‘Buffy, the Vampire Slayer’: These Co-Stars Remain Friends to This Day

On Buffy, the Vampire Slayer, the “Scooby gang” remained friends throughout all their encounters with monsters. In real life, that friendship extended among the villains too. Juliet Landau played Drusilla, the vampire sired by Spike (James Marsters). She says she’s still friends with many Buffy costars to this day.

Landau spoke with Showbiz Cheat Sheet about her new movie, A Place Among the Dead. Landau directs and stars in the vampire film now available at virtual cinemas through Modern Films. She also spoke about her time on Buffy, the Vampire Slayer and Angel, and the friends she made on both shows. 

Juliet Landau got to appear on both ‘Buffy, the Vampire Slayer’ and ‘Angel’

Angel (David Boreanaz) got his own show when his character moved to Los Angeles. Drusilla followed him there when Darla (Julie Benz), the vampire who sired Angel, returned too. 

“It actually felt like one big family and a lot of the crew that had started on Buffy moved over to Angel,” Landau said. “I was working with the same actors, many of the same directors. Clearly Joss [Whedon] was involved in both. David Greenwalt was involved in both so it really felt like one big set.”

Sometimes Juliet Landau did double duty on ‘Buffy, the Vampire Slayer’ and ‘Angel’

Both Buffy, the Vampire Slayer and Angel filmed in Los Angeles. They would also do crossover episodes, so sometimes Landau would be filming both simultaneously. 

“The locations were different,” Landau said. “We shot Angel primarily on the Paramount lot and also on other locations like the Disney Ranch and all kinds of other places and we shot Buffy primarily on the soundstages in Santa Monica but other than that, it really felt like a continuum. Sometimes we even shot certain things on the Buffy set that would go into the Angel episode and vice versa.”

Juliet Landau still counts these costars as friends 

Drusilla may have wreaked havoc on Buffy, the Vampire Slayer and Angel, but Landau got along swimmingly with everybody. Many of the stars of both shows have supported A Place Among the Dead.

“I’m still friends with everybody. When we did what we called a home carpet for our virtual red carpet for the premiere, along with New York Comic-Con, Mac cosmetics sponsored it. A lot of the Buffy alum like Julie Benz who played Darla, Sam Anderson who was Holland Manners on Angel, Armin Shimerman who played Principal Snyder, Harry Groener and Dawn Didawick who voice the parents in our movie, A Place Among the Dead. Harry played the mayor on Buffy. Just so many my Buffy and Angel alum came, or stayed at home for the home carpet.”