Michelle: Thank you so much for calling
Juliet Landau: Yeah, definitely.
M: Okay um so I’m recording. So can you just tell us a little bit about the film?
JL: Yeah. [Gary Oldman directed a music video] for the Jewish hip-hop band Chutzpah and he came to me and asked me to direct the making of and when I saw the footage I got really excited and I asked Gary if it could develop into a short documentary film and it did and the film was called Take Flight.
M: Very cool. When he called you, what was special about this project to you? Why did you choose this particular project to make your directorial debut?
JL: Well first, I’ve always loved the range and depth of Gary’s work. He’s such an incredible artist. Also, I had three different cameras that chronicled the shoot but I also had access to all the cell phone footage and gary operated one of the cell-cams so we have this incredibly rare POV that you would never get with a traditional camera and it’s literally like being in his brain and seeing through his eyes and I got really excited about how unique this perspective was and how special the film could be. And also, once I saw what we had, the film shows Gary in a way he’s never been seen before, and I think that’s what he’s really excited about because it shows a really light and playful and childlike and free and funny, really funny, side of him. His sense of humor is really wonderful. And I think that a lot of people sort of associate him with the dark, tortured roles he’s done, and so I think also getting to do something that showed him in a very different way. And also, I mean there were so many reasons that I wanted to do it and just, you know, had an absolute blast all the way through and the whole process. It was a definite labor of love.
M: That’s great to have such a good experience your first time directing. In doing this, you also chose to release the film online. Why did you choose that particular format?
JL: Well, because it centers around cutting edge technology and it’s perfect for the new frontier of internet content I just thought that it was the perfect fit for it. And we’ve had, before promoting it at all, we’ve had something like over 600,000 hits with no promotion so now we’re just getting the word out. So obviously people have been interested in going to the website and seeking it out so it just really felt like it was the right place to do it.
M: Yeah, I definitely agree. I mean, I follow you on Twitter and have been reading about it and it sounds like a really cool project.
J: Yeah, it’s been fun, because I was involved in so many different aspects of it. I picked all the music for it. I chose classical pieces for Gary’s internal creative world and the outside world is the music of Chutzpah, the band. I also did something, sort of, the structure of the film is kind of where you get first little glimpses into Gary’s POV and then you get longer, more expansive pieces, and then by the end of the film you’re completely released into his view. And the other thing I did which was just a little bit unconventional is I decided to keep all of the footage, the cell footage, 4×3 in terms of aspect ratio so it keeps Gary’s framing intact and also so that you’re really clear when you’re inside his perspective but everything else is 16×9 so it cuts really seamlessly but you’re definitely able to differentiate when you’re, you know, in the conceit of looking through his eyes.
M: Right. That’s very cool. I didn’t expect that you would keep the cell phone stuff the same as the other stuff but that makes a lot of sense. How did it change your perspective? I mean, you’ve been an actress, and it’s got to be way different to be directing something instead.
J: I actually adored being responsible for the whole and having a vision and bringing that vision to fruition. I love being an actor and I’m still working on a lot of different stuff and doing that. But when you’re an actor, you’re definitely a component of the whole so it was really nice to do that. And since that time, I’ve co-directed the “Hero” music video for the band Godhead and I’m co-directing a viral campaign that I put together that I’m going to release at the same, when the film’s available, one a day, and that’s been really exciting and cool to do. So I’ve really loved it. But I don’t think it really changed my perspective but I think that I brought certain elements that I use as an actress, definitely to the board to being a director. I think the work ethic I have and, for me, preparation is really key, whether I’m acting, even doing still shoots, when I’m, with directing, because the more prepared I am, the more I feel I have a freedom to go with the unexpected and to really have an ease with that. And I got to work with incredibly talented people, which I also have as an actress, so I think I was able to bring sort of all of that and the directors I’ve worked with into this experience.
M: Yeah that’s great to be able kind of meld the two experiences into one. Do you think that you’ll do more directing in the future?
JL: Yeah, I absolutely do think so. The viral campaign that I’m doing, it’s been really cool because what I’ve basically been doing, it’s a sister project and I’m asking all these amazing actors and artists about their creative process since the film is about Gary’s creative process and at the end I’m asking how they would market a film about Gary Oldman, Jewish hip-hop, cell phones, and we’re getting really funny, great answers. I’ve talked to, so far, Michael Rosenbaum who was Lex Luther for seven seasons on Smallville, Sam Anderson, who’s on Lost right now, and was Holland Manners on Angel and was on ER, Amy Acker who you know from Angel, and Christian Kane, so their interviews are really awesome. And Armin Shimerman and Harry Groener who played the Mayor on Buffy, and I’m doing Kat Von D this Wednesday, so that should be fun.
M: Oh man, I can’t wait to see that as well, that sounds hilarious.
JL: It’s pretty cool.
M: Well, I’d like to move into some stuff about Buffy and Angel. First of all, a question we get all the time is we want to know what your favorite episode was that you got to be part of.
JL: You know, it’s hard for me to pick one but I can tell you my three favorite episodes.
M: (laughs) That works too.
JL: Okay. It’s hard because I had such a great time, it’s actually hard to pick one. But I would say “School Hard” because it was our introduction and our first episode and I really have a soft spot because of that, for where Spike and Dru came in. I’d say “Surprise” because Dru got strong, and then I would say “Reunion” on Angel because Dru teamed up with Darla and created havoc in LA and it was really fun to be so devilish in that episode.
