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Lawless Nature

Maxim Online
September 2005

 

Interview by Patrick Richardson
 

The former warrior princess is heading to outer space. And before you ask, no, she's not bringing her leather skirt along for the ride.


Action pin-up Lucy Lawless has battled ancient gods, swarms of mutated locusts, and Kevin Sorbo's hair throughout an illustrious, nerd-herding career. Now the New Zealand native is traveling even further into the eye of evil as a sexy wartime reporter with an agenda on the sci-fi series Battlestar Galactica. Here's what the retired warrior princess had to say about intergalactic politics, leather skirts, and why Maxim photo shoots rule. (Hint: it's not the catering.)

Were you a fan of the original Battlestar Galactica?
You know, it was a big phenomenon, but I was a little bit young. Though I do remember Starbuck and Apollo—I couldn't decide which one I had a crush on [laughs].

How do you feel about the new Starbuck being female?
Well, the whole thing is a complete—I hate to use this jargon, but—reimagining. Anybody who can contemporize a '70s series deserves all the bloody success they can get. And, I'm sorry to say this, but it's so much better.

You play a reporter who's invited aboard the Galactica to document the stressful realities of military life during war. Is this fair and balanced reporting?
She's there to do an exposé. Consequently, everybody's extremely guarded and extremely defensive, so she gets to push them over the edge just by her very presence. She's just got her hands up, feigning innocence—which makes her so dangerous.

Ah, so you're more of a sci-fi Michael Moore…but in heels…and three hundred fewer pounds. Did you draw from any current political conditions for the role?
Her point of view is that the citizens on the show are in this mess because of a giant cover-up. And perhaps they wouldn't be in such a stinking hole had they been more honest and shed more light on the way things really happened. Perhaps if they had a more informative choice, they'd be in a different situation—which obviously is a current running strongly through our society at the moment. We don't know who the villains are.

Battlestar manages to weave a number of relevant themes into each episode: political, social, theological…
And realness. Even though it's out in space, it's not really high concept drama. The payoff at the end of every episode isn't that they've learned some feel-good lesson about Spock's kind or whatever. It's just, "Holy shit, we get to live another day."

Do you get to kick any robot ass on the show?
No, and I've got to say, that was really attractive too. I loved it. My character's more mentally tough.

Too bad, we like to see you in action. Speaking of which, does your husband keep the leather skirt around for recreational use?
You know, I do have one but it hasn't come out of the box for the last few years. I guess you should give these things out and let them earn something for charity. At least then it's doing something good and not just feeding moths.

Maybe you should break it out for that Xena movie you recently expressed interest in doing. Any hopes of making it an R-rated film and seeing a little Xena-on-Gabrielle action?
[Laughs] I'm sure there's plenty of that on the bloody Internet somewhere. It might not be Lucy and Renée playing it, but I'm sure you can find it if your tastes run that way, my friend.

Oh, believe us, they do. You should see what we've done with those photos from your Maxim shoot.
I love that shoot. I prefer when fans bring up photos to sign from the Maxim shoot—then I'm like, "Oh you thought that was sexy, too!"

Source - Maxim Online

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