Behind The Scenes: Who’s Gurkhan?
Part Six
The Chakram Newsletter: Issue 26
Makeup Day At Macy's
As Vanessa dives into adding the extensions to Lucy’s hair - they seemed to make it thicker, not longer - I toss out the most asked question from the web. What kind of makeup does Lucy wear as Xena? Lucy looks over in amazement that anyone would care. I don’t think she was into hair and makeup much as a teenager. Vanessa reaches over and picks two tubes up and Lucy holds them up to the camera - Avarice and Honesty. I thought they were making up the names, but they were real! Could there be better names for Xena's lipstick? Lucy then gives us a lecture on chicken-sexing. Then it's back to the newspaper and the devastating news that Liz and Hugh have broken up! A quick question about her body wash - Visiora by Christian Dior #4. I googled that name and I think it’s two different brands, but we won’t tell Lucy.
After wandering away from the actors getting primped and dressed for the day and spending some time on the deserted outdoor sets - a sheep ran right past us! - it was off to Boatland. That’s where they keep the front - or tail end, which ever is needed - of Rob’s Folly, the ubiquitous boat with the eye painted on it. As you can see from the video, it's just a wooden shape on a platform with a blue screen behind it. Lucy was sharing coffee and dirty limericks with the safety person. Something about gerbils, but she spotted our camera and cut the song while bursting into giggles.
While waiting for the next camera setup we collared Renee for an on-camera interview about costumes, sais, the new horse Gabrielle was going to be riding and Michael playing a two- headed monster. It was a very brisk morning and everyone was bundled up - except Renee who generously took off her robe to show us the new outfit.
“I'm Gonna Squeeze Your Cheeks”
They began to film the scene between Xena and Virgil (William Gregory Lee) on the boat where Xena tells him she’s given Gabrielle a sleeping potion so Xena can leave the boat and go after Gurkhan without Gabrielle coming along and Virgil doesn’t want to go with her. Lucy and Greg are working out a bit of business where Xena threatens him into coming along by grabbing his face and squeezing his cheeks with her hand. It's not written in the script and when one actor does something physically to another, it’s common courtesy to talk it out. You might do something on the spur of the moment while filming and then discuss if the actor you’re grabbing is comfortable with the move. Invading another actor's space can be a delicate issue. Greg’s fine with it. Lucy tries different ways of using her hand so that his face isn’t blocked by her arm. They go face to face, really closeup, for a moment to rehearse the tension between the two characters and then shoot the scene.
Xena has a knapsack and, because it’s out of camera range and they only need to show her arm movement, it’s funny to see Lucy taking nothing out of the bag over and over while Greg bends down next to a nonexistant Gabrielle. Fake boat, fake sky, fake Gabrielle, fake items in bag. It’s not just special effects monsters they have to see. Actors have to have a really vivid imagination even for the simplest things.
They finish that bit and Lucy wanders off for her studio required annual physical that gerbil song filling the air as she leaves. Renee, meanwhile, is preparing for her upcoming dance scene by rolling her back on an exercise ball. The crew just steps around her. Actually, she looks quite comfortable.
Lucy wanders back and we do her video interview. Another costume discussion, talk about Xena tossing the chakram at Gabrielle in “Motherhood,” spiders in your mouth, a rendition of the Spiderman theme song and an interesting take on Xena's relationship with Gabrielle that I hope to air someday.
Then we found another boat. Yep, there's a full scale model of the one-eyed wonder sitting in this converted animal park surrounded by a moat of water and a town. Funny thing is, the boat and the town had two sides. One was dressed for Xena, the other for Jack of All Trades. But they weren't using it for this episode.
Then we ran into Willa O’Neill who was cheerfully going into the makeup trailer to have her 25-year wrinkles painted on. I think the fact that she could wash them away at the end of the day made it easier
Poteidaia - Where Everyone Knows Your Name
It’s time for the quartet - Xena, Gabrielle, Eve, Virgil - to enter Poteidaia. The town is dressed for a festival. Michael tells them the town is thriving and the actors practice looking at heaps of imaginary happy villagers. Lucy and Renee have a few moments to spend some time chatting. It's amazing how rare it is during a 12-hour day that you get to spend time with any of your fellow actors. Besides time spent blocking the scenes, rehearsing them and shooting, you get pulled away for makeup, hair and costumes or even a film crew from the Official Xena Fan Club wanting to do interviews. You start a conversation with someone and never get to finish what you were talking about because duty, or the director, is calling. The work really is non-stop. But for this moment at least, Lucy and Renee have a moment to share.
While the crew sets up the lights, smoke pots, camera dolly tracks and all the other bits and pieces, we grab Michael to film a piece about his directing of this episode. I’ve never talked with another director, so I don’t know if they’re all like this, but his enthusiasm and attention to detail, his knowledge of every character's motivation and his ability to articulate all this is fascinating to listen to. After doing our piece, he's over with a couple young children who are providing background for the scene. “The more running, the better,” he tells them. Hmm, paid to run around and have fun. Not a bad way to spend the day. However, with the number of takes of this scene, I'll bet they sleep soundly tonight! Lucy and Renee both spent time talking with the kids between takes.
The first take begins of them walking into the town. Environmental markers have been placed on the ground to guide the actors where to stop. And, as they come to a stop, the rocks for Lucy and Renee are nestled right between their feet. Looking at the film, I try to spot the actors looking down, but you really can’t see it. Score two points for peripheral vision.
