Amazon for All Seasons
K. Stoddard Hayes unmasks Danielle Cormack, the actress who made a record-breaking number of appearances on Xena and Hercules as Amazon princess Ephiny.
Official Xena Magazine: Issue 11
Danielle Cormack never planned to become an actress, although she has been studying acting and appearing in plays since she was eight years old.
“I had always incorporated [acting] into my life and my lifestyle from a really young age,” she recalls, “and it seems to have evolved into a career. My first paid TV work was when I was 13. I was in a really bad yoghurt commercial. One thing lead to another which lead to another. I've found myself in a position now where I'm doing a lot of film work that is being seen internationally. That has in turn created invitations for me to be part of other projects.”
One thing led to another with Cormack's relationship with Renaissance Pictures, as well. Her audition for the first season Xena episode Hooves and Harlots led to nine appearances as Ephiny, the central character of many of the Amazon storylines. She has also played two other characters in the Xenaverse, and recently guest-starred in Cleopatra 2525 as the criminal telepath Raina.
According to Cormack, a role on Xena or Hercules calls for a different level of performance than a contemporary piece would. “It's more comic; it has more caricature,” she explains. “It’s based on folklore, myths and legends, so the performances can withstand being slightly more colourful.
“[Xena is] heightened reality. There’s always the danger of going over the top. That’s not to say that there aren't some very real moments on these programmes. You still need to find the reality within the fiction of it. When you can do that, you can find your level of performance.”
“Over the top” is precisely the way Cormack describes her role as Lady Marie in the Hercules episode Les Contemptibles, which she compares to French slapstick farce. “I had so much fun! I loved playing someone who was playing someone else - that is, an actor getting to play a character who was actually acting. It was quite mad, and I loved playing a really kicking-ass Sheila who just stood on her own and who was fighting for a cause. Vive la revolution!!
Cormack was also delighted by the costumes in the episode. “It was like playing dressing up all over again,” she enthuses, adding, “and it was a welcome change to actually wear some clothes! On Xena we’d wear these little rags, the shorter the better. I’m such a romantic at heart; I just loved all the old frocks.”
Cormack can’t say whether she prefers costume or contemporary roles, or even whether she prefers to work in television, film or theatre. “I find it really difficult to answer these preference questions,” she concedes, “because it depends on how I am feeling on the day - if it is cold and crappy on a film set, I would probably give my right arm to be in a warm theatre! I guess I’m more interested in the characters and the stories being told, as opposed to what medium is being used to express them.
“But herein lies the contradiction. I enjoy working in film or theatre a little more than television,” Cormack admits, “because most of the television I have worked on has a very fast turnaround. [Working in film or theatre] gives you a little bit more time to understand more about the project, or to try out different things while you’re on the set. You’ve got a greater rehearsal period. We don’t have a rehearsal period for Xena or Hercules, so you're sort of going in cold.”
All Cormack’s roles do have one thing in common. “Any character that I play, [I choose] because it’s something I've never really done before,” she reveals. “I would probably look for character traits that I find intriguing that in turn help me to understand what I’m capable of doing. You don’t find out whether you can pull something out on the day and maintain it for the duration of shooting the scene until it is being shot. That is the beauty of this work - it’s both terrifying and challenging.”
At the time of this interview, Cormack had just finished shooting The Price of Milk, which she describes as “a charming, fantasmical love story set on a dairy farm.” However, the actress has no idea how the film has turned out, partly because it is still in post-production, and partly because of the way the director, Harry Sinclair, likes to work. “You don’t have a script, and in the beginning you don’t have characters,” she explains. “You just turn up on the day and improvise and see what comes to you. You’re actually working with no boundaries, trusting your instincts and trusting your spontaneity.”
Cormack’s work in another Sinclair film, Topless Women Talk About Their Lives, won her the 1997 New Zealand Film and Television Award for Best Actress. “I was totally honoured that they gave me the award,” she says, “but I can't say why I won. Anything I’ve ever done is a natural part of me being an actor. I finished Topless Women three years ago now. There are parts of it where I wouldn’t necessarily make the same choice now.”
Another recent film, Channelling Baby, in which Cormack co-starred with fellow Xena and Hercules guest star Kevin Smith (Ares), has won acclaim at international film festivals, including Cannes. The film allowed her to tackle several new acting challenges. “I play a woman when she’s 19 and then when she’s 40,” she reveals. “And she hasn't got her sight. So there were a few physical things that I found really challenging.
“It’s about people that lose sight of the truth,” she explains of the film's plot, “and they come back together again to find out what happened in the 20 years they were apart. I was interested in the discovery of what happens through people not wanting to know the truth. All the characters go through a very intense emotional journey.”
Cormack’s work often takes her far from home. She has attended the Cannes Film Festival several times in recent years, and just returned from the New Delhi Film Festival. She also makes numerous appearances at Xena fan conventions, and although she loves meeting the fans who support the show, she's sometimes bemused by the intensity of their feelings.
“Because I work on the other side of the camera, it’s difficult for me to have that understanding of how passionate people can feel about the death of Ephiny,” she explains, “or what Xena did or didn’t do. It’s between fantasy and fact. When you're actually making the programme it dispels a lot of the fantasy and the so-called glamour that is said to surround this industry.”
Cormack says she is not the person to ask for funny anecdotes about what happens on the set. “It’s not that I don’t remember things,” she comments. “It’s just that the anecdotes that I have committed to memory would probably land me in a pile of crap if I relayed them! Have you ever heard the expression, ‘What goes on tour stays on tour’?”
Tomorrow and the next day and a good many days beyond will no doubt see Cormack pursuing the work and travel that come with her expanding film career. In the small world of New Zealand film and television, it’s quite possible that she will work for Renaissance Pictures again, but she is not sitting on her hands waiting for them to call. As she herself says, “I’m really quite busy here, and if I’m not working I'm busy waiting for work!”