SFX #19
December 1996pages 52-61
Hip or Myth?
ANCIENT GREEKS WITH BROOKLYN ACCENTS AND HIP AMERICAN ATTITUDES? SOUNDS HIDEOUS? WELL, IT WORKS, AS HERCULES AND XENA HAVE PROVEN. JOE NAZZARO TALKS TO THE MAKERS OF A LEGEND...
Fantasy television is enjoying a renaissance lately, thanks to the mythical demi-god Hercules and a warrior princess called Xena. Hercules: The Legendary Journeys, starring Kevin Sorbo as the titular larger-than-life superhero, took the US syndicated television market by storm in 1995, and even gave the top-rated DS9 a run for its latinum. A season later, Hercules spun off the equally popular Xena: Warrior Princess,featuring Lucy Lawless as a statuesque, sword-swinging fighter - the first female action heroine to, have her own weekly series in years. As both projects began to acquire an international following - and the viewing figures went into the stratosphere - studio executives started poring through their copies of Bullfinch's Mythology to see what other ancient legends they could exploit...
It may not surprise you to learn that our editor was reading Loaded mere minutes before he came up with this issue's main coverline.Hercules: The Legendary Journeys is the brainchild of film-makers Sam Raimi and Rob Tapert, whose company Renaissance Pictures was responsible for the Evil Dead films, as well as Darkman, Hard Target, TimeCop and the late-lamented American Gothic. Raimi and Tapert were approached by Universal to do a clutch of two-hour movies for a series of one-off TV adventure yarns under the banner of the "Action Pack," and suggested a spin on the Hercules legends, using contemporary dialogue and cutting edge CGI monsters.
The trick was finding the right actor to play the lead character. "The studio put a great deal of pressure on us to put Dolph Lundgren in the role," Tapert recalls. "We approached Dolph with a big offer and he turned it down. And, boy, are we glad he did!" After seeing more than 100 prospective Hercs, the producers finally cast a relative unknown, Kevin Sorbo, who had previously auditioned for such roles as Fox Mulder on The X-Files and Superman in Lois And Clark. Anthony Quinn was then cast as Zeus to add some much-needed credibility to the project.
"Kevin had never carried a vehicle like this before," explains Doug Lefler, who directed one of the first two-hour movies, "so it was good for him to work with somebody like Tony. He really kept us on our toes, because he liked to improvise and didn't necessarily follow the script. And now I can see things that Kevin was able to do later that were enhanced by his association with Anthony Quinn."
Ironically, Hercules turned out to be such a success that Universal instantly commissioned 13 one-hour weekly episodes for a new series. John Schulian, the co-executive producer, devised a new template for the show, which no longer featured Zeus, but retained Herc's best friend lolaus (Michael Hurst). To give the series extra impetus, Schulian also killed off Hercules' wife and kids, leaving our hero free to roam the country righting wrongs.
"I think John was responsible for a lot of the direction we went in?" says Bob Bielak, who wrote three freelance scripts for the first season and is now one of the show's co-executive producers. "First, he had to get rid of Herc's family. Otherwise, you've got a guy going off and doing heroic things and leaving his family at home alone, which is a no-no. Then you needed writers to come in and say, 'Okay, what kind of stories do I come up with?' I think John was right when he said, 'Just think of it as a Western. We want the dialogue to be contemporary but not hip, not "Yo, dude!" and not period dialogue, so look at Butch Cassidy.' That simplistic approach really helped ground the writers who came in."
One of the show's trademarks is its elaborate action sequences, which temper fastpaced cartoon violence with a healthy dollop of humour. "That's one of our main calling cards," agrees John Schulian. "Hercules is an action show and we're going to have fights. We obviously don't have guns going off, and Hercules makes a point of saying he doesn't kill people. They may wind up dead when they're fighting him, but it's usually because they're being hoisted on their own petard.
"It's a fine line, and there were some episodes last year, one in particular, that I think crossed the line. It was much too dark and violent, and unpleasant to watch, which is not what we're about. This is escapist fun, the kind of stuff I'd have watched as a kid and I hope that, years from now, people will still be able to enjoy it on any number of levels."
The show's other calling card is the cutting-edge special effects which have created a virtual bestiary of mythological monsters. The visual effects team, most of whom are long-term Harryhausen fans, enjoy dropping in an occasional tribute to the master of stop-motion, including a skeleton fight in the Argonauts reunion episode, "Once A Hero."
Xena (Lucy Lawless) prepares to decapitate someone with her special weapon (except that this is American TV so you won't get to see anything too gory, just a slight graze if you're lucky)"We sent a copy of that episode over to Ray," relates Kevin O'Neill, the show's well-chuffed visual effects supervisor, "and he sent a letter back saying, 'Thanks, I'm glad to see that Jason And The Argonauts played such an important role.' That letter obviously hangs up on all of our walls!"
