Hurst Choice
Michael Hurst, the versatile actor-director behind Hercules' best friend, lolaus, talks to David Bassom about his legendary exploits past and present.
Official Xena Magazine: Issue 09
Michael Hurst was ready for the Journeys' end. After sharing Hercules' heroic adventures for the best part of six years, Hurst felt the time was long overdue to consign his legendary alter ego, lolaus, to the annals of television history. Similarly, from the moment he completed his tour of ancient Greece, the distinguished actor-director simply hasn't looked back.
“Truthfully, I haven't missed working on Hercules,” Hurst tells Xena Magazine. “The very next day after I finished shooting, I began working on the feature film Jubilee. A whole lot of other things have happened as well: my wife has had another child, and things have blossomed in all sorts of areas. So my life’s been really full since Hercules.
“Besides, I’d been expecting to leave the show much earlier than I did,” he admits. “In fact, the last bunch of episodes [during seasons five and six] were entirely a surprise to me because I was expecting to have been gone. So in some ways, those last episodes were shot on borrowed time; I was already planning the next stage and moving into the next area.
“When I did my final scenes in Hercules, I really did lay the character to rest,” Hurst says firmly. “I said goodbye; I did the whole thing. There’s nothing left over; there’s nothing hanging around and there’s no unfinished business.”
While Hurst’s life and career have obviously moved on since he said farewell to Hercules: The Legendary Journeys in June 1999, it would be completely wrong to assume that he no longer treasures his association or involvement with the show. On the contrary, the ever-charming and eloquent New Zealander is happy to discuss virtually any aspect of his time as lolaus, from its seemingly tragic beginning to its uplifting end. Hurst is also the first to acknowledge the many benefits of his heroic stint with Hercules.
“It changed my life in many ways,” he explains. “First of all, I suppose, there’s been the catapult to fame, although let’s be clear here: I may be well known in England, America and around the world, but in terms of New Zealand itself, the show was never that popular here. People here seem more interested in other things I’ve done.
“But the show did open up channels into other areas for me. It certainly gave me an enormous amount of experience in front of the camera; I got to experiment with a lot of acting styles. I also got to direct, which is probably the most forward-moving thing for me. I directed a lot of Hercules and a lot of Xena - still am, actually - and that gave me a huge amount of experience and skill-development, which was fantastic for me when I came to make my film.
“I’m also grateful to the show for the very long-lasting and meaningful friendships I’ve made. It also gave me some really sound financial security; I’m able to be a bit more choosy now about what I do.”
Then there are some other things that have happened, like the travelling. “When Kevin Sorbo [Hercules] and I met each other, we were both like these greenhorns. Look what’s happened now! I’ve got a family; Kevin’s married. Things have changed. It was a big period of life.
“I look at it as a real watershed time,” he states. “It’s almost like one of those six-to-seven year periods of your life where after you’ve had that period, you’re ready to move on. And I was ready. I’ve really reached the next level. But I loved it; I loved every minute of it. I wouldn't have changed things for the world.”
Ironically, Hurst’s Legendary Journeys were originally only meant to consist of an appearance in one of the Hercules telemovies. When the classically-trained stage and screen actor landed the role of Hercules’ best friend, lolaus, in Hercules and the Amazon Women, Hurst knew the character was destined to die before the telemovies closing credits. Much to the surprise of Hercules’ producers, he was also completely at ease with lolaus’ demise and wasn’t particularly keen to ‘resurrect’ the character in the subsequent telemovie, Hercules in the Maze of the Minotaur.
“I had already written it off,” he recalls. “I actually wasn't available. I was busy preparing a production of Hamlet which I directed and played the lead in, and I remember at the time, that it was like, ‘I'm sorry America, but I'm busy.’ They were appalled; they couldn’t understand it!
“But they managed to pull me out of rehearsals and paid all the actors a retainer for a week in the middle of rehearsals so I could go away and be lolaus. It was sort of from the sublime to the ridiculous - or the ridiculous to the sublime, depending on how you look at it!”
Following his unforgettable appearances in the two Hercules telemovies, lolaus became the son of Zeus’ regular travelling companion and partner-against-evil in the spin-off series, Hercules: The Legendary Journeys. For Hurst, playing the easy-going and immensely likeable lolaus always came quite naturally.
“It’s interesting,” he ponders. “A lot of what that character is and was is really just me having a good time. I don’t mean to take anything away from the acting or the scripts - although sometimes they left a lot to be desired - but basically the role gave me a real chance to just have a great time and play around with things. lolaus is not actually that far away from what I can be like.
“So I didn’t have to go through any lengthy method acting exercises to assume the character,” admits Hurst with a chuckle. “I mean, it was very, very close to me and therefore very easy to slip on and slip into that mode. All I had to do was to put the jacket on and hey presto!”
Throughout its six-year run, one of the show’s most popular elements was the irresistible rapport and deep friendship between Hercules and lolaus. Hurst believes that much of his screen chemistry with co-star Kevin Sorbo was the result of their real life relationship.
