All The World’s A Stage: One Last Journey
Kate Barker talks to Kevin Sorbo on the set of the recently aired Xena episode God Fearing Child, in which the legendary hero makes a memorable guest appearance.
Official Xena Magazine: Issue 07
The Legendary Journeys may have ceased production, but you can't keep a good half-god down. Although it is a brief appearance, Hercules is back on screen for one last big adventure. For the Xena episode God Fearing Child, Kevin Sorbo was coaxed back to make a final dramatic appearance in the world of ancient gods and heroes.
Initially, Sorbo was reluctant to return to the role (not to mention those leather trousers) for which he has become so well known. "They called me," he remembers “and there was an exchange of about 10 phone calls back and forth. My initial response was, ‘No, I buried this character three or four months ago. It’s over, I’m done.”’
Eventually, however, Sorbo’s respect for episode writers Robert Orci and Alex Kurlzman - and the fact that he was missing Hercules just a little - prompted him to return for this one final time. “This particular episode was written by my writers,” Sorbo explains, “so that was a big selling point for me.
“Those guys worked on [Hercules] for the last two years,” he explains, “so I did [God Fearing Child] mainly for that reason. Next to the five two-hour movies we did, the last two seasons of Hercules were the best I think I’ve ever done. So I came in to do this.”
That said, Sorbo admits that he has found the experience of returning to the set almost therapeutic. “Over the last three or four months at home, there’s been at least one time every week where I went, ‘I miss the character; I miss the show,’ which is natural when it’s been a part of you for six years of your life. I’ve had so much happen in my life in the Iast six years... Then, when I came on the set and put on the costume again, it was just odd. It was very surreal. It felt very strange.”
So no more guest spots on Xena after this? It seems not, and Sorbo sounds adamant this time. “This is it. My hair gets cut short the minute I'm done! I've got five months just to kick back in the States before I start a new series. I’m just going to take some time for myself.”
Sorbo’s new show is Gene Roddenberry’s Andromeda, the science fiction series produced by Majel Barrett-Roddenberry, widow of Star Trek creator Gene Roddenberry. Will Andromeda become enough of a success to lake on the likes of Hercules and Xena? Only time will tell. But whatever the outcome, Sorbo is happy to have left his heroic half-god while the series was still a success.
“We left when the show was still on top, and what a good lime to leave! We went out when the fans were still hungry for it. I think it's going to let the show live a little longer in the re-run world, just because of that.”