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Stephanie Romanov - Interviewed at the Bad Girls convention, London 2002
I'm evil. So sue me!
All lawyers are evil?
Well that's funny, because when I say that I play an evil lawyer, people say, "Isn't that an oxymoron?" I wouldn't say all lawyers are evil, I would say that a lot of them are.
Have you got friends who are lawyers... who say, "You're giving us a very bad rep here," or do they secretly like it?
I think they like it, actually. I have run into some lawyers, and they liked it. I was surprised; I thought perhaps they would be a bit offended, but they weren't.
More, more, more
Tell us how you got the part.
Well how I got the part is [that] I auditioned and then I just went [on]. I thought it was one guest spot, one episode - I didn't know it was going to turn into what it turned into.
Everybody was great, I mean I actually played a joke on the director in the audition room and got the job.
And then it was, "Okay, do another one, okay do another one, okay do another one..." and so it turned out great.
Joss's Masterplan
Has Joss ever revealed any master plan for the character?
They don't tell me anything, so it's really bit by bit. I'm not sure from one episode to the next what Lilah's going to be doing. Sometimes I hear rumours and then I ask [the producers], so I find out through word of mouth which is weird.
Do you think they actually know what's going to happen, or do you think they're just winging it?
I think with most shows they have what's called 'The Bible'. It's the outline of the season and where they're planning on going.
But [even with that] I do think they make changes. They called me for one episode and said, "We've run short, we've added your character into the show." So then they make up something, off the cuff, but most of the time I think it's planned out.
I know kind of where she's going but I'm not allowed to tell. Let's say it's very unexpected. There is a turn that even when I read it, it went, "What! Okay, okay, definitely very interesting. It's coming up in the last episode of the season.
A model career
I you started your career as a model. Can you tell us how that came about and what sort of things you got up to as a model?
Well the sort of things I got up to.... (laughs). I started when I was 15. I had looked through my sister's magazines and I saw how much money models make.
I was 5 foot 9 already, at 14, and so I sent some pictures to a lady in New York and John Casablancas flew out to meet me and sent me a ticket. My first job was going to Rome, Paris and Milan within a month, doing the collection for Italian and French [Harper's] Bazaar. I always worked, and it was great.
We gather you danced a lot too?
Yeah, I love ballet, all forms of dance I can do. I'm trained and everything. I can do ballet, tap, jazz, ballroom, tango. You name it, I can pretty much do it. I'm more of a dancer than anything else in my soul.
Were you tempted to approach Joss Whedon or David Greenwalt to see if you could dance in the episode Waiting in the Wings, because there was a lot of ballet in that?
I didn't know about that because I wasn't in that episode, so they don't send me the scripts I'm not in. So then I saw it, I couldn't believe it. I'm like, "What about me, what about my needs?!"
Time to experiment?
Would you, stylistically, to do a Buffy-like musical episode?
Absolutely. I was saying, �Why can't we do one?" On any show I've ever been on, I say, "Let's make it Homicide: The Musical, or Models Inc.: The Musical," so I was saying, "Let's make Angel: The Musical,"
Then I saw posters for Buffy: The Musical and I went, "Wait, wait, what about our show?" but it will never happen.
I think Julie Benz (Darla) keeps bidding for Angel on Ice, because she's skated professionally before.
Oh, does she do ice skating? Very cool. I didn't know that, that would be great, a show on ice, I think it could work. Singing, Angel the Musical on Ice, Icecapades...
Would you like to sing karaoke at Caritas?
Yeah, I don't understand why Lilah's the only one who hasn't. I think it would be fun to go up there and sing. Like I said, I want to do Angel: The Musical. If Lilah had to sing karaoke, what song? I've Been to Paradise, But I've Never Been to Me! Don't you think it's perfect?
The Office
Tell us about working with Christian Kane and Daniel Dae Kim.
Well Christian was great. Christian and I had so much fun and he's also the one I started with. We used to call each other Boris and Natasha, like we're the evil team which was really fun, and I liked our chemistry a lot .
