The Making of Motherhood
Xena’s electrifying fifth season finale, Motherhood, pits the warrior princess against the ancient gods in a final battle for survival. Kate Barker visits the hallowed Xena sets during the final days of season five’s production, and discovers the joys of Motherhood…
Official Xena Magazine: Issue 08
It is often said that any creature in the wild is always more ferocious when cornered and attacked, and this is doubly true when that creature is a mother protecting her young. Of course, when that mother is also Xena, ferocity doesn’t even begin to describe the power behind the action that ensues.
Motherhood, the fifth season finale of Xena: Warrior Princess, could be described as a “family” episode. Xena has been reunited with her daughter Eve (Adrienne Wilkinson). Then, all hell - or rather, Mount Olympus - breaks loose around them…
In Motherhood, Xena, Eve and Gabrielle must contend with Artemis, Ares, Athena, Aphrodite, Demios, Discord, Hades, Hephaestus and Poseidon, not to mention the Furies and their own dark demons as well. And if the prophecy of the Twilight of the Gods is to reach fruition, sacrifices must be made - on both sides of immortality.
Coming out of a showdown like this unscathed isn’t going to be easy, especially if the action in one of Xena’s darkened interior sets is anything to go by. This particular studio has been transformed into a dimly-lit back room; the back room, in fact, of the elderly Joxer’s Tavern, itself a museum dedicated to all things Xena. Remember, in just a few episodes, 25 years have passed.
In a corner of the set, Wilkinson and Lucy Lawless (Xena) are blocking out the moves of the current shot. It is mid-battle; Eve is bruised and bleeding, and Xena is throwing all she has - conveniently nearby spears and other weapons included - at the unseen gods who want her destroyed. For the first couple of rehearsals, Lawless blocks out her moves in slow motion, then at half speed, simulating the noises of explosions to check her reaction times for the upcoming effects.
“They’re doing a ‘Xena fights the gods’ scene,” warns a crewmember, “so there are going to be a lot of loud noises soon.”
Loud noises aren’t all. Unlike the other room of the tavern - located in another studio some five minutes’ drive away - the back room has been specifically designed for the effects about to be filmed. As the crew starts shooting, flame bars and control switches are activated, and several parts of the wooden set look as if they are bursting into flame. Lawless and Wilkinson are right in the thick of it, perfectly safe as actors but in big trouble as Xena and Eve.
The fires are all carefully controlled under the supervision of special effects man Ken Durey, and can be switched off as easily as they spring up. Director Rick Jacobson yells, “Cut!” and the crew steps in to reset the scene. “Let’s go again on that,” calls Jacobson, “but let’s push Lucy’s mark up a bit.” Lawless gets a little watered down too; Xena’s just rushed in from a raging storm. A few months ago she was out-running a gigantic fireball in Amphipolis Under Siege and now she is back in the heat of things, waiting for special effects to send another volley her way.
As if the fire isn’t enough, a few explosions need to be added too. After all, there are eight angry gods out there who want Eve and Xena to be so much mortal dust. While the crew is at work, Safety Officer Sally Forde starts handing out little packets of green foam cones, attached to each other in pairs by pieces of string. “There will be a bomb in this take,” she explains, “so don’t get a fright. Earplugs, anyone?”
Even with the earplugs in, it’s not a quiet scene. The lights - including a strobe - flash menacingly as Lawless throws out various weapons and deflects unseen lightning bolts with her chakram.
Seconds later, we have the big bang.
It’s an almighty noise, cueing the flames elsewhere on the set and throwing up a huge cloud of smoke. It clears away in seconds as though it had never been there; Jacobson calls cut again, and Lawless and the others crowd around the camera monitors to watch the shot played back.
The actors go back to their starting marks again and try the scene with slightly different moves as Jacobson suggests to the special effects crew that the fire and brimstone should come in a little earlier. Another warning from Forde (“Explosions in this one, guys!”) and they film the shot again.
Once more the set needs to be redressed and some of the bigger props - including a weapons rack that resembles a stylised umbrella stand! - are shifted off the set to make way for repositioned lighting and sound equipment. The crew have just worked a six-day week and they’ll be working on this episode for another four days.
The crew’s current location is a very good-looking set, from the lit candles on a nearby table to the window shutters through which simulated sunlight is pouring. Looking at those slatted shutters, it would be very easy to believe that the shafts of light streaming in are not electrically generated but the real sunlight of the bright cloudless day outside.
Each angle of this explosive shot requires a great deal of preparation and everything must be repositioned perfectly for every take.
“Let’s go again,” calls Jacobson, “from Lucy picking up the dagger…”
Despite the fact that her character is in very bad shape, Adrienne Wilkinson is enjoying her role as Eve. “I feel like I’m in the middle of Fire in the Hole,” she says.
“What’s Fire in the Hole?” I ask.
“It’s a roller-coaster,” she beams.
It’s certainly a roller-coaster for the characters involved - and for some of them, it’s a ride that marks the end of the line. Many of the minor gods seem to have simply vanished out of fear for their Olympian lives, but the remains of the pantheon are certainly formidable to face.
Motherhood is a wonderfully dramatic way to end the fifth series, and being on the sidelines of its creation is certainly a “full-on Xena experience.” There are even souvenirs: everybody gets to keep their earplugs.