2009 OFFICIAL XENA CONVENTION
Los Angeles, California, USA

January 30 - 1 February, 2009

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Con 09 L.A. Lucy and Renee - Part 2

by KT
fsktl@uaf.edu

A fan asked her about acting up on the set of Bedtime Stories, which she had talked about in an interview. Lucy said that she came in one day and didn’t have anything to do-she was just supposed to hang around. “I’m not going to sit around for 8 hours. I got on horrible clothes, a costume. (she described it-it sounded like she was practicing being the old hooker skank already. Real frowsy stuff). Then she looked out at us and said, “I’m sorry if anybody’s wearing clothes like them.” (Damn, does she know her fandom or what?)

She told us that at the back of the set there was a school. She went over there and, “I was chain smoking and yelling at the kids. There was a cop there and I’m getting moved on.” He was telling her to cross the road. She began to yell at the other people who were there, saying, “Yeah! Get across the road!” Which made the cop scream out at her, “No-YOU!”

She told us, “The B director shot it all. It was so funny on the inside.”

Renee just loves to get Luce going. She eggs her on with little reminders of things she’s done and then watches her with a happy grin on her face, and seems to really get into the story Lucy is telling. And of course, Lucy is as always, acting out the story, not just telling it.

Lucy said something that I wrote down as, “Pouring the wine to get a wee sound”. Now, I don’t THINK she meant wee as in little. It struck me that she might have meant a “pee” sound-but I’m not totally certain.

This is my next paragraph, verbatim: “Big granny pants. Wine all over me. We showed them everybody laughed-but afterwards. Whew-cool breeze.”

Whatever the hell was going on, we and Renee found it all VERY funny. Lucy said maybe with a touch of most likely false regret, “I just can’t help myself. It’s the devil’s work.” (Pause) “Somebody’s got to do it.”


Note: I got help with clarifying a part I’d written up earlier. The following is based upon a post from the fan who asked these questions of Renee:

A fan asked about the "Donnie LeDroit" videos that Jed has on youtube. Iris is in one of them and the fan said she was just adorable. She asked Renee if Iris had been easy to direct. Renee said that she wasn’t directing them, she was running the camera. She said she saw this park statue with great lighting and was intrigued by it, so she began filming it. And wound up taping over some of the shots she’d already gotten of Jed.

She added, “Iris is SUCH a performer. She loves to re-create things she sees.” Lucy added, “Iris is a real pistol”.

Now during all this, Lucy said or maybe we heard Sharon reminding them again that the convention was being shot with only one camera-so they had to stick together and not wander off to separate sides of the stage like they usually do. Well, like Lucy usually tries to set up. But inevitably, when Lucy walks away from her, Renee will advance towards the other end of the stage (sometimes with a helpful nudge from Luce) but the minute Lucy starts talking, Renee slowly wanders back towards her. Apparently, like many of us, she’s just gripped by wanting to be with Lucy. It’s a fine and funny dance those two do for us at cons.

So they kept kind of tracing around together, trying to get both sides of the stage covered but also trying to stay facing towards the one camera. At one point, I think it was Lucy who grabbed Renee’s hand to keep her close and traveling with her around the stage. (Which as I said, was just the opposite of the usual scenario.)

(What with having to herd Renee and Claire around the stage, Lucy should put “Convention Star Wrangler” on her resume.)
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A fan asked Lucy and Renee (by now Lucy had the little palomino filly under control and was holding her by her side at stage left), “If they made a Japanese cartoon of Xena-would you guys do the voices.” Lucy and Renee stared silently at the fan for a moment. Then after a short pause, Lucy said carefully, “We don’t speak Japanese.”

That totally cracked me up for some reason. I hadn’t THOUGHT of that. I just figured it would be in English. Laugh! Trust Luce to make a joke out of it. Xena in Anime style-that might be cool. ANYWAY. . .

Okay, I think it was Lucy who said about the next fan interaction, “I believe that’s two questions”. But I don’t know what the questions were. The answers (but I don’t know if it was Lucy or Renee who said them), were: “Lucy. And no”.

Then Lucy was asked if she would ever go on “Dancing With The Stars”. She answered very quickly and with great surety, “No way. It was really hard for me to go there every week.” (When Marissa was on it and Lucy went to support her.) “It’s not my idea of entertainment. It was torture.”

Next Lucy bragged on us. (Which always puffs us up.) She talked about how this year was the 14th anniversary of the beginning of the show. “Fourteen years-completely amazing.” She talked about how the audience was growing in different areas.” (I think this is like maybe the fourth year in a row that Lucy has looked around at the con [and now at her concerts also] and been stunned by the sight of men in the hall.)

She said, “I’m glad nobody brought kids so we can use language.”

And then she said, “I wouldn’t need to come except that I find this fanbase so great and so humbling and the community and the things you do for each other.” She always tells us this, that she continues to come to thank us for just being us. Now how many people in our lives tell us that?

(Really? THAT many tell you that. Hmmm.)

Lucy again, “Maybe I’ll stalk Adam Sandler.”

Leaving Lucy contemplating her future, this is the end of Part 2