table of contents "LUCY LAWLESS Exiting Xena and entering The Vagina Monologues"

STORY BY MELINDA WILLIAMS   PHOTOGRAPHY BY KARL PIERARD

What is it about certain television shows and films that lifts them above mere popularity and into the select realm of the cult classic? Why do some oddball movies become huge hits, while others fade quietly into obscurity? What makes some programmes inspire ongoing passion from their fans decades after they finish while other equally popular shows of the same era evoke only nostalgic memories?

Joining the cult classic club is a tricky business. Sometimes there is no argument about membership. Twin Peaks, The Simpsons, Easy Rider, The Prisoner, The X-Files and the original Star Trek show are obviously in; Friends, Survivor, Good Will Hunting and American Pie, clearly out. Anything by Stanley Kubrick, in; anything by Jerry Bruckheimer, out. Soap operas don't get a lookin (with the possible exception of early'80s sitcom Soap); anything sci-fi has a headstart.

Sometimes though, it's not so easy to decide. Pulp Fiction makes the list but what about the Quentin Tarantino-penned From Dusk To Dawn? Rowan Atkinson's Blackadder is a yes but Mr Bean? It's hard to say. Where do you draw the line between a show or film that has a devoted fan club and one that qualifies as a cult classic?

Staying outside the mainstream won't necessarily get you a place on the list - although Taxi Driver, Red Dwarf, Evil Dead and Twin Peaks drew niche audiences, The Simpsons, Star Wars, Seinfeld and the Alien trilogy were all massive hits. But widespread popularity is no guarantee either. Rachel, Ross, Monica, Chandler et al reqularly pull millions more viewers every week than Xena: Warrior Princess ever did but when it comes to fan websites, the Amazoninan warrior outnumbers them almost 10 to one.

Clever writing won't do it, although many cult classics (particularly modern ones) feature sharp, self-aware scripts. Nor will critical acclaim, or lack thereof. No, there are only two elements, usually in conjunction, that will give you anything close to a guarantee of cult status.

First, there is an element of fantasy. Cult classics are never set in a framework that is completely realistic and this gives them the ability to transcend the time and place in which they are made. It also lets them make particularly pointed social commentary on contemporary society because they exist outside of it and act as an observer, not as a participant. And it provides an escape from reality for viewers tired of trying to suspend their disbelief while watching shows that only bear a passing resemblance to reality.

Second, you need a highly charismatic lead actor or actress who will become closely identified with their character, often to the point where they can never escape that identification. Whatever happened to the cast of Star Trek? Can anyone think of another memorable character that Leonard Nimoy or William Shatner played? What did Mark Hamill and Carrie Fisher do after the Star Wars trilogy? Has Sigourney Weaver played a character whose name you can think of faster than Ripley? Playing the lead in a cult film or series can make an actor or actress' career but it can also consign them to the twilight world of tele-movies and true-life mini-series when their hit show fades from the screen.

LUCY WEARS WORKSHOP T-SHIRT, NECKLACE BY HAL COUPER, LEATHER PANTS LUCY'S OWN.

Right now, Lucy Lawless is on the brink of the transformation from cult figure to career actress. As the sword-wielding heroine of Xena: Warrior Princess, she and her show have achieved true cult classic status, including a fan following in the tens of millions, hundreds of thousands of website shrines, plastic action figures, a cartoon film sequel, appearances on talk shows and magazine covers... The whole deal.

Now, barely seven months after the airing of the final episode of the six-year series, Lawless is lounging on the couch in the Pavement offices and expressing astonishment that anyone still wants to talk about her life as a cult icon, let alone run an eight-page cover story on her.

"I really find it so amusing when people want to write about Xena because I think of it as ancient history," she says, earnestly. A moment later, realising her unintentional pun, she starts to laugh. "Yeah, yeah... Xena, it's Ancient History! But it kind of is, to me, and it amuses me that there is this constant interest. It's pretty cool though."

Today, Lawless is wearing a soft pink top that sits loose around her arms and tight across her six-months-pregnant belly. With her fair skin, flat shoes and new, shorter, flickier haircut, she looks several light-years away from the black-haired, olive-skinned, leather tunic-wearing warrior that most people recognise her as. Still, since the series ended, Lawless has made an effort to change her appearance somewhat, she says.

