Dancing in the Aisles
by Sharon Delaney
The Chakram Newsletter: Issue 14
Renee’s on her lunch break when I call her down in New Zealand and the first question on my list concerned the maggots in the food during the opening scenes of “The Haunting Of Amphipolis.” I didn’t plan it that way. I never know beforehand just what time these interviews will take place. Once she was actually eating a salad during an interview. Should I go ahead with the question? There probably weren’t any actual maggots in the scene. Must have been computer generated or maybe the second unit body double was used. Nah - they wouldn’t actually feed live creepy-crawlies to Renee.
Renee starts chuckling. “They did have some maggots on the plate. They had a piece of pumpkin that was clean and a piece that was covered with worms. I had to make sure I picked up the right one.”
Suppressing a shudder, I asked, “Just one take, right?”
“Oh no,” Renee laughed. “More than one. You try to cheat and glance down to make sure none have fallen on the piece you’re about to bite into. It was pretty safe.”
My face was so scrunched up as she was describing this and Renee just kept piling it on.
“How about the worm crawling out of the skin on Gabrielle’s hand?” she said gleefully. “Wasn’t that disgusting! That wasn’t me.”
I don’t know. For a clean cut young Texas gal, she sure seemed to be reveling in all this goopy stuff. “When Gabrielle was pulled into the underworld water pit - how was that done?” I asked.
“We filmed in a little tank with a couple of stuntmen dressed as ghouls. And there were some featured extras that had spent hours in the KNB prosthetic department before being thrown into the water.” She paused. “I guess you could just call it another one of our hot tub scenes,” she teased.
I remembered seeing Gabrielle’s face in the water screaming. “Is it scary filming a scene underwater like that?” I wondered. “Especially with people pulling at you.”
“Oh, it’s not scary at all,” she said easily. “But you do try to make the shots work as quickly as possible. We were having problems because the camera was actually on the outside of the tank shooting through a pane of glass. It was looking into this murky water and the cameraman could barely see me. They kept asking me to come closer to the glass, but it was a challenge to do that without pressing yourself up against it.”
“I guess having Gabrielle's nose pressed flat against the glass would have been a bit of a giveaway,” I said, as I pictured what Renee was describing.
She laughed. “Yeah. Lucy told you I was covered in crushed asparagus, didn't she?”
“Mixed with KY jelly and vegemite,” I added.
“Yeah, yum. It was so nice,” she said sarcastically. “I think everyone steered clear of me for that hour. Luckily, I didn't have to have it on for very long.”
And then Gabrielle had a shower scene where she was covered in blood. It’s as if they decided to baste Renee with every concoction they could think of all in the same episode. Quite a physical challenge.
“I think it came together well, though,” Renee said. “There were so many shock gags.”
One of the best was when Xena's and Gabrielle's arms and legs merged together. I told Renee that really looked good when the CGI effect was added.
“We used some panty hose and tied it around our knees. They also had some stretchy fabric that looked like panty hose as well, but it was more opaque and they put our arms in that,” she explained.
“How long did you have to stay hooked together?” I asked.
“For a few hours over a couple of days,” Renee said. Then she started to laugh. “It was quite funny because there’s an obvious height difference between Lucy and I. I had trouble trying to keep up with the stride of her long legs when we were walking.”
“Xena was in a bit of a hurry in that scene,” I chuckled.
“Yeah,” Renee laughed. “I thought I’d better pick it up a bit unless I wanted her to carry me.”
“Could you get apart easily?”
“As soon as we finished a take, we were able to slip out of the little pieces of hose,” she said. “It was actually fun. Quite hilarious really. I enjoyed it.”
“The Haunting Of Amphipolis” had a bit of The Evil Dead mixed with The Exorcist in it. And Renee got to do her best Linda Blair rotating head imitation.
Renee described how it came about. “I had no idea what we were going to be doing in that section. We just played around with different things. Garth Maxwell, the director, said I should roll my head more and that released all these weird noises, grunts and animal sounds out of me.”
