From Dexter to Rambo, there is a lot of on-screen violence in the professional life of Julie Benz.

"It turns out Mr. Stallone actually is a big fan of Dexter," said Benz, when asked how she landed the female lead role opposite Sylvester Stallone in the new Rambo movie, which comes out next week. Well, if that's the case, then Stallone didn't take too many blows to the head in the Rocky movies after all.

Who isn't a fan of Dexter? We've yet to run across anyone who has seen the two-year-old Showtime TV series, which has run in Canada on The Movie Network and Movie Central, and didn't get hooked. And the audience is about to get wider, given that CBS and CTV are going to start airing the series on Feb. 17.

Dexter, of course, stars Michael C. Hall as a secret serial killer and Benz plays his beleaguered girlfriend Rita. Rambo? Well, you just know there's going to be lot of stuff blowin' up. And coming this fall, Benz will star in the latest film that is based on comic-book hero The Punisher, opposite Ray Stevenson.

"I just seem to be attracted to dangerous men," Benz said with a laugh. "But I feel very lucky and, knock on wood, I haven't been type-cast yet.




"To play Darla on Buffy The Vampire Slayer was a real gift. It was a very safe place to work as a young actor. And then when Dexter came along, it was another one of those, 'I can't believe this really is happening' moments. I mean, to work with Michael C. Hall every day is very special.

"And then with Rambo, of course, are you kidding me? You want me to be part of the Rambo series? Wow!"

When first encountering Benz in person, one is struck by how nice-looking she is. Not that she isn't nice-looking on screen, too. But as anyone who has seen Dexter can attest, her character usually is fairly haggard -- you know, her kids just about got killed AGAIN, her ex-husband is threatening her AGAIN, her life is on the verge of collapse AGAIN, etc.

"When I first auditioned for the part, they actually thought I looked too pulled-together to play Rita," Benz recalled.

"So they had me come in with no makeup on and frumpy clothes.

"That's how I looked getting the part, so that's what you see on-screen. You see the real me. What you see when I'm out and about, that's the other Julie. I like the real me better."

Well, the real Julie Benz certainly caught the attention of Sylvester Stallone.

"It's one of those things, when you're on a show like Dexter, you forget that people are watching it," Benz said. "You especially forget that people in the industry are watching it. But the most interesting people are big fans."

Benz admitted that working with Stallone was a tad surreal.

"Especially in that very first meeting, I barely even heard a word," Benz said.

"I had to get past the fact that this is Sylvester Stallone, this is Rocky, this is Rambo.

"I'm trying to talk to him about the script and the role and what's interesting in the part and all of that, but then there's this other side of me that just wants to ask for his autograph."

A lot more people are going to be asking Julie Benz for her autograph in 2008.

If you ever approach her, though, be really, really, really nice to her.