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Sci Fi Wire
22 August 2005
Lawless Batty About Vampire
Lucy Lawless, who stars in the upcoming CBS horror movie Vampire Bats, told SCI FI Wire she's reprising her role as a bug specialist and college professor from last year's telefilm Locusts. The former Xena: Warrior Princess star played Dr. Maddy Rierdon in Locusts, which dealt with a town taken over by swarming bugs. Now, she's battling bloodthirsty bats, Lawless said in an interview.
"Yeah. I'm saving the world from vampire bats," Lawless said with a laugh from the movie's set in New Orleans. "It's very serious business."
Would she do a series based on her character? "Oh, you know producers," Lawless said. "They're always trying to wrangle something. I wouldn't put it past them. Sure, I'd consider it."
In Vampire Bats, Rierdon moves from California to the swamps of Louisiana. "She's really cool, because she's got this posse of really groovy young people who are bringing such energy and such fun to the set," Lawless said. "You can only imagine. All the crew and myself, we just love them so much. We're having a great time."
The cast includes Dylan Neal (Dawson's Creek), who reprises his Locusts role of Dan Dryer. Brett Butler, Timothy Bottoms and Craig Ferguson (The Late Late Show) are also in the suspense thriller, about rogue vampire bats responsible for a bizarre series of murders.
Lawless said that she has yet to handle any live bats, though she isn't squeamish. "I haven't met one yet," she said. "I'm not real fond of frogs. A plague of frogs, that would be a difficult series for me. Frogs I find to be a little disgusting, and I own several of them or my boys own several of them. So frogs I'm not crazy about. But I've rats and spiders and all of that stuff on Xena. I'm not particularly squeamish, but I don't like frogs. They feel horrible."
New Zealand native Lawless brought her two young sons with her to New Orleans, and she said that they love the swamps. "They're crazy about Louisiana, because it's full of bugs and frogs and lizards and gators and all the things that little kids love," she said. What does Lawless love about the swamps? "I kind of like being surrounded by sweaty men," she said.
Vampire Bats is slated to premiere Oct. 30. "There will be hoards of vampire bats descending on Beverly Hills," Lawless said with a laugh. "We'll see if they can find any real flesh to puncture. I don't know."