“With that, it was very natural,” he says. “Kevin and I became friends from the first time we met, and everything became easy. We both had a similar sense of humour and we were both totally prepared to send each other and ourselves up. I think that was the key to it.”
During his adventures with Hercules, the everyman hero lolaus often found himself in over his head and requiring the aid of his halfgod best friend. Although Hurst is well aware of lolaus’ constant reliance on Hercules, he is philosophical about the way his character was used in the series.
“In terms of modern writing for this kind of genre, there are prescribed things the sidekick must do to feed into the hero’s dilemma,” he notes. “It’s the job of the hero to rescue the sidekick. And one of the things we found early on was that we could let lolaus be too hot-headed and quick-tempered, and suffer from things like hubris and pride. They were nice things to be tempered by Hercules' calm, more rational deal. That was a natural foil.”
Towards the end of Hercules’ six-year run, Hurst’s role in the show took several surprising twists. These twists began with what seemed to be the real death of lolaus at the hands of the evil Dahak in the fifth season premiere, Faith. “When we first talked about that, I was supposedly going to be killed off properly this time, then come back as Dahak and then finally go to Heaven,” reveals Hurst. “I thought [Faith] would be my last episode. That was it; we all said goodbye! I went on and had arranged some other things to do.”
Shortly after lolaus’ death, Hurst was invited to return to the fold as his character’s parallel self from the epic Hercules alternate universe episode Stranger in a Strange World. The cowardly court jester commonly known as ‘lolaus 2’ filled the void left by the demise of Hercules’ famous travelling partner, until the original lolaus was once again resurrected by Hurst in the fifth season finale, Revelations.
“All the lolaus 2 stuff came as a little bit of a surprise to me,” he recalls. “In fact, that character was interesting to play because it was hard to find a way that it might appeal, because the real lolaus had made such an impact. All I could think of was to keep him in that vein, but make him a simpler kind of character and show his inexperience and use all of that.
“The idea of him becoming a merman or whatever it was at the end [in My Best Girl’s Wedding] was way out of the blue," he adds. “I have no idea how that happened!”
lolaus 2 was just one of several characters played by Hurst in addition to lolaus. His other creations included Charon (the ill-tempered boatman who ferried souls across the River Styx), the writer Paul Robert Coyle in the modern-day Hercules episodes, and, perhaps most famously, Hercules’ own pantomime dame, Widow Twanky.
“I think playing Widow Twanky was one of the most glorious things I got a chance to do in the show,” enthuses Hurst, who adopted the pseudonym of Edith Sidebottom for the role. “I spent the early part of my life in England and that pantomime/North Country/Les Dawson drag queen is, believe it or not, really special to me. I found it really amazing that the Americans bought into the fact that there’s a pantomime dame running around with a Lancashire accent and all that innuendo, because really, when you think about it, it’s pretty out there.”
Widow Twanky’s debut outing, ... And Fancy Free, remains one of Hurst's very favourite Hercules hours to this very day. The other episodic highlights of his time in ancient Greece were King for a Day, Mercenary, The Lost City and Faith.
Hurst was also delighted by the way Hercules concluded its glorious six-year run with the series finale, Full Circle. “I was glad they didn’t kill us off or anything,” he explains. “I think the idea that heroes are still left alive in the world is a positive thing and a good thing, so I enjoyed that feeling they go out on. And it might be useful that we’re still out there if you want to see two older heroes come out of retirement in 10 years time, maybe!”
On the subject of a possible Hercules revival, Hurst is certainly interested in the idea of teaming up with Sorbo once again and resuming lolaus' Legendary Journeys. But his involvement in such a production would largely depend on the nature of the project. “Coming back to it now, I’d much rather do it in a more adult framework,” he states. “And truthfully, if the show was to come back, I’d be much more interested in doing it as a movie than a one-hour episode.
“It’s not something I’m putting any energy into right now though,” he adds. “If it happens, it happens. I won’t be motivating it.”
Since concluding his work on Hercules, the majority of Hurst’s time has been taken up by his work on the feature film Jubilee. He’s also maintained his strong ties with Hercules’ production company, Renaissance Pictures, by working on two of its current New Zealand-based television shows: Xena: Warrior Princess and Jack of All Trades.
Hurst made his first post-Iolaus foray into ancient Greece as the director of the acclaimed fifth season Xena episode Antony and Cleopatra. “I’m really, really proud of that episode,” he enthuses. “I directed it coming out of Jubilee, which was shot almost faster than we’d do Hercules and Xena, and I’m really, really happy with what we did with it. I think it’s some of my best work as a director.”
Xena’s sixth season is set to provide several further opportunities for Hurst to stretch his directorial muscles, starting with the episode Who’s Gurkhan? “I’m excited about that one,” he reveals. “It’s set in North Africa and it’s about Gabrielle, who wants to take revenge. She’s wrestling with what it’s like wanting to kill someone for revenge and Xena has to help her deal with that. It’s set in a slave arena; they sell themselves as slaves to infiltrate this place. So it’s going to be quite brutal, although ultimately it’s about the characters’ love and support for each other.
