Tue, 08/19/2014

Life With Lucy (Lawless)

Lucy Lawless

One of my favorite recent interviews was one the Archive did back in 2013 with Lucy Lawless. It amounted to a free-wheeling three-hour gabfest during which Lawless was engaging, honest and funny. Whether you know her as a Warrior Princess, a Cylon, or the Lady Macbeth of the Roman Republic, I promise you’ll see a side to her in this interview that you’ve never seen before.

 

During the course of the interview I found several reasons to love Lucy. Here are but five of them: 

1.     She’s got a good head on her shoulders and a good sense of her place in the culture.

Lawless understands what “Xena” means to people, but she takes no credit (or blame) when people are inspired by her.   

2.     She does a great Stevie Nicks imitation.  

When she hosted Saturday Night Live, she gave us a Stevie who wanted us to eat burritos. She was convinced it wouldn’t be funny. She was wrong.  

Here's the sketch:

lucy lawless by dummy-account

3.     She’s subversive.  

Back in 1995, two years before “The Puppy Episode” of Ellen, Lawless was playing lesbian subtext on Xena: Warrior Princess with the Battling Bard of Potidaea, “Gabrielle” (Renee O’Connor). At first, the women were unaware of the undertones until eight episodes into the series when it was pointed out to them. They were surprised, but they embraced it and played it to the hilt.

4.     She’s a lot of fun.

During her guest spot on Curb Your Enthusiasm, she put her foot in her mouth with the writers AND ad-libbed a zinger that Larry David loved. 

5.     She’s got a brilliant approach to acting.

One of the best descriptions of acting I’ve ever heard in the Archive.

The interview focuses on the rich tapestry of characters Lucy Lawless has created in the past, but I can’t wait to see what she does in the future.

For more reasons to love Lucy, watch her full interview.

- by John Dalton