When the producers of Hercules decided to end the first season with a bang, they came up with a trilogy of stories that introduced Lucy Lawless as a warrior leader named Xena, a feisty character who tries to destroy Hercules before seeing the error of her ways. "I was particularly happy with the first one," says Schulian, who wrote the first and third episodes of the trilogy. "I thought that Kevin and Michael were very good, being at odds over this woman, and I thought Lucy was really great as a femme fatale. It's a very simple episode and there are no special effects but there are some wonderful action sequences and it was shot very well. If you watch closely, though, the ending is a little flat - she just rides away.. I wish I'd come up with something a bit better there. But as a whole she was stamped indelibly on the audiences' minds as a great character. She was so evil and treacherous, and there was that great scene where Kevin and Michael square off at the end of the second act.
Not surprisingly, the creators of Hercules knew they were onto a winner, and when a rival show was on its last legs, Xena: Warrior Princess was primed and ready to jump into her own series. Recalls Tapert: "We'd just shown the studio a rough cut of the first three episodes, and they said, 'Yes, that could work.' "
However, creating a new series wasn't quite as simple as duplicating the best bit in Hercules and then dressing them up in black leather..."Xena is a much more complicated personality than Hercules, who has to do good," says Doug Lefler, who directed the first one-hour episode of both series. "Xena is more of a tortured character, and I think it does have a different tone. I'm glad that both shows aren't the same, and one isn't a poor imitation of the other."
"Looking back on the early episodes, some of them really work well." adds Xena's co-executive producer RJ Stuart. "We got off to a great start, and I think part of the richness of Xena's character is that wonderful conflict she has, of fighting the monster she has inside her. I was speaking to somebody about how we don't do as many monsters on Xena as they do on Hercules,and I said, 'We do a monster every week; it's the one inside Xena that she's always fighting to keep under control.' This is a wonderfully deep character that we're exploring."
Lawless sports the kind of costume that's really handy when it comes to calling for the stunt double.According to producer Steve Sears, "Hercules is a good, noble moral character and, believe it or not, that kind of figure's difficult to wrlte. Our hero has flaws, she has a very dark background, so it's not as easy for us to do the light stories or the fun stories that Herculescan do. The very nature of the character takes us into a different direction. "
Back on Hercules, one of the biggest problems the producers have had to overcome has been the temporary loss of their lead actor Kevin Sorbo, who has taken time out to film Kull The Conqueror based on Robert E Howard's legendary character. As a result several episodes have had to be re-shuffled, giving Michael Hurst's lolaus a chance to shine until Sorbo's return. The other major change has been the departure of John Schulian halfway through season three. "I think the world of John. I think he's a really good writer," says Tapert. "And I'd work with him again on any given project, but there were a bunch of reasons - it was just time to move on."
To fill the gap, former freelancer-turned producer Bob Bielak has become a co-executive producer, along with newcomer Jerry Patrick Brown. "I've watched episodes until they're running out of my ears!" he jokes. "I'm also trying to watch dailies on some of the stuff that's being shot now and reading a lot of scripts. I think what's really deceptive about the show is that it looks so simple - but simplicity is tough to do..."
So what's lined up for Hercules now it's entering its third season? " 'Not Fade Away' brings back the Enforcer, our version of Terminator II," says Schulian. "We have 'Monster Child In The Promised Land,' in which Echidna and Typhon have a baby, and, of course, a schnook kidnaps the kid and Hercules has to bring him back. Our Christmas episode is called 'The Star To Guide Them.' it's our version of getting Mary and Joseph a room in the stable, as much as we can do without people calling us sacrilegious. Bob did a very good episode called 'The Mercenary,' with Hercules and another guy trapped on a desert island. And then there's a delightful Aphrodite episode, with Cupid, called 'The Green-Eyed Monster.' "
The second season of Xena is well underway, and the producers promise an equally exciting batch of episodes, starting with the return of rival warrior princess Callisto and a story featuring Poseidon. "We have an episode dealing with an evil Bacchus and the Bacchae too," adds Sears. "And also a huge episode coming up which Rob Tapert directed. It's going to deal with what made Xena who she is."
As if the challenge of keeping two series going isn't enough, the producers also have a one-off Young Hercules feature in the works, as well as a direct-to-video animated adventure inspired by the live-action version. One thing is certain: Bullfinch would be proud...
