by Sharon Delaney
The Chakram Newsletter: Issue 25
We wanted to do a video interview with Lucy about the five-part Discovery Channel documentary, “Warrior Women.” She was up for it and suggested we co-ordinate our plans with the film crew who were planning on going to New Mexico to shoot the segment on Lozen, the Apache warrioress, the third week in September.
The Discovery crew was scheduled to meet Lucy in Los Angeles the week before to record some voiceover material for the episodes. Then Lucy joined the cast of Tarzan. The good news, she was working. The bad news, the show is filmed in Toronto and they needed her to start right away. The good news, she would be home Friday, September 12, and could work with the crew Friday and Saturday and they would all fly to New Mexico on Sunday. We would meet them there that day and film our interview either Sunday night or Monday morning. Then word came in that Lucy had to work Friday and Saturday.
For those who haven’t heard yet, Tarzan was already in production. They had filmed about five episodes with another actress playing the role of Kathleen Clayton, Tarzan’s aunt. For whatever reason, the production company decided to make a change and asked Lucy to take over the part. This would mean reshooting the scenes they had already done with the original actress. Lucy would be doing new material during the day and reshoots at night - and on the Friday and Saturday she thought she would be free to come back to Los Angeles.
Okay, everyone shift right one day on the calendar. The film crew would meet Lucy in Toronto to do the voiceovers and we would all meet in New Mexico on Monday. September 15, I would shoot my interview Monday night or Tuesday morning.
The plane takes off and I'm on my way with a cameraman. Jonathan, and a sound man, Mike. We land in Albuquerque about one in the afternoon and rent a car to drive to Truth or Consequences - the town that named itself after a game show. You can look it up online to find out how that happened.
We arrive at the Sierra Grande Lodge about four o’clock and Jonathan and I start scouting around for a good place to film. The hotel has 18 rooms and we're told by the manager, John, that the hotel is actually closed for a two-week summer vacation and it was opened just for us and the Discovery gang. In fact, the cooking staff is on vacation! Not to worry, however, they did find someone who was willing to take time off from his vacation to cook for Lucy. (grin) And what a cook he turned out to be. But that’s a story for later.
Lucy had a suite and had said it was okay to film in her spare room. However, as large and spacious as New Mexico is, the rooms were moderately-sized with incredibly large furniture. You know that old tale of the princess and the pea? Each room contained a ten-foot-square bed with a mattress that towered four feet off the floor. Poor Wendy Sparks, our diminutive photographer, had to use the rung of a chair to clamber up on hers. Lucy, with her Daddy- Long-Legs, probably glided gracefully right into her bed.
Lucy's living room was equally filled with large furniture. No space for a camera and lighting setup. Back down to the lobby we went and realized that area was beautifully decorated and spacious enough for our needs. As Jonathan began to unload the equipment and I went to the front desk to check in, the Discovery crew - Kristi the producer, Noel the director and a soundman - arrived with Lucy in tow. As has been happening a lot to her lately, John, the Xena fan manager, didn't realize she was standing right in front of him when she went up to the desk.
I've often told people that Lucy could walk right past them and they wouldn't recognize her. She's very slender without the armor of the Xena costume and, minus the dark brown Xena body wash, her naturally light Irish complexion, complete with freckles, makes her look about 10 years younger than the fiercesome Warrior Princess. We convinced John she was Lucy Lawless and room keys were handed out.
I didn't know how early the Discovery crew would be heading out to begin their work so I had decided to try and do the interview that night instead of waiting until morning. As it was now about six o'clock, the question became, “Do we shoot before or after dinner?” Lucy had been on a plane since early in the morning and was as hungry as we were. Food first took the vote easily.
Well, that's all very well and good, but did we have a cook? Yes, we did. Not only did we have a cook, but he turned out to be an artist in the kitchen - visual as well as tasteful. They brought out a menu from which to make selections and then were told it would take about an hour. Okay, no prob, we'll do a bit of filming and then eat. Anyone know where the soundman went? Mike, thinking we were eating first, had disappeared. Phone calls to his room, as well as knocks on the door, went unanswered. Now we’re not only hungry, we're only equipped to make a silent movie with Lucy. With time to kill. Lucy suggested we start in on the photo session as there was still light outside.
Does anyone remember the Fred Astaire/Audrey Hepburn movie Funny Face? Fred’s a photographer and, as you might guess, Audrey’s his subject. He tells her stories to get her in the mood for the photos. I tried that with Lucy. I told her the same stories Fred told Audrey. Mostly what I got were giggles, but it kept things light and made it more fun than just trying to come up with poses.
