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Lucy Lawless: From Xena to Katrina
TV Guide Online
28 October 2005
by Danny Spiegel
Lucy
Lawless really should go on Fear Factor. The former Xena: Warrior
Princess star had to fight off a swarm of gonzo grasshoppers earlier this
year in the CBS TV-movie Locusts, and now in the sequel, the imaginatively
titled Vampire Bats (Sunday at 9 pm/ET), she's battling a horde of... well,
you get the idea. But she also weathered far more real storms this year, as
you'll see in TVGuide.com's interview with the Kiwi.
TVGuide.com: Vampire bats, locusts — if you had to be attacked by either,
which would you prefer?
Lucy Lawless: Ooh, I'm going to have to go with the locusts, I'm afraid.
Hang on... I'm trying to think which is a quicker death. There's no way out
with either of them?
TVGuide.com: No. Sorry.
Lawless: That is a lousy choice. Um, OK, I'm going to go with bats then,
because they're mammals at least.
TVGuide.com: Now let's say we were to add to this mix
rabid Xena fans, as in literally rabid.
Lawless: [Laughs] Bats! I'm stickin' with the bats!
TVGuide.com: Would you be willing to do a TV-movie called...
Lawless: "Rabid Xena Fans"? That's the next sequel!
TVGuide.com: That's better than what I was going to say.
But would you be willing to do one called "Giant Attack Rats That Talk"?
Lawless: "Talk"? What's the "talking" thing about?
TVGuide.com: I figured giant rats weren't enough; it'd be cool if they
had advanced intelligence as well, so they could actually plan something as
opposed to just mindlessly attacking villagers and such.
Lawless: Like, "We're going to get the cheese! We're going to get the
cheese!" [Laughs] Um, I don't think I'm available for that movie, sadly. I'd
have to give that [a pass].
TVGuide.com: OK. So who would win in a fight, Xena or
Alias' Sydney Bristow?
Lawless: Ooh, I'm going to have to go with Xena. Well, hang on, Sydney
Bristow's got guns.
TVGuide.com: Well, she resorts to guns.
Lawless: Well, ha-ha, Xena's got her own planet. [Recently, a newly
discovered "10th planet" was nicknamed "Xena."] Is there a planet called
"Sydney Bristow"? I don't think so. [Laughs]
TVGuide.com: Xena vs. Wonder Woman?
Lawless: Oh, I think Xena would win.
TVGuide.com: You realize that Wonder Woman has superstrength, right?
Lawless: And an invisible airplane. But she is wholly good-guy, whereas
Xena will pull every low trick in the book, as would Sydney Bristow.
TVGuide.com: Finally, how about Xena vs. Geena Davis with
the bow and arrow that she used when she tried out for the Olympics?
Lawless: And she's president [on ABC's Commander in Chief]! That might just
beat having a planet. [Laughs] But she didn't get into the Olympics. See,
Xena would've gotten into the Olympics. And she has her own planet. Hands
down, Xena wins. Sydney Bristow's the only one I'm concerned about. [For
scoop on Xena's next adventure, if there ever is one, click here.]
TVGuide.com: You shot Vampire Bats in New Orleans right before Hurricane
Katrina hit. How did you evacuate the area?
Lawless: I [drove] with one of the producers. It was just the two of us
as we inched out of town, going about 3 mph, with hundreds of thousands of
other people. And the weather was coming.... I have never seen clouds with
that ominous quality before.
TVGuide.com: How long were you in the car?
Lawless: Nine and a half hours. We went west to Baton Rouge — and we
were lucky to get to Baton Rouge.
TVGuide.com: Where did you stay?
Lawless: We were put up by strangers, friends of friends of friends. A
woman who had rented a house as a location [for the movie] knew somebody who
knew somebody who was taking people in. We were the last people in the door.
They had 40 people in their bed-and-breakfast and their personal house. This
is the South — they will open their doors, their homes, their whatever to
you.
TVGuide.com: When did you leave the area?
Lawless: We finally left that Wednesday [after Katrina hit]. We didn't
even know what day it was — time just becomes a big ol' blur. It was very
peculiar to leave there and not be among people who had had a common
experience. So I bet you these journalists who have been there will find it
very hard adjusting, like being a war correspondent or a soldier.
TVGuide.com: How much of Vampire Bats was left to be completed at that
point?
Lawless: One week [of shooting]. So we went home for a few days and then
picked up that last week in Nova Scotia, of all places.
TVGuide.com: How much of what we'll see on camera is now gone?
Lawless: All of it. I've seen photos of the locations where we were. All
gone. Chris Morgan, a producer who has a house in New Orleans, went back and
sent me photos [and the area] is just completely unrecognizable. We have
some of the last filmed footage of New Orleans as it was.
TVGuide.com: It would have to be, considering you were filming right up
until the hurricane.
Lawless: Yup.... You're making me emotional now. There were some scenes
that were supposed to be shot in the above-ground cemetery there, and I
lived right by one for a time, and that makes me really sad. I mean, that
seems bizarre because the people there are already dead, you know, but
there's something very poignant and horrid about that. It's such a symbol of
New Orleans, I think that's what it is.
TVGuide.com: It sounds like you really became attached to the area during
your short time there.
Lawless: The humanity and the kindness of the people there was really
astonishing. The great culture of food and music.... There's just a richness
of life down there. And that's why I was prepared to move there.
TVGuide.com: Were you really?
Lawless: Yeah. I would move there in a heartbeat. It really suited me,
down to the ground.
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