Lucy Lawless Sheds Light on Battlestar Galatica

From Julia Houston,Your Guide to Sci-Fi / Fantasy.

Lucy Lawless is that hardest of interviews: the person I want to go shopping with when we’re done. She’s so instantly likeable, you keep having to remind yourself she’s actually talking to you because it’s her job (and yours). In fact, when I launched into self-praise about my ability to whip up the world’s best martini, she accused me (jokingly) of hitting on her. We might as well have been trying on shoes.

(Seriously, though, I do make a fantastic martini.)

I asked her how she felt about Xena now that the show is over but she is still and always will be the Warrior Princess. Is she going to write a book, I am Not Xena, or does she look on the character still with affection?

LL: I think that everybody should be so lucky as to be identified with a successful show. It was so much fun, and it’s given me everything -- without it, I wouldn’t have my children, my husband…a lot of financial security. What’s to bitch about? It was six years of a lot of laughs.

Next up for Lawless, she’s guest-starring on an episode of Battlestar Galactica. September 9, in the episode, "Final Cut," she’s a filmmaker sent to Galactica to document life aboard the ship.

ME: All right, you’re an outsider there, so I can ask. Is everyone on Battlestar Galactica really so nice and professional and incredible to work with?

LL: Yes, certainly they are. And talented too. Eddie [Olmos] and Mary [McDonnel] are incredible show hosts. And the young people are fantastic. They’re passionate about what they do.

They’ve written real characters for the show. No one is wholly good or wholly bad, and the actors really keep track of their own continuity. They keep it making sense. But at the same time, I don’t think there were any changes, apart from the occasional ad-lib that I don’t know if they’ll use or not, from the script I was first given. It’s incredibly well-written.

ME: Did you have a talk with [writer/creator/driving force] Ron Moore?

LL: Yes, we had dinner. He wants every character to be distinct and rooted in truth. Nobody there is embarrassed to make a suggestion, and the producers are not too proud to take a good idea from wherever it is. As a result, the show is greater than the sum of its parts.

ME: So, what’s something of yourself that you put into your character, apart from being able to use your New Zealand accent?

LL: As soon as that camera’s rolling, it’s all you. That’s what I love about this job. You get a sense that the buck stops with you.

ME: Is there any chance your character might recur?

LL: Yes, there’s a chance. We’ve talked about it.

ME: So you like the idea?

LL: Who wouldn’t want to go on such a successful show?

ME: True. And it’s interesting that Xena was a show with strong appeal outside the usual sci-fi audience. And now you’re appearing on another show with great cross-over appeal. Any ideas about what makes a show reach popularity like that?

LL: It’s gotta catch. I hate to use the word “zeitgeist,” but it’s gotta catch the spirit of the times. And [the producers’] take on this show has been so original and so relevant. There’s an element of nihilism running through us today. The fact that the reward at the end of the episode for each character is raw survival -- that’s it. People have succeeded just by getting through another day.

At the end of the episodes, they haven’t learned some feel-good lesson, but they’ve managed to survive against the odds.

ME: There’s also that conspiracy element, I think, like in X-Files. The Cylons have such a grand scheme going on.

LL: Yes, that’s part of the spirit of the times: suspicion of authority. It’s very potent. And this is something I share with my character [on Battlestar: shed light and damn the torpedoes. No matter how anyone might justify it, if you keep things in the dark, conspiracies start.

And there’s also that idea that hope springs eternal. The show is so post-apocalyptic. Whatever kindness we see is really highlighted in such a hostile environment.

Civilization is a luxury. It’s something I’ve discovered from my travel around the world. Poverty kills charity. And we’re very divorced from what the world is. I went to Bangladesh recently, and what I saw, the poverty there...

ME: Yes, and I think the closest we get to that sort of thing is on an episode of Amazing Race, where some models are looking out their car window and says, “Oh, it’s so dirty! These people are so poor! Why don’t they move to a better neighborhood?”

LL: Yes, and we don’t even get up anymore to turn off the TV. It’s a crisis if we can’t find the remote.

ME: I have TiVo, myself.

LL: I’ve heard that’s good.

ME: I love my TiVo. So, if you do get to make another appearance on Battlestar, what would you wish for?

LL: I’d wish for another incredibly juicy role, just like this first one has been. Since the episode is basically a movie about my character as she’s making a documentary, I got to work with nearly everyone on the cast. And because I’m there to do an exposé, they’re very tense around my character, as you’ll see.

ME: Is there anyone you’d really like to work with again?

LL: All of them -- they’re so fun. I really got on really well with Eddie and Trish [Helfer]. But really, all of them.

ME: Did you know about the show before you got the part?

LL: Yes, because David [Eick] is an old friend and approached me earlier about playing Tigh’s wife. I don’t play anybody’s wife, thank you very much.

ME: It does seem once you play a wife, that’s all you get to play.

LL: Well, it’s a great part, and [Kate Vernon] does a great job with it. But it’s the Anne Archer Factor. You play the wife, you’re screwed. Besides, I didn’t want to do a one-hour drama so regularly. I like my freedom, and I love popping in and out.

You know, I can never even get cast as the best friend. They won’t do it. I have this wonderful problem of being considered just for independent women roles.

ME: There are a lot of those in sci-fi, at least.

LL: Well, it’s not just sci-fi. I could have been a cop a hundred times in those single-lead, one-hour dramas. But I have very small children, and I don’t want to work 18 hours a day. I’ve turned down easily six series and some offers to produce, but I don’t regret a single choice.

[At this point, I should point out that Ms Lawless is currently in New Orleans, Best City in the World, and we have been talking over her car phone while she drives around town and I make suggestions about places she should visit.]

ME: What are you filming down here?

LL: Vampire bats, baby! It’s a CBS disaster movie of the week. People ask me why I’m doing it.

ME: And you tell them?

LL: I love these people. This is a great town. It’s the new LA, you know.

Having fled LA in the ‘80s, I make a series of gagging sounds.

ME: Before we wrap up, I have to tell you that you voiced The Simpsons Funniest Episode Ever when you -- well, when Lucy Lawless went to a sci-fi con and got kidnapped.

LL: People mention that a lot. That and Saturday Night Live.

ME: Oh, that was good too. Well, usually, at the end of the interview, I ask people what they want for their action figure, but you’ve already had tons of them.

LL: I want a Lucy Lawless action figure.

ME: And your accessories would be?

LL: Hm. A pair of running shoes, yoga mat, and a brown paper bag with mysterious objects inside.

Battlestar Galactica is on Friday nights, 10 PM ET, on SCI FI Channel.

Interview was originally posted at scifi.about.com