The Buzz - BuzzWorthy Radio

DEXTER's JULIE BENZ!

Julie Benz, who has played the role of Rita on Showtime's Original Series, "Dexter," for the past 4 seasons, will be coming back to BuzzWorthy Radio!

In one of the most talked about seasons and its finale, DEXTER did not disappoint. Hear Julie speak about her final days on the set, how it came into light about her character, and where will she go from here on out.

Duration:: 30m
Broadcast on:: 19 Dec 2009
Audio Format:: other

Welcome to Pro Tips for the Pros brought to you by Florin Decor-Littleton. In this series, we'll explore essential advice for professional contractors to deliver outstanding renovation results. Let's dive in. Keep the work area clean and organized throughout the renovation process to create a positive impression and minimize stress for the customer. Regularly clean up debris and dust to maintain a safe and comfortable living environment. Thank you for joining us for this Pro Tip on planning thorough renovation. Stay tuned for more expert advice brought to you by Florin Decor-Littleton. A lot of people tolerate ordinary. Ordinary bathrooms, kitchens, entryways. Well, not on your watch. If you're a pro, you've got a new partner in town. Florin Decor. From tile to wood to stone. Florin Decor has more styles and job-locked quantities of Schluter, Mape, Laedicrete and other brands Pro's trust. Come see a whole new way to wow with Florin Decor. Now open in Littleton. Welcome to Pro Tips for the Pro's brought to you by Florin Decor-Littleton. In this series, we'll explore essential advice for professional contractors to deliver outstanding renovation results. Let's dive in. Prioritize quality craftsmanship and materials to deliver results that exceed the customer's expectations. Attention to detail and superior workmanship, we'll leave a lasting impression and ensure customer satisfaction. Thank you for joining us for this pro tip on planning thorough renovation. Stay tuned for more expert advice brought to you by Florin Decor-Littleton. A lot of people tolerate ordinary. Ordinary bathrooms, kitchens, entryways. Well, not on your watch. If you're a pro, you've got a new partner in town. Florin Decor. From tile to wood to stone. Florin Decor has more styles and job-locked quantities of Schluter, Mape, Laedicrete and other brands Pro's trust. Come see a whole new way to wow with Florin Decor. Now open in Littleton. Lock-toe radio. Come get you live. It is Buzzworthy Radio. But you can get the latest buzz. I know your favorite shows and stars. Buzzworthy, smart. Now. Hey, this is Michael Grazier. You're listening to Buzzworthy Radio. And if you're not, you should be. Everybody, what is going on? And welcome to Buzzworthy Radio. This show that gives you everything that is entertainment. I'm Nabelle J. Lee. Coming to you live this Friday night, December 18, 2009. You're 9 p.m. Eastern Time, 6 p.m. Pacific Coast time here on Blobtop Radio.com. If you're in the area where I'm located at in Southern Jersey, you all know that we have a storm watch that's in effect for tomorrow. Apparently, we're supposed to get 14 inches, 14 inches of snow tomorrow. Yeah, did you go out and buy all of your stuff? Did you buy all your supplies? Did you buy all your bread? Did you buy all your bread people? Because if you didn't, now's not the time to do that because now you have to listen to this show right here because we are going to have on the fantastic Julie Bens, ladies and gentlemen. Julie Bens is joining us. She's played Rita for four spectacular seasons on Dexter. And I have to tell you, if you watch the finale on Sunday and I know a lot of you people were just like me. You were in for the shock of your lives at the end of that show there on Sunday. It was tough, but, you know, even talking about it, it gets me a little bit choked up. But I got to tell you, it was just, it was still an amazing finale. Nonetheless, even what happened. So here she is right now. Julie Bens, everybody. How are you? I'm good, how are you? I'm good, I'm good. I saw you called in like a few minutes ago and we got disconnected and I was like, oh gosh, we come back. Oh, I was so confused because it says like a whole, like, and have you heard the voice on here? It's like all different. Oh, yeah. The English woman's voice that everybody's annoying with. Yeah. She says there's a block talk right here or something. I was like, oh, and who am I talking to? I think this isn't that worthy. Oh, that's too funny. Yeah, it's just like, oh, if you just get passed, I've worked just for one, then you won't have to hear. Well, feel pure in mind. All right. Well, now I know because I think I called your cell phone too. So. Oh, you did. Oh, I didn't hear it. Oh, well. I do. But you're here now, but that's good. But you're good. Yay. Yay. So as I was saying before, you actually got here how utterly shocked and how sad I was with the finale on Sunday. And again, you guys do not watch on Sunday. Do not listen because we will spoil you with what we're about to talk about right now. So. Yeah, turn the radio off. Turn it off. Don't listen. Turn it off until after you watched it. If you do not watch the finale. But yes, I was very, very taken aback. It was very shocked. It was very sad. What happened with the character Rita that you, your character was