Glad Tydings
When Alexandra Tydings landed the role of Aphrodite, the goddess of love, it proved to be a match made in Heaven. During a heart-to-heart with David Bassom, the bubbly US actress discusses her enchanting excursions into the ancient world.
Official Xena Magazine: Issue 07
Alexandra Tydings has long been casting her spell over Hercules and Xena viewers.
Right from her very first foray into the ancient world, people have been falling head over heels for Tydings' portrayal of Aphrodite, the vain, playful and utterly reckless Goddess of Love. And today, more than four years after her dizzy debut, Aphrodite continues to hold a special place in the hearts of viewers around the world.
“People tell me over and over again that they love how funny Aphrodite is,” says Tydings of her character’s enduring appeal. “She’s so much fun, and she’s also so surprising. She rarely behaves in the way you’d expect the Goddess of Love to.
“I also think another thing people really love about Aphrodite is that she doesn’t prevent herself from doing whatever she wants. She’s almost like pure id; she really doesn’t have a lot of restraint. And she also gets what she wants a lot of the time. I think the audience enjoy that because they can imagine themselves being so uninhibited and having so much fun and power.”
Considering her enormous success in the role of Aphrodite, it’s hard to believe that Tydings initially had little interest in playing the Goddess of Love. But when she first heard about the character’s debut in the second season Hercules episode The Apple, the project's appeal was confined solely to a simple matter of geography.
“I originally wanted to do Hercules because it was shot in New Zealand,” she admits candidly. “At that time, I didn't know anything about the show, I had never seen it. All I knew was that it was an hour-long action-drama, which didn't really mean much to me. But as soon as they told me it was shooting in New Zealand, I agreed to do the audition.
“My manager at the time really didn't want me to do Hercules," continues Tydings. “I had just done this movie with Woody Harrelson [The Sunchaser] which everyone thought was going to be this huge success - which it wasn't - and I was auditioning for all these big movie roles. So my manager and agent were being very protective of my career and what I did, because they really wanted to create a film career for me. But once I heard Hercules was shooting in New Zealand, I didn't really care!”
After being cast as Aphrodite, Tydings prepared for her Hercules debut by refreshing her knowledge of Greek myths. “That was interesting because my ideas about Aphrodite were much more romantic than the script's idea of Aphrodite," she reveals, “in the script, she seems like a complete bitch. She's funny, she's silly and she's not usually vindictive, but sometimes she is. And that really wasn't my idea of who Aphrodite was.
“But I started reading the myths and I discovered Aphrodite was actually quite vindictive at times. She was really, really mean to a few mortal women here and there. And the first script really showed that.”
Tydings made her first trip to New Zealand in January 1996. Following a 13-hour flight from Los Angeles, she promptly found herself in Hercules’ wardrobe department, where Aphrodite’s now-legendary (or perhaps that should be ‘infamous’) look was swiftly defined.
“I got to New Zealand at about six o'clock in the morning,” she recalls, “and just about had enough time to have a coffee and unpack before they took me into wardrobe. I like to joke that it's all part of their cunning, crafted scheme to ensure that you have no idea what they’re doing! You go through the fitting, you show up on the set on the day and you go, ‘Where’s the rest of my costume?’
“I was very surprised by my costume," Tydings admits. “I was certainly surprised I was wearing pink, because it’s not really one of my favourite colours. And the curly blonde wig was pretty hysterical, too. I had really short hair at the time, and I thought it was cool that they had cast a short-haired Goddess of Love. But no, they hadn’t!”
The end result of Tydings’ costume fitting was a character who barely resembles her real life counterpart. “My whole body looks incredibly different in that whole outfit,” she states. “I think I’ve been recognised from Hercules and Xena twice in my entire life. But in some ways, it helps get me into character. As the morning progresses and the make-up team are nailing the wig to my head, I can kind of see Alex disappear and Aphrodite start to take over!
