Julie Benz Quotes

The meaning of life... I think the meaning of life is, I think it's love.

I think for me it was a natural transition to move full time into acting rather than figure skating.

I really didn't know who Dario [Argento] was. I didn't know who Harvey Keitel was. It was a wonderful experience, though.

I still have people coming up to me, and it was, what, six or seven years ago when that finale aired? And they tell me who they were watching with, what their emotional reaction was, and how they were devastated for weeks about [Rita's death in Dexter].

If you're offered something, you're not really sure exactly what is that they saw in you that they think is the character so it's a little scary, I feel.

Oh, well, in Los Angeles everybody is an actor, or a producer, or a writer, or a director, or an agent, or... So everybody understands the hours.

It's funny, I get really nervous when I audition for voiceovers.

There were a couple of years where I was skating and acting at the same time.

You really have to work hard and apply yourself and by applying yourself and working hard and being diligent, you can achieve success.

Um, and I'm also very proud of my work on George of the Jungle 2.

I only knew basic western trail riding. Nothing fancy.

I actually started, this year, doing some voiceovers. I did some radio spots, and some games.

During the rehearsal process I got thrown off the horse.

And I'm not very coordinated, either. Only on ice skates, not in real life.

Cause at the end of the day, honestly, at the end of the day when you're in your death bed and that's it, I think it's the relationships you've had and the people that you've touched and the people that have touched you that matter.

I think Sarah Michelle Gellar has done some brilliant work as Buffy.

[Dario Argento] would yell at you in Italian, and I'd have no idea what he was saying. I'd just go, "Okay!". But it was a really great experience [filming Two Evil Eyes ].

[John Larroquette] is one of the smartest men I've ever met. He's very cerebral and book-smart. He would say things and I'd have to go look them up, thinking, "That can't be true!" And they'd be true.

[John Larroquette] is very generous as the star of a show. He always made sure that if we had a joke that didn't work or something, he'd fight for the other actors.

I just don't think [Payne] was the right time to do it, maybe. It was timing, not so much that it was executed wrong.

I loved working on that show [Defiance]. I mean, that show was brutal. We worked long, brutal hours in really brutal weather.

Playing Amanda [in Defiance] was a wonderful opportunity for me. She was strong, dynamic, a complete badass, not defined her relationship with a man. She could hold her own. I really loved her.

The great thing about working on a genre show is that you can basically have a season finale where every character is left destroyed, and then hit the reset button and come back for the next season.

I'm fortunate that I've been an athlete, my whole life, and I work out like a crazy person.

I love doing action films that do challenge me physically. I feel it's my job to keep my stamina up and be as physically fit as possible, so that I can just jump in and do it. It takes its toll sometimes and it's hard work, but I love that.

I love being challenged physically, as an actress.

I've been an actor for 30 years, so I pretty much know how to do the basics of a fight without hurting anybody.

It's very exciting to have fan response and fan reaction.

I remember Gale Gordon was in the pilot [of Hi Honey, I'm Home], and it was one of my very first professional gigs without having an adult take me to the job.

We shot [Hi Honey, I'm Home] on location in Orlando, Florida, so I was there by myself. And I remember I was late one day, and Gale Gordon pulled me aside, and he said, "Honey, when it says you have to be here at 10 a.m., you need to be here at 9:30." And ever since, I've always been a half-hour early to my call time!

[Betty in Two Evil Eyes]was my very first on-camera role. With Harvey Keitel.

[Dario Argento] speaks very broken English - he's Italian, so I'm going to do a very bad Italian impersonation - but he asked me my name, and I told him, and he goes, "Walk across the room." He looked at me, and he said, "Do you want to be in my movie [Two Evil Eyes]?" I was, like, "Yeah! Yeah, I do!"He goes, "Okay! You play Betty!" And I was, like, "Oh, I'm playing an extra named Betty! Great!" So we walked out, thinking that I was playing an extra named Betty, no lines, just background.

I remember they did all the makeup tests on me for Darla... Sorry, for "the vampire." I was the test monkey for the vampire look, so I went through numerous variations of the prosthetics and camera tests before I actually got the job.

I remember reading an interview that Anthony Hopkins had given about how he developed Hannibal Lecter. He said he just looked in the mirror and, I forget exactly what it was, but he looked in the mirror and realized that when he smiled, it looked creepy.

I'd been doing comedy up that point and hadn't really done a lot of drama, and then all of a sudden he casts me as a 400-year-old vampire from hell. It was, like, "What?!"

[Joss Whedon and David Greenwalt] pushed me out of my comfort zone [in Buffy The Vampire Slayer ].

I love doing sitcoms and I love performing in front of a live audience, so [Payne] was a really fun experience.

I didn't tell anybody [had got a role at As Good As It Gets], because I was just going, "Well, that was the strangest audition..." And I just thought, "There's no way he gave me the job on the spot when there was a room full of other girls waiting to audition for it." But then I didn't hear anything for a couple of days, so I finally called my agents, and they're, like, "Oh, yeah, congratulations! We know Jim [L.Brooks] told you in the room that you got it."

So it's nice to know that Rita had that impact, and it was nice to end a character on a high note like that. But, again, in the moment... I always say, nobody was more devastated than me [from Rita's death in Dexter]!

I always say that No Ordinary Family was the show that should've been.

I went in for an audition [for As Good As It Gets], but the audition was with James L. Brooks. I was the first girl in that morning, and there was a whole waiting room of girls waiting to read for it. So I did my audition, and he asked me to step outside. So I stepped outside, and when he asked me to come back in, he looked at me, and he said, "Well, I'm very excited to work with you on set." And I was, like, "What?" I thought it was a Hollywood blow-off.

Darla [from Buffy The Vampire Slayer] was where I grew up. For me, Darla was like going to graduate school for acting. I learned so much with Joss Whedon and David Greenwalt. They encouraged us to make creative choices with our characters.

That was one of the reasons I took the role [of Mayor Amanda Rosewater in Defiance] - to be a part of something groundbreaking interested me.

I was sad when the show [Defiance] got canceled. It was heartbreaking for all of us involved. It was definitely a project that everyone involved poured their heart and soul into. But we had three good years, which is, you know, three more years than most shows get.

No one ever asks me about Breeze O'Rourke! I did the pilot for[Payne] right after Jawbreaker, or at least right around the same time, and it was an Americanized version of Fawlty Towers. That was the first time I worked with John Larroquette, and it was definitely not the last time.

I have so many people come up to me, 20-some years later, and saying, "I loved you in Jawbreaker!".

[Filming Payne] that was also the first time I worked with JoBeth Williams, which was also a case of not being the last time!

It was fun to play that surreal high school life [in Jawbreaker]. I was a huge fan of the movie Heathers. But I think at the time - you know, when the movie was released, it was a very limited release, and it didn't do very well at the box office. And I love the fact that it has found legs and that the audience has kept growing and growing over the years.

I was sad the show [Payne] only lasted one season. It was a big undertaking. It'd be fun to revisit, but it'll probably never happen.

I loved everything about that movie [Jawbreaker]. The fashion, the friendship amongst all of us girls... it was great. We had a blast filming it, and it was really wonderful. It was a very special time.