• Xena Warrior Princess
• Lucy Lawless
• Renee O'Connor
• AUSXIP Charity Auctions
• TX Forum
• AUSXIP Network
• About Site

Con 08 London Lucy at the Convention Part 4

Someone came up and said something about, "As you're so gorgeous and
stuff. . ." Lucy put on a resigned face and said, "It's a cross to
bear." (I THINK she said cross, not curse.)

Her booty exposure was brought up. (Well, in the conversation it
was-we didn't literally get a rising moon at the convention.) A fan
said something about how pictures of her butt were all over the web
within minutes of her sashaying out on stage. She said she was going
to go on the web and check out her cheeks.

"I hope they're firm. I'm afraid to look at them. I'll see them and
go-`Oh shit! No more assless chaps!'"

Now this is very interesting to me. Luce celebrates the big, buxom,
British women whom she saw at breakfast proudly displaying their
wares. But she doesn't want HER ass out there unless it looks good.
Hmmm. As they used to say on Sesame Street, "One of these things is
not like the other".

I think in reply to some comment or question, she said, "Filming and
transmitting are okay with us. You don't fight technology." But it
seemed to me that I caught a whiff of ruefulness as she said this. Fan
rumor (unconfirmed by anyone who would really know) has it that there
will not be a DVD or even CD made of this concert. And I have to
wonder how much people ripping off Lucy's concerts and putting them up
on YouTube for free has cut into the sales of her other DVDs and CDs.
Sure, the sound is lousy and the video usually pretty much sucks. (As
I well know, since I get offered my own personal copies of bootlegged
Lucy work all the time-and have once in a while accepted it-but I also
know I will be buying whatever she puts out there the minute it gets
out there.)

There has to be some impact on sales from these being available for
free. This of course has been endlessly discussed about the music
industry in general, since the technology first became available and
people first began to openly steal artist's works and take some of
their profits for their work away from them.

Lucy was asked who her heroes are. "Apart from my mommy . . ."(And my
notes do say, "Mommy", but I wrote that answer before she said it,
since she's often said that her mother is her hero and role model. So
perhaps she said "Mother".) "Nina Simone, Patty Smith, Annie
Lennox-people who put their life and their pain and their joy in
there. They touch me-on a cellular level. Whether or not they're not
nice people. I met Nina's daughter-who's named Simone. She was very
troubled." (I think Lucy meant Nina, not Simone.)

Then she talked about the folks working on the concert with them. "I
have to hand it to them. The musicians and technicians were way beyond
anything we've experienced." Either here or maybe it was actually at
the concert, she talked about the sound check, how the technician sat
in seat after seat, all over the hall to make sure it sounded good
everywhere.

Lucy said she was still "Not sure about `Total Eclipse'. Give the
public what they like. The songs belong to the fans. Fans love them."

She was asked about "Bedtime Stories". Someone, not sure if it was
Lucy or the fan, said it was a Disney film.

Lucy explained, "I play a bitter ex model who's now a concierge in
some (ratty) hotel. Not the way she saw herself. This is her
backstory-it's not explained in the film."

"She attaches herself to Guy Pierce. Adam is trying to get back his
father's hotel. I try to stand with him." (With him or up to him? Or
is she talking about Guy Pierce and not Sandler's character?)

Question: "Did you keep the outfit from `Eurotrip'"?

"Yeah-I wore it last night."

"No such luck. They were keeping it for reshoots." (Then I believe she
said they didn't do any reshoots.) "It was made of latex-it's probably
perished by now. In my experience, latex don't last."

She was asked what her favorite episodes are. "The Debt. Sin Trades.
Ides of March."

She talked about the comedies, that she was "Not so good. There was
not enough to do. I didn't know how to do nothing."

She was asked what her favorite place in New Zealand is.

"The top of the South Island. It's the gourmet bread basket of New
Zealand. Like Europe, there are silver smiths, wine, cheeses,
sculpture. You can get good coffee just about everywhere in New
Zealand-that's important to me."

She talked about her chaps. "They were made to fit over jeans." But
she tried them on that way and "Oooo, that doesn't look right. I tried
them without stockings and `Ooooooo, THAT doesn't look right'". So she
wound up wearing them with fishnet stockings under teensy little
half-assed pants. (Literally half-assed.) "Shall I wear a dress
tonight?" Some folks screamed out, "NOOOOOOOOOOOO!"

Next question was about the horse who played Argo. I THINK that the
person asking it said that we'd never heard the horse's name-which of
course isn't correct.

Lucy said that Tilly was the main horse. But, "She was the princess on
the set." Tilly could get spooked. "A horse called Rocky-he was
bomb-proof."

I think she was asked about maybe her favorite role or maybe
specifically about her playing 2 or 3 Xena look-alikes in some eps.

"Three roles-Princess, Priestess-I loved those. I would film all the
stuff as Meg, then go off and change and do all the Xena stuff. It was
all location specific. I loved the priestess and Meg."

Then she put on a face and I THINK she said, "Rich male?! Oooo, oooo,
well you'll go straight to Tartarus!"

Note: I have since been advised that Lucy was actually talking about a
comedian named Ric Mayall, not a rich male. Or he may be a rich male
who just happens to be named Rik Mayall-a slightly sloppy onomotopoeic
nomenclature.

Then I THINK she was talking about the people of Prague-sadly I
neglected to write the specific place down. "Best looking people in
the world. Most gorgeous looking people." And then I have the words,
"Muted appearance." ? Hmm- that's a strange one. . .

I think she was asked about challenges in her life. And made a
distinction between things that might be challenging and things that
might be both challenging and enriching. "Jumping out of a plane-it
doesn't actually interest me. I did that for a job." She figured, "I'm
never going to do this on my own bap." Bap? Wait-I bet she said
bat-though I wrote bap. Could be bap though-those Kiwis have some
weird sayings. She said there was no schwing in jumping out of a plane
for her. She said she'd gone para-sailing-"In each case, I thought,
`Oh-this is interesting'—but no schwing."

"My marriage was breaking down. I said to my first husband, `YOU would
love this. He's like an instructor now. BIG schwing for him."

Then she told us that he texted her recently to let her know he was
getting married again. She smiled and seemed happy he'd done that,
laughing as she told us she thought it was very sweet of him to let
her know.

And that's the end of my notes. There was once again massive screaming
and cheering and something new-stomping of feet as people rose to give
her a standing ovation. That's something I noticed-almost no one else
got a standing ovation. But Luce got one I think coming out and also
at the end of her appearance.

As always, it was fun and interesting to hear what she had to say. She
shares so much about her life and where she's going with it with us.
At the cons, sure, she presents an onstage public persona-but there's
also a subtle difference – we're not just her audience, we're also
people she feels she knows, people she respects, people she cares for
and about. In somewhat of a small way, we're part way to being a bunch
of dear old friends, come to watch her shine.

KT