“And everyone on the set has been very considerate about the costume. Being on-set as Aphrodite is a bit like being at a beach in your bathing suit with your family - except everyone else at the beach gets to wear clothes!”
Taking her cue from the script of The Apple, Tydings seized the chance to establish Aphrodite as an archetypal “surfer babe”. Although this initial character description sounds extremely limiting, Tydings is happy to report that she has always been encouraged to develop the Goddess of Love into a much more multi-faceted individual.
“Right from the beginning, everyone let Aphrodite be more three-dimensional than just this vain beauty,” she explains. “It’s interesting because when I went to audition, the one thing the casting director Beth Hymson said to me right before I walked in was, 'She’s not stupid.' And I thought, ‘Why would she be stupid?’ It really hadn’t even occurred to me that Aphrodite could be stupid. So the writers and producers were aware that she has these different sides to her from the start.
“I think they really blew her open with the third episode I did, which was Love Takes a Holiday,” Tydings comments. “That’s the episode in which Aphrodite decides that she’s had it with being the Goddess of Love and wants to take someone else's gig. That episode shows a different dimension to Aphrodite, and also shows her being touched in a real way rather than a way that just flatters her vanity. So I think the writers have done a great job in developing the character.”
Following her enchanting debut in The Apple, Aphrodite went on to become a recurring character on both Hercules and its sister show, Xena. While Tydings initially felt a little awkward about making the transition between the two series, she soon overcame any such discomfort.
“The first time I did Xena, it was slightly weird,” she recalls. “I had sort of bonded right away with everyone on Hercules. Kevin [Sorbo] had directed my first episode and we kind of clicked right away, and the woman who was my make-up artist [Debbie Watson] became one of my best friends. So I felt like I had this whole family on Hercules. Then, going on to Xena was a little funny, because it was the same costumes, same props and a lot of the same sets, but different people who all knew each other. So I felt like a bit of an outsider at first. But as I kept switching back and forth between the shows, so did the crewmembers. So after a while there really wasn’t any difference between working on the two shows.
“I’ve heard other people say that Hercules was a much more male-dominated set and Xena was a more female-dominated set,” she muses. “But the only time I ever really felt that way was when we made [the fifth season Xena instalment] Little Problems. Allison Liddi was directing that episode and another woman was the First A.D. [assistant director], and the set was full of women in power. I really, really had a ball on that show!”
Reviewing her time on both Xena and Hercules, Tydings points to The Apple, Love Takes a Holiday, If the Shoe Fits, The Quill is Mightier and the aforementioned Little Problems as some of the Goddess of Love’s most adorable adventures. “I’ve had a ton of great episodes,” she enthuses. “The writers have been great because they’ve constantly given me new things to do. I've had to learn how to use a bow and arrow and all sorts of other stuff like that. The writers have constantly challenged us to do different things, which has been wonderful.”
Along with most of her co-stars, Tydings has also relished the opportunity to play alternative roles in both Hercules and Xena. The most famous of these diversions came with the fourth season Hercules instalment One Fowl Day, which featured Tydings as Katherine, a pig who is given human form by the ever-mischievous Aphrodite.
“That was so much fun,” she says. “I loved that character, it was just delightful to play someone who finds everything new and exciting and joyful and thrilling. It was a real blast, and Kevin and I had so much fun together with the scenes, like when we're dunking our heads in the soup!
“And the mud bath was hysterical!” she continues. “Bruce Campbell [Autolycus] and Michael Hurst [lolaus] also had to do some mud stuff in that episode, so I sort of heard these horror stories about mud in the eyes and so on. It didn’t sound like that much fun, but their characters were in a situation where they could sort of use that disgust, whereas I was supposed to be a pig who enjoyed wallowing in the mud. So I just held my breath and jumped in!”
Tydings further expanded her list of Hercules credits by playing an alternate universe Aphrodite in the fourth season classic Stranger in a Strange World. “The thing I liked most about doing that episode was that I got to wear clothes for a change,” she laughs. “I wore a long dress. It was wonderful!"