"It wasn't that I needed to break away from the image of Xena because I never really saw myself as Xena in the first place. But I gradually realised that other people couldn't get beyond it," she explains. "I've certainly had no active part in the way I looked for the last six years. I mean, I never considered having my hair cut. It just wasn't an option. After the show finished, I went out and got a haircut and then was shocked six weeks later to discover my hair was in my eyes and I had to get it cut again! It's just not something I ever thought about before."

Wrapping up the final episode of the show that had dominated her life for more than half a decade was sad but also timely, recalls Lawless. "It was weird at first. You know, towards the end it was so..." She pauses, searching for the right words. "It wasn't that it was a grind, it was that it had beaten the crap out of me. Pretending that I was a physical person every day, I just had nothing left to give in the end. I was always giving one hundred per cent of what I had but in the end I was just nunning out of juice, physically and mentally. So when it finished, it was great to have a complete creative collapse. I think I just kind of short-circuited a bit.

"I was ready to get off the treadmill but it's my husband [producer Rob Tapert's] show, so I care about it from that point of view and I care for the livelihoods of the crew," she confides. "But I think we were all prepared..." she continues, then checks herself. "Actually, it's not true to say we were prepared but we knew it was coming a long way in advance." She stares out the window for a moment, eyes narrowed in thought. "It was the right time, basically, for it to end."

Growing up in the Auckland suburb of Mt Albert, young Lucy Ryan (born March 29, 1968, the fifth of seven children) probably did dream of being world famous one day but she never imagined what form in would take. Although her dreams of acting were supported by her theatre-loving parents (her father, Frank, became mayor of Mt Albert the year Lawless was born, remaining so for the next 22 years), she grew up with five brothers who were more than happy to remind her that "getting a big head" is the worst kind of crime for a young Kiwi. So, while she continued to appear in plays and musicals at the convent schools she attended, she learned to keep her acting dreams to herself. Even after her 1988 marriage to Garth Lawless, which provided her with possibly the most perfect real-life name for a cult TV heroine, she continued to believe that her acting talents lay not on the screen but on the stage.

"I would never in a million years have thought I would do something like Xena," Lawless says, shaking her head in disbelief. "It's the last type of show I would ever have seen myself in. I thought I would be doing Shakespeare."

Surprisingly, for someone who stands at almost 5'11 " in bare feet, with what appears to be an ideal figure for a warrior princess, Lawless says it was the physicality of the role that she struggled with most.

"That was one hell of an education, learning to do stunt fights, and I never got to like them," she reflects. "Sometimes I would enjoy the feeling of euphoria at the end, the physical high when you do a good fight. But I swear - this would happen again and again, as silly as it sounds - they'd say, 'Lucy' your fight's up next', and I would think to myself, "Oh, shit! Haven't we done enough fights yet?!' It wasn't that I was consciously bored with it, it's just that that kind of physical activity, martial arts or going to the gym, just has zero appeal for me."

Still, Lawless says that even if it had been somebody else high-kicking her way through a legion of villains on the screen, she thinks she still would have enjoyed watching the programme.

"Yeah, I would have watched it 'cause it's so... I don't know if it's dumb television for smart people or smart television for dumb people but I love smart kitsch, especially when it's got a gnarly edge to it." She gives a big grin. "And because I've been exposed to that world of cultism via my hisband and being on Xena, I probably hold that instinct for the ironic.

"When it comes to films and TV, I think the edgier the better," insists Lawless. "My tastes really run to that. Even before Xena, my favourite movies in the world were always Last Exit to Brooklyn and then Once Were Warriors, which devastated me. Just the harder the better."

LUCY WEARS PETIT BATEAU SINGLET FROM WORKSHOP, ZIP-UP HOODED JUMPER BY FIX, VENT PANTS BY HUFFER, SHELL NECKLACE BY GEORGE NUKU.

Over the last couple of years Lawless' affection for the off-beat and intelligent has led to her making appearances in two more of television's best known and most reverred cult series: The X-Files and The Simpsons.

Lawless says her Simpsons role particularly delighted her because it allowed her to play on the mindset of fans that fail to make the distinction between her screen persona and reality. As herself - Lucy Lawless, not Xena - her cartoon version is kidnapped by the comic book collector, who has an evil plan to add her to his collection of TV superheroes (amusingly, including Simpsons creator Matt Groening himself.