Lucy got into it and that’s when she spotted the old stove and kneeled down pretending to fire it up. The wind was blowing up pretty fierce and was tossing her hair around. I thought that made for some great shots — fun and very natural. The necklace Lucy is wearing may look familiar to those who watch Tarzan. Lucy mentioned she supplied some of her own jewelry during filming of the series.
When Lucy approved the photo where her hair is blowing and she’s got a shirt on with fish, she pointed to the fish on the shirt and then at her hair and said, laughing, “Hey, I look just like them.”
Lucy clambered up on top of a large boulder and went into a warrior stance, pretending to hold out a sword. “Everyone always puts a sword in my hand,” she chuckled down to us. Wendy continued to snap away.
After about a half hour we went back inside and Mike wandered down the stairs completely oblivious to the manhunt that had been going on to find him. Lucy and I grabbed some dinner rolls, stuffed them in our mouths and gobbled down as many as we could while they did a camera and sound check.
If you've been watching the behind-the-scenes videos that come in the fan club kits, you've heard someone yelling out, just before filming, the words, “Final checks.” Without a plethora of makeup and hair people around, Lucy and I grinned at each other to make sure there weren’t any crumbs in our teeth and sat down to begin the interview.
By the way, some people who saw a piece of this interview on our web page thought we were in a church because of the candles behind Lucy. That’s actually a rather large wagon wheel decorated with candles. Makes for a beautiful background, doesn’t it? We spent about a half hour doing the interview and then the dinner bell rang.
Let me just say that it’s worth riding a donkey across the length and breadth of America to eat in this hotel. The food is that good. We started with a raspberry puff pastry that would melt in your mouth if you managed not to expire from ecstacy with the first bite. I was sitting across from Lucy and we looked at each other in amazement. I felt like looking out the window to see if I’d been magically transported to some five-star restaurant in Paris. And it just got better with each course. What with the good food and the wine, Lucy and I were two sleepy puppies when it came time to go back in front of the camera. In fact, Lucy was taller when she sat down. Oh no, I see, she’s sitting on her foot.
I think Lucy really enjoyed being in cowboy country. She went and bought herself a pair of boots. The first I heard about them was when we were doing this interview. While a tape change was taking place, she put her booted feet up in front of me and said, “Which do you like better?” I looked down at her feet and, at first, couldn’t see a difference. I was expecting a different boot on each foot.
Finally, I noticed one of them had that fringy thing you get on some loafers and the other didn't. I don’t like those fringy things, but, after staring at it for a minute, I realized the boot with the fringe looked better - and I said so. Lucy said, “Yeah, you're right. I don’t like that fringe either, but it looks good on these boots.” I asked, “Are you going to take one pair back?” And she said, “Nope, I'm just going to snap the fringe back on.” And she proceeded to put the fringe on and off just like Eeyore, on his birthday, putting Piglet's piece of exploded balloon in and out of Pooh's empty honey jar.
I asked Lucy about starting work on Tarzan and we filmed for another ten minutes. Then we shot some generic nodding and smiling to be inserted if the editor needed a generic nod or smile! That took care of her camera angle.
Now it was time for us to turn the camera around and shoot me. Well, not literally, but… I’d never been on camera before. Just wasn’t something I wanted to do. However, Lucy, Renee and the editor of the videos I do for the fan club kits are always asking that I have some footage shot of me. The editor wants something to cut away to which will make the cuts smoother. I never could figure out why Lucy and Renee wanted the camera turned in my direction. Recently, I found out just what their nefarious minds were up to.
First, they get to laugh at me trying to be natural delivering questions I’ve already asked them. Second, when feeding me my lines off camera, they get to have the giggles while I try to keep a straight face and fail. And last, but not least, I don’t have a makeup person and have no skills at it at all so each of them volunteered their services in what I would call a lost cause, but they gleefully attacked with unholstered makeup brushes in hand.
Lucy runs upstairs to get her makeup kit and sets to work trying to make me presentable. Some powder, blush, a bit of eye makeup. Then she stands back and gazes over her work with a puzzled expression. “Run your fingers through your hair. It looks too combed,” she says. I follow her directions and we look at each other for a moment. “I’m not a hair and makeup person,” she sighs. We both giggle.
With the camera shooting over her shoulder, Lucy picks up my question sheet. She’s going to tell me what questions I asked and I’ll deliver them. I should add that I never write them out completely. More in note form. We started shooting at seven, it’s not ten-thirty. I’m surprised when Lucy not only remembers some of the phrasing I used, she also remembers some of my ad-libbed questions. She’s got a phenomenal memory for learning things on the spur of the moment. That was driven home in the morning when she learned the lines for the Discovery segment as they were driving to the location. She hadn’t seen the script before they started off.