Michael thinks they should pick up the pace for the next take. Lucy suggests skipping and forward rolls. Michael looks stunned for just a moment and then bursts out laughing. Lucy teases with a perfectly straight face and it takes some time around her before you get used to the fact that, most often, she’s pulling very hard on your leg.
And then Michael loses Renee again. It happened periodically throughout the week. The first time was on the boat. She’s just so tiny he can't keep track of her. This time she was sitting next to a horse cart. The first time, she was sitting on a step right behind him!
Final checks time and Lucy stands with her arms out as the woman who carries her breastplate, gauntlets and armbands slides the bands over her hands. She’s not allowed to move as her lipstick is touched up and her hair is sprayed. Would-be actors would do well to put in some time as mannequins in a department store window as training for final checks time on set. As Renee is going through the same touch-ups, I can hear Michael talking with her about how Gabrielle feels coming into her hometown after being in the ice cave for 25 years.
There are temporary cloth markers in different colors on the ground to show where they are to come to a stop after entering the village and Lucy notices them. She points to her own and says, “Winners wear white. That's my color. Renee gets to be yellow. Red for passion (for Adrienne). Stick for wooden performance (for Greg). Greg always gets the stick,” she says to the camera. And Greg and Adrienne burst out laughing. Then the spot marker person comes over and begins to put down the environmental markers - markers that will blend into the ground and not look like pieces of cloth!
Lucy looks down in horror as the man digs a small groove in the ground and lies a piece of wood into it. “Oh shit, there's a piece of wood there! Oh my God, I have the wood! Are you making a judgment about my performance, Alex?” More laughter from Adrienne and Greg.
I know from the time we’ve spent with them this week that she would only tease Greg if he was a good actor. And, jumping ahead, after Greg’s last scene for the episode, he received a round of applause from the cast and crew. He was a well-liked and hard-working young man.
Before the cameras start rolling, Lucy delivers one more piece of advice to our camera. “In this episode, you should be looking for the yams in every shot.” Yams - kiwi for bull droppings. Fred, my cameraman, keeps his eye peeled for the rest of the week and we see what Lucy is talking about as they seem to show up in almost every scene. All four march off and proceed to enter the village - again and again and again and again!
Walking Backwards
I said this on the video - first they film you entering the town, then they film you arriving. I remember Lucy telling me about making a chart for one of the episodes because her character was going through so many emotional changes and they were being filmed so much out of order, she needed something visual to look at every morning to know who she was and how she was supposed to be feeling!
Lion Park is located in a flight path from some nearby airport and today I got an idea how much dialogue would have to be rerecorded because of the numerous planes and helicopters that kept passing overhead.
Check out this scene in the episode. It’s about an eighth of a mile walk and they did it about eight times - one mile of walking to get six seconds of scene. But the sun had been up for a while, the air was warm and fresh and it was nice being outdoors. I kept waiting for the inevitable New Zealand showers to come, but they never did. I think maybe I brought some of my Irish good luck with me.
As we were packing up our stuff to move on to the next location, Lucy and Michael got a kick out of the crewman who had pasted his name, phone number, vital statistics and the note “need green card” on his chest and posed for our cameras. Lucy pulled him toward the camera and gave her Good Housekeeping Stamp of Approval for anyone who might want to send for this fine specimen of New Zealand manhood.
“Gabrielle, You Don’t Look A Day Over Fifty!”
Gabrielle is meeting her sister, Lila, for the first time in twenty-five years. The quartet comes up to the farmhouse gate, Gabrielle enters the yard, knocks on the door, Lila answers and faints. Suddenly the aroma of French fries begins to permeate the air around us. And here comes Lucy with bags and bags of lovely warm chips and cups filled with vinegar for dipping. One of the crew told me a couple weeks before she’d had ice cream brought in for everyone. I recommend everyone keep this in mind if you're ever working long, hard hours with a group of people. Such a little thing can be a great moral boost. I wonder if someone did that on a set Lucy was on in her early days of acting and she remembered how much it meant to her then.
The sun has set and it's time for the rain to begin. Fake rain, as if you had to be told. Crew and equipment are draped with protective coverings. I can’t remember how cold it was once the sun went down, but I remember wearing a t-shirt, sweatshirt, jacket and had a blanket wrapped around me. And, unlike Lucy and Renee, I wasn't going to be drenched in water.
This was a very important and highly emotional scene for Gabrielle and Renee spent quite some time talking with Michael about it. I was especially struck watching Lucy playing a bit of a game with her makeup person. They were acting out letters with their bodies, although I never did figure out what they were trying to spell. But when Lucy glanced over at Renee standing still, she moved the game a distance away so as not to disturb Renee’s concentration.
Gabrielle charged out of the house with Xena right behind her. The rain poured down, Gabrielle came forward past the cameras. They did the scene once and then, without stopping the cameras or turning off the rain, Renee ran back into place next to Lucy and they delivered their lines again. Two takes and it was over. Michael later said he'd traded a helicopter shot on the sea for the rain machine at the farmhouse. Very expensive, this fake rain. But very dramatic and worth all the time and effort.
The crew immediately threw layers of towels, heavy robes and down jackets on Lucy and Renee and everyone rushed over to the monitor to see if they’d gotten the shot or if they would have to do it again. Crouched around the monitor, Michael was ecstatic and congratulated Lucy and Renee on their work in the scene. Time to go home for the day, er, night!