This interview brought to you courtesy of bjStranger.

bjStranger (ROCanuck)


This interview aired on December 31, 1996 at 2:30 p.m. on the Canadian
Global Television Network show, ENTERTAINMENT DESK, hosted by Elaine Loring.
The interview was conducted by Bill Ralston on location in Auckland New Zealand.
There are square bracket around words or phrases that the transcriber 
could not clearly make out.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
ELAINE LORING:
Up next, move over Pamela Anderson Lee, there's a new face on the horizon 
[that's been causing] heatwaves all across the continent. The fabulous 
Xena the Warrior Princess, next!  But first a look a this week's top box 
office draws.

<other Entertainment Desk stories>

ELAINE LORING:
It's the kind of series that could have gone either way -- disappear into 
oblivion or become a cult hit.  Xena the Warrior Princess went the latter 
thanks to its star New Zealand actress Lucy Lawless.  Bill Ralston met up 
with Lawless on location in Auckland; and he files this report.

<scene from CHARIOTS OF WAR - Xena back flippin' in hand to hand combat 
with a guy wearing a spike helmet on a black sand beach>

BILL RALSTON:
Now call me old fashioned, but there's something strangely simply 
alluring about lithe lubidinous lethally armed Amazons in skimpy gravity 
defying wonder bra'd leather corsettes. 

<scene of on location shoot in progress - on a brown sand beach (same 
location as TEN LITTLE WARLORDS with rock promontory on right); shot of LL 
dressed as a queen wearing gold chain mail over her chest, gold and blue 
robe, gold headpiece with beads hanging down around her face.  She lifts some 
gold booty in her hands and lets it trickle out.  A handsome clean 
shaven close cropped dark haired man (George Clooney-like), wearing 
soldier's armour (Ulysses?), comes up behind her.  They hold hands and  
tenderly kiss.  The two are surrounded by cameras and crew.  The shot 
changes to shot of camera and director> 

VOICE:
Standby, and...action!

BILL RALSTON:
[On double line] millions of hormally charged young Americans have also 
tuned in and turned on to Xena a surprise box office success beyond just 
cult appeal.  It's turned Lucy Lawless into a serious star in the U.S.

<scene from [?] of Xena and a handsome clean shaven shoulder length fair 
haired man>

XENA:
So what have we got to talk about?

BILL RALSTON:
Well, how about how you feel about the show.

<scene back at the beach on location - LL in the queen character costume; 
she is seated with the ocean behind her, waves crashing; a light breeze 
catches the bangs of her hair and the sun slants across her face from the 
right; most of the shot is in closeup but you can see camera, equipment 
and crew wandering about in the background>

LUCY LAWLESS:
It is terrific and I fear it's about to end...<takes deep breath, about 
to continue>

BILL RALSTON:
<interrupting>
[Do you mean], do you ever wake up and pinch yourself...or you are regularly?

LUCY LAWLESS:
I regularly pinch myself to make sure I don't take it for granted.  You 
know, I know what it means to be out of work.  Um, I know how hard 
everybody else here works and I don't want to let them down. You know, by 
[wingeing], getting spoilt.  You've got to just keep slapping yourself on 
the hand, you know.  [Instead of saying], "Where's my Winnebego!" <laughs>

<scene from SINS OF THE PAST - Xena, dressed in her white shift, has just  
unburied her weapons and starts fighting with Draco's man>

BILL RALSTON:
With Xena the Warrior Princess, we're talking Robo-babe, an estrogen 
enriched [geno lano], with deep Pacific blue eyes legions of fans can 
drown in and a wardrobe that should carry a health warning for any red 
blooded male.   <sound of transcriber gagging>

XENA:
Your with Draco! <whoosh!> Tell him Xena says hello. <whap!>

<scene back at beach on location, LL and interviewer seated>

LUCY LAWLESS:
It's really for an older... ah, market. It's [   ], sexier, darker. Um, 
this character is slightly mean...well, has a dark past, it's that. And um, 
so it's that...

BILL RALSTON:
She's a goody though. She's a goody?

LUCY LAWLESS:
Oh she has to be a goody because anti-heroes don't sustain a series.  But 
she's certainly got the devil on her shoulder, and uh; and so you watch 
it because you don't know which way she's going go, you know; <waggles 
her left forefinger back and forth> because all her natural instincts are to 
fight, not plea, not reason.  And that's her battle every episode, is to  
overcome her natural instincts.

