AUSXIP Lucy Lawless Files - Flawless Print - Lucy Articles
The Kick Inside - Xena Pregnant Princess?
Xena-Philia
SFX Magazine
Issue #44
November 1998
Scanned/Transcribed by MaryD
"I rather fancy Xena wheeling a little baby carriage
across the savanna. I think it would
give people something to talk about."
SFX Profile Xena-philia
It's a case of from here to maternity, according to the recently married
Warrior Princess, ALIAS ACTRESS LUCY LAWLESS. "I'LL PLAY XENA PREGNANT!" SHE
TELLS ERIC BlACKMOOR...
he past year has been a wild ride for Lucy Lawless, | the five-foot,
ten-inch dark beauty who stars as the impossibly athletic Xena: Warrior
Princess. Last Autumn, she starred as Rizzo in the musical "Grease" on
Broadway - a particularly impressive feat considering she was still
recovering from shattering her pelvis in a dozen places during a
horse-riding accident only a few months before, while shooting a sketch for
The Tonight Show With Jay Leno.
Earlier this year, on Saturday 28 March - the day before her 30th birthday -
she married Rob Tapert, 43, one of Xena's executive producers. The ceremony
was held at St. Monica's Catholic church in Santa Monica in front of 300
guests flown in from such diverse places as Detroit, Michigan and Auckland,
New Zealand.
Daisy, her ten year old daughter by her first marriage, was in attendance
and accompanied the newlyweds on their honeymoon at a lush resort in Mexico
and a brief visit to Northern California's tranquil wine country in Napa
Valley.
After knocking off 22 episodes of America's favourite one-hour syndicated
show, Lawless is currently taking a few months off, pottering around in her
new home on the outskirts of Auckland and enjoying the fruits of her hard
physical labour. But new hubby Tappert is still out and about. "He's in the
US now," explains Lawless. "Rob's here [in New Zealand] at least nine months
of the year. He'll go away for two weeks, then stay at home for five or six
weeks. We talk at least once a day, so our monthly telephone bill is
probably the size of the national budget of an emerging country, but it's
worth it."
And there are no plans for a change of lifestyle to fit in with their
marital status?
"No, Rob's life is full beyond his imagination, writing and
strategizing on how to best handle the production company," admits Lawless.
"I don't plan on taking him away from that. I want him to be happy and
fulfilled and do as much or as little as he wants. My aim is to always be
there for him, as he is for me. We're totally supportive of each other's
mental and physical health and whatever other stresses come with our jobs.
We get peace of mind as partners."
But now she's a married woman, Lawless is seriously considering about
hanging up Xena's trademark leather basque, admitting she'll only continue
for, "a couple more years. But I do want to work, doing two movies a year
and spend the other six months with my kids. I want to have more kids. Three
sounds like a really good number to me, but I don't know if that's three
more or two more. Let's see what life allows. I want everything - a loving
family and a successful, long-lasting career. Now that I've reached this
stage in my life, I have to develop a new attitude towards it all and start
making things happen. Time is whizzing by."
But wouldn't getting pregnant mean quitting the very physical demands of a
show like Xena?
"I don't know... We'll roll with the punches," she laughs. "In perfect
health, it's conceivable that we'd hide the pregnancy by filming Xena
standing behind a bush, peeking around the trunk of a tree or standing in
water up to her neck. It has been done before with actresses hiding behind
refrigerator doors and big planters."
Why not make things easier and actually incorporate the pregnancy into the
plot - make Xena herself pregnant, for instance?
"It's never been discussed. But just because it hasn't happened doesn't mean
it's impossible. I rather fancy Xena wheeling a little baby carriage across
the savanna. I think it would give people something to talk about."
Much has been made in the US of the lesbian overtones in the relationship
between Xena and her sidekick Gabrielle (Renee O'Connor), and it's a game
Lawless is happy to play along with.
"I'm not tired of it; I just don't think about it any more. I'm very
thankful to the New York lesbian community because they were the first ones
to latch on to the show in a cultish way and make it hip. I'm totally
comfortable with that. To me, it's like saying Xena has grey eyes instead of
blue. Big deal! I'm sure most gay people don't think about being gay all day
long. We could make a big deal about it and say, 'Oh, gosh, she's not [a
lesbian]' or 'Yes, she is' and then alienate a part of our audience. Why on
Earth would any show want to do that? We don't have a mind to and it isn't
an insult to us. That's a very '90s way of looking at the world, isn't it?
It just doesn't hurt us or make a difference one way or another."
Despite her wish to break into the movies, Lawless isn't making ridiculous
sacrifices for the sake of her career. "I don't go back and forth to LA much
- especially while filming Xena, which is all done in New Zealand - because
I tend to get tired in the middle of the season. I recently cancelled a
week-long trip to the States to discuss some film projects and do a couple
of chat shows because I knew I'd come back home in a worse physical
condition. To avoid a complete physical collapse, I stayed home."
But she has a warning for any Xena fans who have been drooling over
apparently "naked" photos of her on the Net. "They're not real, unless
somebody's looked into my bedroom. I wouldn't even bother logging on to find
out that sort of thing. It's garbage. They just doctored them. There are no
nude photos of Lucy Lawless."
Xena: Warrior Princess is now airing on Sky One, every Saturday, at 6pm.