“Garth is a wonderful director. He has incredible images that he gives you and hopefully you can take them and run in different directions. Some of them are bizarre, but wonderful to use as an actor. I love working with him.”
“Can you remember any other images he's suggested?” I queried.
Renee thought for a moment. “He told Alexis Arquette (playing Caligula in ‘The God You Know’) to think of himself sucking like an insect when being lecherous,” she laughed. “It's fun to have a director who throws stuff at you that’s out of your comfort zone. Something you would never dream of doing yourself. It creates a whole new environment.”
With Renee having just directed her second episode of Xena, “Dangerous Prey,” I wondered if she had adopted this tool in Garth's directorial arsenal.
“Not with that episode,” Renee explained. “It wouldn't work with that story or the actors I was working with. You have to know if an actor likes to play in that way because not everyone does. Besides, Lucy is so solid and strong as Xena, you wouldn't want to do anything weird or bizarre. Especially with the hero character.
“Some actors don't like to have any dialogue about a scene. They just want to go into it with what they've brought from their homework. And others come in and want to workshop and experiment with different layers of a scene. As the director, you have to figure out how they work best when you start with someone for the first time.”
“Heart Of Darkness” had a Gabrielle whose heart seemed to be taken over by evil. I didn't know if the character was just playing along with Xena’s game to trap Lucifer or if she really had gone over to the dark side. I wondered how Renee saw it in her mind.
“I think what Mark Beesley, the director, wanted to capture was that Gabrielle was drawn into the sinfulness of the environment around her,” Renee said with conviction. “I don't think she was dark. We didn't see a cruel side of her at all.”
“Virgil,” I teased.
“Yeah! Mark wanted to create this sexy environment and Gabrielle is thrown into it with glee.”
“Did Shona McCullagh choreograph that dance between Xena and Gabrielle?” I asked.
“Yeah,” Renee confirmed. “She did all the choreography for that episode.”
“That was quite a dance,” I chuckled.
Renee laughs. “Wasn't it!”
“What was Gabrielle thinking?” I asked casually.
“Oh, I don't know,” she laughed again. “What was Gabrielle thinking? It is what it was, eh? It was very sexy.” More laughter.
“Was it fun to do?”
“I love dancing so any opportunity I get, I just jump at it,” Renee said enthusiastically. “From that aspect, absolutely, it was great fun.”
If you haven't seen this episode yet, the dance between Xena and Gabrielle is meant to create lust in Lucifer. It began as a tete-a-tete between Xena and Gabrielle and then expanded into a menage a trois with Virgil joining in. Gabrielle and Virgil go off together and Xena beckons Lucifer to join her.
“It was a very sensual dance,” I said to Renee. “We've talked about being comfortable with the actor you're working with and I wondered if this dance would have been harder to do if it had been with someone other than Lucy?”
“I think dancing is a completely different form of expression for me,” Renee said thoughtfully. “I really do think about it as movements and having a spatial quality rather than as an expression of dialogue. I'm sure dancers don't feel that way at all because every move they create is an expression of words. It's just different for me. I don't think it would be hard to work with other women or men in a dance because there’s just something so fluid about it all. It seems so natural to me.”
“Who's Gurkhan,” “Legacy” and “The Abyss” all had a thread running through them that dealt with Gabrielle coming to grips with the killing she was forced to do in her life with Xena. I asked Renee how she viewed Gabrielle now in terms of the violence
“I know Rob (Tapert) wanted to have an arc that addressed Gabrielle's trying to find a balance between knowing how to fight like a warrior and yet being a bard with a pacifist nature,” Renee explained. “I don't personally believe she is more of a warrior than a bard, but there are some episodes where she is. We're doing one right now where she's just a fighter.”
“What episode are you working on today?” I queried.
“We're filming a story based around Saving Private Ryan called ‘To Helicon And Back,’ Renee said. “It was written by Liz Friedman and Vanessa Place.”
