Angel

 Julie Benz was sinking her teeth into it - and no, it wasn’t a neck.

Benz, known for playing the vampire Darla since the first "Buffy the Vampire Slayer" episode, was catching popcorn with her mouth as fellow "Buffy" actors threw it in the air.

The cast was laughing, and "we were having so much fun," Benz said.

The good times preceded what could well be her final appearance as Darla Wednesday (May 5) on "Angel." The "Buffy" spinoff is now in its final episodes before getting staked by The WB, and after that, for that first time in eight years, no new episodes will be produced in the Buffy universe.

On Wednesday, Benz’s Darla and the psychic/psychotic vampire Drusilla (Juliet Landau) return in flashback scenes as Angel (David Boreanaz) and Spike (James Marsters) recalled their earlier days in Italy, long before the male vampires got their souls. Angel and Spike are going to Rome Wednesday to save Buffy.

But viewers won’t see Buffy; Sarah Michelle Gellar, who played the vampire slayer, isn’t in the episode.

Benz declined to give away the episode’s details, but did talk about her previous adventures on "Buffy" and "Angel."

"She’s a misunderstood woman," Benz said about Darla.

She said she liked the complexity of the evil one’s relationship with Angel. "There are so many layers to that relationship; they’re mother and son."

Darla was the one who turned Angel into a vampire; 200 or so years later, Angel, now a good vampire with a soul, staked her on "Buffy." But on "Angel," the evil law firm of Wolfram & Hart raised her from the dead, as a human with a soul, to tempt Angel and lead him back to evil. She regained her humanity, only to lose it again when Drusilla turned Darla back into a vampire.

The story evolved further when, against all known laws of science, Darla became pregnant with Angel’s son. She gained some of the effects of the soul of Angel’s son and in the process became good. But fearing she would kill her son once she gave birth and became soulless again, Darla staked herself.

Talk about complex.

"It was the first time she had ever experienced love for someone else in 400 years. It was the first time she had experienced love for someone else, not the obsessive love she had for Angel; it was unconditional love," Benz said.

Benz said she realized her "Angel" days were numbered when Drusilla made Darla a vampire. "When you’re a vampire on the show, you know you’re going to die."

But the writers surprised her, and fans, with the pregnancy.

"Ninety percent of my job on the show was done by the writing; what they wrote was amazing," Benz said.

And she praised Joss Whedon, the "Buffy" creator and "Angel" co-creator.

"If you look back at the shows, all the female characters are extremely different and extremely strong. He has changed the face of how women are portrayed."

The 32-year-old Pittsburgh native said she doesn’t understand why The WB is canceling "Angel." She added she still finds the support from fans amazing. For example, viewers raised $30,000 to buy a Variety ad supporting the show. (www.savingangel.org)

Benz said she hopes Wednesday night won’t be her last bite as the vampire.

"If there’s ever an ’Angel’ movie, I would love to play Darla again," Benz said.

But Benz noted that after all these years being evil, she enjoyed being in the sunlight as a good person, dressage equestrian Annie Garrett, in the Hallmark Channel movie, "The Long Shot," which aired in April.

Before she became an actress, Benz was a professional skater. But after a bad stress fracture, she took time off from skating, and by 1989, with that career over, she turned to acting. In 1991, she played Babs Nielsen on the Nick-at-Nite sitcom about a 1950s TV sitcom family relocated to our time, "Hi, Honey, I’m Home." And her other early roles were guest spots on such shows as "Married ...with Children."

In 1997, she auditioned for the title role of "Buffy the Vampire Slayer," but that went to Gellar. Instead, Benz played a vampire in the unaired pilot and the first episode, and that role grew into the longtime character of Darla.