Barrister of Beauty an Exclusive Spotlight on Stephanie Romanov
n February 29th, 2000, Angel fans got their first introduction to Lilah Morgan in Season 1, The Ring. This cunning, determined, and--not to mention--beautiful attorney for the evil law firm of Wolfram & Hart, ironically enough, offered Angel a position with the firm during this episode. In her final appearance to date, in the finale of Season 4, Home, Lilah returned from the dead to welcome Angel to his new home at the refurbished offices of the W&H. The genuine beauty and talent behind Lilah rests in the incomparable hands and spirit of Stephanie Romanov. From her dramatic stints in high school where imagination and a gift for humor won her favor and admiration to her discovery, at the age 15, by Elite Modeling agent John Casablancas, she has impressed and inspired. After traveling the world, which would later instill a wanderlust and appreciation for different cultures and people. She settled in Los Angeles and acting, and accomplished herself in both television and film. Where as Lilah may be the epitome of a backstabbing, conniving wench; Stephanie is the feral opposite. She continues to elate and motivate her fans, and brings down the house with her sense of humor and genuine respect for the admiration and good fortune she has been given. Join us now as CoA takes a personal tour of this driven, resolut, and vivacious woman who enjoys life to the fullest and plays evil close to her vest.
EXPLORING THE INNER STEPHANIE
It's been noted that at a young age Stephanie wrote her own plays as well as created her own costumes for them; she even confessed to designing the sets and choreography, not to mention getting her friends together to do the performances. So was she the drama queen, fem-fatale, or comedian as a child that sparked her imagination? "Comedian. Definitely, I was very funny," Stephanie begins. "I always put humor in things. I remember one time in 5th grade where they did this little play that was written on the chalkboard and we had to volunteer to go up and do it. A few people had done it and then I went up and I had the whole class in stitches. The teacher had wanted me to do it for the principal because I was so funny but I couldn't, it was adlibbed and I didn't know how to repeat it, " she admits laughing. "I remember it so well, it's so funny, but I was always the class clown. I was also always a performer; I was in every show in school, and I trained and danced my whole life."
Stephanie Romanov fan Q&A during Senior Partners in England
Acting runs in the family with talent not limited to Stephanie's sister but her mother whom she praises with much love and respect. And with all good critics, they inspire each other as well as feed off their criticisms as they watch each other's films and creative projects. "I was mostly taught by my mom, my mom's a great actress actually," professes Stephanie. "She was in college plays and she's just one of those people who's a natural with it and so she gave me a lot of pointers. We're all very supportive of each other, good criticism and inspiration and things you hope to get from people you trust." Trust in herself also comes when making the right choices on selecting projects and Stephanie looks for something specific when she's reading scripts. Not wanting to constantly go over territory that she's familiar with, but rather look for the challenging risks. "Sure, you want, number one, a full three-dimensional character and what is the journey?" she explains, "Is it something scary to you? And that's always exciting and nerve-racking at the same time. And does it say something, either in somewhere you want to travel or a place that you've been, that you know how to get back to rather than just the kind of typical stuff. But sometimes you have to do the typical stuff as well."
As an actor, you strive to exceed the expectations of the director or writer if you're lucky enough to have that kind of interaction and Stephanie understands the challenges of transposing ideas to realism. "I hope so," she laughs, "I try, always." And it's changed over the years. "Oh sure. I've definitely gotten better."
She has a different perspective, being able to tap into her own resources that she finds maybe comes a little more easily now. "Yeah, definitely. I understand... I think I had so much fear in the beginning. Fear of wanting to be good and to do the right thing and I hadn't really trained. I wasn't sure if my instincts were right and I doubted myself a lot, whereas now I don't doubt myself. I've had enough training to know. I understood it then, I just didn't know I did." And her early modeling career helped, as far as dealing with people. "I thought it did in that I traveled a lot," Stephanie muses.
"What I find so shocking is the more evil [Lilah's] gotten, the more excited and happy people are to meet me." ~ Stephanie on her Fans
"I got to meet all different types of people, and I'm the kind of person that people tell me their life stories, which I love and encourage," she states with a laugh. "So I would hear and kind of go through these different journeys with all these different people all over the world for years. I've had a broad range of experiences to draw from -- mine and others. I got to be exposed to a lot of different cultures and ways of dealing with things, and that definitely helps a lot. You read different scripts and get a bunch of character ideas based on--and, 'Oh, this reminds me of so and so.'" Stephanie remembers the second job she ever did. "I based this character on a friend of mine, and I was doing this part and the actor said to me, 'God, you remind me so much of this girl', and he said the name of the girl I modeled the character after." You think she's kidding? "No. I was just like, 'No way!'" she laughs, "It worked! Yes!"