lost on the show. Yes, you know, it was definitely crushing things. Yeah, I think, you know, it definitely had huge impact on fans and viewers. I mean, I think it was overwhelming to me to see the impact in the response. I wasn't expecting it to be as strong as it's been. And I think the reason why is, you know, Rita, she's such the innocent in the show. I mean, she's kind of the, you should not involved in the crime stuff. You know, the world's have never really collided in that way before. And so to have it collide for the first time and be this, like, major collision where she ends up dead was. Stocking everybody. Oh, absolutely. Absolutely. You know, not everybody knowing that is and then finally seeing it happen on, on the air on Sunday. It just basically was like, whoa, what just happened here? Wow. And I've gotten so many email responses when they heard you were coming on. They pretty much everybody came out in unison and showed so much support for your character. It was undeniable, undeniable that they were in love with the character. And the various said that this happened. And one of the major, major questions that we definitely got, I did check out the TV guide interview that you did. Yes. It definitely answered a lot of my questions as well. But for those of you who have not picked up this issue, we might delve into a little bit of that as well. How long did you know that this was to happen with your character? That you were going to try not killing you off? Because I heard when I read that, there was like two different scenarios I read apparently that the producers didn't know early on in the season that they were going to do this. But then you also heard that John Lithgow knew about it. Sorry, I read that, right? Yeah. I don't know when the decision was made. I didn't find out until right towards the end of shooting episode 11 when they were releasing a script for episode 12. I was called in for a meeting and that's when I found out. Now, you know, there's always rumors and stories about when they knew. And, you know, I've been told from the powers that they didn't make the decision until the very end, but then I was also had heard that that wasn't necessarily the case. So it doesn't matter either way when the decision was made. The decision was made. The decision was made. Yeah, exactly. Yeah, so it doesn't matter. It doesn't matter to me. It doesn't matter if they knew it didn't gain the season or if they knew it only made the decision during episode 11. Either way, you know, it's the same outcome. And, you know, it's not like they were killing me in the life. I mean, they were killing Rita. I mean, it's bad and it's horrible. But, you know what I'm saying? The decision was made and a master and as a supporting actor, you know, you have to accept it. I mean, you know, my job is to tell a story and tell a story that the writers are writing. And that's my job as a master. And that's what I do. What do I agree with it or not? It doesn't really matter. You're just going in there and just tell the story that the question is asked, basically. Yeah, I mean, I have no, you know, as an actor, I have no ownership in the show. I'm not a producer. I don't write it. I have, you know, I don't put the money up behind it, you know, to finance it. But I have absolutely no ownership in the show, which is, you know, no action. Very few actors have ownership in the show. I mean, you know, unless you're a producer on it. So, you know, at the end of the day, you know, I had to really put aside my own personal feeling and say, this is, this is storytelling and how to tell a story. And wow, this is quite amazing, actually. I mean, it wasn't as easy to accept. I mean, I think, you know, Clark Phillips said it, you know, I was professional in handling it. But yeah, I was, I was sad about this decision. I was sad that, you know, I was no longer going to be working with, you know, with my family. You know, they are my family. But, you know, my job as an actor is to tell the story and to support the story of Dexter. And if it took Rita's guess to move that story along, then, you know, my job was to bring that to life and make that happen. Absolutely. Absolutely. But don't think, I mean, I did. First moment, the meeting when they told me, I knew when they called me first, and I knew exactly what was going down. And, you know, I was already there. So, I, I, my first, I think my first instinct was to, like, serve, you got to care, surrender the button. Why, why, you know, why not, you know, why not, Quinn, why not, you know. Mr. Cowell. Why can't you get to anybody else other than Rita? And then I caught myself and started laughing. I was like, "Wow." I was like, "Whoa, what about let me go there?" Yeah, I mean, you know, it was kind of like, it was weird, like, defending your life's moment. I mean, it was just like, I was, you know, you start, like, going, "Well, I can't be, you know, someone else. Why does it have to be me?" Yeah, yeah, yeah. I was like, "Why not, after? Why not, Quinn?" I mean, you just put it in. And I was like, "Whoa, wait a second. Why not, Rita?" And, to me, Rita, Rita is the only character that you could kill. Rita is the only character that would have had this impact. And that you had this, there's a poetry to it. There's, you know, it's a definite