Top 89 Quotes & Sayings by Julie Benz

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

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

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.

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

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

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

When I first started I was always known as The Girl on the Sitcom with the Funny Voice.

Everyone else trains just as hard as well and that there really is no such a thing as overnight success.

I would love to re-visit Darla. I miss her. I really do.

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 really take pride in the relationship that I have with my husband.

During the rehearsal process I got thrown off the horse.

I trained 8 hours a day 7 seven days a week and I had 2 weeks off in a year.

You don't realize how much a part of your character is part of yourself until you are no longer playing that character.

That's a hard question, because I started skating when I was three, so I don't really remember life before it, and I don't know what it is like not to work hard at something.

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

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

I only knew basic western trail riding. Nothing fancy.

I loved playing Darla.

To us marriage is first, everything else is second.

I don't think as big and as creative as Joss.

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

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

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.

But I never worked with a northern horse before. They are very different from western horses.

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

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]!

[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 had to do some emergency cram sessions with the dialogue coach on set [of the Punisher: War Zone]. But it was fun, because every actor on that movie had to do an accent, so we were all talking the whole time in our accents.

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.

I worked so hard on that role [of Debra in Dexter]. And I barely worked on Rita. But I read for casting - both parts - and they said, "That's great, we're going to bring you in for producers." So I read for some producers - both parts - and they said, "That's great, we're going to bring you in to meet the creator." And I went in, and as soon as I walked in the room, he looked at me and he said, "Oh my god, you're our Rita!" And I said, "No! I'm Deb! I'm a total Deb!" "No, you're Rita!".

[ Angel series] really taught me that acting is not just about being emotionally challenged. It's about being physically challenged. And I enjoyed both aspects of that.

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.

Having just read the script [Havenhurst] and then add having seen a ghost, I went to Andrew [Erin], and I was, like, "Okay, I have to do this movie. I just have to! I don't know why, but I just have to do it." And I ended up getting the role.

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

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 think [John Larroquette] did a great job. I really do. And he's so wonderful and generous to work with.

Darla [from Buffy The Vampire Slayer] wasn't Darla in the beginning, by the way. Darla was just Vampire Girl #1. But I just started adding a little bit of glee and joy into everything she did and just relied on the fact that the prosthetic does the work. And then I didn't have to be scary. The prosthetic was scary enough. I just had to smile and show off Darla's really great dental work.

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.

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.

When they took me to do the camera test for the vampire make up, after they put the prosthetic on, I went though the entire process, I went back to my trailer and I looked in the mirror and I smiled.

I originally read for the roles of Debra and Rita [in Dexter], because they didn't know what direction they were going in, and I worked so hard on Deb, because I just wanted to swear. I wanted to say all those nasty words. That was it: "I want to swear on television!".

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

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 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 had the prosthetics on, and I went to my trailer, I looked in the mirror, and I smiled. And I was, like, "This is the character - everything she does is with a smile and a bit of glee and joy." And that's how I created Darla [from Buffy The Vampire Slayer]. Prior to that, I was, like, "I have no idea how to play this 400-year-old vampire from hell!".

It's a moment that I will be asked about for the rest of my life as an actor, and I carry that moment with pride, that Rita [in Dexter] had such an impact and that it was such a gut-wrenching moment for audience members.

As an actor, it made me realize a really important lesson. I didn't have to put any spin on the ball as Rita [in Dexter]. All I had to do was speak. And there was such simplicity in that as an actor. With Debra, I was trying to put a square peg into a round hole, and it just didn't work, but in my mind, because I had to work so hard on it, I was, like, "Oh, this is acting!" But that's not acting.

I'd always thought that acting was, like, you had to work really hard, you had to change the way you walked, you talked, and all of that. But that's not acting. That's shmacting.

I didn't really know who [Dario Argento] was at the time. I know him now, obviously. But I went in to be an extra on the movie [Two Evil Eyes], and he saw me sitting out waiting to meet the casting director, and he pulled my mother and I into a separate conference room.

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

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?!"

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.

When I first auditioned for Dexter... Well, I was sent the script, and I read it and loved it, and I knew right away that it was going to be a hit because it's the type of programming that I like to watch. It's that very morally ambiguous thing where you find yourself rooting for someone who's really an awful person, but... is he doing good? You're constantly calling into question your own moral code. I love that as an audience member.

[Payne] was a really great experience, and both John [ Larroquette] and JoBeth [Williams] over the years, it's been great reconnecting with them and working with them on other projects as well.

I got cast in [Punisher: War Zone] and showed up in Montreal two days before the film started, and they said, "We need you to do a New York accent." And I was, like, "What?! Why didn't you tell me this, oh, I don't know, two weeks ago, when you cast me?".

The hardest thing to do as an actor is to be simplistic, and to just be.

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."

[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.

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