Behind The Scenes: Who’s Gurkhan?
Part Five
The Chakram Newsletter: Issue 19
“Madge the Manicurist”
Bobbing to the samba beat, from a tape of cha cha music on the boom box in the makeup trailer, and making kazoo noises, Lucy gets her stage three abuse makeup for the torture sequence in Gurkhan's jail. While being dabbed on her back, arms and face, she shows off some of her most treasured makeup Polaroids - as a drag queen and Madge the Manicurist.
“Whatever Lola Wants” begins to play and Linda, (makeup artist), starts to apply a fake battered eye. A piece of blue gauze is placed over Lucy's eye to keep her eyelashes from becoming glued to the prosthetic eye which will be placed on top. Lucy is still as the eye is painstaking applied and remarks that she looks like Mr. Honeydew from Sesame Street with her eye sealed shut.
As the minutes pass by - very slowly - Dean Martin begins to sing “Shoo Shoo Little Bird.” Lucy is zoning out. We leave them to their work.
Taking Care Of Business
We're back in the jail cell and Lucy's on the ground, on a mat, being lashed by her ankles to a hoist that will hang her upside down. She yawns. It's getting on toward 7 pm and they've been at work since about 6:30 am. Lucy's stunt double, Zoe, comes over and sits down next to her. She's already done her part of hanging and swinging from the hoist.
The main part of this scene is a guard (who's actually Gurkhan, but Xena doesn't know that) coming in and talking with Xena while she's upside down. Michael (Hurst, director) says that he’d also like to get some shots of Xena being hit by the guard. They'll also get the bit where Xena is branded. The branding wound up being cut from the episode.
Originally, the episode ended with a beach scene between Xena and Gabrielle where the brand was discussed. This was changed to riding horses along the beach. But there were difficulties filming the riding sequences and the footage wasn't used. That meant the reference to the branding was gone so they cut those shots from the jail scene. Michael isn't certain there will be enough time, but they'll try to fit it all in.
Lucy calls to Craig, the man in charge of the fake blood, and asks if they'll have enough to show it dripping from her hair when she's upside down. He assures her they have plenty. She also talks to the man in charge of the hoist. She wants to know that the shackle is tight enough so that her feet will stay together and straight and not turn out at the ankles.
Carmen, the first AD, makes sure everything is in place and everyone knows what to do so that Lucy's up for the least amount of time. By my clock, she was hanging upside down for nine minutes.
As Lucy goes up, they pull the mattress and her robe out of camera range. Craig uses a turkey baster to squirt the blood onto the ends of Lucy's hair so it will drip down. “Some in here, mate,” she tells him as she squeezes her hair and looks at the pool of blood on the floor.
The camera starts in on a closeup of the blood on the floor and pulls back to reveal Xena hanging. Craig has the baster in Lucy's hair to squeeze out drops to hit the floor. He has to back away as the camera pulls back, but Craig's foot is in the shot. They work out the timing and try the pullback again. Goes without a hitch.
The guard walks in, circles Xena and Lucy delivers her lines. The guard walks out, but Lucy's skipped a line and she calls him back while apologizing for the mistake. It goes well. The guard leaves.
They move on to the part where the guard hits her and the branding. Lucy asks which part of her body will be branded because she will react to the hot iron without being touched. They yell. “Action,” and Lucy writhes in pain with the beating and branding. “Cut.”
The set was cold and Lucy was wearing a flimsy bikini-type outfit. As they lower her to the ground, she cries out and swears, then rolls on her side and brings her knees up. As the crew clusters around her, Lucy tells Zoe that her back muscles clenched when she reacted to the beating. Michael comes over and anxiously asks, “Oh, Jesus, are you all right?” Lucy reassures him, “Yeah, yeah, my back’s never been right.” Michael, relieved, jokingly says, “One more shot of you lying on your back.” And Lucy laughs.
No fuss, no bother, no complaints. A bit rougher than planned, but they got the shot. Lucy later said they could have filmed the scene without her being hung from the hoist, but she didn't want to fake it.
And that's a wrap for Day One.
Even The Animals Have Stunt Doubles
Day Two and the seas are still rough, so we're staying on land. The scenes for today are: Xena, Gabrielle. Virgil, Eve and Lila by the fireplace in Gabrielle's old home; Virgil putting Xena into the slave auction; Xena meeting the other slaves; Xena being sold.
We arrived earlier than usual to watch the extras arrive at 5:30 am to be made up as auction bidders. Then Willa O’Neill, playing Gabrielle's sister, “Lila,” arrived to be made up. They were aging her twenty-five years older to account for the time Xena and Gabrielle spent in the ice cave.
While they were filming the shots in Gabrielle's old home, we went off to the horse farm to visit with Tilly AKA Argo. We also met Argo’s stunt doubles, Mac and Barbie. Hey, this is Hollywood. Even the animals have stunt doubles. Two of the wranglers showing us the horses were the Xena and Gabrielle riding doubles, Bex and Trisha.
They were training new horses. A black horse named Zulu for Xena to use and two horses in the running for temperament in situations, for example, using bombs.
