Laughing Stock
Joxer is caught watching the Amazons bathe and soon finds himself in the village stocks in Kindred Spirits - but, as Kate Barker discovers, the episode is anything but serious.
Official Xena Magazine: Issue 08
Somewhere at the back of Pacific Renaissance’s West Auckland location film set, there lies a really impressive Amazon village. What’s so impressive is that it’s actually real - at least as far as building materials are concerned. The village has been part of the outdoor location site for several years, and there isn’t a polystyrene block to be seen. For instance, there’s a real log-cabin guest house, there are real carved totem poles, and real wooden stocks, from which, after several takes, Ted (Joxer) Raimi has only just been released.
Yes, Kindred Spirits is one of those episodes; Joxer is in trouble with the Amazons again. Luckily the crew are more forgiving than the characters. It seems Raimi’s stint in the stocks has had to be shot several times because of the actor’s constant “corpsing” with co-star Renee O’Connor. Raimi can only apologise after they finally get it right. “Renee and I had the giggles big time.”
O’Connor agrees, adding that although it’s always amusing when Raimi’s around, things don’t usually get that carried away. “There’s only one other time with Ted and I that was that bad…” Unfortunately she doesn’t elaborate, preferring to get back to her trailer for a costume change as soon as possible. She is sporting very American Indian-style Amazon garb, complete with wicked looking horned head dress. “This is my regal attire,” she explains, “and it’s very uncomfortable.”
As O’Connor exits, Lucy Lawless enters, ready to go through the next scene. Like her alter-ego, she is sans baby… although there seems to be what looks like a “prop” infant suspended in a makeshift swing near the corner of the set. “What’s taking so long?” Lawless enquires, the amusement in her tone suggesting that she knows all about O’Connor and Raimi’s previous antics.
“We had a giggle problem,” confirms Anna Gundeson, First Assistant Director, “but we’re good now.”
O’Connor returns presently, in similar (and one hopes more comfortable) attire, and she and Lawless run through the lines with scripts in hand and robes protecting their precious attire.
The costumes, like the set, are magnificent, and that goes for the rest of the Amazons too. There are lots of costume changes in season five for Xena and Gabrielle alone, but these Amazon outfits - and their surroundings - are really something to behold. The meticulous attention to detail is striking, and most effective, creating an ‘earthy’ look to this particular Amazon tribe. Everything just seems to fit together so naturally, from the leather hides and skins draped over salvaged fishing wharf poles, to functional living huts - at least, functional for storing the extras’ props and street clothes! There are also ornately designed hanging baskets and mobiles made of shells, features that add a very pacific island feel to the set. The shells blend in perfectly, yet also add a flavour which is very unique in itself.
Outside one of the hunts, Amazon extras mill about, sipping coffee from paper cups. It’s the only thing that’s incongruous, and apart from that slight anachronism, one could almost believe they were standing in an ancient Amazon village. But that is, of course, the idea.
Right now though, it’s 10:30am on a beautifully sunny Thursday morning. It’s also Summer in New Zealand, and nearly Christmas. Co-incidentally, the trees being positioned by the set dressers (to match the scene at the end of the previous days’ shooting) are Pinus Radiata pine trees, the standard Christmas tree in many New Zealand homes.
The crew continues to set up, including laying tracks through the middle of the set, for the cameras to follow Gabrielle running into shot at the start of the scene. Although the scene’s dialogue concerns Joxer, Raimi has finished his scenes for the episode - that is, says Gundeson, “based on us finding a body double for scene 37.”
Lawless goes over Xena’s motivation with director Josh Becker one more time, and they start filming. On cue, O’Connor rushed into view as Gabrielle - followed, out of shot of course, by boom mike, lights and two cameras, one of them mounted on the previously laid track. They manage to shoot two rehearsed takes before work is stopped again. This time, it isn’t because of a fit of giggles, but a fit of rain.
“We’ll just wait for this bit of squally weather to pass,” says Gundeson, “and we’ll be shooting again.”
In a few short seconds the view changes from Xena whittling a farcically large pile of wood shavings, to Lawless and crew standing around in raincoats and holding umbrellas over valuable camera equipment. As rain continues to fall from the incongruously sunny sky, a sound technician asks jokingly, “is it too late to relocate to the studio?”
But 12 minutes later (still with a light rain), shooting finally resumes. There are several shots taken of the same scene, from wide to close up, the dialogue varying slightly (but not too much) almost every time.
Gabrielle’s first line of the scene is very important, however: something about Joxer being about to go blind.
No, says, Xena, that doesn’t really happen to men. It’s only a myth…
So, what heinous crime has Joxer committed that sees him locked, stocked and ready to lose his eyesight? According to the split, it seems Joxer accidentally came across a bunch of bathing Amazons, and was caught red-handed. By Amazon law - which by rite of caste, Gabrielle must enforce - poor old Joxer must pay a pretty hefty price for his mistake.
And speaking of mistakes, one wonders if the Raimi/O’Connor giggling fit will end up on a Kindred Spirits out-take tape. It sounds like one particular scene might beat them to it. “We have to reshoot the naked Amazons,” comments Becker. What follows is a tacky quip regarding a pun on ‘blooper reel’. Naturally, some reporters have more respect for ancient Greek warrior women than to repeat it…