"The cool thing for me was that at the end of the Simpsons episode, Xena and the kids [Bart and Lisa] save the day and she says, 'Now, come on, let's get you two home.' And Lisa goes, 'Wait a minute! Xena can't fly! 'And she goes, 'I told you! I'm not Xena, I'm Lucy Lawless!' And off they fly!" She grins hugely, like a kid. "Matt couldn't have been kinder! That was such a groovy thing for them to write that!"

For her guest role in the first two episodes of the ninth and final series of The X-Files, Lawless played, not Xena, but something like a modern day version. The first episode's TV promo, which was played in every ad break during the baseball World Series in the United States, featured a "very provocative shot of me coming naked out of the water," laughs Lawless.

"I played this super-soldier who's a genetically-engineered human being that was the result of 50 years of military science," explains Lawless. "This is my monologue: 'I've been through countless gene therapies, torturous surgeries and errors' to produce this super-soldier who can't be killed. It transpires that she can breathe underwater, which is why she's been swimming around naked, killing people left, right and centre. And you don't know if she's a good or bad person."

As with her guest role on The Simpsons and, most recently, her cameo as a punk in New York in Sam Raimi's upcoming Spiderman movie, starring Tobey Macguire and Kirsten Dunst, Lawless chose to take on the part in The X-Files as a favour to the director.

"I love Chns Carter. I did it as a favour to Chris because he's, um... We've got a bit of history." Lawless pauses, then smiles cheekily. "Don't make too much of that! As acquaintances! So I wanted to do it as a compliment to him. But it's quite another thing to be a guest actor on somebody else's show. It's an arse-end job, guest acting, even on a cool show. I'm too spoilt for that."

Which leads to the question: how has the fame affected Lawless? How does it feel to wake up one morning and realise that you've somehow become both a feminist icon and the stuff of thousands of teenaged boys' (and plenty of men's) wet dreams?

"Water off a duck's back. I don't know why." Lawless shrugs carelessly, then straightens up and elaborates: "I remember when that was first trumpeted, when Xena was on the cover of Ms magazine' I freaked out a little bit. I felt like, 'Christ! I don't want anyone trying to copy me 'cause I regularly screw up. I'm getting a divorce, blah blah blah...' I'm in no mood to be a role model and there's not a human being on the planet ready to live up or down to being a symbol. And then I realised it's not actually me. Phew!" Lawless gives a laugh of relief. "Xena's the character that the producers, writers, makeup women, wardrobe people and me, to some extent, have put together and I really don't have to take this too personally. And sometimes, I think that's a bit of a shame because it stopped me from ever really celebrating it because I don't feel it was really my success. I have a really nice house and I guess that's what tells me I've succeeded."

And what about the sex symbol aspect, including being voted Maxim magazine's Babe of the Year and one of People magazine's 25 Most Beautiful People, along with countless other fawning articles in various magazines?

"I never play up to it, except when the camera's rolling," insists Lawless. Ut;s just a role you play. I ain't no sex symbol. Ask the hair and makeup people. They know! They see me, day in and day out."

LUCY WEARS SKIRT AND NECKLACE FROM CARAMEL IN PONSONBY ROAD. TOP LUCY'S OWN, FASHION BY JASMINE EDGAR, MAKEUP BY VANESSA HURLEY.

Although Lawless is one of the most unaffected celebrities you could ever hope to meet (as evidenced by the thousands of stories listed on websites by fans keen to share their personal 'Xena encounter' stories with the world), she admits there was a time when she almost believed her own hype.

"I remember in the first season, I went away with my husband - or my then-boyfriend‹to Turkey with some fnends, on a boat. It was about halfway through season two and I freaked out because it was like, 'Nobody's looking at me! Nobody's paying attention to me!' I felt like everybody hated me until I realised, 'Okay, this is the normal amount of attention allotted to your average human being!' I had gotten used to everybody looking at me, dressing me, talking to me and focussing on me and you start to think it's normal. It's a real trap for young actors. Because people are tying up your boots or holding umbrellas over you, you think that they're paid minions or something but actually they're just trying to protect the makeup or fix the wardrobe or something. But you've always got the people in New Zealand to tell you, 'Come on, don't be such a wanker."'

Of course, for every upside of being the star of a television series adored by millions, there's a downside too. The huge walls and gates around stars' homes in Hollywood aren't there to keep salesmen out or young kids in and cult figures often have a particularly hard time avoiding excessive adulation. When fans start to hold conventions featuring your show, you know there must be people out there who are obsessed with you. But Lawless says that despite the reputation of conventions for attracting weirdos, she's never had a bad experience at one.

