Xena & Hercules Articles Archive

Xena Article

Aaah, the good ole' days. I remember when spear n'sandal sagas were the domain of men. As the brawny breadwinners, guys chucked papier mache boulders at oversized sock puppets. Italian starlets, clad in tunics, clung to the ankles of these demigods who - in fits of testosterone-discharged delirium - pointlessly swung chains or demolished temples. Once in a while, they'd drop a dubbed line of choice, machismo dialogue - "By the gods, I will have my revenge - I swear it! This murderer shall have no peace." bellowed Steve Reeves in GOLIATH & THE BARBARIANS.

Then along came Lucy Lawless as XENA: WARRIOR PRINCESS, the series spun-off from HERCULES: THE LEGENDARY JOURNEYS. Last time we chatted with the outspoken Ms. Lawless (FF 4:5), she didn't constrain her conversation to fencing and workouts; nope, uncharacteristic of a "family show" pitchwoman, Lawless broached "taboo" stuff like "Bible Belt mentality," gay parades and anti-American sentiment.

The New Zealand actress is celebrating her second season as "the favorite of Aris [ sic], god of war." Introduced in a trio of episodes on the HERCULES series, Xena initially was conceptualized as the liege of rampaging renegades. When her ruthless co-conspirators annihilated a village, Xena saw the error of her ways; her crusade for for virtuous, vulnerable provincials turned into the premise for a series.

Producers Rob Tapert and Sam Raimi, who previously collaborated on the EVIL DEAD and DARKMAN trilogies, have offered their HERCULES and XENA characters the liberty to crossover into each otherts series. "We decided to do a three-episode XENA: WARRIOR PRINCESS arc," said executive producer Tapert, " - having an evil warrior princess who is bad, then partly bad, then is turned good. The reason I was interested in doing it was that it allowed us to incorporate some action that we really couldn't do with Hercules. Just some wild, over-the-top action that didn't quite work with him as the big brawling character that he is. We did the first one, WARRIOR PRINCESS, and the studio liked it and wanted to do a spin-off series."

Only a couple of HERCULES episodes had been broadcast when the producers concluded that XENA would be functional as a solo act. HERCULES had originally been piggybacked with another Universal Television series, VANISHING SON, but studio executives worried about the latter show's viability.

"They wanted something that was more of a companion piece to HERCULES," Tapert explained. "I've always been interested in doing a female superhero show for a whole host of reasons. They tend not to work and I wanted to make one work. And they tended to be kind of mundane and sappy, and I wanted to do a really hard show."

Tapert admits that Hong Kong's action epics have served as an influence: "Those pictures have strong female superheros in them like THE BRIDE WITH WHITE HAIR, and THE SWORDSMAN II and III, or the Brigitte Lin-starring vehicles."

The producer's submersion into both HERCULES and XENA stretches from story development to postproduction polish. "I keep my finger on it all the way through because I find that, if I don't do that, I'm not always happy with the result."

Lucy Lawless' variant career included a stint as a gold miner in Australia's outback. The actress, who measures nearly six feet tall, had appeared on several HERCULES episodes prior to her casting as Xena. "We had used her in the first HERCULES AND THE AMAZON WOMEN two-hour movie," said Tapert, "where she was a leading contender to be Queen of the Amazons if we cast it out of New Zealand. We ended up bringing down someone from America. So she was the second in command of the Amazon women. The studio had asked us to use another girl, from another Universal show, in the three 'Warrior Princess' episodes and we agreed. I think the girl got cold feet before it was time to go down there and pulled out. So then we decided to try Lucy Lawless and toss a different wig on her."

An accomplice was ordained, but not the traditional romantic ally. Circumventing her drab, rustic existence, Gabrielle (Renee O'Connor) abetted Xena in rescue missions. Inherently the comic relief, Gabrielle is a flawed overachiever who blunders not only encounters with mythic creatures, but even her turn as Xena's defense counsel when the heroine is accused of slaughtering peaceful villagers.

"We had used Renee in one of the two-hour movies," said Tapert, "and I've always enjoyed her performances. She makes me laugh and we needed a sidekick for Xena and came up with her. The character was conceived specifically for her because it is a totally different character than Xena. Gabrielle is a sort of valley girl."

