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Lucy Lawless: The Mount Albert Girl Who Became A Warrior Princess
Description
In episode three of Sportscafe Legends, Marc Ellis and Ric Salizzo sit down on Herbie the housebus with Lucy Lawless - Xena: Warrior Princess herself.
She grew up in Mount Albert with no fences and no curfew, was nicknamed "uncoordinated" at school, and then spent six years and 24-episode seasons swinging a sword nine months a year. Xena big in New Zealand, but it was enormous in Italy, Turkey, the Philippines and Iran - and somewhere around episode eight, Lucy found out her character had become a global gay icon, via a stack of faxes from New York while she was standing on the side of set.
These days she'd rather direct than act, and keeps turning down offers from America to do it.
She also has a hobby that comes up about twenty-five minutes in, and it's not what you'd expect.
Marc and Ric get into what Xena did for the New Zealand screen industry, knowing Russell Crowe when he was running an underage nightclub, the first time in her life she felt proud of herself, and what Herbie is actually being used for.
CHAPTERS
Chapters
- 00:00:00 Welcome to Herbie
- 00:01:27 A slow start to the day
- 00:02:20 Growing up in Mount Albert
- 00:04:34 Slightly delinquent
- 00:05:49 How the acting started
- 00:08:28 Becoming a gay icon by accident
- 00:09:19 Marc was an extra on Xena
- 00:10:16 Russell Crowe before Russell Crowe
- 00:11:35 "My nickname at school was uncoordinated"
- 00:12:31 Nine months a year, 14-hour days
- 00:13:13 What Xena did for the NZ industry
- 00:14:55 Watching a film a day
- 00:18:50 Why she's directing now
- 00:21:43 New Zealand needs to feed itself
- 00:24:01 When kids were allowed to disappear
- 00:24:42 The murder trials
- 00:25:33 The hearing
- 00:26:10 Why she goes
- 00:28:30 Pizza etiquette
- 00:29:30 Star Wars, Tom Selleck and the Ewok problem
- 00:32:29 The proudest she's ever been
- 00:34:48 Never Look Away
- 00:35:31 Working with Marc Ellis
- 00:38:44 What Herbie is actually for
Sportscafe Legends is presented by Sal's Authentic New York Pizza and Southern Alps Lager. Herbie is fuelled by Gull.