Julie Benz's call to action
THE SUNDAY CONVERSATION
The actress follows her role as a serial killer's girlfriend in 'Dexter' with Stallone's 'Rambo' return.
JULIE BENZ was at the Four Seasons in "a very chi-chi room" for the "Rambo" press junket; in the new Sylvester Stallone film she plays a captured missionary in Burma. She costars as the girlfriend of a very troubled guy on "Dexter" and played the vampire Darla on "Buffy" and "Angel."
So what inspired you to sign on for this arty biopic of French poet Jean Rimbaud?
[Laughs]
Oooh-kay. That's not even a good joke. Hey, so, I've read various accounts of the set, but it sounds intense!
We were on location in the jungles of Thailand, battling extreme heat and bugs larger than birds. Dangerous locations. It was a tough movie to shoot.
There are body parts everywhere in that movie!
Yes.
It's bloody -- and it's a bloody part of the world.
What I think Sly did as a director is he wanted to place the movie in something that's really going on in the world: the longest civil war in the world, the most underreported war in the world. And also a lot of the violence you see in the movie is nothing compared to the atrocities going on in Burma. It's more violent than what he's doing. But it is an action movie, it is entertaining, a roller-coaster ride. But there's a great social message to it too.
That was really thoughtful.
When you look at the "Rambo" franchise, all the [movies] operate on a deeper level than they appear to be on the surface. It's an onion! You see all these issues that come up. You see that in "First Blood," that movie especially. But in our movie, first it's an action movie, then you have the situation in Burma, and underneath that you have: Is it right to have missionaries go in? Who's responsible at the end of the day? There is no clear hero.
There's a lot of blood in your work.
A lot of blood and a lot of dangerous men.
That's weird.
You know, everyone goes through phases.
So you met Ann B. Davis of "Brady Bunch" fame while doing the ABC sitcom "Hi Honey, I'm Home" in the early '90s!
Yes!
That's a piece of TV history.
A lot of pieces -- "Grandpa Munster" Al Lewis, Gale Gordon, Ann B. Davis -- very iconic television characters. That was my very first job. It was great.
That's like a bridge to the past.
That was an experiment to see if I could be an actress; I wasn't sure. It got me where I am today.
