Following her recent highly-praised stint on “Desperate Housewives,” Julie Benz hit the Streamy Awards to tell ComingSoon.net about her newly shot superhero pilot, leaving Wisteria Lane and whether Rita will appear again on “Dexter.”
CS: Are you done working right now?
Julie Benz: I just wrapped a pilot for ABC called “No Ordinary Family.” It’s me, Michael Chiklis, Romany Malco, Autumn Reeser, Kay, Panabaker and Tate Donavan and it’s about a family that develops super abilities.
CS: Can you talk about your super ability aren’t you super-speedy?
Benz: Super speedy! Super fast which is great. I could use some super speed in my life.
CS: How much does it cross the genres; is it more comedy or more adventure?
Benz: I like to describe it as a mix between “Heroes” and “The Incredibles.” Greg Berlanti is behind it and he does “Brothers & Sisters.” You have real drama behind it as well but there’s obviously some humor in it because how can you not have humor. But it’s also a family drama. I think it’s just a great mix of everything, a little sci-fi with adventure with drama with comedy. It encompasses all elements and so I can’t even tell you what it is.
CS: Do you have a superhero costume?
Benz: No, it’s regular street clothes.
CS: Where do things stand with you and “Desperate Housewives”?
Benz: My last episode aired a couple of weeks ago. Robin and Catherine ran off to Paris.
CS: So we don’t know?
Benz: We don’t know. I think it all depends on what happens with Dana’s [Delaney] pilot and my pilot. I would love to return and explore Robin some more. I loved playing her so much and it was just such a joy to be on the show.
CS: Has ABC given you the idea that they might be fine with you hopping back and forth between things?
Benz: I don’t know. I don’t know if that’s a possibility, going back and forth. I’m sure that ABC is amenable to that but Dana recently was doing “Desperate Housewives” and “Castle” at the same time. I think it just depends on the schedule. Dana is doing a pilot right now and so it would mostly depend on if her pilot gets picked up or not because she’s the main character and I’m one of the satellites.
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CS: Do you think it’s probably definitive that we won’t see Rita on “Dexter” again in any way, shape or sort of ghostly flashback?
Benz: Yes, as far as I know. Yeah.
CS: Did that feel right for the character, not revisiting her?
Benz: I don’t know. It didn’t feel right to have her die in the first place. But that’s just me. I love Rita so much.
CS: It was such a shock to lose Rita, and lose you.
Benz: Yes, exactly. But if they found a way, a creative way to bring me back and it made sense and I felt that it made sense then I would definitely jump at the chance. I loved working there. I loved working with Michael [C. Hall]. It was just an amazing four years that I had working on the show. I’m always open to it. I don’t see the possibility but I’m also not a writer. I’m not that creative.
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CS: Are you doing anything over the summer in film?
Benz: I literally just wrapped on the pilot and I’m kind of taking a week or two off before I actually try to regroup and figure out what’s going on next. I think that a lot of it is being in a holding pattern to find out what’s going to happen with the pilot because if it does get picked up it’ll probably go into production fairly soon. It’s a fairly large pilot. I also think that if it does get picked up I’ll probably take a vacation. The pilot itself was a very intense shoot so the series will be intense as well.
