All The World’s A Stage: Stand and Deliver
She's played everyone from Hercules' first wife, Deianeira, to Hippolyta, the Amazon Queen. Yet her performances have never been seen away from the show's sets. All rise for Zo Hartley, one of Hercules: The Legendary Journeys' most prolific stand-ins, interviewed by Kate Barker.
Official Xena Magazine: Issue 04
Zo Hartley has been appearing in front of the cameras for Hercules: The Legendary Journeys since the very first telemovie, Hercules and the Amazon Women, way back in 1993. But you won't see her in the limelight, nor in very many episodes. Yet while she may not be easily recognised by the public, Hartley has played one of the most important roles in the Hercules production process: the role of the stand-in.
Blocking a scene to capture it perfectly on film can be a long and tedious process. Sometimes, setting up for even a few seconds’ screen time can take hours, and this is before the actors even set foot on the set. But in order for the lighting and camera crews to create the desired effects, somebody has to stand on the actors’ marks on-set and give the crews something to focus on. Enter the stand-in, a valuable asset to both actor and crew.
While the job of a stand-in isn’t as full-on as that of an actor’s body or stunt double, there are still certain requirements of the position that need to be filled. To take the place of the actor they are positioning for, the stand-in must match a number of features of the actor concerned. As Hartley explains, “You have to copy what the actor’s movements are, their body language, their sight lines… you’re like a model.”
One of the most important features of an actor is their height, and to copy this accurately, stand-ins like Hartley must often resort to artificial assistance. “The average height is 5’7,” reveals Hartley, who is somewhat shorter than many of the actors on Hercules. “I have a range of shoes and blocks to bring me up to their height.”
In Hercules and the Amazon Women, Hartley played stand-in for Roma Downey (best known for the series Touched by an Angel) as Hippolyta, the Amazon Queen. “Roma is 5’5,” recalls Hartley, “which is easily manageable in heels.”
However, Hartley had a little more trouble matching the height of Tawny Kitaen, who played Hercules’ first wife, Deianeira. “She’s just under 5’7,” explains Hartley, “and when she came on, I madly looked around the shops to get shoes that would bring me up to her height. It was to no avail, because back then, heels weren't back in fashion. So I made a pair of shoes - I bought them from a second-hand shop and built-up the soles from cork tile. Then I sanded and glued each one with epoxy-resin and shaped them so that they were safer to walk on.” The shoes may not have been seen on screen, but nevertheless, Hartley got into the spirit of things and painted on a Greek design.
Being a stand-in isn’t exactly a glamorous job; in fact, to an outsider it may seem just downright boring. Sometimes the lighting and camera angles require not just standing but walking - in which case, Hartley simply picks up her shoes (or blocks) and moves to the next position. But, she says, there generally isn’t much movement and stand-ins are only really used during set-up. “With this kind of work,” she adds, “you get a lot of down time.”
There are ways to make the down time interesting though, as Hartley herself has done during Hercules. “I like to be busy, and it seemed a natural progression to learn more about the camera department, to assist them. So I learned to be a clapper loader.”
Hartley has always held an interest in acting, which led to her first stand-in job on the New Zealand masterpiece The Piano in 1991. She has also played a number of small roles in various Hercules episodes. “One time an actress didn't turn up,” she reveals, “so they asked me to do it. Another time, an actress put her back out, so I stepped in.” Hartley rattles off her “cameos” on Hercules with a grin: “Two mothers, a tenant, a patron and a peasant!”
For the final Hercules episode to be shot, Hercules, Tramps & Thieves, Hartley was back to the role most familiar to her: this time standing in for Traci Lords as Luscious, the western-style femme fatale. After six years with the same show, Hartley is filled with mixed emotions.
“It’s a weird feeling,” she explains. “It's been so much a part of my life - a part of all our lives. The sunrises, the sunsets, the long hours...”
When asked to name her most outstanding moment on the Hercules saga, Hartley goes right back to Hercules and the Amazon Women, and the scene featuring an army of horses charging down the sand dunes. Although she didn’t actually take part in that ride, Hartley remembers being extremely impressed at the spectacle of it all. “That was pretty special,” she grins
That memory prompts Hartley to reminisce about just how great her time with Hercules has been. “[There’s been] such an incredible variety of things to watch and enjoy every day,” she declares. "All the different performances, the actors, the sets, the costumes... Every time you walk on to a new set, it’s like, ‘Wow!’ It never ceases to amaze me.”
Now, over six years since the saga’s launch, the only thing left to do is reflect on the elements that have made Hercules such a success. “It’s dedication,”’ Hartley says simply. “Not just the actors - who are amazing - but all the technical people; all the different departments, all the different links in the chain. Basically, it’s all the talent and tenacity of everyone involved.
“You’re surrounded by talent everywhere - it’s just great,” she concludes. “It’s really been amazing.”