Biography

Juliet Landau was born March 30, 1965, to acting veterans Barbara Bain and Martin Landau, both of whom starred in the 60s series of Mission: Impossible.

Juliet was raised amidst Hollywood's elite in Southern California, before her family moved to London, England, for four years where Juliet studied both acting and classical ballet at the American School in London. She made her living as a ballerina for five years before settling back into the California sunshine to devote herself full time to acting.

Becoming a member of the Actor's Studio, Juliet paid her dues with parts on television. Her film debut came in 1990 as a young Angelica Houston in the dark comedy, The Grifters. Following this film, Juliet gained small roles in such minor movies as Direct Hit and Neon City before getting the opportunity to work opposite her father in Tim Burton's film Ed Wood. Martin Landau won an Academy Award for his part in the movie, but Juliet caught the eye of critics with her role as Loretta King.

Joss Whedon, creator of Buffy The Vampire Slayer, had seen Juliet's work on Ed Wood and asked her to come in for a meeting, as Whedon had Juliet in mind to play the insane vampiress Drusilla, a character which he had been playing around in his head for quite some time.

Extract from issue 7 of the British magazine Buffy The Vampire Slayer:

Joss [Whedon] had see 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 of the character description of what they were looking for, just a couple of 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 each other, and it was just so much fun. Basically I left, and within a half-hour I got the call that they wanted me to do it.

Three Spike-wannabes were auditioned with Juliet, one of which was James Marsters. Juliet says that there was just an instant trust between her and Marsters, which greatly added to their on-screen chemistry and the popularity of the characters.

Juliet has a love of books and reading. She feels that the moment in Buffy that most defined the character of Drusilla was where Spike & Drusilla's heads turned towards the camera in 'School Hard' (also, my all-time favourite screenshot). That shot evolved naturally in auditions and was then used on the show. Another thing that evolved from Juliet was Drusilla's whimper, used in such episodes as 'Lie To Me' and 'What's My Line, Part 1', and the so-called 'bunny dance', which is where Drusilla hops up and down with her arms held out at angles.

Having played Drusilla for twelve episodes of the second season of Buffy The Vampire Slayer, Juliet went looking to expand her movie career, and was subsequently unavailable when Joss Whedon wanted to bring Spike and Drusilla back for one episode in the third season of Buffy. Instead, Spike was brought back by himself. James Marster's portrayal in that episode made Joss Whedon realize what a fun character Spike was, and that it would be desirable to bring Spike back again.

Drusilla did eventually make her return to the world of Joss Whedon, but this time it was on the spin-off series of Buffy, Angel. Juliet Landau shot a few scenes with David Boreanaz and Julie Benz set in the past to set the scene for Drusilla's reappearence for all those fans of the new show who where unaware of Drusilla and Angel's history. Finally, in the episode 'The Trial', Drusilla made her reappearance to the present, bringing a very powerful performance with her.

Juliet Landau currently resides in Los Angeles.