The TorchOnline has a fantastic interview with Lucy. Check it out.
Interview: On SPARTACUS, Lucy Lawless Cuts Loose (Even as She Tones it Down).
Lucy Lawless is not Xena.
On some level, we all know this; I interview actors all the time, so I definitely know they’re not the parts they play.
But when I interviewed Lucy at the Television Critics Association conference in Pasadena last July, I honestly wasn’t prepared for just how much she isn’t Xena.
Xena is somber, down-to-earth, and practical, haunted by her famous “dark” past; Lucy is cheeky, irreverent, and impish, always looking for an opportunity to cut it up.
But they have things in common as well: they’re both fiercely intelligent and very kind-hearted. And of course, they’re both statuesque and stunningly beautiful. At 41, Lucy looks sensational.
With Spartacus: Blood and Sand, a high-profile CGI-intensive retelling of the story of the ancient Roman slave that debuts next Friday on Starz, Lucy is showing the world yet another example of her considerable acting abilities.
She not the “star” of the show, but rather, a major supporting player. Lucretia, the wife of the owner of the training camp where Spartacus trains as a slave, is also very different from Xena: she’s flighty and superficial, at least at first, but also cunning and scheming. And as Lucy herself noted in our interview, she’s not particularly powerful, at least not at the beginning of the series.