Most recently, the surreal fifth season Xena adventure Married with Fishsticks featured Tydings as both Aphrodite and Crabella the mermaid. “The mermaid stuff was hilarious,” she recalls. “I had gotten my scuba diving licence a couple of months before, and I got to try it out on-set underwater - and complete with a mermaid tail! It was a lot of fun.
“I also did an accent for that character, but I didn't know anything about it until I arrived in New Zealand. I got off the plane with a day and a half to prep, and it was only then that I found out the script required an accent."
Following Married with Fishsticks, Tydings will make her next appearance as Aphrodite in the show’s eagerly-awaited fifth season finale, Motherhood. Beyond that, the actress would love to guest-star in further Xena adventures, and is particularly intrigued by the possibility of working on one of the show’s musical or contemporary instalments. All things considered, though, Tydings feels that her four-year-old association with Hercules and Xena has been nothing but beneficial.
“It’s been wonderful,” she stales. “I’m so, so grateful that I got the job and so grateful that they keep bringing me back. I’m grateful that I got to cross over to Xena and that I get to keep working with these people.
“It's been so much fun and I've learned so much working on the two shows. I sort of feel like I went to High School with Hercules and Xena.”
Prior to 'studying' with the ancient gods, Alexandra Huntington Tydings actually completed her formal education by graduating in Modern Culture and Media from Brown University, Rhode Island. She subsequently began her acting career by appearing in the likes of Vanishing Son, Party of Five, The Red Shoe Diaries, Walking on Sunshine and Angst. Major roles in the Michael Cimino movie The Sunchaser and an unsold UPN pilot, Dodge’s City, followed shortly after, together with her regular appearances on Hercules and Xena.
“Hercules and Xena have definitely been my highest profile work so far,” she says, “I’ve got the most recognition from them. It's funny, though, because I'd say the two other highlights of my career were one thing no one has seen and another project that almost no one saw!
“Sunchaser, the one that hardly anyone saw, was really fun. Michael Cimino directed it and before I got the role, my agent told me what a famous director he was and that he'd won the Best Director Oscar for Deer Hunter. And, of course, I didn’t even know who he was! Deer Hunter was just one of those war films that my mother wouldn’t let me watch. But Michael Cimino was an intense director, and Woody [Harrelson] was really fun to work with. It was a very high stakes drama.
“The other thing I really enjoyed was this pilot I did for UPN last year called Dodge’s City. No one saw that. I got to play an Australian girl, which was so much fun.”
In between return visits to the ancient world, Tydings is currently seeking new roles and has a number of projects in the pipeline. “Right this minute, one of my major goals for this year is to work in Los Angeles," she reveals. “I haven’t actually slept at home and then gone to work in Los Angeles for something like three years now!
“But in terms of roles and projects, I really want to do everything. I want to do big, huge movies and little tiny movies, and I’d love to have a regular part in a TV series. And I’d love to work in Thailand, Moscow, Africa, Kenya and India.”
One thing Alexandra Tydings has absolutely no intention of doing, however, is trying to take a leaf out of Aphrodite’s spell book. Despite her enormous success as Hercules and Xena's ever-meddling Goddess of Love, Tydings insists that she has no intention of playing the role of matchmaker in real life.
“Me give advice? I'd never be able to live that kind of thing down!” she declares with a hearty laugh. “I am actually very, very blessed in that I have a wonderful, wonderful person in my life, and people have told me they look up to us in terms of that [relationship]. But I'm certainly no goddess, and no one comes up to me looking for a match or a spell or anything like that! My friends know that's not who I am.
“But they do tease me a lot for playing Aphrodite. My friends definitely take advantage of that opportunity to wind me up. I'm pretty easy to get along with and pretty easy to please, but if there's ever something I don't like, someone will say, ‘Oh, nothing's good enough for the Goddess of Love!’ So I couldn’t imagine what they’d say if I suddenly tried to arrange dates for everyone.”