Encore Episode: Interview with Juliet Landau | A Buffy the Vampire Slayer Podcast

When Juliet Landau first met Joss Whedon to discuss the role of Drusilla, she hadn’t auditioned. She walked into a creative meeting with Whedon, David Greenwalt, Gail Berman, and Fox casting head Marcia Schulman. They bounced ideas back and forth. Whedon said the character could be British or American; Landau argued she should be British. She started talking to the ceiling in the room. Before she reached her car after the meeting, they called to say she had the part. “It felt like it was meant to be,” she says, comparing the experience to her casting by Tim Burton for Ed Wood.

How Drusilla Was Built

Landau emphasizes that the scripted text was entirely Whedon and the writing team. Her creative input shaped everything beyond the words: Drusilla’s mannerisms, her vocal quality, the way she moved. Landau came from a ballet background, and that training directly informed how Drusilla “wafted and glided through space.” She never stopped moving. The character’s accent was based on a specific person Landau knew, blended with choices that emerged from Drusilla’s personality — a sing-song, wafty cadence that made her sound as though she existed in multiple realms at once.