reflection of Dexter's, you know, beginning of his life. And there's a poetry to it. You know what a character would have had that poetry. I mean, you know, every other character on the show is a cop. It would have had that much of an impact if it were another character on the show, if it was not, if it was not Rita. Obviously, as you have seen. Yeah, I mean, Rita is the only, I think, I really do believe that Rita's the only character that would have had this kind of gut-wrenching impact. And I think it was a hard decision for the producers and writers because I think they realized that. And it's taking a huge risk. You know, it was a huge risk, you know, they could either alienate or destroy the audience or everyone jump on board and go with it. So, you know, they're killing the mother. I mean, it was a devastating image. But once you get over the shock of it, you realize the potential. Yeah. And the potential for what this means, Dexter, and in the writing and how it really just opens everything up. And it could really, I mean, the show is quite amazing, but it could make this the best show ever. And ever, ever. I agree. I agree. That's not my bi-vision. I mean, you know, I love the show, but seeing the finale on Sunday as I did and what I'm thinking about. For season five, how is Dexter going to handle being a single father? That's a serial killer. You know, that's going to cause more personal demons in him as well. Now that he doesn't have a wife like his wife, you know, that was his rock. That was his ability. Now that she's gone, how is he going to be able to cope with that in everyday life? So, it does, it definitely has advantages. Even though sad, it has its advantages to being a spectacular season time. Yeah, it's amazing storytelling, bottom line. And that's what I think makes Dexter so addictive. Our writers don't pull punches. I mean, they throw a punch and they don't pull it short, you know? They follow through. Very few shows, you know, we don't see that very much on television. I mean, we see kind of watered down drama a lot of times. There is a bold move. And they went with it. Absolutely, absolutely. Now, actually one of the questions that was emailed to me, I know a lot of people have actually been suggesting this. And it would be something, but, you know, we wouldn't probably not know that anyway. But they were wanting to know if you'd be willing to return in flashbacks if they asked you. And if you thought the show should have filmed a scene in which Arthur tells you or your character about Dexter. John, that's a good character. I told you about Dexter. What did he get before? Wow. To answer that second part of that question, I think it's one of the great things about the Reading on the show. They do leave a lot to the imagination. So every viewer can have their own experience as far as what happened. And I think that's what makes it, you know, one of the most talked about show television. Is that, you know, if she died now, I was there for the stupidest guy thinking Dexter was her sweet husband. Like what did we then know? And I think our show does that so well on so many different levels that I love the fact that they didn't show it. Because it just creates more drama that we all have our different opinion of what happened. And you find yourself going back and forth like going, I want her to know. No, I don't want her to know. I hope you can tell her. I hope you can tell her. You know, you find yourself going back and forth on it. You know, I'm still kind of forming my own opinion of what might have happened in that moment. You know, for a while, I didn't want to think about it. But, you know, in many ways. There's a romantic side of me helps that he didn't tell her. But in some ways, you know, I feel like Rita is pretty, she's pretty scrappy. I mean, after everything she's been through and all the abuse that she suffered, you know, at the hands of Paul, I mean, she's a fighter. I mean, she'll do anything to protect her children, especially, you know, parents. And I think that in some ways, maybe the way he defeated her was by telling her the truth. But at the same time, you know, I don't know the answer to that. And I think that everybody needs to be open to their own interpretation. And that's what I think showed us so well, is to leave it up to the audience to decide what happened. And the first part of the question coming back in flashback or some people have asked about coming back as a ghost, if it didn't keep in with his death, and yes, I'd be back in a heartbeat, if it was a creative way and it was a useful tool, and it was something that was necessary to propel the story forward. And yes, of course, I would be back. Not only, you know, for the work itself, but also for the fans and, you know, to give them some kind of closure. So it would be up to the writers and what they decided. But there's no plans as of right now for me to return. And, you know, we did change, I'm sure one of Clark Phillips is also left to show, and we have a new show, big new show runner as well. So I don't know what kind of shakeup that's going to cause in the creative process and what their plans are. So as of right now, there are no plans for me to return. I have been released from the show. And, you know, that's all I know in this moment. Okay. There