AfterElton has a great interview with Lucy about Spartacus and Xena. Check it out:
Lucy Lawless is back!
Actually, she never really left. Since hanging up her chakram as Xena, Warrior Princess, in 2001, she's kept plenty busy, appearing in roles like the Number Three cylon on Battlestar Galatica and her crowd-pleasing runner-up finish on Celebrity Duets in 2006. She's also popped up in television guest spots on everything from The L-Word to CSI: Miami.
But now she's back to episodic television full-time, in Spartacus: Blood and Sand, a CGI-intensive retelling of the story of the rebel slave Spartacus, premiering January 22nd on the Starz network, a premium cable channel.
While her role as the wife of the owner of a gladiator school is very unlike that of Xena, and the show itself has a far more serious tone, Spartacus is very much another high fantasy series set in the ancient world. It was co-created (along with Spider-Man director Sam Raimi) by her husband Rob Tapert, also the man behind Xena.
Lucy says, "People in Hollywood were like, 'Why? Why are you doing that? Spartacus sounds like Xena again. It's like you're going backwards.' And I was like, 'It's really good. Really Good.' They couldn't know what I know about my husband."
Recently, I sat down with Lucy to talk about the show and her status as a gay icon. And while I wasn't at all surprised to find how eager she is to embrace her gay fans, I was pleasantly surprised by her irreverent, almost impish sense of humor.
