Even thought her accent is strictly Californian, it takes a few minutes to get used to speaking with Juliet Landau. She inhabits Drusilla so completely on Buffy that at first, you’re not sure whether to just say hello or offer her a newborn kitten to drain so she’ll be less hungry during the interview.

Vampire visions soon turn to dust in favor of a living, breathing actress whose passion and devotion to her craft is intense. It stands to reason; being the daughter of Martin Landau and Barbara Bain, Juliet was born with acting in her genes. And though she chose to begin her show business career in dance, she now embraces acting like Drusilla does her doll—at least when Miss Edith isn’t being a bad dolly.

“I think the thing that I learned which has been really great for me is a real respect for the work, and a real passion for the work,” she says. “Both of my parents are really passionate about the work and then process, and that sort of thing. I think I’ve really gained that appreciation.”

It was a supporting role in Tim Burton’s 1994 biopic Ed Wood that drew the attention of Joss Whedon and led to Landau's reading for the part of Drusilla. During their first meeting for the role, Landau immediately launched into one of Drusilla’s famous delusional fits, crystallizing the character for the producers. Since then, her vampiric alter ego has recovered from a defeat in Prague and ultimately left her lover Spike in a heartbroken stupor.

But that’s just the half of Landau’s recent on-screen adventures. She’s also portrayed a pregnant woman whose baby is stolen on an episode of Millennium, a spunky mourner in the black comedy Carlo’s Wake and two separate roles in one marathon appearance on La Femme Nikita. As you’ll soon find out, we’re not the only ones often surprised by how completely Landau becomes her characters. When you’ve got bellboys helping you move carts because you’re wearing a pregnancy harness, and British crew asking you where in England you’re from on the Buffy set, there’s a little more than just brilliant acting going on. It’s method madness.

Buffy the Magazine: You began your career as a dancer, so how did you make the transition to acting?
Juliet Landau: I was dancing professionally for about four and a half years, and I didn’t think I’d ever be an actress. Then I started taking acting classes and absolutely loved it. I started doing a tremendous amount of theater and I got great notices. Then I got Ed Wood, and from there, I kept getting more work.

BTM: How did you get started on Buffy?
JL: Joss [Whedon] had seen my work on Ed Wood, and he basically called me in for a meeting, and [former casting director] Marcia Schulman and the producers were there. It was just an incredibly wonderful creative meeting. I had read a little bit about the character description of what they were looking for, just a couple pages. At the meeting, I didn’t actually read, but I started to do a little bit of what I thought Drusilla should be. They had said that the actress should be English or American, and I was like, ‘She should be like this, she should be Cockney, she should be like this.’ We started bouncing ideas off of each other, and it was just so much fun. Basically I left, and within a half-hour I got a call that they wanted me to do it.

BTM: You auditioned with James Marsters as well.
JL: What happened is that I was set, and they paired me with the three final choices for Spike. James cam e in and he was absolutely awesome. Right away it was really cool, because we just worked off of each other really well.

BTM: So you liked working with him from the start?
JL: I love working with James. He’s great. Everybody on the show is just great to work with. It’s a really talented group of people, so it’s been nice to be a part of it.

BTM: What were the other Spikes like? The ones that didn’t make it?
JL: They were just different. The ting that was so neat about James was that first off, he came in thinking the character was Southern. Immediately, they said that they were looking for something more British. Joss said that to James, and he switched gears, and the Spike that we know started to emerge. It was really neat.

BTM: Which of the episodes that you’ve done so far is your favorite?
JL: Drusilla is such a fun part. It’s such a rich character, there’s so much dimension for her that every episode is like a little gem for me. I like the "Surprise" episode, which is when I get my strength back. It’s sort of my coming out party, and we assemble the Judge, that big blue character. I liked that episode because it was just really fun; after having six episodes of being weak and fragile, to emerge as a powerful character was a lot of fun.

BTM: What can you tell us about Drusilla’s direction next season? Will she be back on Buffy or Angel or both?
JL: I don’t know. Joss is so protective and secretive about the plot lines. I don’t have a really big clue as to what the direction is at this point.

BTM: Whom did you hang out with on the set when you were waiting between takes?
JL: Actually, everybody. A lot of the days, James and I were working, because we’d be scheduled with our stuff back-to-back. We’d hang out, and what’s really nice about that is that we’d work on the next scene that was coming up. But when I was working with David [Boreanaz] or Nick [Brendon], we’d hang out. They’re totally cool, and everybody’s really fun. It was really nice in that way.

BTM: Tell us about the two movies that you’ve recently completed filming, Carlo’s Wake and Citizens of Perpetual Indulgence.
JL: Carlo’s Wake is a really cool film--Rita Moreno plays my mom in it, and it’s about a dysfunctional New York Italian family. [Adopts Brooklyn accent] So I was tawkin’ like dis for da two months dat we were shootin’, which was great—very different from Drusilla. It’s a very black comedy, but it’s very touching as well as being very funny. People can really relate. We had a big screening at Paramount, and everybody came up and was like, ‘Oh my God! It’s just like my family!’ It’s an interesting character, because it’s really different than anything I’ve done. She’s vulnerable, but she’s also feisty; she’s got a feisty side to her. Then Citizens of Perpetual Indulgence is also really interesting. It’s sort of an underground film that Alex Monty is directing.

