The actress chats to Dreamwatch about Xena, Battlestar Galactica and – ah yes – Locusts…

Lucy Lawless became a household name when her three-episode stint on Hercules: The Legendary Journeys snowballed into a six-year gig as Xena: Warrior Princess. Since then, she’s only appeared in a handful of projects and the last time Lawless was a regular on television was for the WB’s short-lived Tarzan series.

However, if truth be told, Lawless wasn’t exactly disappointed by Tarzan’s quick cancellation. “No, not really!” she chuckles. “It was not a surprise. I wasn’t invested heart and soul into that. They just flattered me and I hadn’t been working in a while so I thought ‘That would be interesting. I’ll go check out Toronto.’”

Lately, Lawless’s recurring part as D’Anna Biers on Battlestar Galactica has earned her a legion of new fans, and the New Zealand actress is thrilled. “I got a call saying ‘Do you want to play a Cylon?’ from David Eick,” explains Lawless. “I met him so many years ago on Hercules in New Zealand. So back then, I had heard this American voice outside saying vehemently that ‘They had to sex it up!’ That was my first introduction to David. And being this kid from the sticks, I rolled my eyes because he was acting like an American producer; this is the way they go on. They are always trying to take our clothes off!”

Cylon Agent

Introduced in the episode Final Cut, D’Anna was a no-nonsense Fleet Service News reporter given unlimited access onboard the Galactica to shoot a documentary about the crew. In the end, it was revealed she was the Cylon agent Number Three, although that deception wasn’t the only aspect that interested Lawless about the critically acclaimed show.

“The role at that time for my character was she was pretending to be a journalist,” recalls Lawless. “I loved that my character got to be in nearly every scene. If I was going to go to another town and leave my family, I better be working. I’m not going to twiddle my thumbs so she was in practically every scene and got to work with everybody on the ship. I got to meet everybody, observe everybody, see how an ensemble show works, and it was an interesting role.”

Executive producers Ron Moore and David Eick made no secret about the fact that Lawless’s input was instrumental in fleshing D’Anna out. “Oh I don’t know,” she says modestly. ”Every actor makes a contribution by their very manner, the way they look, the way they walk, and what they bring to the role is their whole history. The writers see something that works and see some new potential in you and they write towards that. Originally, we did speak about a religious concept as is explored in His Dark Materials by Philip Pullman. He has an interesting take on God, and since we are talking about Cylons, it just seemed to fit. That was the starting point for our discussion in taking D’Anna further.

“I love big philosophy stuff,” continues Lawless. “I’m not interested in doing procedural drama. They just don’t sit well with me. They are fantastic, everybody loves them, and if you want to be taken seriously as an actor, supposedly that is the type of show you should be on. I think that is B.S.! It doesn’t necessarily show what a good actor you are and I would rather do things that were personally fulfilling and fun!”

Cold and creepy

D’Anna returned in Downloaded to help integrate a resurrected Number Six and Sharon Valerii back into Cylon society. Unfortunately, things didn’t go smoothly when they began to display sympathy for the humans.

“That episode was terrific!” says Lawless. “The duality of my role is very fun to play as an actor because she is saying one thing, she looks like a friend, but there is something cold about her. I’ve been reading a book called The Fantastic Bond and it talks about cold mothers who may have physical proximity but no warmth towards their child. There is something about that which is one of the most malignant types of mother love there is. I kind of wanted an element of that in this woman, which is why on some level she is really creepy.”

Despite meeting her demise, D’Anna will be back for 10 episodes in Season Three. And while most of the actors claim to be in a bubble over the long term details of their characters, Lawless insists Eick and Moore outline their plans for her. “I knew the arc of my character from the start. It was important because I’m very aware how many characters they have to service in the show. I’m just not available to come up for a few days here and a few days there.

"I am now looking for something a bit more solid so if the show is going to take me out of the running for other work, it has to be a serious commitment. Fortunately, they could find a storyline that works for them because only the show matters. It is not about servicing people like me; it has to work for the show.”

Uneasy Friendship

Baltar’s loyalties have always been in question so what does D’Anna make of the current self-obsessed president? “D’Anna’s opinion, not just of Baltar, but of everyone, is nothing can be wasted,” states Lawless. “That is why even when I hated him, we didn’t stick him out the airlock. Organic matters and is very hard to find in space. You don’t know when something is going to be useful. You wouldn’t throw away a rubber band in outer space. You don’t know who your friend is going to be, so she and Baltar develop an uneasy friendship and Six is meshed in that. The three of them have a very interesting relationship.”

On Xena, viewers tuned in to watch Lawless kick some serious ass - but don’t count on her flexing any action muscles on Galactica. “No, you won’t,” confirms Lawless. “I always hated that, even through Xena. I never never liked the fighting. I found it a big fat pain in the ass but I blocked it out. They would tell me ‘Lucy, get on your mark. Go learn the stunt fight.’ They wouldn’t ask ‘Lucy, would you like to learn your stunt fight?’ None of that. They don’t do that in New Zealand. It’s ‘Lucy, get on your mark!’ That’s the way I preferred it because otherwise if they ask a question, it demands a response. ‘Would you like to do it?’ ‘Well, no I wouldn’t! Now what?' I don’t have to do the fighting, although it has become a 'muscle memory' for me. Whenever I have to do it, my body gets really excited. Adrenaline pumps through me.”

Unlike past guest stars, Lawless has had the opportunity to interact with the entire main cast and has nothing but high praise for them. “I work mostly with Trish [Helfer] and James [Callis] and those two are such a pleasure because they have so much grace under pressure. They are wonderful actors and human beings. I can’t say enough of them. Eddie [James Olmos] and Mary [McDonnell] make me laugh so much. Mary is somebody I would go have coffee with. Eddie is a crack-up and really takes care of everyone.”

Graceful Exit?

As for how D’Anna bows out, Lawless will only offer hints. “I’m very excited about the way they wrap up my run. It is so very satisfying to me philosophically given what we all discussed in the beginning. She makes a graceful exit.”

No matter how it pans out for D’Anna, with so many versions of Number Three running around, it seems inevitable she will be popping up again soon. “Well, let’s see how the audience likes me,” smiles Lawless.

In addition to Galactica, Lawless has recently been confronting locusts and vampire bats in TV movies although she has no plans on taking on any more flying critters. “No I don’t think so,” she confirms. “We killed that whole time slot! The reason to say yes to doing Locusts was to work in Louisiana. New Orleans is cool. Of course, the project isn’t intrinsically cool but it was a life experience that I didn’t feel I could miss out on. I’m so glad I was there because I got to see New Orleans at its best. I was there right up to when we evacuated at the very last minute, because we didn’t know any better.”

Regardless of what characters Lawless embodies next, there’s no denying that Xena transformed her into a genre icon. And while some actors prefer to sweep those signature roles under the map and move on, she's extremely grateful. “Xena gave me everything!” she enthuses. “It gave me my husband, my children, and it has given me this great life of choice. I could have been on a procedural drama and now I have chosen to do this. I’m not sorry about anything. It was a great time and we laughed a lot. I’m addicted to fun…”

This interview was originally conducted for Dreamwatch magazine in 2006.