Delivering lines off camera is frequently done by someone from the crew. It was late and Lucy had been traveling all day. Jonathan could have fed me the questions. But Lucy made no move to get up. She just picked up the question sheet and dived right in.
The last thing we had to do that night was have me recite four short lines that the soundman said didn’t come out. He’d written them out and gave the sheet to Lucy to read off to me. The first line was, “Did you know there’s a Starbucks in the Forbidden City? I learned that on the plane.” I started off all serious and stopped in the middle of it as I heard myself deliberately trying to sound eager and chipper. I rolled my eyes and said in exasperation, “I'm acting!” Lucy burst out laughing.
Turned out I’d also gotten the line wrong. I was supposed to say, “Did you know there’s a Starbucks on the Great Wall of China?” And then Lucy would correct me and say, “It’s in the Forbidden City.” We tried again.
Me, still rather earnest, “Did you know there’s a Starbucks on the Great Wall of China?” - my voice going up two octaves at the end of the sentence. Lucy giggles. I giggle. I still sound like a prepared dork.
Lucy says, giving me a mini acting lesson, “Just ask me, actually ask me. That's the way you do it.” I try again, it goes well. Lucy responds, “I think it was actually at the Forbidden City.” We're on a roll. All I have to do is answer her. Me, “I learned that from someone - I heard that from someone on the plane.” Drat! Lucy giggles again. No clean delivery, we've got to do it again. Two friggin lines and I can't get them out. This is why Lucy's place is in front of the camera and my place is behind!
Lucy coaches me again. “Yeah, I learned that on the plane!” she chirps naturally, showing me how I should say it. She feeds me her line again. I pull myself together, time to get serious. I get as far as “Oh yeah” and Lucy starts to giggle. I lose it. Lucy laughs, “I see why you don't do this.” At that point, we give up. Lucy's never going to teach me how to act in ten minutes. We'll go with the first take.
Lucy feeds me the next line and I deliver it flawlessly the first time. Jonathan wants me to do some generic nodding and smiling so Lucy starts doing a condensed version of her trip to China for me to respond to.
Again, Lucy feeds me a line, “And you made a stop off in Singapore?” I'm all serious now and determined to get it the first time. I look at Lucy and say, “And you made a stop off in Singapore?” She looks back at me, shakes her head sadly, and says, “You look like you're not having any fun.” At first I think that's my next line. Then I realize she's serious and I crack up. Lucy laughs and says, “Lucy's boring you to death.” But now I'm laughing and the director in Lucy takes over again. “Do it like that! Don't stop smiling! Just say it! ‘And you made a stop in Singapore?’” she coaches. I bounce the line right back at her. “Perfect!” she says proudly.
Lucy was on a roll. She proceeded to feed me, one after another, without stopping, the first lines I'd done so poorly and I just mimicked her delivery each time. The last one was, “Did you have any other adventures in China?” and after I repeated it, I got silly and added, “Or was it all boring?” Director Lucy burst out laughing, pointed at the camera and said, “You’ve gotta cut that in!” Done! To BED!!!
Up early in the morning and after a bit of breakfast, Wendy and I took Lucy outside for more photos. We’d asked if she could bring a change of clothes and out walked “Cowboy Lucy” in her red-and-white plaid shirt, blue jeans and the fringed boots. We had her posing on a stone staircase which tickled her fancy. She struck a pose pointing to the sign on the hotel and I grabbed Wendy and said, “Shot her from behind. It's a great shot!” That was another photo that made Lucy look twice when I brought it over to be approved. “Cheeky,” she laughed, as she signed off on it.
The Discovery crew then invited Wendy and myself to join them for their first filming session in the nearby ghost town of Chloride. We made a pit stop at a place called the plaque in the ladies room entitled “Don't Squat With Your Spurs On.” Sage cowboy advice I thought I'd include for those who might be interested.
Chloride is run by Don Edmund and his wife. Lucy loved listening to his stories about the history of the town. Finding local folk to hang out with is Lucy's favorite tourist activity. She also ran around with her own camera taking pictures of everyone and having everyone take pictures of her among the ruins.
We spent a couple hours watching the filming and then it was time to head back to the airport. Wendy had her white German shepherd with her. The dog arrived along with our ride back to Albuquerque. Lucy couldn’t resist a hug and a romp with the dog who's just a big love puppy.
Looking into the rearview mirror as we drove off, I saw Lucy standing amid the tumbledown ruins of the town getting ready to tell another story about the warrior women of our world who lived their lives on a stage mostly populated by men. Many of their stories have faded with time. This Discovery Channel series is there to make sure they're not forgotten.