TV Week
(Australia)

August 1997

Hot Seat
Lucy Lawless

Transcribed / Scanned by: MaryD

New Zealander Lucy Lawless, 29, truly deserves the title Warrior Princess. Pursuing a successful career while raising a young daughter is enough to guarantee her the honor. But she's also making her Broadway debut as Rizzo in Grease, she's a champion angler, she's mined gold in the Australian Outback and picked grapes along the Rhine. She's also a proficient horse-woman

TV Week: What do girls watching Xena today have that you didn't have growing up?

Lucy: Well, I did have it growing up - a female role model who says, "I can". I did have that, because I had an interesting, wacky mum. And my father told me at a young age, "Lucy, you can be anything you want to be."

TVW: How is your mother interesting and wacky?

Lucy: She's quite eccentric and political, without aligning herself to any particular party. New Zealand was the first place where women got the vote. She wanted to commemorate women's suffrage, so she raised money for a statue. She (also) dresses in a kooky fashion, unconcerned about any convention.

TVW: What does your daughter think of the show?

Lucy: She's never home when it's on. She comes to work with me on Fridays. But she's very proud of her mummy.

TVW: You have brothers?

Lucy: Yes, four older, one younger. My mother had so many children, she couldn't remember our birthdays. The greatest mother in the world, but there was too many kids. I was a horrible little sister. I managed to get up their noses regularly.

TVW: In your own life, what is the toughest foe you've vanquished?

Lucy: I'd say, getting a divorce is a biggie. I'm glad that's all over.

TVW: Did the show have anything to do with it?

Lucy: No, it was just contemporaneous. The show helped, because I didn't have time to wallow in it. I did fell, how can such a great idea fell so rotten? It was a long time coming. All I'd ever seen in life were happy 40 year old marriages still going strong. I was the first in the entire family. But it worked out how it had to, and I'm very happy.

TVW: Any feelings about the show's lesbian following?

Lucy: At first it was a surprise to hear people were throwing a loopy slant to it just because two women work traveling around with no visible of male support. We laughed and played along with it. But we've moved on. The characters transcend labeling.

TVW: Do you get many fan letters?

Lucy: A lot. Probably the weirdest one was a poster from some girl's porn video. She had written on it, "Dear Lucy, I love you. Call me."


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