While the series is set in ancient Greece, the character demeanor and dialogue is decidedly late 20th century. The producers abandoned ties with the Hercules/Goliath cheapies that American producer Sam Arkoff used to import for a dime-a-dozen. "We felt that they didn't really play any more," said Tapert. "We wanted to update HERCULES and give it a modern flare and flavor and hopefully, in the coming years, it wouldn't seem dated or stilted. That same sensibility carried over into XENA that we wanted to have it definitely applicable to a '9Os sensibility and not a period piece."

The political climate has wrought a condemnation of TV violence; nevertheless, Tapert candidly professes that he's pushed the envelope: "The violence is pretty unreal, so people don't really believe this level of violence. In one episode of XENA, I think we did cross the boundaries but it was only in hindsight. It was the show called 'The Gauntlet,' the second in the three episode arc. It's the one where Xena's men put her through the gauntlet and drive her out of the camp. I did everything I could to lessen the impact of that scene. We took out some sound effects to not make it so gut-wrenchingly horrible."

Tapert, in fact, risked role reversal with the body count. "Hercules doesn't kill people," he explained. "Xena does. It's a weird designation and probably very arbitrary in my mind, but it's one way of saying this will be a XENA episode because these people get killed. XENA is for a slightly older audience, although we have a couple of XENA episodes that are somewhat lighter. But, I think as a whole, XENA has a heavier tone to it. Its not quite as tongue-in-cheek and funny to the general audience, although sometimes I find it very funny. XENA is a nine o'clock show. There are stories that we tell in HERCULES that don't work as well in XENA and vice versa. For instance, Hercules can walk into two warring factions in a story and it can be about him bringing that to the proper conclusion. Those stories work in XENA, but more interesting, Xena stories are ones that emanate directly from her character - whether it's her past or desires. Hercules is more a meatand-potatoes guy, and I mean that only in the best sort of way; we haven't yet given him those internal character conflicts that plague him."

While the sexual tension between Hercules and Xena is kept to a minimum, one episode faded with the former adversaries in bed. "Originally, we thought we would play up the sexuality," Tapert advised. "But as we go along, we find ourselves more and more reluctant to play it for a really crappy reason. She's got quite a fan club of teens 12 to 17 teens years old, and I don't know if we want her having sex again until we find the right circumstances."

The studio brass, cynical about a female superhero rendering Nielsens comparable to her male counterpart, apportioned budgets on gender. The average HERCULES episode is shot on an eight-day schedule; XENA'S crew must contend with a seven-day shoot per episode.

Envisioning 22 fresh stories per XENA season is challenging; equally problematic, noted Tapert, is "coming up with interesting and different action pieces for XENA that are totally separate from HERCULES. Really, the type of action with XENA is much more difficult to stage. We have a lot of rigging and harnesses and acrobatics and stuff like that - and we have less time, so its really a double-edged sword. I have to give Peter Bell, our stunt coordinator in New Zealand, a lot of credit. He coordinates both shows and comes up with wonderful bits of action for each one. There is a core group of about eight stuntmen and a fringe group of up to 20. If you were me, you'd see the same guys in every episode. They're just great."

Expensive battle scenes notwithstanding, the show rarely leans on stock footage exempting a forthcoming episode of XENA that may be a swell contrivance for flashback scenes. "It's what they call the clip show," relates Tapert "where they are kind of telling stories. I've actually gotten the rights to a whole bunch of old HERCULES pictures and cheesy movies, because some guys are telling really cheesy stories and I'm kind of excited because that's going to be fun to edit."

Much of XENA is filmed in the hills of New Zealand countryside. The protagonist is frequently shown walking on consecrated grounds, desolate caverns and hellish lairs. "We actually have six stages," explained Tapert. "Each stage has a couple of sets on them and we redress them a lot and we tear down and store them and rebuild them. We have a 100-acre movie farm just outside of Auckland that has a permanent village and a bunch of stuff built on it, and we use that for a lot of our outside shooting."

Well, to HERCULES' credit, the big guy has clobbered his rival series; but, according to the latest Nielsens, guess who's creaming her competition?

"Xena Article." Femme Fatales. Issue #8, Vol. 5, February 1997. PP 56-60.