The Parks and Recreation episodes featuring Lucy are soon to be seen (on 4 October) so that means we will be getting more information about Lucy's role as Diane Lewis, a single mother of two young girls.
Interview Magazine features a new Lucy interview about her role on Parks and Recreation.
INTERVIEW MAGAZINE
September 2012
Lucy Lawless Visits Pawnee
It would be difficult to overstate the cultural impact of Lucy Lawless over the years. How many other actresses can claim to have inspired a dwarf planet, or an experimental line of military uniforms? At only 44, Lawless boasts a curriculum vitae that would surely make even Ph.D. seeker James Franco blush—she's a proud mother of three, an impassioned environmental activist, ally to the LGBT community, a musician who has played sold-out performances in New York and LA, a speaker of four languages, and perhaps most famously, a Warrior Princess.
Her itinerary this fall? Comedy. Ever versatile, Lawless guest-stars this fall on the NBC hit Parks and Recreation as Ron Swanson (Nick Offerman)'s love interest. "It's so funny," Offerman said to the Huffington Post. "We realized that the world of popular culture had been creating the perfect candidate for many years: the female champion of the universe." Though the role may initially seem to be an odd fit for the New Zealand native, Lawless is no stranger to exercising her wit, having begun her onscreen career as a sketch comic in the New Zealand show Funny Business. Since then, she's tickled plenty of funny bones on The Simpsons, Two and a Half Men, and Curb Your Enthusiasm. "There were many episodes of Xena that were pure slapstick," Lawless laughs. "Bruce Campbell, who plays Autolycus, we did a lot of kooky stuff with him."
Of the many things accounted for in Lawless' daily schedule, sleep surely isn't one of them. Her work as a Greenpeace ambassador recently cost her court time—she and five other volunteers climbed up to the top of an oilrig bound for offshore drilling, and were promptly arrested. "Have to go face the judge," she remarks wincingly. As if that weren't enough to manage, she's back in school, pursuing a degree in philosophy, and loving every minute of it. "If I could hide in academia for three years, I'd do that," she says with a smile.
Lawless spoke to us in Los Angeles en route to New Zealand ("It's right next to New York in the dictionary," she smirks), and we talked Parks and Recreation, unintentionally offending Ted Danson, life after Xena, and the relationship between her activism work and newfound interest in philosophy.
For more about Lucy's role as Diane on Parks and Recreation Season 5 visit the AUSXIP Lucy Lawless Parks and Recreation subsite