Amazon Heart
Danielle Cormack knows a lot about Amazons. As Ephiny, she's made more appearances on Xena: Warrior Princess than any of the other warrior women, as K. Stoddard Hayes found out.
Official Xena Magazine: Issue 03
Danielle Cormack's Ephiny has appeared in seven episodes of Xena: Warrior Princess, as well as an episode of Hercules: The Legendary Journeys. Which makes it all the stranger to think that she auditioned for the first season Xena episode, Hooves and Harlots, without even knowing which character she would be playing.
“I don't think the show was even on here [in the US], so I didn't have any idea what it was about or what was involved,” she says. “It was just another opportunity to play a different character and to have fun with the genre that Xena has so successfully portrayed.”
At that time, she recalls, the world of Xena was new to everyone involved. “It wasn’t exactly like a really well-oiled machine in any way. It was sometimes confusing and sometimes exhilarating to run around in these tiny little costumes screaming and fighting all the bad guys. I think it was almost as new to them as it was to me, because we don’t make shows like that in New Zealand... There were people in the cast and crew that were still treating it with very tender hands, as it were, because it was such a new venture.”
The one thing Cormack does not like about being an Amazon is working with the Amazon masks. “They are a nightmare! They're really, really difficult to work with. Every time I’ve gone back, if there’s a window of opportunity not to wear it, I’ll take it... You don’t want to do a big fight scene with them on because you’d just be stumbling all over the place like a drunkard.”
Despite the difficulties, Cormack feels the masks are indispensable to the Amazon character. “They do look so effective... and they add to that whole Amazon thing, the fighting beasts that they can be. It’s lovely to have those masks to really drive the message home that these are the masked warriors. Some of the masks are so vicious looking that they typify the heart of the Amazon, the warrior.”
Cormack made her final appearance as Ephiny in the fourth season Xena episode, Endgame. Producer Eric Gruendemann, who knew that she had become very busy with her film career, approached her to discuss Ephiny’s future.
“He suggested that they were thinking of killing her off or putting her into a coma. I said, ‘Why don’t you kill her off? It creates another really dramatic storyline.’”
When she saw the script for the fatal episode, Cormack says she laughed. “I thought, ‘Wow, how's this! I don't even make it through the teaser! They’ve really got it in for me this time!’”
Despite the strong negative response from many fans to Ephiny’s death, Cormack has no doubt it was the right dramatic choice. “It’s great for the character. She goes down well. I’m not scared to go there with characters. It's important to recognise that death is just as much part of our lives as life... I think it's interesting to create drama, especially by killing off a character that is actually really good... I see some of the people’s responses and I think it’s perfect that these people feel so passionate about Ephiny’s death. That’s why I do what I do, because I like to create a response from people, whether it's a negative response or a positive response, nothing in between. I like extreme responses.”
Spoken like the true Queen of the Amazons. Rest in peace, Ephiny.