Bruce Campbell, Autolycus
BRUCE CAMBELL,THE HERO OF THE EVIL DEAD FILMS, RELISHES THE CHANCE TO HAM IT UP WITH HERC AND XENA.One of the most popular guest stars to date on both Xena and Hercules is Autolycus, the self-proclaimed King Of Thieves. Played by Bruce Campbell, an old friend of Rob Tapert and Sam Raimi from their Evil Dead days, the character became an instant hit when he first buckled his swash in the second season Hercules instalment "The King Of Thieves." lolaus is framed for Autolycus' latest escapade, and Hercules has to track down the brigand and make him confess so his sidekick doesn't get it in the neck. Not an easy task when the local villagers are all members of the local Autolycus fan club...
But then Autolycus returned in the Xena episode, "The Royal Couple Of Thieves," in which the warrior princess enlists the King Of Thieves' help to steal back a valuable chest. This all-out farce was written by Steve Sears, who jumped at the chance to write in Campbell's character. When Xena first premiered," he remembers, "the Hercules episode preceding it was the Autolycus episode. and I remember we all got together at the Universal Hilton and watched it, and I said, 'This guy is great!' I was really pleased when I told Rob I wanted to do a comedy episode and he said they wanted to bring Autolycus into Xena. Then it was a case of putting Xena in a farcical situation where she's subjugated by this guy who's really arrogant, and playing the comedy of these two personalities who are forced to work together.
The Evil Dead's Bruce Campbell guest stars in the Xena episode "The Royal Couple of Thieves.""I remember sitting there, watching dailies, and a line would be coming up and I was thinking, 'If the delivery isn't there...' And then he'd give the delivery! I still crack up when Autolycus is running up the stairs at the beginning and Xena pulls the rug out He falls down and says, 'This is not good!"'
"That was an interesting episode," adds Tapert, 'because there were some who didn't like the fact that Xena didn't get back enough at Autolycus. They didn't like to see their hero put as the second fiddle, to constantly be hit upon sexually and not be able to strike back. But our intent was to do a farcical comedy."
While Autolycus fans are already talking about a possible spin-off, Tapert says the chances of that happening are pretty slim. "l don't want to get into agent politics, but there was an opportunity to make a spin-off with him, and for a whole host of reasons it didn't happen. Bruce has a deal at Disney, and we're at Universal, so he can get out here and there to do an episode, but overall he's working at Disney to develop his own series.
I love Autolycus, and I talked to Bruce three weeks ago saying, 'Hey, come down and be in one of our episodes! We need a commitment from Bruce three months ahead of time to write an episode for him, and a lot of times he can't give that, so it's very difficult to write for him."
Xena and Gabrielle join a band of would-be treasure hunters in "A Fistful of Dinars."
(middle) Oi, we know what you're looking at, you dirty old man!
(bottom) Xena actress Lucy Lawless reckons, "I'm not as large as people expect."Lucy Lawless, Xena
SHE FIRST APPEARED IN HERCULES AND NOW SHE'S GOT HER OWN SERIES...LUCY LAWLESS TALKS ABOUT LIFE IN LEATHER.It's fairly obvious how a fictional leather-clad sword-wielding warrior princess can become a major sex symbol for the '9Os, but a role model? The actress is still trying to figure that one out herself. "I have to say I've really shunned the whole notion up until now...But I'm realising it's just another factor I have to deal with, so I don't fight it anymore."
An early publicity shot for George and Mildred."There are a lot of women who write letters saying, 'l've been empowered to go out and buy myself the Harley I've always wanted.' That can only be a good thing. They've always wanted to do this, and some character on TV has given them the presence of mind to go out and do what they've wanted.
As Lawless relates, the reason she's resisted the whole role model shtick is because Xena is actually the composite of a lot of people's work "There are make-up artists, designers, writers, stuntwomen and all the rest...I don't mind if women think that way about Xena, but Lucy Lawless is a standard human being. I don't look like Xena when you meet me. She's a bronzed, leather-clad beauty and I'm pale and not that large."
Landing the role of Xena was a classic Hollywood story of being in the right place at the right time. Lawless had already appeared as different characters in the two-hour "Hercules And The Amazon Women" and the centaur episode "As Darkness Falls," and her name was mentioned again when the girl who was originally to play Xena in the three-part season finale to Hercules's first year fell ill.
