Marvel.com talks to Lucy Lawless about her role on Agents of SHIELD
REBUILDING S.H.I.E.L.D. WITH LUCY LAWLESS
22 September 2014
With Coulson rebuilding S.H.I.E.L.D., he'll need all the help he can get--and luckily for him, Lucy Lawless was available.
The fan-favorite actress joins Coulson's team as Agent Isabelle Hartley in the second season premiere of "Marvel's Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D." this Tuesday at its new time, 9:00 p.m. ET on ABC, and she's coming just as things start to heat up for our heroes.
While you'll get to meet Hartley very shortly in the season premiere, we spoke with Lawless about her debut and what fans can expect!
Marvel.com: I was curious how the opportunity to come on to S.H.I.E.L.D. came about in the first place?
Lucy Lawless: Well, I was contacted by [Executive Producers] Jed [Whedon] and Maurissa [Tancharoen] who had written some just terrific stuff for me on "Spartacus: Gods of the Arena." It was so perfect. I was about to get on a plane to go back to New Zealand for something and turned the car around and just got to come and play with more of my Comic-Con pals. Marvel is a wonderful way to get back to my roots and nod to my fans that were from that Comic-Con world.
Marvel.com: Once you got to learn more about Izzy and her team, what was it about her character that you gravitated towards the most?
Lucy Lawless: To me, she's like an embedded journalist. [There] was an element of these people who live on the edge all the time and do not fit into normal society as we know it. They can't even operate in a normal world for long, so it was a chance to play one of those characters, and that's what I gravitated towards.
Marvel.com: You mentioned how this was a chance to get back to your roots and it feels like, correct me if I'm wrong, it's been a little while since we've seen you in an all-out action role like this.
Lucy Lawless: Yeah, that's right. I've been working in Australia--I've got a show that comes out tomorrow night, actually. I've been doing theater, I've been doing all sorts of other things, and for me [play Hartley] was like slipping into a warm bath, to be honest. It was like a lovely holiday. Working with Marvel is like a lovely holiday. No pain, all fun.
Marvel.com: Did you have to do much training for the role for any of the stunts?
Lucy Lawless: No, I didn't. The stunts come back to you, but I'm going to get a little bit fitter in terms of doing stunts because you do have a bit of a recovery period. If you haven't been throwing yourself around like that for a long time, you get rusty. That's what I need to work on going forward.
Marvel.com: What can you tell us about Izzy without giving too much away?
Lucy Lawless: She's [been undercover as] a mercenary. She's the one person in the world that Coulson can count on after Ward revealed himself to be a double agent [last season] and the horrible betrayal there. He needs to pick up the pieces and reform S.H.I.E.L.D. to combat the awesome forces of Hydra. Who's he going to call [in that situation]? He's going to call Izzy because he can trust her to the bitter end.
Marvel.com: But she led a more mercenary life, so where does that trust come from?
Lucy Lawless: They have a bit of a history. They've been around a while. [laughs] They've been in the foxhole together.
Marvel.com: Would you say that she's more in this for the cause or more in it for Coulson?
Lucy Lawless: I'm going to go with Coulson. That is such an awesome question, I never even thought of it like that. But now that you're pinning me down to it, I think she's somebody that doesn't respect the right of life to every human being on the planet because of what she does for money, but Coulson is somebody that she holds above all others. I'm going to allow that to color everything Izzy does from now on. [laughs]
Marvel.com: I ask because I know Lance Hunter, for instance, makes no bones about how he's in it for the money.
Lucy Lawless: He's fantastic, by the way. Nick Blood is going to set a lot of hearts aflutter. Just a tremendous actor, a lovely person, and not hard to look at for people who care for that sort of thing. He's an incredible addition to the team.
Marvel.com: Nick mentioned how his first few scenes he shot were with you and it was nice to have someone else that was new to the set when they're joining up. Does having other people that are new to the set help you transition into the group more easily?
Lucy Lawless: I found them very welcoming, actually. It is funny coming on to other peoples' sets, but I thought they were very kind. They just absorbed you, and the crew's divine. Now that you mention it, it was lovely to hang with Nick because we didn't know our backsides from our elbows at that point. That doesn't make sense in America, does it? [laughs] It means you don't know if you're coming or going. That was good, I suppose, but the minute we had scenes with other people, they were so lovely. We started with weapons training and Clark [Gregg] is such a great leader of the team. They're in good hands. He's such a lovely, humble man, how can anyone else not be?
For more information about Lucy's role on Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D go to the AUSXIP Lucy Lawless Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D subsite