I like Daniel Dae Kim a lot as well. He's a great guy who's a really good actor. It's just [that] I think to try and play it the same, and I think it should be a different dynamic somewhere.
You seem to have a lot of different bosses as well. Why do they keep changing?
I think because they become not available. They have a hard time keeping the actors, because they'll call at the last minute and one's off doing a movie. I think that's one of the reasons they've had to switch it around.
Do you think you're going to get the top job at any stage?
I think I should, don't you?
Evil Hands
In his last episode, did Christian Kane he take advantage of the fact that he had an 'evil' hand in rehearsals?
No. He was so irritated by having to wear the type of make-up and prosthetic on the hand. It burned his skin sometimes, and he was unhappy about it more than anything else.
If you could have an evil body part what would it be?
What a thought! Who's to say I don't?
If Wolfram and Hart could arrange to fix one thing for you personally, what would it be?
I don't know. A raise? They're evil-doers, I wouldn't want them doing anything for me.
Sexy Scenes
In Carpe Noctem, you had passionate love scene on Angel's desk. Was that fun to do and was it dangerous? Do you ever worry about getting spiked by a stapler when you're rolling around?
No. You and prop people all make sure that you're okay and kind of rehearsed beforehand.
However, I was actually nervous before. I may have known David for three years [but] he'd just gotten married and I'm newly married. So it was weird, like all of a sudden you've got to kiss your friend. It's odd, it's an odd business.
Do you find in those scenes that there seems to be a lot more crew gathering round, watching it all going on?
No, it think it was the same. They're all like "Whoo," laughing. They're trying to get the sexy shot, but it's always just respectful, which is nice.
Building Back-story
What's your theory on Lilah's past? How did she get to be who she is today?
Well, that's a very interesting question. I think for me I figured that she must have been either orphaned [or] not really had much family contact, so therefore she has no real ties or ability to have major ties.
That's what makes it easy for her to be in this world where it's about power and about just getting ahead, because it seems that she must have been a child of survival, having to survive and therefore that his her main goal. That's my take on it, that makes her more... a bit like a robot.
Do you find you need to have that in the background of your mind to play Lilah?
I like to think of a lot of different kind of character choices and reasonings and motivations. I then set up a whole background, just so I have a feel of who she is with each moment in different scenes that they give you. Then you have an idea of how to attack them because you're coming from a specific place.
I find the more specific you are, the more real the character feels, and the more layers you can give them... Because she's supposed to be an evil character, to play her as ambiguous is possible, because I think true evil is harder to detect - like if they're truly evil you're not sure, 'cos they're so good at it. Are they bad? Are they good? What's going on? So I always try to give her that edge.
Challenges
Having played Lila for a while now, what acting challenges are you looking for in the character, or in other roles?
I think one of the reasons I love acting is being able to play different types of people and different characters.
I've been very fortunate in that I've played very diverse types of people and I've done comedy, I've done drama, I've done action. I've played the bad girl, the good girl, I love being able to change around and play different parts, I've played Jackie Kennedy and, you know...
Tell us about that.
She was an American icon. I've been told I look like her since I was 16, so you already have an affinity towards a person that you were always told you looked like, and I knew so much about her prior to playing the role that for me, I was excited.
How many people get to play an American icon? I just really wanted to play her as honestly as possible. I worked very hard on her accent, because she had a very specific accent, with three different layers where it would almost sound like she came from three different places, all layered on top of each other.
And Finally...
If you could get one guest star on Angel, who would you like to see on the show?
Brad Pitt as an obsessed stalker, stalking me. Is that wrong? (Laughs).
What do you like to do to unwind? I like to sculpt and I like to paint, I like to swim and... what else do I do to unwind? Hang out with my husband, smooch. I like to wrestle, wrestling's good, definitely wrestle with my husband. I threw out his shoulder once. I'm stronger than I look.
Are we going to see you on the WWF any time soon then?
No, 'cos they're stronger than I am!