Transcript first appeared in Chakram Mailing List. Transcript of interview with Susan Wood and Lucy Lawless on the Holmes show, TV1, Thursday 29/10/97. Holmes is a 1/2 hour show that runs after the news hour and its usual host Paul Holmes does interviews with the newsmakers, as well as human interest stories and a bit of tabloid TV thrown in as well. TV1 is the state owned but commerically run channel, its overseas owned rival TV3 shows Xena:WP (hence the focus on Grease and not on X:WP). The interview with LL was promoed heavily during the news and at the start of the Holmes show they cut to a live feed of Lucy in the TVNZ building making her way to the studio. Susan Woods: Here is Lucy Lawless she has just been spotted down the hall and she is making her way toward us. Cut to shot of Lucy peering around a corner and she says "I blend in perfectly here to the paint at TVNZ¦. Lucy was wearing a light blue jacket (which matched the walls exactly), a white shirt and there were no rings on any fingers ;> They did another promo before the ad break: SW: Next on the programme yes fresh from a Broadway production of Grease, taking a rest from the gruelling production schedule of Xena, Lucy Lawless joins me live in the studio cut to shot of LL as Rizzo singing Greazed Lightening. (Ad break) SW: Well who would American kids most like to have to play at their house? First Chelsea Clinton fair enough, second Tiger Woods, you can understand that third a New Zealander that¦s right New Zealander Lucy Lawless, she laughs, their fathers probably wouldn¦t mind either, this is Hunter Wells writing that our producer that of course it is probably from his heart, that is all of course from a recent poll in America¦s People magazine. Anyhow Lucy Lawless is back home from Broadway from enormous success in Grease. She of course started in the ASB bank ads then she became, and you probably don¦t want to be reminded of this, Mrs New Zealand, Xena of course Warrior Princess the American TV show that has propelled her to superstardom and she has even been called an icon of the 1990s by Ms Magazine, she joins me now obviously, as I keep referring off to the left here. How are you? LL: Hi Susan, great thank you SW: Welcome home LL: Thank you SW: Ok, Grease, you are on the stage, live audience, you have had a thing I read about singing live for a little while LL: I did I stop-, I sta-started as a teenager singing lessons and I think in a way it kind of shut me down I don¦t know it¦s a good idea for kids to study so hard so young, but it was me driving myself and I think I gave myself a bit of a phobia so um for me the main reason I took Grease was to overcome this block I had about singing in public and it really forced me through that, I ah I had to get up and perform eight shows a week whether we were sick tired it you know just didn¦t matter you, the show must go on SW: -to sellout audiences I read LL: Yeah it got, initially initially it sold out there was a very slow period because ah that¦s traditionally the dead time of the year when everybody goes back to school but ah the houses filled up pretty quickly and stayed full for the whole run so that was just wonderful SW: And more importantly you enjoyed it LL: Yeah I , you know what, the truth is, the truth that is I¦m glad I did it and I¦m really glad it¦s over too (SW laughs) and the further I get away from it the rosier the whole thing seems to me it was it was really hard work but it I loved the people there you wouldn¦t believe it but the people on Broadway are um they are totally non bitchy you wouldn¦t expect that from theatre you know I¦m from a not from a theatre background, so um they were really busted my preconceptions about ah people in theatre, it was marvellous SW: A lovely picture, I was reading about you today your mother painted a picture in my mind a ten year old girl standing on the coffee table with a seashell (LL: yeah) for a microphone you have come aways haven¦t you? LL: Yeah my friend Michelle and I used adapt (SW: laugh) plays from kids stories. I think I was ten when I first discovered oh I really I like that, that performance um in um it was a school performance of a parable the prodigal son at my primary (laugh) school and I played yet another bad girl the one who rips off the prodigal son off and I remember the moment I remember what I was wearing where I was standing in my room when I thought wow I really like this performing thing it wasn¦t as scary as I thought. SW: Is Xena a bad girl? She is sort of a bad good girl isn¦t she? LL: She¦s trying very hard to be good but I think that is part of her appeal is that we can all relate to the flawed hero and ah she¦s not the man in the