<scene from CHARIOTS OF WAR - the fellow with the spike helmet is shooting 
arrows at Xena; she's catching them, one! two!; but then another one catches 
her in the gut and she falls>

<scene from SINS OF THE PAST - Xena chakrams the cyclops pants down and 
he topples over>

BILL RALSTON:
Ok, it ain't Hamlet, but there's a wry, [  ], [campy] sense of humour that 
lifts it well above the mundane.

<back to scene at beach on location, LL and interviewer seated>

LUCY LAWLESS:
<laughs>  Terrifically funny! Yes!  In the States they write about them 
being...ah, mirthless, you know; and I suppose it's because we have such 
fun shooting this show that it seems to me like the funniest [ever 
invented]. <giggling> And I get to do other things, you know.  I get to 
play other characters and...um, doubles of myself--evil double, even more 
evil doubles, then I get to be a dopey ditzy princess, and I get to be the mad 
nymphomaniac tramp, and, you know the [be a buffoon] tramp. <big Lucy grin>

<scene from SINS OF THE PAST - Gabrielle and the Poteidaia girls are being 
rounded up; Xena, wearing shift, has just stepped out from her cover in 
the bushes; she's yet to recover her weapons>

DRACO'S MAN:
You round up the girls! <girls screaming> Let me take care of this one!

BILL RALSTON:
Oh yeah, fat chance!  Now you get the idea that Lucy, like Xena could 
turn autograph hunting into a blood sport.

<back to scene at beach on location, LL and interviewer seated>

LUCY LAWLESS:
I'm flattered, you know, that people look at me in supermarkets and 
things now but...

BILL RALSTON:
<interrupting>
Pretty hard isn't it?  With it going on tv here, you're going to find 
yourself a lot more [non]...  Because you had this wonderful anonymity up 
to now, up to a point.

LUCY LAWLESS:
<a cloud passes across her face, her brows furrow, she sucks her lower 
lip in under her teeth>         
Yeah, I'm trying not to, um, to get defensive about it; because I do find 
it really alarming when..., when confronted with it, particularly here.  
Um, but I'm, you know, I'm determined not to get cross, <laughs> <BG> I'm 
determined not to become reclusive.  That's the natural reaction I think
is, oh I'm not going there again, I don't need that.     

BILL RALSTON:
You are a warrior princess though.  They should be very careful trying to 
come up to you if you don't want them to!

LUCY LAWLESS:
<as she listens to the above a crooked, close mouthed smile forms on her 
face finally turning into a big Lucy grin>
Damn right! <laughs>

<scene at beach on location - LL in queen costume walking around amongst 
crew and equipment; shot of her standing still as a woman with extremely 
bright red hair smoothes down LL's hair; shot of LL having a hearty laugh 
with the crew>

BILL RALSTON:
Ah-ha!  Well just remember all that the next time you run into Lucy at 
[Wooleys] where she still lives near her family in the quiet Auckland 
suburb she grew up in, commuting to the U.S. whenever the production 
company needs her there for promotion.  And that can be a little too 
often for her liking.  Despite things like the sheer, fantastic, gut 
wrenching glamour of it all.

<scene at beach on location, LL and interviewer seated>

LUCY LAWLESS:
Two percent glamour and ninety-eight percent hard work and good behaviour 
and the glamour comes when you go off to the States and you get to 
<laughs>, these fantastical conventions, and they buy you...they put you 
in wonderful, cost, not costumes, um, you know gowns and things, so there 
is a bit of that and it's got to sustain you! <laughs>

BILL RALSTON:
How awful for you, really!  Do you get to keep the gear?

LUCY LAWLESS:
<listening to the above, LL throws back her head and heartally laughs>
Yes I do!  But I've nowhere to wear it!  I never get to go out!

<scene of beach on location; more of the scene being shot with LL as 
the queen character and the George Clooney-like (Ulysses?) character>

BILL RALSTON:
Now hold on, it can't be she finds it hard to get a date. Several million 
heart papitating viewers can't be wrong.  It's just working fourteen 
hours a day on sets like this one on Auckland's [Central] Beach means 
that social options can be a little limited.

<scene at beach on location - LL and the crew crowded together peering at a 
little screen>

BILL RALSTON:
By the way that's me trying to look like a cool movie mogal type as Lucy 
and the cast watch a rerun of the morning's lip smacking, [face 
sucking], sword wielding, groin kicking action!

<scene SINS OF THE PAST - Xena at the end of her fight with Draco; she 
topples him and jumps down landing triumphantly on his chest>

BILL RALSTON:
Hey, that's Hollywood!

END OF INTERVIEW
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~