Xena: Warrior Princess stars Ted Raimi, Adrienne Wilkinson and William Gregory Lee tell Brian J. Robb about their extraordinary experiences in the top-rated series
s actors, they're worlds apart. But ted Raimi, Adrienne Wilkinson and William Gregory Lee still shar a unique bond: all three play pivotal roles in Xena: Warrior Princess
Ted Raimi portrayed the show's semi-regular comic sidekick Joxer on -and-off throughout the series' run, and even donned heavy latex make-up to play an aged Joxer towards the end of the series. Adrienne Wilkinson faced a fidderent challenge: bringing Xena's daughter to life, first as the evil Livia and then as the peace-loving Eve. And before landing his latest rol of Zack in Dark Angel, William Gregory Lee (who prefers to be called 'Greg') portrayed Joxer's son, Virgil.
To commemorate the end of Xena after a phenomenal six-year run, dreamwatch gathered the trio together to find out their highlights of the offbeat fantasy series...
As Joxer, Ted Raimi brought light relief to Xena Dreamwatch: What's your first very memory of Xena - either auditioning for your part or your first day on set?
Ted Raimi: I'll tell you about how I got the part. I took every bit of money that I ever had and I gave it to [executive producer] Rob Tapert. That was $10, but I promised him more...
William Gregory Lee: I slept with Rob. That was easier!
Raimi: The bastard. He told me I was the only one! [Laughs]
I had just come back from Florida having done seaQuest for three years for NBC. I was feeling very bigheaded at the time, thinking that I was going to get another show like that. So a week went by, a month, two months, three months: no auditions at all. I'm broke, as I didn't know how to handie any of my money and I blew it all... After three years on a network TV show I was flat broke: idiot!
I was at Universal, walking back to my car, thinking, 'I blew my last audition...', wondering how much gas I had in my car. I needed to know if I could get back home from Detroit to LA in my car and get a job there as I hadn't worked in months. As I was heading to my car, there was Rob Tapert, a producer and old friend of mine from Detroit. He asked what I was doing, so l tried to talk up this audition to make it seem there was something going on in my life, then broke down and said: 'Nothing! I don't have any money. Everything sucks! What's going on with you?...'
Then he said: 'Do you wanna go to New Zealand and be in my show, Xena?' I said, 'Yeah! 'Suddenly I had money to pay my rent on my apartment...
I got very lucky, and Lucy Lawless didn't kick me off the show, then I met these cool guys... Now they owe me money. That's it!
Adrienne Wilkinson, who feels that future roles will have to be good to live up to Xena.
Adrienne Wilkinson: I guess I can say that when I was auditioning originally, the whole Xena's daughter thing was a secret. No one was supposed to know about the 25 years' jump and I was just reading these sides [script pages] about this empress. Xena wasn't even in it, so l didn't know if my story intersected with hers.
I had no idea what the role was. I was told it would be working with Lucy and it'd be as her nemesis. I was absolutely positive that I wouldn't get the job because I thought I looked too similar to Lucy. I figured they'd want a redhead or someone completely different...
Raimi: That's funny...
Wilkinson: Yeah. I thought, 'There's no way l'm gonna get this as our features are just too similar.' They kept calling me back and I was on hold for a week while they were deciding... It was not until after I had the job and received the script that I found out who the character actually was. Then I realised how fortunate [the resemblance] was. Rob [Tapert] obviously knew what he was looking for. I don't know if it was personality traits or if he thought I could be made up to look the part, but I realised how absolutely clueless you can be in an audition. To be perfectly honest, it was probably really helpful [to me]. Playing a guest star was a big deal, but realising the gravity that the role had, I would have been nervous. Instead I was really comfortable and just really enjoyed it. Then when I found out that I had the role, I thought, 'l don't look enough like her.' There's a couple of scenes where we look so similar that we really do look like we're related.
Dreamwatch: Was it difficult for you coming into an already established group of actors...?
Wilkinson: When you go on any show that is established you are always trying to fit yourself in as a piece of the puzzle, but on this show it is such a blessing for me that everybody did their jobs so well. I wouldn't have been able to pull it off if it weren't for 100 other people behind the scenes, showing me the fighting and working with horses and everything else that was required which was all brand new to me...
Raimi: Greg and I taught her everything she knows about acting...and horse riding. She couldn't do anything. She had trouble walking, actually. We started with basic therapy, and we taught her how to walk, talk and present herself. See how lovely she is now? Let me tell you something, go to: www.gregandtedcanmakeyousomebody.com...
Lee: My story is similar to Ted's. I had come off a show on NBC... It was a show called Wendell and Water, Saturday nights at 8pm. Bo Derek played my mom... We shot 11 and they cancelled us after two. I had almost a full year auditioning. Unlike Ted, I started having multiple auditions right away and you start thinking: 'The world's mine! 'You find out very quick it can be and it can't.
