As she gets ready to head back to the small screen, Lucy Lawless sat down with Out’s Noah Michelson to chat about behaving badly in Spartacus, gayness in the ancient world, and whether or not she'll ever pick up Xena's sword again. A few sample quotes follow:
On homosexuality on Spartacus:
“You know what’s nice about Spartacus is that they have a gladiator who was gay and manly and he has one of the few true love relationships [on the show] with a young man who also is in the same ludus -- that’s a gladiator training camp. And it causes no problems for them whatsoever -- the fact that they’re identified that way. It’s really nice to see gay men being portrayed as something other than cardigan-wearing hand-flappers -- not that there’s anything wrong with that…”
On doing nude scenes:
“I was stressed. And I went straight home to bed afterward. Mostly I was stressed because there’s all these women playing slaves hanging around like a bad smell following you everywhere. You’re trying to do this intimate scene with a trusted colleague and these women are just standing there. They’re from Nigeria and Cameroon and places like that, and I had been talking with them. And I was just so freaked out thinking, What are these women thinking? They must be thinking, “Bitch! In my country you would be stoned for that. Just for acting that with somebody who’s not even your husband.” Or just for, whatever. Anyway, we all became great friends and they seem to have forgiven me.”
On doing playing Xena again:
“I love that character. I would do it if it was a movie. I doubt I would do it as a TV series. I can’t see how you would make it fresh. And by the time somebody does come up with that I’m just going to be too old. And I’m really sad about that. I feel like it’s a completely wasted franchise. Rob really wanted to get that going. In fact they did early on and I was just too tired and thought I was bullet proof and would be in demand forever. And that killed it.”
Find the complete interview along with a video interview at Advocate.com.
