All The World’s A Stage: God Fearing Child
The latest on-set reports by Kate Barker.
Official Xena Magazine: Issue 05
“It's an epic tale we've got here,” says episode director Phil Sgriccia of God Fearing Child… and he should know. He is standing in the middle of a “statue graveyard”, about to observe a very familiar half-god threaten his supposedly immortal father with certain death.
Hold on - what's Hercules doing here? Isn't God Fearing Child an episode of Xena: Warrior Princess?
Indeed it is. But, in true dramatic fashion, another hero is needed while Xena is elsewhere, preparing warrior-style for the trials of impending motherhood. Kevin Sorbo is reprising his role as Hercules one more time, helping to protect Xena’s baby from the gods of Olympus. Seems there’s a prophecy that this particular child will signal the gods’ eventual demise, hence a very clever play on words in the episode’s title. Still, a briefly guesting Sorbo remains a little confused. “On the last show of Hercules," he remembers, “there was positive closure between Herc and Hera, Herc and Ares, Herc and his father. Now all of a sudden I’m coming back and there’s the typical dysfunctional family. I said, ‘Why?’ But it is a dramatic episode.”
Asked about the prophecy of Xena’s child meaning doom for the gods, the actor pleads ignorance. “I don’t know what they have in mind. I’ve heard rumours, but I have no idea.” Sorbo laughs suddenly, shaking his head. “I don’t know what Mr Tapert is doing,” he says, referring to Rob Tapert, Executive Producer. “Rewriting history, I guess.”
Sorbo does admit that with the introduction of this theme, it looks like “the world is going to be a whole new different place,” and acknowledges that unlike the more farcical aspects of the parent series, Xena has a much more serious spin. Although comedy is definitely a factor, the producers of Xena are not afraid to tackle the more powerful themes head-on. “Hercules was always done with the tongue firmly planted in the cheek. Xena was always a darker show; it’s got a very dramatic feel.”
Warrior babies foretelling the demise of the gods, and Zeus finally battling god-to-half-god with his son. It certainly looks dramatic, if the current scene is anything to go by.
Amid the rushing around and preparing for a major Olympian battle, director Sgriccia looks briefly as though he just might have preferred a more sedate arrangement. “Madness!” he exclaims between takes. “Why couldn’t they have been sitting at a coffee shop counter?”
It is clear though, that Sgriccia enjoys his work. He has directed several episodes of Hercules over the last four years of the series, and is always keen to be involved in the process. “When they say ‘Hey, do you want to [direct] one,’ it’s really easy for me to say, ‘yeah.’ They’ve got a good set up here, and a good group of people.”
One of the good things about this set up is the fact that so many of the episode locations already exist. The field of ancient and broken Olympian statues is in fact part of a farm in west Auckland, an area used frequently for the filming of Hercules and Xena. Getting to this particular set can be an adventure in itself; from a farm truck thundering along dirt tracks, the view of the surrounding scenery is breathtaking... and just a little familiar. Only a few metres away from the set of God Fearing Child, is a location used in the very first Hercules television movie, Hercules And The Amazon Women.
“That’s Lucy Lawless’s claim to fame,” points out our driver Simon, whose family owns the farm in question. (Before her days as Xena, Lawless starred in Hercules And The Amazon Women as an Amazon unimpressed with Hercules and his exploits)
Simon and his brother do a lot of set-to-set driving for cast and crew, when the farm is used for filming. It’s a big place (hence the need for transport), allowing many different locations in the one basic area. This one property gives access to forest, lake, cliff face and sand dune... not to mention very close proximity to the beach. In fact, the farm itself has been used for the filming of various commercials, series and feature films since the seventies. One might wonder whether all that activity might be hard on the land, but Simon acknowledges the ecological benefits to the area. “The crews don’t change the landscape much. It gets used, but they always leave it exactly as they find it... sometimes even make it better.” He pauses, then adds with a smile, “Of course, it’s a great income too.”
Back to the scene at hand. It’s the first shoot of the day and the crew scuttles around the set, placing stone heads and dressing them with props-department leaves and vines. One crewmember strides past, carrying a broken pillar over his head. Although we know it’s probably only painted polystyrene and not marble, it still looks impressive; something you might expect Hercules to do on his day off...
Right now though, it's time for a major family argument. During this scene, Hercules threatens his father with a knife carved from bone, one of the few things that can kill an immortal. Zeus (played here by veteran actor Charles Keating) responds with a subtle godly act. “Your lightning bolts are set on stun,” Sgriccia reminds Keating. The knife flies out of his son’s hand and slices into a nearby tree. Cool.
Unfortunately, it is more than a couple of takes before the shot looks right. The knife is actually being pulled back out of Sorbo’s hand by an ‘invisible’ wire... but it just doesn't seem to be working. An exasperated Sgriccia finally suggests, “How about trying it without the wire?”
Sorbo tries simply tossing the knife behind him, as the shot is filmed from several different angles. At last, the problem is solved.
“It’ll be covered by visual effects anyway,” muses Sgriccia. He goes on to praise the efforts of actors and crew in finally getting the shot to work. “Very nice, guys. Excellent!”
Some of the effects of the confrontation will be added by computer in post-production. Here on set though, a couple of Zeus’ fancy moves are generated by nearby lights. Sgriccia warns everyone who isn't part of the lighting crew, “Don’t touch the lighting equipment, for your own safety.”
Someone suggests that maybe Keating shouldn’t be standing so close to the lights during the scene, to which Sgriccia replies, “but he is Zeus, after all.”
Zeus isn’t the only god to show his face here, either. God Fearing Child also features the gods Hades (Stephen Lovatt), Ares (Kevin Smith) and Hera (Meg Foster), not to mention the fates Atropos, Lachesis and Clotho. Xena must avoid the plans of all of them, in order to achieve a safe and successful birth.
“It’s pretty big,” says Sgriccia again, “it’s one of the epic ones. We’ve got four gods, plus Hercules, plus Xena having that little thing like a baby. This is the big mythology stuff.”
It's an original take on mythology, but Sgriccia does have a point. God Fearing Child is big, and definitely a turning point for mortal and immortal alike. You can’t get much bigger than prophesising the end of the gods, after all.