Rob Tapert
Executive Producer - Hercules/Xena
The Chakram Newsletter: Issue 05
SD: Has anyone told you you're an evil man - showing me a piece of “Adventures In The Sin Trade” and then hitting the stop button just as I'm getting sucked in? (grin)
Rob: Ah well. (laughing)
SD: There will be some familiar faces coining back during the fourth season?
Rob: Yes, Caesar's back. His and Xena's destinies continue to cross.
SD: It seemed when we last saw him that Caesar thought he had figured out how to handle Xena.
Rob: Wrong! (laughing)
SD: She's a very quick learner.
Rob: Caesar also pays a visit to Hercules. It takes place in Ireland. It's a good historical question mark. Not that it's at all true, but this was the battle he refused to record because he got his ass kicked by Hercules. (laughing)
SD: Is Gina Torres going to play Cleopatra on Hercules? I've been showing a slide of her at our conventions and she's wearing a gown that I can’t imagine Nebula having in her closet!
Rob: Gina is not playing Cleopatra, but it's a story point that I don't want to give away.
SD: The writers have said that scenes showing Argo’s relationship with Xena have been cut from past episodes because of time constraints. But I've heard this season she gets an episode of her own.
Rob: We do have an Argo story called “In Sickness And In Hell.” I think it's going to be a very funny show in a totally different way than “Fins, Femmes & Gems” was last year. This will be a totally engaging, funny, but horrifying show. (laughing)
SD: You’re going to do four episodes that take place in India. Why did you pick this country to go to?
Rob: Because Xena and Gabrielle are on a spiritual quest and it seemed like they should end up in India.
SD: The spiritual homeland of many religions.
Rob: It is.
SD: Is this a four-parter or a story arc?
Rob: It is four individual stories, but they'll have a commonality.
SD: I talked with Renee in the interview for the last newsletter about protecting your character. She said she had difficulty in “Forget Me Not” when she saw that Gabrielle betrayed Xena in “The Debt” out of jealousy over Xena's relationship with Lao Ma.
Rob: You know what. I have other problems with what I did last season, but that's not one of them. It's just so human! Gabrielle did something out of ego.
SD: Looking at it that way is what made Renee able to do those scenes.
Rob: There's a whole way of protecting your characters at the beginning of your first season as you launch a series. But, eventually, as the show continues, you need to explore them and have them change and grow to keep them interesting and alive for the audience, the actors and the people who make the show.
SD: Renee talked with Lucy about the trouble she was having with “Forget” and Lucy told her that some of the best experiences she’s had on the show were the times she let the character go and didn’t try to protect her.
Rob: Lucy’s had some problems in the past and she’s called R.J. and talked to him about things she’s having trouble with. And eventually she says, “Okay, this is how I can play this.” She keeps an eye on her character.
SD: Have you read the recent article in a New Zealand newspaper where Lucy was quoted as saying, “I just ran out of love for the job, I didn’t know why I was doing this any more. I love the people I work with, but the well was dry.” She was set to come to the U.S. for a week-long publicity tour during a break in the show and, instead, she stayed home and just rested.
Rob: Lucy has the hardest television. There’s no other actor or actress on any one-hour show, which are harder than sitcoms, that puts in the 12, 14-hour days every single week she does. This trip was scheduled just after the filming of “Sin Trade” where they were shooting weekends and nights in the freezing cold, snow and rain.
SD: They were also emotion charged episodes.
Rob: Yes. Xena was living with the death of Gabrielle. One, you’re mad and, two, you're in grief. It’s a constant battle to try and moderate how much Lucy gets used. If you read the scripts, she's often in every single scene. It's also a well-known phenomenon in this business that in your fourth year most people hit a wall. You just have a total, "absolutely can’t stand it, hate it beyond your wildest dreams” feeling.
Charlie Siebert, a director of ours who was an actor on Trapper John for many years, said, when he first went down to New Zealand, “these people are so great and enthusiastic, but you wait until year three or four.”
In Lucy's case, the decision not to fly from New Zealand to America and do a six-day publicity trip was an act of survival.
SD: What aspect of Xena's character interests you the most? You seem to have a fondness for the feral xena that we met in “The Debt.”
Rob. I love all the facets of the character. You know what? I enjoy both characters now more than I ever have and we’re gonna try and keep everyone happy and interested.
SD: Can you tell me anything about season four?
Rob: In “Sin Trade” we give the audience a glimpse of what’s going to happen over the course of the season. Xena is shown what, for all practical purposes, very much appears to be the moment of her death and Gabrielle's dying with her, Xena's going to try and change that outcome.
SD: If I had a glimpse of my own death, what would I do?
Rob: That's right! (smiling)