I actually started, this year, doing some voiceovers. I did some... by Julie Benz

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

Julie Benz

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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.

badass strong opportunity

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

weather long mean

I really didn't know who Dario [Argento] was. I didn't know who Harvey Keitel was. It was a wonderful experience, though.

harvey knows wonderful

Working with Dario [Argento] was a lot of fun. He's a larger-than-life character, and with an Italian accent.

italian fun character

[Dario Argento] would yell at you in Italian, and I'd have no idea what he was saying. I'd just go, "Okay!". But it was a really great experience [filming Two Evil Eyes ].

italian eye ideas

[Two Evil Eyes] was shot in Pittsburgh, and that's where I was born and raised, so it was really nice to be a part of Pittsburgh film culture.

It's really interesting - I wanted to become an actress when I was young because I wanted to do romantic comedy. And I did a lot of comedies very early on, but then my career took kind of a left turn with Joss Whedon, and I discovered that doing genre work is actually more interesting as an actor, because the given circumstances are more extreme. And it really is creatively more challenging.

careers challenges interesting

I've had a career where I've bounced around a lot between different genres, and I feel very lucky and very blessed that that's happened to me.

careers different blessed

I love the fans of genre. Genre fans are the best fans. They're loyal, they're dedicated, and they're passionate about the projects. They get it on a cerebral level. Being a part of that culture and that world... It's very gratifying and very fulfilling.

passionate fans culture

That movie [Jawbreaker] was so much fun to shoot. We were all in our mid-20s at the time, playing high school students. Which was the point. It was the point of the film to hire older actors to play high school students. But we had a blast.

play fun school

It was fun to play that surreal high school life [in Jawbreaker]. I was a huge fan of the movie Heathers. But I think at the time - you know, when the movie was released, it was a very limited release, and it didn't do very well at the box office. And I love the fact that it has found legs and that the audience has kept growing and growing over the years.

fun school thinking

I have so many people come up to me, 20-some years later, and say... by Julie Benz

I have so many people come up to me, 20-some years later, and saying, "I loved you in Jawbreaker!".

i-loved-you people years

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.

timing right-time thinking

[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.

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

wonderful jobs thinking

[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.

great-experiences projects years

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.

No one ever asks me about Breeze O'Rourke! I did the pilot for[Payne] right after Jawbreaker, or at least right around the same time, and it was an Americanized version of Fawlty Towers. That was the first time I worked with John Larroquette, and it was definitely not the last time.

pilots lasts towers

The great thing about working on a genre show is that you can basically have a season finale where every character is left destroyed, and then hit the reset button and come back for the next season.

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