All The World’s A Stage: Love Amazon Style
Exclusive on-set reports from the latest episodes
Official Xena Magazine: Issue 01
Hercules: The Legendary Journeys
Love Amazon Style
When Aphrodite the Goddess of Love has a bust up with her boyfriend, it’s taken for granted that chaos and hilarity will ensue. Throw in a band of Amazons who are forced to obey men, add a manipulative god seeking power, and you have all the ingredients for a classic Herculean adventure.
In Love Amazon Style, Aphrodite (Alexandra Tydings) has had a lovers’ tiff with Hephaestus (Jason Hoyte), the blacksmith god. As a result, Aphrodite’s powers have gone a little haywire. This affects the lives of a group of Amazons, who find themselves, against their better judgement, suddenly unable to resist obeying the orders of men. The Amazons end up working as waitresses in a casino, whose owner is in league with Deimos (Joel Tobeck), a minor god with sinister plans for the shattered Stone of Cronos.
With a plot like that, only one addition is needed. In the words of actor Michael Hurst, “...of course, who stumbles along, but Hercules and Iolaus.”
Although Love Amazon Style is one of the final eight episodes of Hercules: The Legendary Journeys to be made, the mood on set still remains light. This is quite apart from the comedic themes of the episode itself. For example, Iolaus falls for one of the Amazons, giving way to what Hurst describes as “thwarted love gags”. Hurst and Kevin Sorbo, by their own admission, also “act up like crazy” both on and off camera. One of the ways they do this is by altering their dialogue, both for fun and to improve any scenes they might be in.
Sorbo describes two of the scenes, set halfway through Love Amazon Style, as a rather long-winded example of what the actors can get away with when they improvise. “The lovers - Hephaestus and Aphrodite - have had a fight. I just played Cyrano in the previous scene; I’m behind a pillar and I’m feeding words to Hephaestus, because he doesn’t know how to speak to her. He doesn’t know how to get things back together, so I’m having to feed him lines, and he keeps blowing every line I tell him,
“Now I’m walking around and he comes up to say hi, and I tell him, ‘Don’t worry about it, I’ll work things out with Aphrodite. Don’t worry, I promise I’ll work things out.’ So the minute he disappears, she appears, and I go, ‘Oh, that was easy!’. This scene, I think I’ve changed 50 per cent of my lines…”
Sorbo points out that these dialogue changes only improve the flow of the story: “I’ve been playing the character for so long, I can just become who he is. I do things to make the show fun for us… and obviously it’s been successful being fun for other people too.”
One of the characters synonymous with fun and humour is Aphrodite, who features significantly in Love Amazon Style. Cast and crew readily agree that any episode involving the Goddess of Love is certain to be a comedy, especially considering the character’s ‘surfer chick valley girl’ persona and the humour that goes with it. The already comic elements of Hercules are heightened all the more whenever Aphrodite arrives on the scene - just one of the factors that make the series as successful as it is.
Co-executive Producer Eric Gruendemann describes Love Amazon Style as an example of the “charming, classic episodes” that have made Hercules so popular with fans the world over. He adds that another fundamental point is that Hercules is basically an out-and-out hero. “It’s the homogeneity of the Hercules character that keeps people watching. It’s wonderful, I think, to see somebody who always makes the right decision, whatever it is at the time, and always does the right thing. Hercules and Iolaus are great individuals that we all look up to aspire to… or that we like to think we aspire to. Hercules is always good. Hercules always comes through.”
Sorbo agrees with this too, describing Hercules as “the reasoning voice, the common sense guy; Iolaus is sort of like the spark plug, and Hercules is the anchor.”
The remaining Hercules episodes promise the same mix of fun, adventure and light-hearted quirky entertainment that fans of the show have come to love and expect. “We’re going out with a splash,” says Gruendeman.
This pleases the half-god himself, as Sorbo describes his feelings not only on Love Amazon Style but being involved with the series that has made Hercules a household name. “...Overall, I’ve had a blast.”