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Con 08 Lucy at the convention Part 3

I think someone asked her where she wanted to go next or maybe someone
just suddenly yelled out that they wanted her to come back to Europe
again. She replied, “Paris. Amsterdam. Berlin.” People began to yell
things out. “Israel!” “Iraq!” Lucy laughed and said the Chicago band had
been all, (said in a laid back, almost druggy kind of voice) “You should
go to Iraq, man.” Either Lucy said then they made a scared face or she
made a scared face. The locals began to scream out “London!”

You know, this was a very noisy convention-you could tell that there were
lots and lots of newly-able-to-attend-a-con fans who were just SO excited
to be looking at Luce. And unlike the Burbank newly-able-to-attend-a-con
fans, they just couldn’t bear not talking to her, screaming to her from
their seats-and not just when asking her a question.

Lucy said something about Page 3 (and I can’t read my handwriting on this
next word either) “lusties” or “huskties”. Or maybe even totally something
else-I can’t tell.

Page 3 refers to one of the daily newspapers in England that prints a
picture of a bare breasted bozo on page three every day. (I keep waiting
for the Queen to show up, but so far she’s abstained-as far as I know
anyway.)

Lucy talked about going to breakfast in her hotel. She said there were
some large women there with huge bosoms wearing very low cut tops. “You
GO, London! Bosoms for breakfast-it was hard to keep my eyes on my eggs!"
(Wonder if they were fried. Boy-talk about a double vision.) "Celebrate
your bodies.”

She was asked how she chose scripts to do. “Often it’s about the people
who are making it. I don’t want to do anything that’s a real downer. In a
serious show it’s hard on set.”

Talking about making “Bedtime Stories”, she said, “I call it ‘Camp
Sandler’. It’s amazing what you can do with a budget like that. They spend
money making their working environment homey.”

Question: Have you done any work you’ve regretted?

Lucy looked at her watch and said, “Any minute now I’m going to go, ‘Shit!
I’m 80!’” (I loved her looking at her watch as she said that-that was SO
funny to me.)

“I’m collecting experiences like jewels. You’re never on your death bed
going, ‘Ohhh, nobody respects me ‘cause I took that job!”

One of the five (there were at least five) Xena’s came up and told Lucy
she’d been a friend of Aleida’s and thanked her for attending Aleida’s
funeral. (Aleida was a major Xena fan, absolute defender of Lucy and one
of the jewels of the fandom. She was the type of person who made Lucy
respect and love her fans so much.)

Lucy told the fan, “I feel like Aleida has been taking care of me a number
of times.”

Luce was asked if she ever thought about performing Xena in a live action
venue. (I’m guessing this means in a play, eh?)

Lucy said, “I can imagine it. And in my imagination--it will stay.”

My next notes say, “Austrian horses. The minute that sucker falls over and
you break your pelvis. . .”

“(Something illegible) the bloody Broadway show. Spitting fire-I lost my
eyebrows from it once. I’ll keep it in mind if the film career doesn’t
work out.”

Someone said something about FIN and going on from there. “They know
that-pretend FIN never happened-have them together from the start. Every
phony crucifixion is a really miserable experience-do NOT try it at home.
You have to wear this weird harness. It makes the costume fit funny-you
look like a sack of potatoes. Jesus makes it look good, but I always
didn’t. I can’t BELIEVE I SAID THAT! I’m damned, I’m damned. (Pause) I’m
going to hell.”

Question: How did Xena learn to stand up to mean people?

“Good question. It’s internal-like magnetic north. She knew what right was.”

I think it was the above question where two people had come up to the
mike. The person who asked the question said that she was asking it for
her friend and pointed to the woman next to her. It came out that the
woman was deaf. When Lucy answered, the one who asked the question turned
to her friend and began to explain to her what Lucy had said by telling
her. Lucy suddenly exclaimed, “You don’t sign!” The woman said she didn’t
and Lucy turned to us and told us that the woman was just repeating what
Lucy had said, slowly and carefully. Lucy said something like, “Well,
she’s got a heart. Fortunately, Sharon knows ASL.” (American Sign
Language.) Sharon began to sign but I believe then they realized that the
woman didn’t know American Sign Language. (Which I found fascinating-I
have some friends who know how to sign and this made me wonder just how
many different sign languages have been formally developed.)

Lucy went back to answering the question. “(Xena had) “a moral compass.
She was a bad girl initially.” I THINK Lucy said she wasn’t killing women
and children. “Then she spat the dummy". Lucy stopped for a second and
thought. Then asked, Do you say that in England?”

In England and in some parts of America, “dummy” is what some folks call a
pacifier. (A pacifier is the little portable nipple that babies suck on
that has the mouth guard so they don’t swallow it-in my circles, it’s also
called, “pipe” (as in “What’d you do with your pipe?” and in my mother’s
family, they use a word that sounds like, “Koo-eye”.

“Spitting the dummy” is quitting an action or I guess breaking a habit
would also apply.

“She rebelled against her leash”. (Not sure if that last word in my notes
is “leash” or not.)

“I have a strong sense of what’s good for me. These days, it’s very black
and white for me. It’s just intuition-you just know the right thing. Have
to be encouraged to go with your moral compass.”

Lucy looked over at the two fans and Sharon, all still working on
translating what Lucy was saying. Lucy said that on television at home,
signing is very precise and kind of formal. But she’s noticed that here in
Europe the signing is much more emotive. She said that if the story is say
about a foul odor, in Europe they go. . .” And here she began to act the
role of an interpreter for us, making huge gestures and horribly anguished
faces, rearing back in disgust, holding her nose, and then pushing her
hands way out in front of her in a kind of “Keep AWAY!” motion. I thought
it made the point quite well.

She was asked how she got involved in “Bro Town”, which is a New Zealand
animated series about young Maori and Samoan kids living in a poor
Auckland suburb.

“I was just asked to help out. I’d known some of the boys who made it at
school. It was funny and I wanted to be part of it. When you be specific
and authentic(?), it’s funny.”

She was asked about working on “The Simpsons”.

“I LOVED doing ‘The Simpsons’. That was a cool thing-that was a little
shazam moment.”

“I even have an action figure. The Simpsons don’t move much-we’re stolid.”
(She demonstrated being stolid-held herself rigid as she said this.)

She talked about working as a voice actor. “It’s a different technique. I
just did what people told me.”

She was asked if she was offended because they had her speak in her
American accent.

“Listen-I am MORE than just my accent. (Pause as she thought about it.)
People think it’s sad when a child loses their accent. That is SO
unimportant.”

Now I think she was told that she and Celene Dion are the same age. Lucy
repeated, “Celene Dion? She seems so grown up to me.” You know, the Celene
Dion thing MAY have come up in relation to Celene just finishing her long
Vegas run. With possibly a suggestion that Lucy might do Vegas?

Lucy talked about really liking “musicals on stage. Because they are
SOOOOO romantic!” Then she thought for a minute and said, “I don’t admit
that to many people. Cute guy singing-they’re all sparkly-it’s a fantasy
every night.”

Just like watching Lucy in concert, eh?

KT