“I'm interested in this sort of harder side of things at the moment,” adds Hurst. “Anthony and Cleopatra contrasts the sensuality of the Egyptian court with the absolute brutal Roman kind of steel of a civil war. It didn’t pull any punches. And similarly, with Who’s Ghurkhan, I think it could have a hard edge to it.”
In between shooting Xena adventures, Hurst has not only directed an episode of Jack of All Trades, but also guest-starred in another instalment, Shark Bait. “I was playing a character called Captain Nado, who was Leonardo DaVinci's great-great-great-grandson,” he reveals. “He's an insane inventor.
“That show is kind of a cross between Wild Wild West and Hogan's Heroes; it’s sort of in that vein. It’s broadly written, broadly played and very slapstick. And because it’s only half an hour long, it’s hardly subtle. I was the insane villain.”
As Michael Hurst enters the second year of life after Hercules, he’s moving forward with an energy and enthusiasm worthy of Iolaus himself. Besides his ongoing involvement with Xena and Jack of All Trades, he’s currently attached to a one-hour drama which is in development, and is working on a new screenplay for a movie he hopes to direct. On a more personal note, he is also writing university papers on Greek and Roman Religion and classical Greek, and is enjoying life with his wife, Jennifer Ward-Lealand, and their two children, Cameron and Jack.
“I’ve kind of got a full plate without even trying,” he declares. “I’m quite happy at the moment with what I've got going for me. I definitely want to pursue the directing, but not at the expense of acting. For me, they’re both aspects of the same thing I do, which is tell stories. So I want to and need to do both.
“I do seriously need to think about a return to the stage, though,” Hurst acknowledges, “because I'm hankering after it. I haven’t done a Shakespeare [play] since 1994, so I really want to do that. It doesn’t look like it will happen this year, but next year, look for me to appear in a Shakespeare production!
“So yeah, that’s where I am the moment I’m flat out!”
SIDEBAR: One Fowl Day
“There was an interesting incident in the episode One Fowl Day, where I needed a chicken - that was the episode with the giant chicken. The finale of it was that we managed to catapult the narcotic gosenberries into the chicken's mouth so that it would sleep, and it was then shrunk back to its normal size.
“Ares, the God of War, who was behind all this, had to pick up this sleeping chicken. So I said, ‘Well, how are we going to get a sleeping chicken? We don't want it to be all broody; we want it to be asleep - we're going to have to call the vets.’
“So we got this vet, and he brought two chickens along. You can actually tranquilise chickens but you have to have a second one in case the first one dies. So the guy picked the chicken up, very, very gently, and Ares did his bit with it, and that was for that one scene and it cost hundreds and hundreds of dollars. And I thought halfway through it, our First Assistant, George, has a farm, and he has chickens, and he kills them all the time, and we could get them from him - wouldn't that be easier? And it would've, but it's an animal rights thing, so we aren't allowed to.”
SIDEBAR: Movie Maker
As soon as he finished working on Hercules: The Legendary Journeys, Michael Hurst immediately turned his attention to another of the most important projects of his career, Jubilee. Produced by South Pacific Pictures, Jubilee marks Hurst's debut as a feature film director.
“I'm very proud of Jubilee,” he states. "It's terrific, if I say it myself! It's a lovely film; it's warm and uplifting and funny.
“I was originally hired to direct the film by [producer] John Barnett about a year before we started shooting it,” he explains. “As the film's production was delayed by my involvement with Hercules, we used that extra time to work on the script and get everything ready before we started to shoot it. We actually shot the film itself in 30 days!
“But what happened as the thing progressed [in pre-production] was that it kind of took on a life of its own in terms of the Maori content and the comedy. The film was written by a young Maori writer, Michael Bennett, who is fantastic. So by the time we got to shoot it, it was just a joy.”
Based on Nepi Solomon's best-selling novel, Jubilee follows small-town family man Billy Williams' attempts to organise the Waimatua School 75th Jubilee. Williams' efforts provide a springboard for a unique voyage of discovery.
“In a way, this film is like Brassed Off, Waking Ned Devine or even The Full Monty,” notes Hurst. “It's a small town comedy with a big, universal kind of appeal, because the hero is an everyman who faces common problems. It's full of very Kiwi colloquialisms and a particular streak of humour - a Maori sense of humour - and it's really funny.
“The publicity describes it as a small town comedy with a big heart. But it is like that; it's definitely a feelgood movie - I pulled out all the stops in that regard.”
Jubilee opened across New Zealand in April, where it was greeted with rave reviews but slightly disappointing box office takings. “People who go to see it think it's fantastic,” says Hurst with understandable pride. “But truthfully, it hasn't done particularly well at the box office. It seems that in this country, our own films don't do that well. It's strange, but just like Hercules and Xena - which were made here and are full of our own people - they don't catch on so brilliantly. Hopefully, it will do better overseas.
“Nevertheless, it's been received beautifully. Every time I watch it with an audience, they laugh and they love it. I'm also getting cards and phone calls from everyone I know saying they loved it. That's the way it is.”