Speaking of Stephanie's travels, fans will certainly see her as an adventurer based on things that she has talked about having done already in her life. But one obvious, very inspired moment, was her reflections on Cambodia and what she saw there during her wedding to film producer, Nick Wechsler. "Of course, for me there are many layers because I married my husband there," she reflects, "and we get engaged there. Number one, it's a beautiful country both Thailand and Cambodia. And the people, especially in Cambodia, they're so open and friendly and when you think of how wrought their country has been with civil war and unrest and that they were still such beautiful people was really...it changes you somehow." Stephanie recalls being married in their temple, "The temple was built in the 1100's and this group of Buddhist monks are chanting in Sanskrit, you don't know what they're saying exactly, so you go into another sense and it was just one of the most beautiful spiritual things I've ever had happen. It was an amazing journey and I'm married to this amazing guy and it's like two years later and it's better than it was even then." With true emotion, Stephanie confides, "But that was the beginning of our journey, and it's more than I could ever say. I'm gonna cry. I'm an emotional wench," she teases, "and then I play cold bitches because I'm such a baby, " she confesses laughing, " Of course I can be a cold bitch, but you know what I'm saying."
Much like Angelina Jolie, Stephanie enjoys traveling to the more remote regions of other countries. "Oh yeah, I love it. I definitely love going places I haven't been. Going places you haven't seen a lot, but I also love Europe. I just like [traveling] and I have since I was a little girl, my mom always called me her Gypsy," she admits. "I always wanted to know what everyone else was like. What's it like at your home? What do you like? What don't you like? What makes you sad? What makes you happy? So traveling to me is being exposed to other cultures and beings and people, and hearing stories that otherwise I would never have heard. I feel it puts me more in tune with my...it sounds so corny, but with my fellow humans, which means a lot to me. I love people. I always have."
THE SOFTER SIDE OF LILAH
You definitely can tell, and it's great to see her fan's reactions, when Stephanie attends any of the UK conventions that she lights up the stage. As a formidable guest, she has obviously made quite a reputation for herself with Angel fans as being the quintessential, evil--can we say--bitch? "Oh yes, you can say it twice," she laughs, and happily jokes, "She's just another person they get to know and love." But we know Lilah is far, far removed from the real Stephanie, yet there is always something that surprises her in the fans reactions when they get a chance to meet her face to face. "At the very first convention I went to, and to see the fear, was kind of funny for me," she recalls, "because I'm not normally someone who is feared - in my real life. Except when I'm mad. And then people shake, which is wild to me too," laughs Stephanie as she admits, "Because I never yell. I think it's that quiet anger that freaks people out. But now, what I find so shocking is the more evil she's gotten, the more excited and happy people are to meet me. That they so bond with the bad girl. I don't quite get that," confesses Stephanie, "I like it, but I don't quite get it." Perhaps it taps into the darker side of them. "Exactly. They're like, 'Hey, it's Lilah the Bitch. We love you!' she states with a laugh. "Okay, great!" as the laughter continues.
During Stephanie's modeling career
Joss Whedon has a most definitive flair for creating the female characters that are so much more different than most female leads on television series today. They are stronger, they have more depth, and they are extremely layered without question. "And they have humor, which is fun," adds Stephanie. "I get Lilah with humor, same with Darla [Julie Benz]. He writes these dark, etchy, strong women who are funny." Lilah has a wealth of all of those things. And the one factor Stephanie got to do last season, which is becoming a standard among the Whedon women, is that she got to play not one, but a few dazzling death scenes. Julie has stated that she could play Darla forever because she's such a great character. And as with Lilah, there are so many other facets that were left to explore. And as with Joss, you know you're never really dead. "Oh, sure. I think there are lots of places I could have gone with her that would have been interesting as an actor to play. I think you only got to see a few parts of her. I would have liked to have seen a little bit more of her personal struggle perhaps," confesses Stephanie, "with the mom, with herself, with her choices. Because it's always in the scenes with people that she's wanting to seduce. Whether it's to be on her side, or to get out of her way. Whatever it is, she's always presenting this side of her that she needs to show in order to win. You don't really get to see behind closed doors. What is it like after she has that thing with Angel? This confrontation, than goes home and looks in the mirror, and when she's ordering someone's," a laugh escapes, "chopping of his head. Like how does she feel after? Maybe she feels nothing. Maybe that's why."
One thing that Stephanie has said about her portrayal of Lilah--and it's very obvious once she says it--is that Lilah never saw herself as evil. She did what she had to do. She did her job. She did it well. Her own introspective was, 'I'm not an evil person.' Much in the similar fashion of Holtz, he was never evil; he was doing what he felt was justified. "Right. That's a good way of putting it," Stephanie agrees. "Definitely. I think it's hard to play evil. I think that true evil doesn't know it's evil. True evil is seducing. True evil is always changing. It's the seduction of the cigarette ad, it's the seduction of all those things. So, in playing her I never felt she was evil because where do you go from there. And so I played her as powerful and wanting to win. It's how far you're willing to go."
As far as a preferable death scene, Stephanie says laughing, "Well, when I got stabbed in the neck that was just kind of quick and done. I definitely liked the scene with Wesley and I, when I'm on the table and then I'm behind him talking to him. I thought that was really groovy. And what was said." From a directorial standpoint the choreography of the scene was interesting as well, but more humorous for Stephanie. "When I'm actually standing behind him and he's looking at me lying there, that's a double. There's someone in there, but it ain't me," she laughs, "and that wasn't very hard at all. Like, 'Don't move! Don't move or your next!'" she continues to laugh. Death never seemed so funny.
