Journey’s End
As Xena: Warrior Princess nears the final stretch of its legendary journey, series star Lucy Lawless takes a break from chariot racing on the set of The God You Know to offer her thoughts on the impending end... Interview by Kate Barker.
Official Xena Magazine: Issue 18
Talking to Lucy Lawless shortly before the Christmas 2000-2001 break, the final season of Xena is a little over halfway through filming, with just a handful of episodes left to shoot before the show wraps in late March.
While there's still plenty of work ahead for Lawless and the rest of the show's cast and crew, the season is progressing at a rapid pace, which prompts the question: how does Lawless feel about the imminent conclusion of Xena? “It's a very complex one,” she responds. “I'm sad but on a physical level, I'm kind of relieved. It’s been a long, hard run, and it was never less than challenging, and always rewarding.
“Also, it hasn’t really sunk in yet that it’s the end,” she admits, “because I’ve still got another nine episodes to shoot. So, for me, there’s still a lot of hard work to go. I expect to feel stronger emotions later.”
Lawless certainly anticipates that the final days on the set will be very emotional, and has already given some thought to what elements of the series and the work she will miss the most. “I’ll miss working with my friends,” she says. “I won’t miss the hours, but I’ll miss having such a tremendous role.”
It’s clear that Lawless has invested a great deal in the role of Xena. Can the actress imagine finding another character part as fulfilling and involving for her as an actress as Xena has been? “I think so, yes,” she remarks, “because that’s the way I work. I will always involve myself thoroughly.
“But I don’t think there will ever be a role that offers me so much variety,” she counters. “I don’t ever expect to play another role with this much depth and scope. Every role is challenging, because you choose to give it your all, but I don’t expect to have a role this much fun ever again.”
While many series stars enjoy having input into the development of their characters and spend time in discussion with the producers and writers suggesting possible scenarios and dialogue, Lawless admits that this isn’t something she has ever felt the need to do in the case of Xena. And when asked if she has any specific ideas as to what kind of exit she would like her on screen alter ego to make, the actress jumps at the opportunity to explain to fans just why she doesn’t want to become involved in the character’s development.
“I always wondered why I didn't know what to say to that type of question - I always thought it was because I was slack or something!” she admits. “But it’s actually because that’s just not the way I operate.
“The way I work is that I just react to any given situation the same way I think Xena would,” she explains. “That means that, just like life, I take it as it comes, and I’m not plotting and planning and trying to engineer my character into any situations. I accept what comes and I react appropriately. So I’m not somebody who analyses and keeps the big picture. I work from the inside out, not from the outside in.
“But I do want the show to go out on a high, and I think it absolutely will,” she enthuses. “We’re working very hard to make every story more brilliant than the last one, and that’s what I’ll also do. I’ll give my all, just as I’ve always done.”
No one could argue that Lawless has given her all over the last six years of Xena, and she has certainly faced some difficult challenges during that time. “The hardest episodes are the ones that are physically, and therefore mentally, demanding, because the physical nature of this work doesn’t come easily to me,” she says.
“For instance, for the episodes we’re out in the rain, on film we may only be in the rain for four minutes, but what you don’t know is that that’s actually four 12-hour days in, you know - a raging river, on a cliff, or in a pond… And that’s really tough work.
“But the ones that are the most difficult to shoot are also the best episodes,” she adds. “At least, they’re the best dramatic episodes. Not surprisingly, the most fun ones have been the comedies. I’ve always liked the comedies best.”
That doesn’t necessarily mean that the comedies are any easier to shoot than the drama oriented episodes, however. “It’s easier in that that’s where I feel most at home,” she remarks, “and I love to goof around with my friends. But I really miss working with Ted Raimi, because he and I were each other’s fall guy. So I miss that element.”
Are there any other specific characters that Lawless has particularly enjoyed interacting with on screen? “Definitely Michael [Charles Mesure], the archangel,” she reveals. “I always enjoy scenes with him. He comes in as the angel, so he's holy, right - he’s the holy god’s soldier, in this case the Christian god.
“Michael has had the greatest character arc of any character I can think of,” Lawless states. “He really becomes the most unpredictable agent in any Xena storyline, and he always brings a dangerous element into an episode. When Michael turns up, you certainly don’t know what his agenda is.”
If Lawless could go back and play any other character in Xena, who would it be? “Actually, I love the role of Caligula,” she says of the Roman Emperor in the episode she’s currently shooting, played by US actor Alexis Arquette. “That’s a good one. For me, the more demented the part, the better, and I think Caligula is as crazy as it gets!”
