: If people want to keep up with you and find
Speaker 1: out what you're up to, how can they keep in touch.
Speaker 2: I am really active on Instagram.
Speaker 3: I am at Julie Ben's MFT, which stands for my
Speaker 3: Favorite Things not Marriage Family Therapist.
Speaker 1: I was gonna ask you about that earlier.
Speaker 3: Yeah, so you know, I was trying to come up
Speaker 3: with so okay, So listen, there's a lot of other
Speaker 3: Julie Benz's in the world. Okay, And there is a
Speaker 3: real Julie Benz who has the who got onto Instagram
Speaker 3: before me and has the at Julie Ben's handle. And
Speaker 3: I know people are like, why don't you offer her
Speaker 3: some money?
Speaker 2: Take it? I can't do that because it's your name. Now,
Speaker 2: if it would, like, say you had my name, I
Speaker 2: would be like, come on, give me my name. This
Speaker 2: is my name. But this is a real person who
Speaker 2: has the name Julie Ben's. It's not her fault.
Speaker 3: I'm not going to be like I'm more important. So
Speaker 3: I had to come up with something creative. So I
Speaker 3: came up with Julie Ben's MFT because I was like, Oh,
Speaker 3: my favorite things and I'll post about like That's kind
Speaker 3: of what Instagram was about.
Speaker 2: It was like, You're gonna like your favorite.
Speaker 3: Things, like things people could see, like all your favorite things.
Speaker 3: You like to do, favorite things, just like you know
Speaker 3: what I mean.
Speaker 2: I thought.
Speaker 3: Now everybody thinks I'm a marriage family therapist. I get
Speaker 3: people asking me relationship questions all the time. I mean,
Speaker 3: you can, you can if you want to hit me
Speaker 3: up for relationship advice.
Speaker 2: I am on my second marriage, so I have some experience.
Speaker 2: I will give advice. I don't know if it's going
Speaker 2: to be good, but.
Speaker 1: I saw a recipe for some gluten free crackers on
Speaker 1: there that I'm excited to try. Aunt.
Speaker 3: Yeah, and I do a lot of I'm really leaning
Speaker 3: into the wellness space for especially for women over the
Speaker 3: age of forty going through perimenopause and menopause. I mean,
Speaker 3: I mean, listen, a lot of people are talking about
Speaker 3: it now, which is great, and the conversations need to
Speaker 3: be had to keep talking about it because every woman
Speaker 3: will go through it and every woman's journey is going
Speaker 3: to be something different, and it's need to create more
Speaker 3: of a sisterhood where we discuss these things publicly and
Speaker 3: it's not it's not embarrassing, and it's not like a
Speaker 3: secret like I remember when my mother went through menopause,
Speaker 3: like she never talked.
Speaker 2: About it was she was going through it.
Speaker 3: So it's nice to be able to talk, to be
Speaker 3: able to be public about it and talk and also
Speaker 3: inspire people. My whole point when I started filming, like
Speaker 3: my workouts and stuff, was I'm you know, I don't
Speaker 3: have good genetics, Like if I didn't work out, I
Speaker 3: wouldn't look like this, So I work hard at it,
Speaker 3: and I work hard at it not to be maybe
Speaker 3: in my twenties and thirties it was to be skinny.
Speaker 3: My goal now is to be healthy so I live
Speaker 3: a long life. So I live a healthy long life,
Speaker 3: not being well. I don't want to be in my
Speaker 3: seventies and not being able to walk, you know, I mean,
Speaker 3: of course I want to. I want to be dancing
Speaker 3: at eighty five, ninety, you know what I mean. So
Speaker 3: inspiring others too, because you have to put the work
Speaker 3: in to do that. You can't just think that's just
Speaker 3: going to you're going to be that old person. You
Speaker 3: have to actually put the work into it in your
Speaker 3: forties and your fifties so that when you hit your eighties.
Speaker 3: So that's you know, I've been helping, hopefully motivating people,
Speaker 3: you know, to delive a healthy.
Speaker 1: Lifestyle, continuing to make the world a better place. The
Speaker 1: great Julie Benz once again, thank you so much for
Speaker 1: doing this. You're just the absolute greatest and I hope
Speaker 1: you have a great holiday season. Thank you so much.
Speaker 2: Thanks bye, Hey everybody, and don't forget follow us on
Speaker 2: Instagram at I Am All In podcast and email us
Speaker 2: at Gilmore at iHeartRadio dot com.