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Experienced Xena and Hercules director Garth Maxwell takes time out from helming the season six instalment The God You Know to fill Ian Rentoul in on the ups and downs of directing Xena.
Official Xena Magazine: Issue 18
Garth Maxwell's directing career can be traced back to his teenage years. “I was involved with a local film group here in Auckland called Alternative Cinema,” he recalls. “Then I went to Auckland University to start a Bachelor of Science course, but I switched to Art and majored in English Literature and History. During those three years, I was fairly convinced that I wanted to get into film post-production and editing, so I went around all the various editing houses in the city. But at that point none of them were able to take someone who wasn't fully trained.
“So when I finished my degree I still wasn't sure how to get into filmmaking, and I went back and started a Masters degree in English. I think that only lasted about two months before I chucked it in, and within a week of leaving I got a job on a feature film that [fellow Xena director] John Lang was directing.
“For most of the 1980s I was into film post-production and freelanced as an assistant editor and sound editor. I learnt a lot of basic skills, and eventually got to a point where I thought I could do it all as well as if not better than some of the people I worked with. So I decided to stop calling myself an assistant editor and started calling myself a director. I started making short films and then did a horror feature with American actor Alexis Arquette, who I managed to get back for my current Xena episode, The God You Know, as Caligula. So it's been a nice sort of circle. He's an actor I'd always wanted to work with again.”
Maxwell's directing credits on Renaissance Pictures' series stretch back to the first year of Hercules. “[Main unit producer] Chloe Smith had been a friend since 1983 when I started working in film,” Maxwell says. “I ran into her in a supermarket one day and at that time she was trying to get some New Zealand directors involved in Renaissance's productions, so she asked me to go down and meet the American producers. All this was just after I had done my first feature, Jack Be Nimble, which they had seen and enjoyed. That got me the job of directing [the Hercules season one episode] Gladiator, which went particularly well, even though it nearly killed me! But it turned out to be a great show and one of the best I've ever done for them.
“That then led on to regular gigs with the company,” Maxwell notes. “Gladiator had the fabulous Tony Todd in it, who has a really amazing voice which is really deep and affecting. The first Xena episode I directed was the [season one show] Mortal Beloved, which was shot around November 1995. As I recall, that was a slightly patchy one, and it had a lot of special effects in it. Again, it was a massive learning curve for me.”
But despite being a learning curve for the now seasoned director, Mortal Beloved proved less arduous for Maxwell than his first Hercules show. “I had had the experience of working on Hercules, and the Xena production style was similar,” he explains. “You had the same departments to deal with and the same scale of action, so I didn't find the transition difficult. I did find working the scale and schedule pressure hard to accommodate, but you realise that you have to keep on making difficult decisions rather than letting a scene get carried away and take you three quarters of the day to finish. You've really got to tie it up in as few hours a
you can and keep on moving, so half of the job of the director is time management.”
Despite these challenges, however, with the show’s premise already laid down, it was fairly easy for Maxwell to find his feet on the show. “The main characters were pretty clearly defined and it was really a matter of finding out where Xena was emotionally and what had happened at the end of the previous episode,” he remarks. “I also had to consider at what point you had to leave her in order for the next show to make sense, so you’d try and check all that out quickly. It’s really a matter of keeping up with the major developments in the story arcs across the series.”
Moving on to his most memorable episodes of season two, Maxwell recalls that, “The Execution was a neat story, and had the fantastic Tim Thomerson in it. He and Lucy [Lawless] had a great comedy sensibility, which made it very enjoyable.
“But I think the one that I enjoyed most was [season four's] Devi,” Maxwell affirms, “because it had the exoticness and fantasy of the Indian city. I think in total we had something like 100 Indian extras for that episode. They were just brilliant, and very aware of the whole process of filmmaking. India has such a large filmmaking industry, and although all of our extras were from New Zealand, they all understood the process and were very keen and very forward. You could pan just about anywhere and get some great facial expressions.”
Another of Maxwell’s favourite episodes was the season six outing The Haunting of Amphipolis. “There was lots of smoke and steam everywhere,” he says of the episode. “You had to spot the actor from behind the special effects cloud, so that was good fun!
“So The Haunting of Amphipolis stood out. Past Imperfect and Endgame were strong as well. Forgiven was fun because that was with Shiri Appleby, who is a delightful actress. She played a punky little anti-social teenage misfit with a chip on her shoulder really beautifully. She was fantastic to work with.”
