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bite back // scratch away

If the word Darla means nothing to you, skip ahead
2004-07-10 at 6:55 p.m.

Lalala! I just had a fantasmal Saturday. How was yours? Really? Cool. But mine was better. To me, at least.

I got to meet one of the bestest villains and plain characters from Angel (well, she was a villain on Buffy, but I hated her there, sorry Julie.)

Yes, that would be Julie Benz, aka, Darla! We went to a Dallas Comic Convention to see her, as well as a few other people.

The woman who played Deana Troi from StarTrek the Next Generation was there, and she was nice enough, I suppose. Also, the man who played Denothor from LotR (no I don't know how to spell the character's name. Lay off.) was there. He was British, and rather pleasant to be around.

The Lone Gunman from X-Files was also there, and he was the first person we ran into. Very charming, seemed like a funny guy. I wish we could have stayed to watch him perform his improv one-man X-Files episode. That would've been hilarious, I'm sure.

After mulling around for a bit, we decided to go snag a good seat for the Julie Benz Q&A, with her husband, John Kassir, who did the voice of the Cryptkeeper, amongst many other voice-overs.

We hadn't gotten any autographs yet at that point, because they were only letting people who had bought a special Speedpass in, so we thought we'd just beat the speedy people to front-row seats. So there. Pptthb. :P.

They were hilarious, and seemed real. Julie is kind of self-involved, but she isn't arrogant in the sense that she blows people off. She knows she has talent, and she knows she's pretty, but she seems to truly enjoy the experience of meeting people, and being at these events.

Her husband was a riot. Doing The Wizard of Oz in 5 minutes, and random other voices, like Gollum and the Cryptkeeper, as well as some others I can't really remember.

They've been together for 9 years, married 6, and they seem pretty happy together. Their relationship kind of shocked me at first, because, y'know, Darla? I would expect her to have quite the hunk of a hubby. But John Kassir is, in his own words, "nebbish."

He was funny, and she seemed to really enjoy watching him goof around as he told his stories. They joked around themselves a bit too.

They met in an acting class, and she threw a kegger for the end of the class party, and that's where they officially started going out.

One of her favorite moments from the show was dying of syphilis (spelling, again? It's summer, leave me alone.) She actually requested to have herpes sores on her face before the shoot. It was really funny to hear her talking about it.

She calls David Greenwalt "Greenie." Heh.

When asked about the pregnancy shots, Mom asked, and said that she looked HUGE in the first shot. John then threw in that, the reason was that they had to fit Vincent Kartheiser in the padding.

Heh. She said that they would stuff the suit and she'd come out, and the director would be all "Not pregnant enough!" And also, people had a tendency to punch it and mush it, because it was fun, so it would be all lumpy when they needed her in the shot again.

She also said that she'd constantly get stopped on the way from the set to her trailer by folks who were all "Aww, when are you due? My wife is due in so many months," etc., and they would look so disappointed when she told them it wasn't real.

So the directors made a sign for her that said "Not Really Pregnant," so people would leave her alone. Hee!

Somebody asked about the prosthetics, and at that point, she said that when she first got the vamp makeup, she'd go to the trailer and "Spend a lot of time in the mirror trying to-" but at that point she got cut off by John laughing and agreeing that she does.

Julie: I KNEW you were gonna say that! You have your own sink and mirror anyway! He does!

John: No, she uses those too. One for her stuff, and one for her.

They were great.

When they had to wrap things up, we all started applauding, and suddenly, a look of realization crossed her face and she asked us all to stop, motioning with her hands, and when the applause died down, she started talking again.

She took the time to deeply thank the people who were part of the Save Angel! campaign, those who sent emails, donated money, helped spread the word, just complained about the WB to their friends, all of it. She said that it touched everyone, the cast and crew, and that even though it fell on deaf ears, she said it meant a lot that the fans weren't letting it go without a roar.

She seemed to get truly emotional, and it was neat to hear her say that.

After that, they left, and Mom and I had to go to the restroom, so we went to one right outside the room, and as we waited to go, who should come out of a stall, but the girl herself?

Mom said: "She's human!" Julie laughed and was like, "Yeah, I pee too!" It was great. She talked about just getting back from Europe while I was waiting my turn, and talked to mom a little about playing Darla, then darted out into the hall.

And then was talking to dad and Stephanie. Heh. We kept her tied up for a while, I guess. She told us about her new movie coming up, kind of a human interest piece. Sounds interesting.

Then she went to go sign stuff.

We went and got Deana Troi's autograph, and Robert Picardo's, I think. Then we got in line for Julie and John's.

I should mention that Stephanie and John were hitting it off back in the hall. He kept saying she was giving him the Chucky face, and that was her new nickname.

Julie continued to be very nice when we got up to her, she took a picture with us, and called us the "Buffy Family," and was sweet to Stephanie.

Then we went to John's, and whoo boy. Stephanie got hers autographed very specially, and was determined to show it off to Julie.

When she saw us again, she laughed at the autograph, and got up to go "beat up" her husband. She went over and threw a few fake punches at him. It was hilarious.

Anyway, we ran around, met some more people, blah blah, then we went back and waited for Dad to go get his Billy Dee Williams autograph. At that point, Julie and John's booths weren't flocked with anybody standing there, so we went over and just started chatting with her.

She said that Stephanie has way too much personality for a 10 year old and should have her own TV show on Nickelodeon or something. She also noted that Stephanie was in love with her husband.

She laughed and said "Well, I have 8 years before I need to watch my back, but I get half! Since we live in California, so don't think you'll get everything!" It was great.

She was very nice and indulging to Stephanie, and overall came off very sweet. I realize she could have quite the temper, and turn on you, but from what we saw, she was polite and sweet to fans, and enjoyed the experience.

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