Lucy was interviewed on a UK site called Attitude about directing Never Look Away and naturally some Xena questions were asked.
You became a lesbian role model from Xena. How did that feel?
The New York gay scene gave Xena its early edge. They made us hip first, and I’m immensely grateful for that. Michael Musto wrote an article about the show – what a lovely man.
To settle years of fan speculation, were Xena and Gabrielle a couple?
Yeah – I thought that was quite clear by the end. We didn’t know that was the case when we began the show. But by the end, we were like: totally; they’re a couple; they’re married. I guess Xena was still experimenting in the first few seasons. I mean, she’d had Marcus as a boyfriend.
Looking back, Xena: Warrior Princess was actually quite ahead of the times.
This inclusivity that everyone’s aspiring to now, we were doing that way back in the 90s. Because we were shooting so far from Hollywood, far away from the bosses, everyone just left us alone. We had trans actors who weren’t playing trans roles. We had mixed-race couples, and even mixed-species relationships as a metaphor. There was an odd flirtation with a Centaur, which may have gone too far, but you would, wouldn’t ya?
What would Xena and Gabrielle be doing today if they were still around?
They’d have a B&B in Lesbos or something. Running the Lilleth Fair or Miss Sappho 2024. Xena would rock out a few lines of consciousness girl power verse; throw a few axes.
Did you get to keep any of your Xena wardrobe?
I did keep a few things. I wore my full Xena wardrobe in public going to the ATM once during filming. This was before Xena was well known. I rocked into downtown Auckland in my full Xena garb.
What was the campest thing you did on Xena?
I mean, the whole of Xena is an ode to camp – I was an aide-de-camp through every season. Maybe when I played the part of Miss Amphipolis in a beauty contest (in the series 2, episode 11 episode Here She Comes … Miss Amphipolis) when I was caught in an embrace with the winner. The trans actress who played her (Karen Dior, who passed away in 2004) was beautiful and such a lovely soul.