Maxwell admits that he particularly enjoys directing the dramatic, effects heavy episodes. “I feel very comfortable doing the more dramatic stuff,” he says “and I do like it, although I enjoy the comedy aspects of the shows I do as well because there is usually something in there that is pretty funny. I enjoy the things that have intensity and that you can really cook something up with. But I have no real preference. It's amazing how much comedy you can introduce into very dark stories to give them a bit of light and shade. Things can get so intense on Xena if the story is about life and death, so a little comic relief is essential.
“Some of the shows have been absolutely huge,” Maxwell notes. “There was one I did, Past Imperfect, that had a lot of big scenes of a Centaur army attacking at night while Xena is having a baby in a burning tent. Then the father, Borias, who was played by Marton Csokas, is slabbed in the midst of this battle while Xena rides off with his baby boy. Some of this was shot on a studio set, some of it was a night shoot, and some of it involved fire, blood, gore and horses. So while trying to make all those things come together I certainly had to be on the ball!
“I particularly enjoy the erotic scenes,” Maxwell admits. “They have a charge and an underlying erotic interest that tends to work on every level for me, so I find them really rewarding to do. Xena always comes over as a very overtly sexual character, and Lucy always plays her with an underlying sense of danger. The show’s also about making bare flesh look very appealing. So that whole thing is fun. On the one hand it’s partly camp, and on the other it’s partly melodrama. So you have to walk a fine line between all these influences and make sure that one doesn't take over too strongly.”
There can also be difficulties to overcome due to the complexity of the sets. Probably the most unusual set that Maxwell had ever worked on was the ship in the Xena season two episode The Lost Mariner. “That was quite interesting to shoot, because you try and keep your backlight very dominant to give an interesting shape to an actor’s face,” he explains. “The lighting on Xena is fairly critical, and when you’re on a boat this is even more difficult because sunlight becomes your backlight.
“The boat we had was a converted barge, with motors and drives in all four corners, and I had to keep it where I wanted it to be for the backlight no matter which direction we were shooting from. So it was difficult to keep the boat turned the way we were shooting to keep the sun behind it.”
Storm sequences on calm days can cause problems as well, which added to the complications of shooting The Lost Mariner. “We had an enormous number of hands throwing water out of buckets into guest star Tony Todd’s face with the wind machine turned on and him screaming as though it was a major gale, even though the water was actually calm during that sequence. Working with water and being at sea certainly presents interesting challenges!”
Although Xena and Hercules are the only television shows which Maxwell has directed, he’s helmed several films and a number of shorts. “And I’ve just done a documentary,” he adds. “I generally work with stuff that I’ve generated that I can finance through the New Zealand Film Commission, which we are lucky to have over here.”
But the bulk of his time over the last five years has been spent directing shows for Renaissance Pictures. “I’ve done five Hercules, 11 Xenas and a Cleopatra 2525 for Renaissance Pictures,” he reveals, “so I’ve been very lucky to have that much work.”
Not only is he grateful for the career opportunities Hercules and Xena have afforded him, Maxwell has particularly enjoyed working with Pacific Renaissance Pictures. “I’m a gay person who's out, and one of the real benefits of Xena is that it acknowledges that people have a range of sexualities; the shadings of Xena and Gabrielle’s relationship are made clear right at the outset. I have never had any problems working with Renaissance Pictures,” he asserts, “and my sexual preference has never been an issue.
“They encourage you to be yourself. So we have a wide range of different kinds of people in very important production positions. There are lesbians, gays and heterosexuals, and it's a really refreshing mix of talents. I have to applaud the company for being so clear in not letting it be an issue. It kind of gets stomped on if it ever is a problem, and I have never seen it evolve to be a real problem for anyone.
“So that’s a really delightful thing for someone like me, because if it was going to be a problem I would be making a fuss about it and probably get out of there. But the whole thing has been refreshingly together, and I think that is one of the company’s strong points. It’s a wonderfully modern stand that they are making. It breaks down boundaries in so many ways, and while this is only one of them, it’s an important one for me.”
Unfortunately, with Xena's sixth and final season about to finish shooting in New Zealand, Maxwell’s involvement with Renaissance could be drawing to an end. Nevertheless, the director is realistic about whether or not he'll return to the Xena soundstages before the show concludes its six year run. “I treat them all like they’re my last,” he says.
“I’m trying to give this one everything I can, but it could be my last episode before the show wraps.”