Fallen Archangel
Heart of Darkness, the third episode of Xena's sixth season to kick off Stateside, sees Xena and Gabrielle facing off against the archangel Lucifer. Kate Barker reveals all…
Official Xena Magazine: Issue 13
It's not every day a reporter gets a first-hand look at a full-on sword battle between a warrior princess and a certain soon-to-be-fallen archangel. It's also not every day you see their doppelgangers right beside them, shadowing their every move.
This is just part of the action of Heart of Darkness, one of the first episodes in Xena's sixth season. Following the events of The Haunting of Amphipolis, Xena and company have to deal with the effects of another prophesy. But this time, they need to make sure these predictions don't come to pass.
Let's start with the scene at hand. It's the middle of a village; it could be Amphipolis, but with all that special effects backlighting, it's really too hard to tell from the sidelines.
In actual fact, this is a village that’s been utilised several times before, changing from common marketplace to captured city to the Eastern regions of Chin.
Here, the stunt doubles of warrior and archangel are blocking out the movements of this section of the fight, overseen by stunt coordinator Shane Dawson. In the scene, Gabrielle and Eve are a few feet away, prepared for action and peace respectively. Since this is a rehearsal, however, Renee O’Connor and Adrienne Wilkinson don’t need to be here for their off-lines, which are spoken off side while the fight sequence is being filmed. At this point, the main action begins with Xena having been knocked to the ground by the antagonist archangel (played by Alex Mendoza).
Mendoza as the villain in question is quite a sight to behold. Over a shift of red flowing material, he wears a set of stunning red and gold armour and boots, wields a mean looking sword and cuts a most impressive figure. Of course, we haven’t got to the wings yet...
Big beautiful black-feathered wings arch out of the back of Mendoza's costume, rivaling even those of the archangels in the season five debut Fallen Angel. Ironic, really, when you think about the eventual fate of Mendoza’s all-too-familiar character. As Mendoza moves about the set, a crewmember walks behind him, holding up the wings like a bridal train and making sure they don’t fall, get damaged or come off those little hooks attaching them to the back of the costume.
As the camera focuses on Mendoza going through the action of the fight, director Mark Beesley looks around for someone to help with reading Gabrielle and Eve’s cue lines. “Do we have players to do the off-lines?” he calls. “Who’s doing Eve?”
“I’ll do it!” Calls a voice from the other side of the set as Lawless bounds over to join the action, “Why didn’t you say?”
After a few run-throughs to allow Mendoza and the camera crew to perfect their moves, things carry on to the next part of the action. The Xena stunt double moves aside as Lawless gets into position on the leaf-laden ground. “Can we put Lucy in the stunt suit,” requests Beesley, “so it’s more comfortable for her?” Off comes the harder breastplate from Lawless’ costume, to be replaced by the foam “stunt” piece; apparently it’s easier falling to the ground in a softer costume.
During the set-up process, Wilkinson arrives on set and moves to the side of the action to do her own lines as Eve. She will be filmed later on and the shot will be edited into the fight scene.
While checking camera framing on the monitors, Beesley notices that the camera is not picking up a vital piece of Mendoza’s costume. "Can we get some wings in the frame please?” A crewmember crouches out of shot behind Mendoza, holding up the huge wings. Beesley seems satisfied. “Okay, let’s shoot it!”
The scene basically involves Mendoza’s character trying to force Xena down into “a steaming portal” to hell, facing off Gabrielle and Eve as they try to stop him.
Somewhere in this action, the archangel throws something nasty at Gabrielle, who is attempting to come to the fallen Xena’s aid. The thrown item is invisible in the reality of filming the scene, but will be added later as a CGI special effect. However, the white light surrounding Mendoza can be seen very clearly as they film the shot; white screens to the side of the action create a stunning effect when caught directly on film.
They’re now into various takes of this part of the fight. There are adjustments of camera, boom microphones and make-up before each take, as well as frequent checks that the feathers are still in place on Mendoza's wings.
At one point, a plane flies overhead, halting shooting. When the noise subsides, shooting resumes, and in this take, Xena fights back. As Mendoza is pushed backwards, crewmembers wait just out of shot to grab hold of the gigantic wings before they fall with the actor towards the ground.
“Cut!” calls Beesley after the final take. “Let’s practice some more fighting, shall we?”
This is the bit that really looks like it’s done with mirrors - mirror images, that is. As Lawless and Mendoza go through more fight moves with Dawson, their stunt doubles practise too, mirroring the actors’ moves exactly. There is a lot of switching partners here, since when it comes to filming, Lawless will be sparring with Mendoza’s stunt double and vice versa. It would only be Lawless and Mendoza together if the camera needed to focus on both their faces at once.
Even being able to see what is involved in choreographing such an action-packed sequence doesn’t make it much easier to understand the language of ‘stunt-speak’ that Dawson uses to instruct the players. “So she’s landed here. Turn side up. Go for the leg.” The blow connects, prompting Dawson’s direction to Lawless, “And you’re outta there!”
Both actors and doubles are using hard foam swords, the sound of clanging metal to be added later into the soundtrack. Now one more rehearsal is needed, this time with wings attached. After this, the leads and their doubles go off to the other end of the set and carry on practising, while the white screens, cameras and monitors are moved and set up to film the scene that the actors have just been rehearsing.
It transpires that some pretty spectacular special effects will be added in alongside Mendoza’s character for his part of the fight. “He’ll fly normally,” describes First Assistant Director Axel Patten. “Then he'll twist somehow. The [visual effects crew] can pull him and twist him.”
As the actors rehearse at half speed for the camera positions and focus, Renee O’Connor is off to the side with a horse. In another variation on her costume, her outfit is red velvet with a red belt and silver boots.
It’s a very overcast day, with the constant threat of rain. But the next few takes - including lots of loud fighting noises from Lawless - run smoothly and quickly, demonstrating the talent and skill of both actors and crew to get a scene done with ease.
So, now we know how Lucifer really became a fallen archangel... at least in the Xenaverse. It may not be entirely accurate in a classical sense, but that's just one of the many quirks that makes Heart of Darkness - and Xena itself - as great as it is.