Way back in June, I attended Philly Comic-Con. While my CliqueClack brothers and sisters recently attended SDCC, their multiple posts inspired me to post the remainder of the panels I attended.
I won’t lie. I attended Julie Benz’s panel out of curiosity. I loved her in the first season of Buffy, but I hated how they humanized Darla in Angel, and I haven’t tracked her career since Darla’s death. Because Benz is small, blonde and pretty, I expected the stereotypical Hollywood actress when attending her panel, but found anything but. Although she has starred or guest-starred in Buffy, Angel, Desperate Housewives, Dexter, No Ordinary Family, and A Gifted Man, her outlook remains surprisingly humble and practical. Although I wouldn’t expect someone with Benz’s successes to reference herself as a working actor, I liked her for her practicality.
In fact, she had one recurring theme throughout the afternoon: employment aka the professional actor’s plight. When a fan asked for her initial feelings about getting cast on Buffy as Darla, she replied: “Awesome! I’m employed another week.” When a fan asked her about her thoughts regarding getting cast on Angel, she stated: “I was excited … to be employed.” When a fan asked concerning her experience playing Rita (Dexter), she replied: “I was happy as long as I was being employed.” When asked if she preferred film or TV, she said … say it with me, now: “I just want to stay employed.” In fact, halfway through the panel, she started a call and response with the audience asking “What do I like?” to which we responded “to be employed.”
I didn’t ask her any questions directly, but her incredibly full session elicited her wry humor and intelligence. First and foremost, she’s a professional. She admits she didn’t learn of Rita’s demise on Dexter until the day of shooting. When the crowd started to “awww,” she waved it off by describing the acting process: “You’re pretty much a hired gun.” Not many actors place the story before their character but she stated it made sense for the show and her character’s arc. Imagine if they had actually killed Sylar at the end of Heroes’ first season.
She definitely has a good sense of humor. When a fan asked for her twitter account, she wryly replied: “my twitter name’s @juliebenz … very hard to remember.” When asked to describe A Gifted Man, she replied: “it’s about a gifted man.” When asked what she felt the most comfortable with, she joked: “I feel most comfortable at lunch.” When asked if she could do anything else, she responded honestly: “one of the reasons I became an actor is because I couldn’t do anything else.” When quizzed about the best kisser in her acting past, she gave a similar off-the-cusp answer as Nicholas Brendon, by listing Dana Delany because she had “Soft lips” and a “pretty smell.”
However, she can get serious, particularly when describing Rita: “I envisioned her as a fragile bird. You know, her wings were broken.” She also became serious about her Buffy and Angel cast members, listing the show as “a great family” and “a great place for all of us to grow up” while citing “Hush” and “Dear Boy” as her favorite episodes. Within the TV vein, she viewed Parenthood, Good Wife, and Basketball Wives (for you reality TV lovers out there) as some of her favorite non-Buffy shows. Considering Virginia Williams listed the Good Wife as a show she watched, do female actresses like the strong, well-written female roles? Assumedly, yes. For New York University-trained Julie Benz, I would expect nothing less.
Quotes:
Clacked by An Nicholson 
on Aug 08, 2011 @ 10:00 EST5EDT