There's No Nudity In Hollywood
Leaving the farm, we got back to set in time to watch Michael instructing the extras how to be bidders at the slave auction. The major point he was making is that, although they would be miming the bidding and talking with each other, they should use real sentences and gestures.
The first part of this scene was Virgil presenting Xena to the auctioneer. Michael talks with Lucy about the fact that Virgil gets a bit rambunctious while trying to sell the auctioneer on putting Xena in the auction. Michael says Xena would like to smack him. but she can't.
They do a couple rehearsals with Lucy wearing the complete outfit. There are two moves that are dependent on the clothing playing their part. The first is when Virgil pulls the veil covering Xena's face off and it must clear her body and fall to the ground. The second is when the auctioneer gives a pull to Xena's gown and that must fall off completely, leaving her naked. The clothing cooperates and they go into final checks. the illusion passes on TV.
As Lucy’s makeup is given the once-over, she calls Greg (William Gregory Lee, “Virgil”) over. She tells him she's going to mumble under her breath, “Make it look good.” Then Virgil will push her forward roughly and she'll say, “Not that good.” Little bits she feels will add to the humor of the scene.
Then Lucy puts her index finger to work helping out her dressers by holding her headgear in place as they tie it around her head. Meticulously, Vanessa (her makeup person) brushes Lucy's eyebrows and tucks seemingly invisible strands of hair up into the headpiece. Lucy’s fingers go to work again holding the veil on her nose just under her eyes as it's fastened on. She gives a thumbs-up to someone across the room. Lucy does that a lot, the thumbs-up thingy. It’s her all-purpose “Everything's A-OK” signal. They're ready to roll.
The weather report is good and we'll be off to the ship tomorrow morning. We're going to be there at 5:00 am to watch them load the boat which means getting up at 4:15 so we leave before Xena is sold to the highest bidder. I'm sure she’ll command a high price in the auction, but I'll bet Virgil would get even more auctioning off the down boots Lucy's wearing during the scene as her feet are out of camera range.
If This Is Tuesday, It's A Roman Trireme
The ship - Rob’s Folly - is a barge they converted into a sailing ship. It's dressed accordingly depending on what country it's supposed to be from and who's supposed to own it. There used to be an eye painted on the front of the bow, but it's no longer there.
Day Three and we're finally heading out to sea. The crew and Michael arrive in the wee hours before the sun is up to load the boat. While it’s a good sized boat, once they get all the equipment onto the deck, it leaves quite a small area for maneuvering. As the boat travels rather slowly, they set sail out of Auckland harbor before the actors arrive. They’ll be taken out separately on a cruiser. It was fun watching this ancient vessel sail past the city skyline of Auckland.
First the actors playing the harem wives arrive at 7:30. Minutes later, Renee comes on board carrying a breakfast plate, bottled water, a bag filled with the jewelry that goes with her costume and the ubiquitous hat. The sun is extremely potent down in New Zealand and hats and 500 SPF sunscreen are de rigueur.
I'm exaggerating a tad about the SPF level, but the sun is dangerous. And for the Xena crew, which is constantly working outdoors, everyone takes care not to get burned. One of the reasons the actors are always in robes is to keep their costumes clean. The other reason is to protect them from the sun. Lucy and Renee commented recently that the arms of their robes were way too long, but they do keep wrists and hands protected from those potent rays. And I would love to have had the sunglass concession for the crew.
It's about a 20-minute ride on the cruiser out to the far side of an island where Rob's Folly is waiting. They’ll be using the island as a backdrop - being careful not to show the water tower and buildings on it. Renee and the wives board the ship.
They spend the first two hours shooting the scene where Gabrielle realizes Xena has tricked her and gone ashore to find Gurkhan herself and the very end of the episode with Virgil and the newly-freed wives. The boat is limited to 50 people so we stay on the cruiser and shoot from a distance. It's sunny, but brisk. Renee is wearing two robes and you can see the steam coming out of peoples' mouths. The sea is absolutely calm.
“Ahoy There, Canoeists!”
When the scenes with the wives are completed, they're taken off the boat and onto the cruiser. That leaves room for myself and my camera crew to go on board. One of the things I notice is a lot of sandbags up against the equipment to keep items from rolling on the deck.
First scene up is Gabrielle telling Virgil she's not going to let Xena kill Gurkhan for her. It's her parents he killed and she's going to take revenge herself. The moment is shot while they are leaning against the railing of the ship sailing past the island. They've laid down a dolly track across the deck to zoom in for a closeup. They rehearse it and Renee has a giggle at the end when she mimes getting sick over the side of the boat.
Michael talks with Renee about the fact that Gabrielle isn't physically seasick, rather she’s being overcome with the horror of what she’s feeling and her desire to kill Gurkhan. Another run through and they're ready to shoot.
During rehearsals, the ship was stationary. Now that they've begun to shoot it, an unexpected problem occurs. The scene is two minutes long and the island is too short. Before they've finished the shot, they've sailed past the island and you can see Auckland in the background. They turn the ship around and try another pass. The boat is moving under engine power, not sail so the captain slows it down. But they still keep running out of island. A couple more tries and they realize that the current just won’t allow them to go slow enough. Michael decides to do the scene with the boat not moving at all.
