DEFIANCE - STARRY CONSTELLATION MAGAZINE: JULIE BENZ INTERVIEW
by: Jamie Steinberg
... Q) I have to ask how did you prepare physically, emotionally and spiritually to take on the role of Amanda?
Julie Benz: "Wow. Well physically, obviously, I mean, I always train hard but I trained even harder just because I figured living in post-apocalyptic Earth you have to - you're probably in really good shape just that with the hardships of how life is and how you don't have all the luxuries of what we're used to having. And also I wanted to have my endurance up for the long shooting hours that were required of us and some of the action sequences as well.
Emotionally, it was more for me about finding her strength in an inspiring way. So it was more me focusing on trying to find power within the quiet moments. The way I work as an actor, it's very organic and I sit down, I talk, I spend a lot of time talking with the writers and the creatives about the world that's being created, the story that they want to tell. And then I get inspired through that and certain things really resonate with me that they say and then I can take those little bits of inspiration and blossom them into more. So for me it's just a lot of time really thinking about the character and spending time alone just thinking over Amanda's life and what she's been through and where she's going and this world that she's living in because you can't really research the future.
It's not like I can go out and read a history book about what happens in the future because there is none. So the world only exists in the minds of the creatives. So it's really just picking their brains as if they are a history book and figuring out what that is that they're trying - the story they're trying to tell. So it was emotionally, physically and spiritually. I guess that's the same answer as emotionally. I didn't really say that I could do this, that I could play the mayor because I tend to still think of myself as a 20-year-old girl that doesn't know what she's doing. I have to remind myself that I'm not, that I'm actually 40 and I could be mayor if I wanted to..."
Defiance cast includes Tony Curran, Jaime Murray, Julie Benz, Mia Kirshner, Grant Bowler, Stephanie Leonidas and Graham Greene.
CLICK HERE TO VIEW THE EPISODE TRAILER FOR 'DOWN IN THE GROUND WHERE THE DEAD MEN GO' AIRING MONDAY, APRIL 22, 2013 AT 9/8C ON SYFY.
