Julie Benz

Actress Julie Benz is having a busy year. Besides co-starring as Rita, the innocent mother-of-two love interest of the serial killer hero of Showtime’s DEXTER, she’s appearing opposite Sylvester Stallone on the big screen in the new actioner JOHN RAMBO and is once again out on DVD as the memorable vampire Vampire Darla (the role she originated on BUFFY THE VAMPIRE SLAYER) in the complete ANGEL DVD set of all five seasons from 20th Century Fox Home Entertainment.

Benz recently took time out of her full schedule to give iF MAGAZINE this exclusive interview.

iF MAGAZINE: Did you think DEXTER would go into a second season?

JULIE BENZ: I thought so, because I’m a fan of the show. It’s the kind of programming I enjoy watching, the kind that challenges you to think and ask questions. So yeah, I definitely thought it would go into a second season. Plus, I think it’s great. I think Michael [C. Hall, who plays Dexter] is amazing in it and the writing’s amazing. Showtime’s a really great network, too – they’re very supportive of the shows that they produce and they really give their shows a chance.

iF: Is there irony in the fact that, now that Rita’s a little bit stronger this season, that strength is possibly endangering her relationship with Dexter?

BENZ: It could be. It could.

iF: How has it been working with JoBeth Williams, who plays Rita’s mother?

BENZ: We had done a series together a couple of years ago, so I was very excited when they came to me and said they were going to be hiring her to play my mom, because she’s just really phenomenal.

iF: Do you enjoy playing a daughter?

BENZ: Yes. I also enjoy playing a mother, so it’s nice to play both. I am a daughter in real life, so I have a lot to draw from [laughs].

iF: Between seasons of DEXTER, you made JOHN RAMBO in Sylvester Stallone’s latest sequel. Do you play the love interest, or …

BENZ: No, it’s not the love interest, it’s more or a spiritual kind of saving that goes on between my character and Rambo’s character. I play a woman named Sarah, who’s a missionary, and we hire Rambo to take us into Burma to bring supplies to the Karen tribes. I don’t know if you know this, but Burma is actually having the longest-running form of genocide in the world, and it’s the most under-reported war. It’s a very serious issue in Burma. So we go in there to bring supplies to the people who are being persecuted by the Burmese government, and we end up getting kidnapped by them. And these are horrible, horrible people who rape and torture and pillage and the horrors that go on there are. And there’s not a lot of reporting going on [about the situation]. So anyway, we go in there and we end up getting kidnapped by the Burmese and Rambo comes back in to save us. Here I am, playing a woman of faith, who believes in humanity, pure goodness, and here he is, a man who’s been let down by humanity, who’s pretty much a shell of a man, who has no faith, and while he’s saving my life, in a way, I help save him spiritually. But it’s not a love interest. It’s deeper than that.

iF: Had you played this sort of part before? Well, yes, you did – you played a woman of faith on SUPERNATURAL.

BENZ: But never to this extent.

iF: How was doing SUPERNATURAL?

BENZ: Oh, it was a lot of fun. Those boys are adorable [laughs]. It was great. It was the rainiest week I think, in Vancouver. We were out in the mud field. It was brutal shooting, but it was fun to work on.

iF: Is it tougher to play somebody who’s very sure of herself, as opposed to someone who’s more conflicted?

BENZ: I don’t know. Both have challenges. I think it’s challenging to make both characters full and believable. If you play somebody who’s too damaged – if you see a character like Rita and you play her too damaged, then the audience is going to be unsympathetic towards her. It’s finding that balance, really. And it’s the same if you play a character that’s very strong – you still have to find the humanity– what is their Achilles’ heel? What is their flaw?

iF: Did you have a favorite scene as Rita last year?

BENZ: I had a couple. I loved when she dressed up as Lara Croft and gave Dexter a blow job [laughs]. That was her first big sexual awakening, and it was such a fun scene to play and it’s the first time you really saw a little bit of her strength and her playfulness, and it was so nice to do after playing so much of this vulnerable, beaten-down woman, to have this fun moment with Dexter. I also love the scene towards the end where she confronts Paul [Rita’s abusive ex-husband] in prison and basically lays it on the line from a place of great strength, where she finally just tells him how it’s going to be and how he needs to explain to the kids why he’s in prison.

iF: Anything else you’d like to say?

BENZ: Just watch the show!