white hat and you don¦t know quite which way she is going to jump so um and the other thing is that this show is absolutely this show is absolutely not to be shak-taken seriously so um I love it I wouldn¦t give up my day job for anything (laugh) SW: Even if it does mean crawling through tunnels with rats dropped down on your head LL: Yeah SW That¦s extraordinary LL:-rats eels, flaming branches you know (laughs) everything gets thrown at you SW: It was just the rats that got me I have got to say. You are in the 50 most beautiful people in the world list. You are as I said one of the (LL laughs) - don¦t laugh- why do you laugh, is it, are you it is vaguely embarrassing LL: Umm you know it¦s not, but it has all the aspects of fame, and you will know this, have nothing to do with who you really are in your real life and you are certainly not famous in your own living room and kitchen and um it¦s just the spectacl- it¦s just the kind of, the abstract concept that you could be um considered one of the most beautiful people- or famous or just celebrity is um not something you experience in your daily life generally and when I go to work I¦m just Lucy and um when I go home I¦m just Mum SW: This is an extraordinary thing though, you are you know you are an Auckland girl, as I am, as a lot of people watching you tonight are and you are world famous on a huge international stage with thousand of young actresses doing anything to get there and there you are. LL: Yeah I can¦t I can¦t believe it I can¦t believe it myself, but it¦s terrific what would you rather be? Sort of anonymous, penniless- SW: - absolutely not LL:- and without a job. I tried that and this is still more pleasant. SW: Got to ask you, Donald Trump (LL: Yeah) what did he really say to you? LL: (sighs humf ) I was staying at his hotel and he rang up just to ask if everybody was treating me well and ah and simply asked out, asked me out for a drink and he was perfectly civil and um I know people would love me to dish some bit of dirt on him but I just have none to offer SW: interesting man, charming man? LL: (pause) ah charming maybe not interesting (both laugh) SW: What does that mean? LL: Ahhh hm well what does that mean, well he was very generous with his information about how much he paid for buildings and things but um ah I guess I don¦t belong to that world you know (laudgh) SW: You are not motivated by money at all are you? LL: Umm no I mean I try not to be naive about it, I know the value of money, I know the value of um fame, of celebrity and its commercial and it tells you that your show is doing well and you have to service it in some measure but um money shouldn¦t be your primary decision making ah tool or a you know h it shouldn¦t be what drives you. SW: The cost to your private life, your daughter Daisy there is a cost there is a cost for all women who chose to work. Do you feel that heavily that cost, the guilt I mean? LL: I have done, it took me a long time to get used to working um there is a cost for everybody in your family because um very often you will be built up in the press and every now and again they will dress you down you know they keep you ebbing and flowing in popularity, it gives them more pages to fill or whatever but um that can impact on people that you care about, I try not to take it too seriously and indeed try not to even read it because they are very liberal with quotations marks you know and on the occasions that I have read these things it¦s been embarrassing it can be embarrassing the quotes that they will attribute to you and you know you never said them and they will cobble stories together from interviews you might have done and kind of fill in the blanks on their own, that¦s my feeling but um again it is not to be taken seriously because, after all, magazines or even magazine style television shows no body remembers what anybody said they just remember the pictures perhaps and the overall feeling of celebrity so um I and I encourage my family not to, if they must read it, not to take it too seriously SW: Finally, a happy note wedding bells LL: Yes! SW: When? can you have you set a date? LL; We are trying to set a date for ah early next year SW: Daisy¦s happy, you¦re happy? LL: She¦s very happy, I¦m very happy SW: Life is looking good LL: Life¦s marvellous SW: Welcome home and thanks very much for coming in. L: A pleasure and thanks for having me SW: It has been wonderful. (to camera) Well we dumped the Spice Girls, we were going to promo the Spice girls (to LL) but I think you are better than the Spice girls personally, there you go (to camera) Paul is back in the chair tomorrow I see you at Breakfast at 7 tomorrow. That¦s Holmes tonight.