Josh Becker [Director]
Chat at Yahoo

highlights

This chat was held on the 26 February in the Yahoo Sam Raimi Club. Many many thanks to Trachyte for the tidbits!

• When he was asked if it was his idea to let Alexandra Tydings show off her tattoo in "If the Shoe Fits," (which he directed), he said "Her tattoo was showing? Sounds like a mistake."
• He called Alexandra Tydings an "egghead" because she's so intelligent. She has a Masters degree.
• He verified that Ted and Renee did the dancing themselves in "Shoe Fits," and Ted did the singing although Renee did not. I believe he said Ted and Renee took a refresher course together for the dancing. For the breakdancing closeup, Ted was dragged around with the camera.
• He said that in "In Sickness and in Hell" (which he directed) -- he used coconut to represent lice in Xena's hair.
• He said that he prefers directing comedies on Xena. And he loves adding fun songs and gags that weren't originally in the script.
• He said that the rat toss in "Locked Up and Tied Down" was entirely Rob's idea. Josh thought that it was a little over the top.
• He said that the every theme we see in Xena episodes is "all Rob" because it's Rob's baby. He implied that Rob tells the writers exactly where he wants them to go with the scripts.
• He hasn't directed any Hercules episodes since he directed the movie "Hercules and the Maze of the Minotaur." He said that according to Rob Tapert, Kevin Sorbo doesn't want to work with him (Josh) again. Apparently "Maze" was just one problem after another. But Josh loves working with Lucy, Renee, Ted, Bruce, Jeremy Roberts, and everyone on "Xena." And he said that Lucy and Kevin have the ultimate say about who their directors are, so he considers himself lucky that Lucy likes him.
• He said that it takes 7 days to film a Xena ep, although he gets to New Zealand and starts preparing 2 weeks before filming begins. He had 8 days for "Warrior...Princess...Tramp."

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