Juliet Landau has a notebook with her all times. The fan favorite of “Buffy the Vampire Slayer” and “Angel,” and Tim Burton’s “Ed Wood” never sits still. She has joined the cast of Amazon’s “Bosch.” Debuting its fifth season starting this Fri, Apr. 19, 2019, she plays the role of Rita Tedesco, a court reporter living with a secret.
Juliet also has also completed the highly anticipated project of hers called “A Place Among the Dead.” She directed and starred in the film that includes exciting cameos by Gary Oldman, Tim Burton, Joss Whedon, Willem Dafoe, Robert Patrick, Lance Henriksen and even Anne Rice! Catch up with this talented actress, writer, and director!
Colleen Bement: Let’s start off with chatting about your exciting recurring role as Rita Tedesco in season five of “Bosch.” Congrats, by the way! What are you allowed to tell us about playing a court reporter living with a secret?
Juliet Landau: Thank you! What I can tell you is that Rita is an extremely interesting role! She’s multi-faceted and is unlike any character I’ve played before. She’s living a dual life and hiding a huge part of who she is. I became completely obsessed and engrossed in researching the elements of her secret life, which I can’t share until after April 19th, when the season drops. The writing, as with seasons 1-4, is brilliant. I started viewing Rita initially from a distance, possibly even judging her, but the universal nature of her desires got under my skin.
My husband always jokes that when I do apart, he starts living with that character. I tend to get deeply involved. I’ve been known to talk in my sleep in character, which can be quite startling for him! It even happened with the Little Sisters, which I voiced in BioShock. That really made him jump! I loved inhabiting Rita and discovering her layers.
CB: I understand that you recently finished directing your visionary and personal film “A Place Among the Dead.” Audiences really want to hear the stories from filmmakers and actors involved in stories about vampires. What can you share about this super cool project?
JL: “A Place Among the Dead” is about the repercussions of growing up under the sway of narcissism and evil. It questions if you come from evil, will you continue to go toward the dark side in life, or can you make a change and go toward the light?
I star in the picture and we have a stellar cast of what I like to call, “cameos on steroids!” These include Gary Oldman, Ron Perlman, Robert Patrick, Lance Henriksen, my old boss from “Buffy” Joss Whedon and best-selling authors Anne Rice & Charlaine Harris, both appearing for the first time in a movie.
“A Place Among the Dead” takes the viewer on an emotional and extremely personal journey, and as they say, the more personal, the more universal. The goal is to start a discussion, a dialogue. We recently held in-house, sneak-peek screenings and the movie did just that! It struck a deep chord with our theater full of young people from the Midwest AND our theaters full of industry notables such as Rian Johnson (Star Wars: The Last Jedi), David Greenwalt (Grimm), Jim Kouf (National Treasure), Jodie Foster (Money Monster) and many more! Each time the entire audience, many who came out crying, stayed unprovoked for an hour and a half afterward to talk about the picture. They then began sharing intensely personal stories of their own. I’ve never experienced this kind of outpouring and exchange of personal histories at a film before! It’s been extraordinary!
As far as vampires, you’ll notice that each member of the cast has deep ties to the vampire genre. You are so right that audiences love stories about the undead. Right now in the cultural zeitgeist are Ridley Scott’s “The Passage” currently on Fox, “What We Do in the Shadows” on FX, Rob Thomas’ “Lost Boys” will be on the CW along with “Legacies,” “NOS4A2,” will be on AMC, Anne Rice’s “Vampire Chronicles” will be on Hulu, among others! We can’t seem to get vampires out of our blood… no pun intended!
CB: I know I’m not alone in saying I wish we could have seen a lot more of Drusilla in “Buffy the Vampire Slayer” and “Angel.” Your character had so much more depth that could have been explored. That said, I understand that you co-wrote two issues of the “Angel” comic book for IDW. Can fans expect more projects like this? Tell us about your project “Book of the Undead.”
JL: I loved playing Dru. She was spectacularly fun! She had a painful backstory, but everything Joss Whedon creates is laced with humor.
My husband, Deverill and I, are writing a companion coffee table book along with our next project, “The Undead Series” called Book of the Undead. Dev’s shooting the stills along with Gary Oldman, who’s shooting tintype portraits of many of our interviewees on his camera from 1853. I carry a notebook around with me at all times to jot down ideas for the chapters as they come to me.
CB: Can you tell us more about “The Undead Series” and your role in the film “Thallium’s Box.” Are you allowed to share anything about these?
JL: I’m currently cutting episode 1 of “The Undead Series.” Think of Jerry Seinfeld’s “Comedians in Cars Getting Coffee.” This is “Vampires in Coffins Getting Blood!” All of the people who are in “A Place Among the Undead” came back to work on the show. We also interviewed Tim Burton, Willem Dafoe, and 26 other brilliant people!
We’re in prelim talks with a few of the biggie distributors on the feature and the series. The interest and momentum are exciting, but what’s most important is meeting everyone to decide the right home for our babies!
I’m also about to shoot a starring role in an Indie “Thalliums’s Box” directed by William Malone. William directed “House on Haunted Hill” with Geoffrey Rush and “Feardotcom” with Stephen Rea. We’re developing the look of the make-up and costume design at the moment. We’ve been sending these very cool reference images back and forth. I’m already having a blast!
CB: I’m not sure how you ever find spare time with as fabulously busy as you are, but when you do, how do you like to spend it?
JL: Spare time? What do these words mean?! Joking aside, I love to spend time with my husband. We have collaborated on our feature, are collaborating on our series, our book and recently shot a cover for Make-up Artist Magazine, but sometimes it’s nice to spend time just as husband and wife.