Content provided in partnership with
Xena Cyberprincess - Lucy Lawless of 'Xena' - Interview
Advocate, The, March 2, 1999 by Michele Kort
LUCY LAWLESS, TV'S XENA, TELLS HOW IT FEELS TO BE THE ULTIMATE FANTASY OF LESBIANS ONLINE
Xena and Gabrielle stare long and lovingly into each other's eyes, then pull each other closer and closer until their lips meet in a passionate kiss.
An upcoming episode of Xena: Warrior Princess, the wildly popular syndicated TV drama about a kick-ass leather-garbed mythic heroine--played by Lucy Lawless--and her adoring female sidekick? You wish. No, romantic moments like this come from a world almost as fantastic as Xena's: cyberspace. On the Internet, aficionadas of the show have established hundreds of sites on which to chat about their heroine(s), post photos and articles, play Xena games, endlessly analyze the possible lesbian "subtext" in Xena and Gabrielle's relationship, and create their own stories. In the new genre known as "alt.fan fiction," the X and G relationship goes as far erotically as the writer wants to take it.
- Most Popular Articles in News
- The Ten Best Laptop bags
- Tata plans cheapest-ever car for Indian market
- GLOBALIZATION AND THE DEVELOPMENT OF UNDERDEVELOPMENT OF THE THIRD WORLD
- Corn is good for you; Corn is not only a tasty treat, but also a cereal that ...
- THE 50 BEST STYLISH HANDBAGS TO CARRY
- More »
The producers of the show--including out lesbian co-executive producer Liz Friedman--have been both tolerant and supportive of Xena fan-tasizers. "Every fan of a show helps advance it, and the Internet provides a natural opportunity for there to be a community of fans," Friedman says. In fact, Internet discussion spurred the creation of a conscious subtext in which X and G deliver double entendres and have even come very close to lip smacking (under subtle pretenses).
"I thought it was unlikely anyone would ever think that Gabrielle [Renee O'Connor] and Xena were lesbians," Friedman says. "My feeling was that lesbians are pretty much invisible--I should know, I've been invisible. We go to the grocery store, and everyone says, `Oh, you two are sisters, right?' The first place we got feedback that people were having that interpretation was from the Internet, and then we started having fun with it."
Of course, none of the fantasy would fly without an actress as fantasizable as Lawless, the nearly six-foot-tall 30-year-old New Zealander who brings Xena to larger-than-life. We caught up with her by phone in Auckland, where she lives with 10-year-old daughter Daisy and new hubby (and Xena executive producer) Rob Tapert. An intelligent and seemingly well-grounded woman, she speaks with a surprisingly thick "down under" accent that she skillfully conceals in the Xena role.
The Advocate: Obviously the Internet's been quite a boon to Xena, and it seems like the production company has been supportive of the Web sites. Have you checked out sites?
Lawless: I was online last night, and it blew my mind: Somebody had photos of me that I had never seen! It just shocked me. It was the Oh Lucy! site or something.
I've only just discovered E-mail, and I'm dying to get mail every night, so I'm going to have to start writing to people.
To friends or to people on the Internet?
Oh, no, to friends.
How do you stay anonymous on the Internet?
Well, I don't go on and chat.
You did once, though--you signed on as "Hercules" and criticized Xena.
I did, and I just got frozen out, quite pointedly. It was really amusing and kind of horrifying. I didn't know whether to feel hurt or glad. But the Internet is certainly where it's at in the next millennium, boy.
Have you checked out the fan fiction?
Not for a long time. I read a really great one about Cindy Crawford meeting Xena, and Xena thinks she has a big piece of chocolate on her face and pulls out a weapon and clips off Cindy Crawford's mole. Which is a very nice mole--we'd all hate to see it go. But there's just bizarre fan fiction.
How does it feel, being a straight woman, to be the lesbian icon these days?
Really? That's cool. I think it's great to be part of something that becomes iconic. How amazing! What an awesome experience in life! That doesn't happen to many people. It's never made me uncomfortable. I know a lot of lesbian and gay people, and they're as fine as any people I've ever met. Maybe better human beings! Why would I be embarrassed to be playing a role that they identify with so strongly?
But how does it feel to be somebody's fantasy?
I never thought about it like that [laughs]. I guess I just separate myself from Xena, and Xena can be somebody's fantasy. I mean, she's my fantasy too, in the sense that she doesn't exist and is just part of this fantastical world that I join every day when I put on makeup. I don't relate to her unless the camera's rolling.
So you think people aren't fantasizing about you but about Xena.
Right. Because how could they? They don't know me. Well, maybe they do. This happens with [film] editors all the time--it's a professional hazard. They feel they know you intimately, though they've never met you, because they have seen all the rough cuts, all your goof-ups, your good days and bad days.
So when you meet them, it's a very strange experience because you get that feeling of contemptible familiarity. It's like, "You're getting too close to me--go away. I don't know who you are." It's difficult for them--they really have to pull back because they can make you go cold.