"She'd been training for a month, so they said, 'Why don't we just use Lucy Lawless? She was in the last episode and we think she can do it.'The studio said, 'Are you out of your minds? You've just used her! Here's a list of five other actresses. We want you to track one of them down, bung her in the role'
"One actress after another turned it down, because it was three episodes in an unknown series called Hercules, shooting in New Zealand during pilot season.That was the clincher, because they wanted to stay there and score a pilot that would hopefully become a series. Luckily, I was on a camping trip in New Zealand at the time.. "
Naturally, Xena's tight-fitting leather costume has gone down well with the show's more hormonally-challenged male viewers. "There are a lot of judges who want to be spanked," she jokes. "Lawyers want me to walk on them with my boots; they think I wear them home." But it's not all good news. "Sometimes I go into my camper in the morning, see that bloody thing waiting for me and say, 'Oh God, not today!' There's rain and hail coming down and you're on the side of a cliff, about to jump onto your horse and trying to look good at the same time."
Although Xena was a hit right from the start, the producers and their leading lady continue to tinker with the formula. "It constantly evolves. We're always throwing twists on some line or some plot, so the writers feel free now to write what they want to. We don't aim to be politically correct. . Just as the audience gets comfortable, we turn it around on them."
A prime example of that anarchic streak has to be "Is There A Doctor In The House?" a mythological E.R. episode which proved too intense for Universal, who buried it amidst Summer repeats. "It was a five-day shoot, and one of the most intense five days of my entire life. We had to cut a lot out of that, because it was too bloody and intense for the sponsors. Fortunately, the composer, Joe LoDuca, managed to glue everything together with music, so that it had all this poignancy and suspense and drama. He filled in the gaps and helped make the episode stunning."
With the first half of Xena's second season in the can, Lawless promises some interesting moments for the fans, including an episode where Xena and Gabrielle dress up as Bacchae... "Things get even dicier than that. It's quite an exciting Halloween episode, and in the best tradition of vampire movies it has that very sexual energy. We also do an episode where I play three characters, The Warrior, The Princess , and The Tramp. I play this raunchy bar-hag who's got a real thing for Joxer, Ted Raimi's character. He and I were just firing off one another."
As for the future, Lawless has a few thoughts about where Xena might go in upcoming episodes. "The truth is, I would like to see Xena go a bit darker. Just when people think they've got her pegged as the 'man in the white hat,' I'd like to shake them out of their comfort zone and display more of the anti-hero... I think this will come through in the schism between Xena and Gabrielle. I've discovered that one of the nice qualities about Xena is that even when she's bad, you love her."
"Make up your mind. It's either me or the horse..."Renee O'Connor says that playing Gabrielle has encouraged her to "become more physical." O'Connor also played Deianeira in "Hercules and the Lost Kingdom" Renee O'Connor, Gabrielle
WHAT'S IT LIKE PLAYING A WARRIOR PRINCESS'S BEST BUDDY? RENEE O'CONNOR RECKONS IT'S NOT HALF BAD, ACTUALLY...Renee O'Connor has a lot in common with her on-screen alter ego Gabrielle, the spirited story-teller who accompanies the brave Xena on her adventures in Xena: Warrior Princess.
"In the beginning, it was hard for me to play someone a great deal younger than myself, because Gabrielle is so naive and enthusiastic about experiencing life. But I love her verve.The more spirited and comical she is, the better for me because that's how I like to see life. The more she grows up - as you'll see especially in the next season - the closer to me she becomes. I've definitely developed more of a dry wit from being over here in New Zealand, and I have to hold that back a bit, because Gabrielle is much more optimistic and her humour is much more obvious."
The Texas-born actress, who originally played Deianeira, a much different character, in the two-hour Hercules And The Lost Kingdom, quickly discovered that working on a weekly Xena series was much more demanding, both physically and mentally, than she'd expected.
"The hours were surprising," she explains. "I'd never worked on a one hour action television series before, so I had no idea of the number of setups we would try to accomplish in one day, much less the physical action that comes with it. That took a long time to get used to.The other thing for me is that I didn't know any martial arts or have any type of fighting skills, so I sort of learned as Gabrielle did. I think that's really inspired me to become more physical."
While Gabrielle starts out as an innocent and light-hearted figure, O'Connor says there are major changes in store for her character. "There are some developments we've just finished working on, where Gabrielle has definitely grown up a bit and become the moral conscience of the show. It's interesting, because you never want to lose the aspects that brought the character to life to begin with, which for Gabrielle would be her comedy and sense of satire about everything. I definitely want to keep that alive in her. But it will be interesting to see how people react to these developments, because there's a definite change, aithough it's more of an internal crisis in development."
So will Gabrielle open any career doors for O'Connor? "Perhaps, but that's still in the future. I think the potential is there, that the show is stili growing in visibility, so it will be interesting to see what doors it might open next year. But right now I'm still growing as an actress, so I'm quite content to be working on Xena, learning as much as I can, really."
[Note: In the magazine, this article also has a number of Hercules-related pictures which are not included here, as well as an article on Michael Hurst which is also omitted.]
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