Darla (Buffy The Vampire Slayer) - Characterization

Characterization

Darla is presented in the series as a wicked vampire with, as Benz put it, generally "pure" intentions. In an interview with TheTVAddict, Benz said:

"Darla’s just misunderstood. Her intentions are pure, they’re just kind of warped. From her perspective—first she has to eat—she just happens to eat people! Second, she was in love with Angel, and I always viewed Darla as the jilted ex-wife that could never get over being dumped. If you really look at her, you can have sympathy and empathy for her. In the beginning of her life she was a prostitute, Joss and I actually talked about that a lot, that she was probably abused growing up. She did what she needed to do to survive, she just lacked the people skills."

Achieving Darla's look was a struggle for Benz. She said: "Taking that makeup off, it was like having six layers of skin ripped off your face every time. It was miserable and the contact lenses were terrible. I don’t wear contacts and I don’t know how people do it, sticking things in their eyeballs all the time." The character's sense of fashion is vital to understanding her past. Benz says Darla is "dressed to the nines" in every time period in which she lives, and "she fully goes after a certain look. If she’s going to be living during the Boxer Rebellion time, she’s got the big Gibson Girl hair style and the beautiful kimono-style clothes." Benz points out that in the Buffy pilot episode, Darla—attempting to dress like a high school student—exaggerates it with a "little twist", wearing a Catholic schoolgirl uniform instead. "I think I influenced Darla fashion-wise in the second season of Angel where she was a little more classic-looking and tailored," Benz says, explaining she collaborated with the costume designer to transition Darla into a "hipper look" when she became a vampire again. Darla shockingly becomes pregnant in the third season of Angel. In an interview with the BBC, Benz admitted:

Yeah, I really felt at that point she was pretty strung out. Her whole world was rocked. She never thought she could get pregnant and then all of a sudden she's carrying this child and she's experiencing this soul for the first time in four hundred years. the realisation that as soon as the baby's born the soul's going to go away, and it's the first time she really experienced true love, so she was going through a lot emotionally. I just didn't think that she would have time to really think about how she looked. I don't think it was a priority, and so for me as an actor it was important that I reveal that. Not get caught up in my own vanity as an actress, and portray the character as where she really was.

In an interview with the BBC, Benz described Darla as being strong: "I have an amazing stunt double, Lisa Hoyle who looks exactly like me. She’s just brilliant and fearless and she does about 90 per cent of the stunts. I think part of the element of Darla is how strong she is and how fierce she can be and Lisa definitely adds to that element. I would be a doing huge disservice to Darla if I didn’t allow her to do the work that she does and to help add to that element that’s so important to Darla, which is her strength."