All About Juliet
The Fanlisting
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Juliet Landau does indeed have talent in her blood. Born to acting veterans Barbara Bain and Martin Landau, it's no wonder their young "Julie" has acting on the brain.
Raised amidst Hollywood's elite in Southern California, 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.
Juliet became a member of the Actor's Studio and paid her dues with bit parts on television. Her film debut came in 1990 as a young Angelica Huston in the dark comedy, The Grifters.
Next were bit parts in forgettables like Direct Hit and Neon City, until she got the opportunity to work alongside her father in Tim Burton's Ed Wood. It would turn out to be the opportunity of a lifetime. The elder Landau won an Academy Award for his role in the film, but his daughter caught the eye of critics with her role as Loretta King.
One in particular who was impressed with the raven-haired beauty was Joss Whedon, who called Juliet in for a creative brainstorming about the character of Drusilla. Says Landau: "It was an incredibly creative meeting. It was great. All I had read was a couple of pages in the script about Spike and Drusilla, and the character description. And I got a real strong sense from what was written about what I felt about the character. Joss apparently had these characters running around in his brain for years. So it was this amazingly creative meeting, and then I left, and within half an hour they called my agent and said they wanted me to do it."
And the rest, as they say, is history.