Greg Lee, now one of the regulars on James Cameron's Dark Angel
I booked this movie with Billy Bob Thornton and Burt Reynolds... The movie falls apart, so l don't get to shoot it. I test for three shows, don't get any of them. I book another lead in an independent feature, but then I book a movie called Remember the Titans, so pass on the lead of the independent feature to do Remember the Titans, then Titans falls apart for me...
I go a full year of absolutely nothing coming together, and l'm a mess. I'm involved in a law suit with a manager, which drains me of all my money from the NBC series I had done, so l'm broke. I go home for Christmas and l'm ready to give up. I'm like 'It's done. There's nothing that can fix this problem.' l'm offered this soap, two different times and it's not what I want to do, so l walk away from it. I decided when I was home in Virginia that I'd go back to LA and no matter what was offered, I'd take it. I'd work on it and make the most of it.
Raimi: That's so much like what happened to me. That's so weird.
Lee: I get back to LA and three weeks later I get called to audition for Xena and I say, 'Yeah, sure.' I went in there and got it, strangely enough. Ever since, it seems like this karma thing as l've been pretty much working regularly, it's been a great experience...
Dreamwatch: So, what is your final memory of being on Xena?
Raimi: I remember they gagged me and chloroformed me and then I woke up in America... They said 'Money? What money?' No... There was an episode I did which I thought was going to be my last. As it happened I came back two more times, but that episode which I was pretty sure was my last was the one where I died [Eve].
As often happens on any shooting day, they seldom do it in order. That death scene was shot just before lunch. Greg was there, Adrienne was there... I had this image in my head that morning: 'You know, when I do my death scene... everyone will be like, 'Yeah, Ted, you did great these last six years, you were so good.' They're gonna hand me a big basket of flowers and everyone will applaud and they'll say, 'We want you to stay! Don't go back to America...'
It was a rough morning, it was long, and Adrienne and I had a lot to do, and l'm wearing this heavy old-age make-up... Finally we're at my death scene. I'm Iying on the ground and we shoot the scene, everyone's crying - Lucy, Renee [O'Connor, Gabrielle] doing their thing. Then they yell, 'Cut!' And I thought, 'Well, this is it... This is my moment...' They go, 'Well, that's lunch everybody!' And the crew are going, 'Thank God, I'm starving.' Everybody got up and left! And I went 'Wow, that just sucked...'
It was so appropriate that it should have ended like that, because it reminded me what a factory it is. It's a movie factory. You've got all these ideas of what acting might be, but that's what it really is... That's my biggest memory of my last couple of moments on the show...
Wilkinson: I remember the last day before you left: everyone was specifically ignoring you, so that at the end we could surprise you with a gift...
Ted Raimi, hoping to play Harold Lloyed in a bio-pic now that Xena has wrapped.
Raimi: It was a $10 gift certificate to any McDonalds in Australia or New Zealand... No, that's not true. They had a big surprise for me at the end of the day... but that particular day was kinda sad.
Wilkinson: The last episode that I did [The Path of Vengeance] wasn't expected to be my last. There wasn't a guarantee that I was coming back, but the storyline was sort of vague and undone, and no one really thought it was the end of my character yet. They ended one episode at noon and were starting another at 1pm, so everyone was very busy. I just assumed l'd get to see everyone again...
In the end I didn't come back and I think the storylines worked out better that way, as the way that episode ended was better than I ever imagined. I thought it really sewed up the storylines. So i never really said goodbyes to everybody and was never really sad, which is probably good..
I've seen everyone recently, and l'm struck by what an extraordinary group of people Xena had, how talented, interesting and... I'm so proud just to have been a part of it, being part oF that group of people...
There's always stuff that you don't talk about on a show; that in an interview you stay away from. On Xena there's nothing like that, I had such an extraordinary experience in every sense that it's going to be really hard for anything else to live up to it.
Raimi: It's true. On every show that you work on there is always one person who's like just an ass, the ass or maybe asses plural, depending... but there was really no one who was like that...
Lee: My [final] memory was, 'Thank God, I don't have to work with that ass Ted Raimi! I'm outta here!'[Laughs]...
When I left, I thought 'OK everybody, I'll see you on the next episode.'... They were talking about bringing me back on Xena, but I got booked up for Dark Angel and went straight to Vancouver and started shooting, then couldn't get a [suitable] date. So, when I left New Zealand, I thought l'd get to see everyone again, I really did... I never got the chance. Since then, I've seen everybody except Renee.
Raimi: Yeah, she's mad and doesn't want to see you. It's on purpose! [Laughs]
 | ||
|
|
|
| Return Links | ||
| Articles Annex Main Page (Xena articles) |
your previous page | |
