From Rita to Robin: Julie Benz talks 'Dexter,' 'Housewives', a SheWired Exclusive

Julie Benz is everywhere.

SPOILER ALERT if you haven’t seen Dexter season 4 finale!

After fans of Showtime’s Dexter picked their collective jaws up from the ground to which they’d fallen upon seeing Rita, the loyal wife to serial killer Dexter Morgan, dead in a literal bloodbath, the actress has been booking jobs left and right.

“My first response (to finding out about her character’s death) was, ‘Oh God, I just lost my job! How am I going to pay my mortgage?” Benz said during the Paley Center for Media’s Dexter panel during its 27^th annual PaleyFest.

“When they (the writers) told me all this was going to happen, my first reaction was, ‘What about the baby’ — forgetting it was all TV for a moment,” she said.

The actress, who shortly after Dexter’s Season 4 finale aired booked a role as Robin, a lesbian stripper on ABC’s Desperate Housewives, said on the red carpet ahead of the panel that the two characters are different “in every single way.”

“How is (Robin) not different? I would say Robin is very comfortable in her own skin, very comfortable in who she is; she’s been through a lot but it hasn’t worn her down. She’s a lot more independent.”

“They both have similar paths — with abuse; Rita was always this fragile little bird and Robin is more of a survivor,” Benz added. “She’s more of, ‘This is what happened to me and life goes on.’ I think those are the major differences.”

“Oh, and Rita likes boys and Robin likes girls! Small difference!”

More on next page...