“And you're working on a Saturday?” I asked.
Renee chuckled. “It always happens around this time of year because we're going on our Christmas break and things have to get done.”
“What part of the episode are you working on after we finish this interview?”
“We just shot the landing on the beach scene with lots of Amazons. Michael Hurst is directing so there are explosions going off everywhere and blood flying around,” Renee laughed. “But the core of the episode is centered around Gabrielle. She’s trying to figure out how to lead people she loves into battle where they face imminent death.”
“Can you tell me a bit more about the story?” I asked.
“We’re off to save one of the Amazons and, of course, no one believes they’re ever going to die,” Renee said sadly. “We just think we’re going to get in and get out. But things take a turn for the worse. This is one of those episodes where Gabrielle is forced against her will to be more of a warrior than a bard. And that’s the struggle she has - trying to be something she isn’t.”
“And this afternoon…?” I prompted.
“We'll be filming scenes in the interior of the boat where the Amazons are preparing to hit the beach. These scenes will establish the relationships between all the girls. I love the people we're working with,” Renee added excitedly.
“New Amazons?” I asked.
“Yes,” Renee responded . “One young woman named Madelaine Sami just finished a one-woman show in Edinborough. She received rave reviews there and she'll be bringing the show to New Zealand. She’s about 20 years old and plays about eight or nine characters. There’s another girl named Morgan Reese Fairhead who's been on a New Zealand television series called Jackson's Wharf. She was in ‘Kindred Spirits’ playing an Amazon named Eris. She just gets better and better. I'm loving working with these young, talented New Zealand actresses.”
During a sandstorm in “Legacy,” Gabrielle thought Xena was being attacked and wound up killing a young boy who was simply bringing them news. His raised scroll looked like a knife to Gabrielle and she stabbed him.
“We wanted to show how Gabrielle would feel if she killed a complete innocent,” Renee explained.
“And this was someone she knew,” I added. “There was a strong build-up of the relationship between Gabrielle and Korah. It wasn't a random innocent young man. He had a name.”
“Plus he adored Gabrielle and wanted her to teach him about weaponry,” Renee added sadly as she recalled the story. “Rob came up with that idea of putting Gabrielle in such a painful situation. I thought it was strong. She is trying to figure out who she is after all these seasons going back and forth.”
The ending of that episode had Gabrielle saving Korah's father in battle. They talk at the end and he says to her, “That evens the scales between us.” Gabrielle responds, “It doesn't really, does it?” And the look on her face was so grown up and heartbreaking.
“Abyss” was the next episode on my list of things to talk about. More cold, wet scenes and they tried to barbeque Gabrielle! “There was a scene where Xena rescues Gabrielle from a river,” I reminded her. “Where was that filmed?”
“That was in a man-made lagoon built on one of our outdoor sets. They turned fire hoses on us,” Renee laughed ruefully. “They added a cliff wall and we pretended that was part of the river.”
But tossing them into churning white water turned out to be minor compared to what the cannibals did to Gabrielle. She was smeared in goo, had her hands tied to her feet and a round tube was stuck in her mouth. They turned her into a corn dog!
“That was mud, mud! It's very good for the complexion or so they told me,” Renee laughed. “That was cold.”
“Was that physically the worst episode you've done?” I queried.
“It’s that balance of being a professional and having to tell the story when you’re in a situation that you can't get out of,” she stated. “Absolutely feeling every single emotion the character would go through and knowing Gabrielle would fight to get out of it. But I couldn’t because it wouldn't benefit the plot. That was just absolute cruelty and having to endure it was pretty profound.”
The part of this episode that touched me the most was in the cave where a delirious Gabrielle is talking to Xena as if she were Hope. Telling her daughter they needed to run away because Xena wanted to kill Hope. Hearing this just tore Xena apart.
