Believe it or not, even after all these years, this former Dexter star still avoids watching the scene where her character is found dead.
Over the course of its eight-season run, the original Dexter series delivered many unforgettable moments that remain part of pop culture to this day. But it also gave viewers some of television's most shocking and heartbreaking moments, and one of them still stands out nearly two decades later.
Of course, we're talking about the shocking death of Rita Morgan in Dexter Season 4.
Back in 2009, Rita was found lying dead in a bathtub filled with her own blood after the Trinity Killer murdered her as a way to get back at Dexter. The moment completely stunned viewers and became one of the most memorable deaths in TV history.
But while audiences have had to relive that heartbreaking scene countless times over the years, Julie Benz has never actually watched it.
Julie Benz Still Refuses to Watch Rita's Death Scene
Benz recently appeared on Dexter's Kill Room alongside Erik King, where the pair looked back at some iconic moments from the characters they played in the OG series.
As they reached the infamous scene involving Rita's death, Benz immediately reacted as she realized what was about to appear on the screen. She actually turned her back to the television, laughing awkwardly, while King teased her about it.
Benz admitted that she had never watched the scene and made it clear that she still had no real desire to do so. King, meanwhile, tried to reassure her, calling it a beautifully made and shocking scene and pointing out that it was a memorable way to end the fourth season, especially with the Trinity Killer behind it.
For Benz, however, the experience of filming it was difficult from the very beginning.
Julie Benz Was Devastated When She Learned Rita Was Going to Die
Benz explained that she only found out a few days before filming that Rita was going to be killed off, and the news devastated her. The bathtub sequence was also the very last scene of Season 4 that the cast and crew filmed., and most of the crew did not learn what was happening until they arrived to set up the scene.
Despite how emotional the moment was, Benz tried to make the experience as positive as possible. At the time, her then-boyfriend, who later became her husband, decided to throw a party in her trailer and encouraged her to approach the scene as a celebration rather than an ending.
She said she was still very sad about what was happening, but wanted to make the day as fun as possible for everyone.
The Fake Blood Stayed on Julie Benz for a Week
The actress also remembered just how difficult the fake blood was to remove.
Benz said she was covered in red coloring for about a week after filming the scene. Since she was not allowed to tell people what had happened to Rita due to the NDA, she had to walk around with red and pink stains on her hair, fingers and other parts of her body while keeping the secret.
She joked that the blood simply would not come out. And despite knowing exactly what happened to Rita, Benz still likes to imagine that, somewhere in another universe, her character is alive.
For Dexter fans of every generation, Rita's death is still one of the hardest scenes in the entire series to watch. For Julie Benz, who was actually at the very center of that moment and had to experience everything that went into filming it, it seems the scene remains just as difficult nearly 17 years later.