M: Yeah, watching that episode it was nice to see Darla and Dru together in the present instead of, you know, in the past like it always had been before. It was a lot of fun. So while you were on Buffy you played Dru in the present, in the past, in Angel’s past, and then in the seventh season you came back and played the First Evil. Was there a different process for you in preparing for those episodes? And the differences in your character for that kind of stuff?
JL: You know, yeah, prep for Dru throughout the different periods was similar except for in the confessional, which was pre torture, pre being terrorized by Angelus who killed my family and the nuns and all of that stuff, so that was very different because it was a very different side of Dru, before she was a vampire. The other thing that was different, it was definitely different to play the First, who was obviously good at appearing to be Dru but I wanted a slight difference, a slight sharper edge, if you will, and so that definitely had a little bit of some other ingredients mixed in there. And also something that’s sort of interesting is that the First was non-corporeal so it was a given that I couldn’t touch Spike in any way and that was definitely different as our characters were always so tactile and physical with each other. So that was a big difference.
M: Was it difficult not to be able to touch anything while you were acting? It seems like that’d be a struggle, for me.
JL: It was! It was a challenge. And then it was sort of, because at first I thought, “Wow, it’s so much, Dru is so much about that” but then I thought, “Well, wait, I can actually touch myself” so I could lift my skirts and do certain things in terms of movement and so then once I sort of got that idea it liberated me and then I had a real freedom with that.
M: That’s cool. That just seems like such a challenge but you handled it, obviously, very well.
JL: Thank you.
M: You did a really great job with the character as a whole. When we were podcasting for “School Hard” we were noticing that you did such a great job and you and James Marsters had such incredible chemistry right from the beginning and I was wondering, when you got your first script, how much of Dru was there in the pages and how much of her came from you and what modifications did you make?
JL: Well, first of all, thank you so, so much. You know, it was a very collaborative experience. Joss created these unbelievable characters, the writing was wonderful, and I never changed the text unless it was dialect related, and then I would clear it with Joss. I brought a lot of invention, the physicality, and Dru’s sounds and mannerisms, and with James we would often bring in the blocking of a scene. The blocking means the physical behavior, what you’re doing in the scene. It’s very creative in that way. And we would get together and rehearse by ourselves when we’d get the scripts and then come in with a lot of stuff. One of the things that was really great is that I had been cast and I was paired with the final choices for Spike and the minute James came in we just had an incredible acting chemistry. And in his audition, I remember that we were playing the scene with the Anointed One from “School Hard”, and we had this moment where we were talking, it was Marcia Shulman who was head of casting, and he was reading the pages and stuff, and we had this moment where out of a real acting moment, we sort of got lost in each other and touched our heads and then all of a sudden sort of faced out like, “Oh, yeah, we’re talking to the Anointed One.” And so that happened and then when we got together before shooting that first episode, we were like “What was that really cool thing?” and then “Oh, yeah, that’s what happened, let’s do that” and what was really neat about it is that they ended up using that as the promo. They had us with our foreheads, like resting our heads, and then turning out it said something like “Evil has a few new faces,” something like that, and it came out of a genuine moment-to-moment kind of acting thing and that’s what it was like working with James. We just always were discovering stuff and it made it just so much fun to go to work.
M: Yeah that moment was, I think, really iconic and it speaks a lot about the characters and their relationship. Once James was cast, did either of your characters change very much so that they fit together better or so that they were more about who you were?
JL: You know, Joss said he’d had Spike and Dru running around in his head for ten years and he really knew what he wanted and he wanted us to be like the Sid and Nancy of the vampire set, like Sid Vicious. I remember when I first, I think it was after James was cast, I had a creative meeting with Joss where we sat down and said, you know, these are the ingredients that I see for this character and he described all of these elements and they seemed like really at odds with each other in this incredible way. Like he would say, “She’s really childlike, but she’s sensual. She’s really delicate, but she’s diabolical. She’s really powerful.” All these things. And I thought, “How am I going to put all these things together?” And then I started working and I did and just loved the fact that there was so much range and dimension and color. You know, usually you’ll get a villain and the villain is like, one note. But the fact that these characters had such a sort of majestic love affair, you know, was so wonderful because it really balanced it out and made these [] characters very very very human. And so I think that all the writing was there and we were really were able with the two of us to sort of flesh out… We wanted to certainly have, you know, you can’t have been together for 200 years and be not comfortable physically and not be tentative with each other. We really wanted it to have that history of the relationship and our sexuality and all of those things to be a very vital part and component of the characters.
M: Well, you definitely did a fantastic job with that. Was there any difference for you in going from Buffy to Angel as far as how the crew worked on the two different shows?
JL: You know, it really wasn’t. It felt like one big set. They were shot in different locations. We shot in Santa Monica on a soundstage for Buffy and [that was] the center of it and we moved around for different exterior locations but were on the Paramount lot for Angel. But so much of the crew had worked on Buffy and then moved over to Angel so it really just felt like an extended family. And so often the actors, you were bouncing back and forth with the same actors whether it be Julie and David or James and you know we were all on both sets so it really didn’t feel particularly different.
M: That’s great because the shows didn’t really, they obviously had their different feels because of the different main characters but they definitely had that familial feel to them. Well that’s about all I have. I’m just really excited to be able to talk to you and both me and my co-host, who couldn’t be here, are just huge fans of your work and are so excited that you contacted us to do this.
JL: That is so sweet! Well I just wanted to say where the film will be available, the Gary Oldman documentary. I just wanted to mention that it will be available on julietlandaustakeflight.com on February 25th.
M: Okay. I’ll make sure to keep it updated on my website. I’ll for sure be tuning in.
JL: Great. Well I’m so glad that we were able to catch up and chat a little bit today.
M: Me too, thank you so much.
