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The TV Guide (NZ) April 25 - May 1, 1998 pg. 6-7, 96 |
From JENNY COONEY in Los Angeles
FORTUNATELY for Xena: Warrior Prircess star Lucy Lawless, her new husband - the show's executive producer, Rob Tapert - was not intimidated by her larger-than-life image as the powerful mythical beauty who kicks butt with the best of them.
But he's in a minority.
"Unless they're extremely drunk men won't approach me," Lawless tells TV Guide in an exclusive interview at the recent NATPE (National Association of TV Programming Executives) convention in New Orleans, where she's flown in to press the flesh and help sell her action adventure syndicated series, already airing in 82 countries.
"I've only been asked out twice in 10 years, one was Troy, the refrigerator repair man, and the other was (New York mogul) Donald Trump, who asked me out for a drink, but I thought, 'Well, those are the only two guys in 10 years who've had the guts to come up and ask me for a date'!"
The down-to-earth New Zealander has a surprisingly thick Kiwi accent when she's not in character and looks every inch the TV star, dressed in a shiny bone-coloured suit with matching high heels and full make-up.
She's gracious and charming to the executives and fans who flock to meet her at the convention centre today, aware that her three seasons as Xena have turned her into a bona fide celebrity. But she also seems completely unimpressed with all the fuss.
"Maybe it's because it's happened later in life," the 30-year-old actress and mother of Daisy, 10, ponders humbly, "but I just don't get off on it. I'm just the public face for a lot of people's hard work and, like everything else, the novelty has worn off."
Lawless is unfailingly polite and open during our interview, and hopeful that her show will continue to grow in popularity in her own country, where ratings have not been as high as the US and Australia.
"Perhaps New Zealand is a little shy to wholeheartedly accept their own," she offers, trying to come to terms with the show's less-stellar performance in the country where it is shot.
"They are really proud and derive a lot of pleasure out of the fact that these shows are made there, but they don't like to trumpet it, I guess. I don't wish I was bigger, but I wish the show was bigger at home.
"People in New Zealand have been wonderful to me," she says warmly "If you don't put on airs and graces, people respond to you in kind and all they want is a smile. I have to say I have no complaints about Joe Public - they've been bloody good to me!"
In the flesh, Lawless lives up to any expectation one has of the earthy goddess with a heart of gold. Nor does she let down her growing legion of fans who have helped make the show - initially a spin-off of Hercules: The Legendary Journeys - one of the most popular in syndication, spawning Herc & Xena conventions, major merchandising deals and a live show at the Universal Studios' Florida theme park.
She's also not disappointing her own family, a decision she made early on that has kept her public appearances in her hometown of Auckland to a minimum.
"I find that I need to keep rooted in my home life for my own sake and for my family, Daisy and Robert," she says. "So on the weekends we go and see 101 Dalmations and every week I have a Spice Girls convention at my house.
"Daisy and her friends dress up and sing and I have to videotape their awful choreography, which brings me back to reality," she laughs.
"I have to put my child, my husband and my parents top of the list and that replenishes me, because being famous is depleting."
Since Lawless says only two men have asked her out, how did she wind up marrying another one?
"Rob and I were just worlds colliding," she says about the man who supervises much of the behind-the-scenes work on her show. "It happened in spite of ourselves and it was a very healthy thing."
For Lawless, New Zealand will always be home: "I think everyone has a physical yearning for the environment they grew up in and I think no matter how much I love travelling, I feel the moment I get back I can breathe here and I understand the air and the people and I go on auto-pilot. I dread thinking about leaving, because my daughter is still in school, her dad lives in Auckland and I wouldn't want her to have to make that decision so for a few years at least, we'll definitely be in New Zealand."
As Xena, Lawless inhabits an often-hostile world in the time of ancient and largely mythical Greece, using swords, staffs and the martial arts against villains, both human and supernatural while also finding time to work on friendship issues with her sidekick Gabrielle (Renee O'Connor).
As she attends a symposium at the convention to discuss the phenomenon of her show's success, she is surrounded by admiring TV executives, many of whom tell her she is an idol to their children and, in many cases, themselves.
"In the beginning I really feared that pressure and thought it would be horrible to be a role model," she recalls. "I thought, 'It's hard enough to be a role model for my own child - I don't want to be responsible for anyone else' - but it has became an easy job to carry.
"The show has turned out to be a good bonding thing for women, because it's time women stopped hassling and tearing down each other, and Xena and Gabrielle have a good place in all that," she adds.
Lawless also fights hard to raise her own daughter with those and other values close to her heart.
"I want her vanity to be less than her beauty," she says softly. "I've been careful never to make a comment about somebody's physical appearance because those things are instilled early on and I don't want her to be critical of herself
"I want her to be kinder than she is smarter than she is beautiful," she adds, "and she's a very beautiful girl.
"I used to get comments about my blue eyes or white teeth and after a while I stopped hearing them and I think that's because my mum didn't overly value our appearance or make an issue out of it and I hope I can give that same gift to my daughter."
Listening to Lawless it's clear she handles her celebrity with impressive dignity.
"The best thing I've discovered from this journey is that being who you are is good enough," she shares. "You don't have to go to parties, you don't have to be seen and you don't have to act 'starry' to be a star.
"I've also learned that you should never say a negative thing about anyone or anything, because people don't really like to hear it and they're embarrassed by whingeing.
"People are bloody good to me, I have to say, all they want is a smile and if you don't put on airs and graces, people respond to you in kind."
Although he spent her break from the show last year on Broadway, playing Rizzo in the musical Grease, Lawless was looking for a new challenge this year.
"Doing Grease felt like a small-town kid from the bottom of the world taking on New York and that was the scariest thing I could do," she says proudly "I've been there and done that and that was the scariest option available to me on my last break."
She felt the next scariest option was getting married, and now she's done that. "The show is at least for another few years but there will come a day when 1'll just stop and have babies," she also reveals.
"I met Tracey Ullman on a plane here yesterday and she was cool. She told me, 'Every time the business gets you down, have another baby'."
As for Xena's future, Lawless looks to Rob Tapert - who's just arrived to take her to lunch - for information.
"What are we expecting to see, Rob?" she teases the 42-year-old.
"Next season is Xena's search for an answer," he teases back. "The question is, 'What's the meaning of it all?"'
It would seem that Lucy Lawless probably has that answer.
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