"My experience with conventions has actually been very positive. They're generally the nice fans. But lurking in the underbelly of the internet are some very unhealthy human beings. And they are possessive and they will turn on you and it's something that The X-Files people know about very well because their show is about conspiracy and these people are paranoid as it. Eventually, you become part of the conspiracy in their minds. And with Xena, we've had our share of that."

Any particularly scary moments? "There have been a few highly unpleasant things but I think that just goes with the territory. You just get yourself some large dogs and a shotgun." Lawless pauses and her eyes darken momentarily, as though she is recalling something particularly nasty. "It can be a lucky business," she says quietly. When asked if she would like to elaborate, she shakes her head: ~No, it's not good to give them a fonum, I think."

After the final episode of Xena: Warrior Princess was shot in Auckland, the cast and crew had the opportunity to do something that would turn most fans green with envy: take home items from the show as memorabilia. But Lawless says she left most of Xena's gear behind when she left.

"I've got a Xena cossie. I took a few things that meant something to me, anything that made me look really good! But nothing really special. Well," she reflects for a moment, "actually, I did find an urn of Xena's ashes because, in the end, she gets cremated. They were just spilling around in the armour bag. That was a bit weird, a bit of a funny feeling," she admits.

As for the writers' decision to kill off the character that she lived and breathed for six years, Lawless is remarkably good-humoured about it.

"I just thought that was screamingly funny! It was just so audacious. I mean, how dare they do that to their hero? That's the kind of humour that appeals to me.

"It was such a strong choice," she reflects. "It's such a shock ending. Nobody else would do that with their hero. But I love that he [Rob Tapert] will make the hard decisions because it's right for the show, even though it's questionable and the lovey-dovey fans will hate it. But anyone who respects hardcore fantasy-drama will totally dig it."

Next up for Lawless is her first piece of theatre since her role as Rizzo in the Broadway version of Grease in 1997. From February 14 to March 16, she will be taking on the Auckland Theatre Company version of the play that launched a worldwide anti-rape movement and started women speaking out about one of the hardest topics to discuss in a crowded restaurant - their vaginas - in feminist activist Eve Ensler's The Vagina Monologues. Directed by actor Oliver Driver and starring alongside Danielle Cormack and Madeleine Sami, Lawless joins a long list of internationally renowned actresses including Susan Sarandon, Glenn Close, Kate Winslet, Jane Fonda, Melanie Griffiths, Whoopi Goldberg and Calista Flockhart who have performed the monologues.

"I'm looking forward to it because, much as we think we're all modern, liberated women, we're really not when it comes to our own vaginas," asserts Lawless. "I think it'll be a really useful thing to take the stigma away from our attitudes to our own bodies, especially the 'sacred vagina'."

Lawless suddenly sits forward and launches into a speech that embodies the kind of passion the play produced all around the world. "I mean, I don't know about other women but somewhere in my psyche I'm still reeling from hearing as a young teenager that vaginas have anything to do with fish. You know what I mean? As if they were stinky things. It was never meant to be complimentary and that, for me, is at the crux of my wanting to do this. I think that's disgraceful that someone should make you feel bad about yourself like that - and this was long before I had any sexual experience - that somebody could negatively affect the way you could come to think about yourself.

"I think it's a shame, especially when it's a sacred portal of life, for God's sake! Let's have a little respect and joy and celebration. You don't have to be overt about it in your day-to-day life but I think everybody should see this play," she insists. Coming from one of the best-known feminist icons of the modern age, there;s not much room for argument.

As for her future after The Vagina Monologues, Lawless, with her third child due in three months, is understandably vague. "I don't know where work will take me next. I just want to work on the best possible projects with the best possible people but I don't know what they are or where they'll be."

Of coure, there can be no doubt about one thing, at least: millions of fans will be waiting eagerly for the reincarnation, not of Xena, Warrior princess, but of Lucy Lawless.

Auckland Theatre Company's production of The Vagina Monologues runs at Auckland's Maidment theatre from February 14 to March 16.

---

(these images are to illustrate how the article is laid out and are not links to larger images)

      

      

Return Links
Periodically Lawless (Lucy Lawless articles)	your previous page

---

This article is used without permission but is being used only in a fan-oriented, non-profit endeavor. This page are not intended to
infringe upon the copyrights of any companies concerned. This page will be removed if so requested by any copyright holders.

---