“I don’t know where that came from actually,” Renee admitted. “They wanted to address in some way how Gabrielle felt about her own daughter after all the episodes we'd been doing with
Xena's daughter. I think that's why they brought Hope up again. We wanted to show Xena learning how much this hurt Gabrielle. It came about because of the fan comments, I believe. Their questions about not having Hope mentioned at all throughout the Eve storyline.”
“Was that an emotionally tough scene to film?” I asked.
“It was a beautiful scene, wasn't it?” Renee said warmly. “We were quite cold and that just breaks you down to be completely present in the scene. Under those circumstances, you either fight against the physical difficulties and you can't concentrate because your body’s shaking or you are completely thrown into it and believe every moment quite easily. I think that was one of those moments where it was quite comforting for Lucy and I to be next to each other.”
“I was so caught off guard by Gabrielle's admission and the strong emotions of that scene, I turned the show off,” I told Renee. “I just wanted to live with it for a bit.”
“Oh, wow!” Renee exclaimed with what sounded like a feeling of satisfaction at the response her work had had on me.
“The next day. I turned the episode back on and after a scene of Virgil and the cannibals, it switched back to Xena and Gabrielle in the cave. You remember that? Gabrielle tells Xena she wants to be buried next to her, not with her family. Ripped another piece outta my heart,” I chuckled.
Renee laughed. “It was so sweet, very sweet actually. What I loved about that scene is that it shows the love between the characters.”
Renee was scheduled to do some ADR (looping) work and I was keeping an eye on the clock. I had two items left on my list.
“In ‘The Rheingold,’ Xena leaves a note for Gabrielle. It looked like the last couple of Greek letters spelled out ‘Lucy.’ And right after that, there seemed to be a lip mark as if it were sealed with a kiss. Did you see that?” I asked curiously.
Renee laughed with glee. “It didn't say Lucy, but the lip kiss was definitely there. That was a joke from the art department. Wasn’t that funny? I loved it.”
“Well, now, Mrs. Muir - is it okay to confirm that you and Steve were married in October? I promised I wouldn't say anything until you gave the okay and I kept my word. Even when the local Austin paper announced that a flock of Kiwi women had taken over a beauty parlor to have their nails done,” I chuckled.
Renee laughed heartily. “You can confirm it. We are married.”
“How was the wedding day,” I asked.
“It was wonderful. The best day in my life,” Renee said with warmth and wonder in her voice.
“Are you getting used to being called…”
“...Mrs. Muir?” Renee chimed in. “It's sweet because it reminds me of our day. It was incredibly romantic. Every moment seemed to be full of happiness. It sounds so cliche, but I could not believe how much love and happiness was around us with our friends and family and each other. It was a very small wedding and I think keeping it intimate kept it very relaxed. Steve and I weren't nervous at all.”
“It all worked out as you had planned?” I asked.
“When Steve asked me to marry him,” Renee explained, “he said he wanted a small wedding. That was his only request. And we decided it would be private with no publicity. We didn’t feel we needed to announce it because everyone who knows us knew we were getting married. I love looking at the brides in the newspaper wedding announcements, but I never wanted to do that for myself.”
“Lucy said she was there taking pictures,” I chuckled.
“Lucy was the paparazzi!” Renee laughed gleefully. “She had a camera and I've never seen her go off in such a way. She was in every weird contortion she could be in trying to get just the right angle of the cake and the flowers and Steve and I goofing off. She was hilarious! It was so great. She got some terrific, funny, candid moments.”
“Did you have a regular photographer as well?” I queried.
“I did, but if I’d known how good Lucy was, I would have just hired her,” Renee chuckled. “The composition of some of her stuff was really good. She was having a great time.”
The egg timer I had sitting next to the phone went off signaling the end of our interview. Renee went off to tackle the Amazon D-Day landing and I was left with a head filled with images of Renee and Steve exchanging vows and a mischievous Lucy popping up with her camera behind the wedding cake capturing precious moments in her friend's life.