Then another modern-day problem arrives in the form of a couple of approaching canoes. They're too far away for them to know what we're doing and that they'd be sailing into the shot. Michael calls out across the water, “Ahoy there, canoeists, we're filming here. Can you hold up for a moment?” They wave that they've heard him and stop paddling. The cameras roll and the scene goes well. Renee goes over to the side of the boat and calls out, “Thank you.” The canoeists resume their travels across the sea.
It's 9:30 and Lucy clambers on board for her work this afternoon. It’s a great day to be on the boat and she's quite chipper calling out hellos to everyone. They'll be covering the part of the story where Eve reveals she's been to Mogador before.
They do a couple rehearsals. They're using mostly natural light on board and Waka, the director of photography, asks that the boat be turned around 180 degrees to catch more of the sun on the actors. All set and ready to shoot the scene.
As they're doing final checks on Lucy, which includes adding her weapons, I see just where it is they attach her scabbard. There are two metal clasps on the scabbard. The top one attaches to the shoulder strap ring on her back. The bottom one clips on to her armor. Lucy pops off her sunglasses and tucks them onto the t-shirt of one of the dressers. Then does a couple deep knee lunges. I noticed she does that periodically. Just getting out the kinks, I suppose.
Lucy's son, Julius, is five months old and she's breastfeeding. As they're waiting to begin shooting the scene, she spots the cruiser going by and waves knowing her son is on board and it's getting on to lunchtime for babies and crew.
“I’m Not An Assassin”
Renee is now in place and practicing her sai moves. Because it's a closeup, she's using the metal ones. You can hear them clang as she works out how she wants to work with them. Everyone not in the scene clusters out of camera range on one end of the boat. Not easy to do in the small deck space not covered with equipment. There are people sitting on sandbags and curled into corners. Carmen notices a couple coffee cups on a ledge and they're quickly put out of sight. She's got an eagle eye for spotting twentieth century objects in ancient times.
They shoot the scene. Michael has a couple notes before they do it again. He talks with Renee about a different delivery on the line, “Today I may not be an assassin.” He’d like her to change it to, “Today I'm not an assassin.” Michael feels that's stronger and will imply that tomorrow she will be.
They get in place for Take 2. As Renee's waiting for the cameras to roll, she makes a small gesture to someone in her line of sight to shift to their left and then says, “Thank you” when they do. I've noticed that a TV set is extremely polite. You hear “thank you” and “please” attached to just about every instruction.
Standing in place waiting to hear, “Action,” Renee begins to go through her sai moves. The camera operator asks the boat captain (the fake one) to “shuffle to your left just a sensation.” Renee comes into the present and then closes her eyes to get back into the moment. Another quick direction follows to Adrienne (“Eve”), but Renee keeps her eyes closed this time all the while moving the sais.
Renee opens her eyes and stares intently at the moving sais. Carmen calls, “Action!” and Renee’s movements become strong and deliberate. The scene works perfectly. Lucy then strips off every part of her costume that isn’t nailed on - gauntlets, armbands, armor, sword and scabbard, chakram - and hands them to the woman in charge of her accouterments. It's quite an armful and one of the gauntlets falls to the deck. They both make a grab for it, but Lucy's faster and picks it up with a quick apology. She slips her hands into the robe with the endless arms and we hear the cry ring out through the boat, “LUNCH!”
The cruiser has pulled up alongside and the crew boards her for a buffet spread of Pacific Renaissance's delectable food. After lunch they film two more scenes while we stay on the cruiser and head back to shore. I’ve been wanting to film the early morning hours when the crew first arrives. It will be another 4:15 am call for me.
When Is A Boat Not A Boat?
They're shooting at Lion Park today - Day Three. This is where most of the outdoor standing sets are - Amazon village, Poteidaia, castle, landlocked boat. The equipment trucks arrive with their headlights gleaming in the darkness. Lights are turned on in the trailers for Lucy, Renee, Adrienne, Greg, wardrobe and makeup. The catering truck begins preparing breakfast.
Renee's scenes are first and she arrives for makeup at 6:45. They'll be shooting on the mockup of the stern end of the boat when Gabrielle awakens to find Xena has tricked her. Renee explains that she's being made up to be Gabrielle recovering from seasickness. Barbie, her makeup woman, will make her a bit tired and green.
Renee had bumped her eye and she and Barbie note that it's healing nicely. I think the accident had something to do with Renee's dog, but I must admit that with all I remember about this trip, I can’t remember that. Probably shouldn't make the dog the culprit without incontrovertible proof, but, there you go, that's what I think happened. She's sitting quietly going over the day's work in her head and we step outside to check on morning.
The fog is clearing, the sun is beginning to rise. It's 8:00 and Lucy's just driven in for her turn in the makeup chair and a chance to read the morning paper. There was a lot of specialized makeup and costume changes for this episode, but today Xena and Gabrielle are their old selves with their regular faces and outfits.
Lucy gets a call from Sandy Rayner, the horse wrangler, who's just given birth to her first child. “She went to my baby shower and got pregnant that same night,” Lucy says laughing.
(to be continued)