you are. There you go, man. And, you know, it's a hard, it's a hard truth. It is a hard truth. I just, it's still shocking to me, even though this happened like four days ago, but it's still shocking to me. I think it's a good thing, though. I think it's a good thing, though. I think it's a good thing that it's still a shock, because it's still being talked about. And it's a good thing, especially with the SAG in Golden Globe, now, that the show has received. It's a huge deal, huge deal. And so I'm really hoping for the best for your show, absolutely, when the awards come into play. And everybody, everybody that's involved. It's a huge congratulations to you guys, obviously. Thank you. You're welcome. And one of the things I want to ask, and then you've got to go in a matter of a couple of minutes. Are we able to see you, or maybe hopefully see you in something in the not-too-distant future? You got anything, any projects coming up that we probably can be looking out for? Well, yeah. On March 6, I have a movie I did for Hallmark last year. We'll be out on the Hallmark channel to speak with a romantic comedy. And I was dealt with Williams and Elliot Gould and Scott Elrod. And I shot that last year. And this is a fun, sweet, you know. There's no blood. No one gets killed. No one dies. It's just a little movie. I also, I just wrapped a movie with Dane Cook and Elizabeth Mitchell called "Ampics Nothing." And that should be out next year in theaters. You know, I just wrapped that last week. Yeah, and then, you know, I'm taking a much-needed vacation right now. And then, you know, back to it. Back to it. You know, it's the life of an actor. You know, you're always looking for the next job. That's it. That's exactly it. And I promise, I promise my boys, my friends, that because I didn't do this the last time, and I felt so bad, actually, they both wanted shout-outs. They both wanted shout-outs for me. One of them, actually, is from Wales. And he's a huge fan of yours. His name's Adam Kent. I call him A-man. And the other one's name is Rick, who asked you those two questions. His birthday is today. Oh. Oh, happy birthday, Rick. And then, it's a cool A-man school. A-man is awesome. Awesome, awesome, awesome. And it's awesome. He's A-man, awesome man. Get it? Awesome. And, you know, I'm a very active, I'm very active on Twitter. And I was able to say one of the hardest things for me was to lie all the time to my followers. That was the hardest thing for me to do, because it was difficult. How is that about that? I can't read about that in the article. It was hard to keep that from everybody. I know that I know the TV guys. You mentioned to them that they would never kill off Rita. The producers would never kill off Rita, and you defended that. But in the long run, it happened. So, it was weird. Yeah. And it was difficult to keep this from everybody. And I know some of my Twitter followers were like, "But you're so happy and retreat this week." Well, there was a time where it took me about ten minutes to figure out what I was going to tweet about. I didn't know much about what happened on the show. So, you know, there was a bit of, you know, I just felt like I was dishonest with so many people. But it was necessary. It wasn't necessary for us. It was a nature of the business, though. It's a nature of the business. You can't, like, meet something huge like that outfit. Anybody. Because it will spoil, it will spoil the surprise. I mean, look, the indexer's finale has the hugest numbers of any showtime original series it's ever had. Yes. Yes. And if that got leaked out, that would have been just a huge blow to the show. And I think that was the best thing for everybody involved. It did not say anything. So, really, I didn't think that was dishonest. I just felt that was a nature of the business. You can't not believe something huge like that outfit. Huge job. Huge everything else. That was the best move that you guys made. Thank you. You're welcome. And it follows Julie Bent on Twitter. It's simply Julie Bent's all one word. Follow her on Twitter. She's active on Twitter. I follow her on Twitter. You should do it. I do. I do follow you on Twitter. I follow you on Twitter. And I follow you and a shout out to infamous PJ right here. infamous PJ. Yay. The infamous PJ. Everyone should follow the infamous PJ. He's awesome. He's so cool. Love the infamous PJ. So, you got to follow him. The infamous PJ. Follow him on Twitter as well. He's very cool, very chill right back. I had the pleasure of getting to know him last year. So, if he's pretty awesome. And definitely follow those two guys on Twitter. They're very active on it. Look out for them. And look out for everything that Julie Bent is going to be doing past lessons. Thank you so much for coming back here. It's always a pleasure having you here. We'd love to have you back on again. It's always open for you to come back. Thank you so much. Thank you. Absolutely. I'll be tweeting this pod at you. So, you'll see the link of it. I'll retweet it. Awesome. They only just learned how to retweet. Isn't it awful? You just learned how to retweet? Yeah. I mean, for some reason on my phone, I can't retweet. I don't have that option. I can only do it from the computer. I usually Twitter from my phone. I'm very rarely ever