Asked whether Caligula is actually crazier even than Callisto, Lawless ponders for a moment before responding. “Well, to me, Caligula is a very human part,” she points out, “whereas Callisto always seemed from another world, which is perhaps less interesting from a purely psychological standpoint... or a psychiatric standpoint!”
Speaking of psychological, how much does Lawless feel that both she as an actor and Xena as a character have developed over the past six years? “That’s a really huge question and I find it very difficult to talk about it,” she admits. “Funnily enough, I find it more difficult to talk about the changes that have occurred in the character of Xena than the changes that have occurred in me over that time.
“I feel I’ve changed in every way,” she expands. “I met a man and entered my second marriage. I’ve had a baby. I have my daughter who’s very nearly a teenager. I’ve moved house several times, we got a dog... I’ve made a lot of new friends but still retained my oldest friends - the people I would still see in the holidays, my friends from school - because I still live in the same city, so that’s not impossible to do.
“I know I’m very much a different person, but that’s bound to happen in six years: the time of your life from the age of 26 to 32 is a pretty steep learning curve.”
In a recent interview, Lawless stated that she felt her and Ted Raimi were “klutzes” when it came to the dance routines in Lyre, Lyre, Hearts on Fire, laughingly describing moments like that as a reminder to her that she’s “not really the star of the world.”
“Well, here we live in this Xena world, and sometimes you forget that you’re really bad at flower arranging or whatever,” Lawless explains, laughing. “Or you realise how bad the house looks after you’ve been home for a week! You then realise that you’re not nearly as good at cleaning it as the woman who does it when you’re working.”
In many respects, however, Lucy Lawless is very much a star. “Yeah,” she admits, “but you’re only really a star when people are expecting you to play that role. In my normal life, people wouldn’t accept that, and they don’t expect it. So my being a star is not relevant to my day-to-day life.”
Turning our attention away from her day-to-day life for a moment, though, is there anything from the last six years of Xena that really stands out in Lawless’ memory as having had a particularly dramatic impact on her or the character of Xena? “I had one just yesterday, actually,” she reveals. “It was with Caligula. We ad-libbed a line at the end of the scene in which Xena tells him that she understands him... and she truly does.
“It was a revelation for Xena in terms of her growing understanding of this person. It was also the first time in a long while that I had experienced a character development for her. I mean, Xena learns things - she learns information - all the time, and she says things like, ‘Oh, that’s what that means...’ But this was the first time in a long while that my character learned something about herself, and it kind of happened on screen. It was a little bit of synergy and it was wonderful working with the director [Garth Maxwell], who totally got it, and, in fact, helped plant the idea in my mind. And working off Alexis was a beautiful thing!
“The last time I remember experiencing something that felt that good was with Renee in the campfire scene, which I think was in Callisto way back when,” Lawless recalls, thinking back. “Xena was talking to Gabrielle about her experiences for the first time. She was speaking about an apocalyptic experience, about how she could smell the bodies that she had lain waste to, and how it was in that moment that she realised the enormity of her crime.
“It’s been a long time since I’ve felt that on screen. I feel like I always live in the moment, but as an actor, you never forget those tremendous moments, because they’re the big ones.”
Once Xena wraps, whatever the future holds for the Warrior Princess, the show will continue to air across the world in years to come, and Xena/Hercules conventions will go on for as long as there are fans of the show to attend them. So does Lawless intend to continue to be involved with the show’s loyal fan base post-Xena, or does she plan to keep a low profile for a while?
“Well, I take life as it comes,” she remarks, “and I’ve always said that Xena only exists in front of the camera. I do feel that now and when the show ends, Xena exists in myth, in replays and in the memories of all of us.
“I’m an actress, and I have a husband and a family, so my real role in life is to be a human being. So I don’t expect to be turning up at every convention that’s going, even though I have always really enjoyed the experience in the past.”
Whether or not she does turn up at any further Xena conventions following her highly anticipated upcoming appearance at Creation’s May extravaganza in Pasadena, LA, Lawless is forever grateful to the fans for supporting her and the show over the past years, and is eager to express her appreciation of their loyalty and dedication.
“I want to thank the fans,” she says earnestly. “I want to say to them, ‘I am very proud to have been a part of the lives of such a generous bunch of people who have really pulled together to help many, many charities, and who have been a force for good in the world. It was an honour playing a role that inspired and encouraged you. So that’s why I want to leave Xena young and timeless... I want to leave her a perfect memory.’”
In conclusion, what is Lawless planning to do immediately after the show wraps? “Have a holiday!” she laughs.