BTM: What are the release plans for these movies?
JL: They’re not out yet. I think they will sell Carlo’s Wake, because it’s really terrific and the actors are all so good. Rita's just amazing. They all are planning release, but we’ll see when that happens.

BTM: You’ve also appeared on an episode of Millennium.
JL: Yeah, I just finished a bunch of guest spots. On Millennium, I played a woman who’s nine months pregnant, and I get kidnapped by terrorists. They do all these terrible things—they blindfold me and bind my hands and feet, and then they induce labor. It was very nightmarish; they hold me in a pool of water and take my baby from me as I’m giving birth. They don’t even let me touch him.

BTM: That sounds intense.
JL: It was intense. [Laughs] Then I also did an episode of La Femme Nikita. It was very interesting because I played two characters in the one episode. I first play this character Jan, who’s a very sexy, fiery terrorist. Then I get killed, and I play this other character who’s very fragile and has leukemia. She’s afraid of people, and basically the government wants me to infiltrate and pretend to be the other character.

BTM: It sounds like a juicy episode.
JL: It was so great. What happens is that Nikita thinks they actually gave me the illness so that I would go ahead and take the assignment. Then if that’s the case, they have the cure for it; they have the antidote. She thinks that the whole time through, and it turns out at the end that it’s not true, and I’m going to die.

BTM: All in one episode.
JL: All in one episode. I know—it was amazing. When I watched it again, I was like, “Wow, we shot that in six days!” But it was really cool, because as the one character I have a black little bob wig on, and all the wardrobe is this black leather kind of stuff. Then the other character is the exact opposite of that.

BTM: Was it a challenge to play a pregnant woman?
JL: No, actually. What was funny, though, is that I got in a bit early and they let me take the pregnancy pad back to my hotel room so that I could work with it and get used to it. I always do a lot of different research stuff for any part, so I had watched quite a few birthing videos and talked to my friend who was pregnant. I told her that she wasn’t gonna watch the episode, because she’s still gonna be pregnant and it’s really scary. Basically, I wore it in my hotel room. It was very funny, because when I ordered room service the first night, I was wearing it. The guy came up and he was going, “Oh, no, no, no—I’ll get that for you.” [Laughs] I was like, I must be doing this pretty well.

BTM: Did you get to keep it and take advantage of the fringe benefits of pregnancy?
JL: I have to tell you—I was so happy to get out of it by the end of the day. I was asking my friend if it was really like that, with the weight of it and everything. It was not the most pleasant sensation. [Laughs] It didn’t make me want to run out right away and get pregnant. She said it’s a little different when there’s a live baby in there.

BTM: Not many women get a chance to try that out first.
JL: Yes. And I was huge—this pad was enormous. The funny part about it is that from having been a dancer, I’m usually fairly agile, especially for off-camera stuff. I was so not used to this big protruding belly—I was hitting into the camera operator. It was just ridiculous. Finally, I was like, ‘I’m used to this now. I’m used to being about three times bigger towards the front than usual.’

BTM: What do you enjoy doing when you’re not acting?
JL: Um…let’s see. I do go to dance class still, and I work out avidly, so I’m always really physical. I love reading. I’m pretty much a workaholic, so when I’m not working, I go to acting class and I’m always working on stuff, because I need to keep creatively doing stuff.

BTM: What kind of projects will you be working on in the coming months?
JL: Well, there’s one movie I’ve gotten three callbacks on that I’m waiting to hear about. It’s a really terrific role, so I hope that happens.

BTM: It sounds like you’ve had a lot of great parts.
JL: Yeah. It’s so nice. I read the Nikita script, and I was like, this part is an actor’s dream. You get to do everything.

BTM: But Spike and Dru are still on the rocks?
JL: I don’t know. I know that as we were left, I was off somewhere and James was pining away.

BTM: He seemed to be in pretty bad shape…and drunk out of his mind, too.
JL: I know. It was so sweet. He was missing us nibbling on people’s necks and all that sort of thing. I thought that writing was great.

BTM: Do you get into the character’s back-story a lot when you’re preparing?
JL: Once I got the role, we had a meeting where Joss gave me the whole vampire lore for Buffy. He filled me in on some of the things like you can’t enter a house unless you’re invited in, and also he gave me the back story, so that I knew right from the beginning that Angel was the one who had made me into a vampire, which was tremendously helpful to know in terms of the relationship, and that Spike and I had been together for 200 years. [Laughs] We determined that we had to be very comfortable with each other, because that’s a long relationship.

BTM: Yeah. That’s like a human marriage times four…or maybe forty.
JL: Exactly. If you’re lucky with the human marriage.