sitting at my computer. It took me a while to figure out that I don't know how to retweet from the phone that I can retweet from the computer. I normally would just cut and paste. I would cut and paste links. That's how I would do it. Yeah, yeah, yeah. The actual retweeting is... You could respond to responding to people too. I did. Then I cut that off once I found out that I was dying because I didn't want to accidentally... You know what I mean? Yeah, exactly. Exactly. Actually, because I was doing that pretty regularly. Then taking questions and putting back and forth. Then all of a sudden, I was like, "Stop doing that." Because I said, "Oh, I didn't want to reveal anything." Wait, wait, wait. Yeah, I mean, it was one of the... I didn't want to reveal anything. Then I was like, "Okay, well, I'll just stop." I'll probably start back up again. It's been so many people who have had so many questions on my Twitter and wanting to know. I'll probably do it again pretty soon. Just sit and take some questions and answer as much as I can on 140 characters. Yeah, that's the downside to Twitter. You have to just restrict it to 140 characters. And I'm bad at that. I'm very long-winded. I don't know how to be short. See, you're perfect for this show here because you're not restricted to 140 characters. You think so? I know. Because you're long-winded here. I think that's why I do it. I can't do an interview in typing. It won't work. I know. Yeah. And I'm a very slow type of character, so it's really bad. There's nothing wrong with that. Nothing wrong with that. Thank you so much again. I got a promo for you, so I will actually have to ask for one again. I still have it. But thank you so much for stopping on by. It was so much fun. Well done. Thank you. Thank you so much. Absolutely. Take care, all right? Anytime you want to come back, the floor is yours. Thank you. Thank you so much. Bye. Bye. Bye. Julie Bens, everybody. Play the role of Rita Bennett on Showtime's original series, Dexter, for four years, four seasons. We all wish her well on all of her future endeavors, wherever it may lead. And I know a lot of people, I know people in the chat room were showing their support for her. And you know what? It's great. You know, it's great. We're all going to miss her on the show, but you know what she's going to, you know, she's going to, she's going to get back out there. She's going to be doing her thing. So you guys are going to see Julie Bens and not to distant future. And I will, I will tell her, I will tweet at her. I will tweet at her about everything that you guys have been saying showing their support for her and everything. I will definitely do that for you. And I want to thank you guys for coming out here and listening to this show tonight. It was awesome, awesome playing this live for you guys. And if you want to download this show that we just did, you can go to our site at www.buzzreadyradio.net. You can download the Julie Bens interview from there as well as from here once the show does go off the air. And we got some stuff coming out within the new year. We're going to have guest Nancy Odell from Access Hollywood. She took down from Access Hollywood. She's no longer doing Access Hollywood anymore. She left the show. So we're going to have her on. And we're also going to be having on Melissa Archer from ADT Day Times One Night to Live. She's going to be coming on the show. And also in January, in early January we're going to have on Kim Kardashian. Kim Kardashian will be joining us around the 6th or the 8th of next month. I don't know for sure exactly which date it will be once everything gets straightened out with the radio towards and everything. She will be here joining us. So make sure you guys come back and listen for her as well. But for now, I'm going to sign off. We're going to have some shows coming up this week that we did record with Kendra from the Bad Girls Club on Oxygen. Gailah Johnson will be rolling on an interview with her. And also Nancy Odell will be on the show on December 31. So she will be joining us on New Year's Eve for a minute there. I thought I was going to have a nice little two week vacation. But it looks like I'll still be doing shows on the rest of the two weeks of the year. But for now, I'm setting off. Make sure you guys follow us on Twitter. We are at Buzzworthy Radio. So basically the name that you see in the chat, that's pretty much our name on Twitter. So follow us on Twitter at Buzzworthy Radio. I will see you guys next time. On the bell, Jay Lee, that is my name. Jay is my middle initial. Lee is my last name just in case you weren't aware. Making sure you guys get the latest Buzz with Buzzworthy Radio. We'll see you guys next time. Take care. Yo, what's up? This is Kevin Rudolph. You're listening to BuzzworthyRadio.net. Check out my single "Let It Rock" and check out my album in the city and so is now. You were not listening to Buzzworthy Radio. Yo, look at that. Yo, look at that. Yo, this is Blake Lewis. You're listening to Buzzworthy Radio. Buzzworthy Radio. Buzzworthy Radio. Can't get enough of Buzzworthy Radio. Knock on now to WWWW. That Buzzworthy Radio is at net. To get the latest news on upcoming guests, past shows and videos. Of all your favorite stars, keep getting the latest Buzz with Buzzworthy. - Ready.