Renee Oconnor and Lucy Lawless Working Together Again
One of the most shipped couples in TV history, Xena and Gabrielle, are finally getting back together.
Lucy Lawless and Renee O'Connor, who costarred on six seasons of the late-'90s syndicated fantasy favorite Xena: Warrior Princess are performing opposite each other for the first time since the Xena serial finale in 2001 (not counting a cursory joint cameo in the 2009 film Bitch Slap). The show's famously passionate fan base of operations has long desired a proper reteaming of this iconic pair, whose (more often than not) subtextual lesbian relationship on Xena presaged a revolution in aforementioned-sexual practice couple depictions on mainstream television.
EW has an exclusive look at their on-screen reunion, which occurs on the new season of Lawless' light-hearted whodunnit series My Life Is Murder (premiering Aug. 30 on Acorn TV). O'Connor is guest-starring in a tardily-flavour episode of the mystery drama as Clarissa Klein, a wellness guru who tussles with Lawless' Alexa, a former homicide detective who consults on particularly perplexing murders while trying to maintain balance in her personal life. Previously filmed and fix in Melbourne, Australia, the new flavor takes place in Lawless' (and Alexa's) dwelling house city of Auckland, New Zealand, which is too where Xena: Warrior Princess was shot.
Renee O'Connor and Lucy Lawless on 'My Life Is Murder'
| Credit: Matt Klitscher/AcornTV
Lawless and O'Connor chat exclusively with EW about why their long-awaited reunion was similar getting into a warm bathroom, how O'Connor surprised Lawless on the prepare, the tertiary Xena: Warrior Princess veteran who appears in the episode, and the enduring legacy of Xena and Gabrielle in their lives.
Entertainment WEEKLY: I'1000 getting slight goosebumps just seeing you two together on the same screen. This is awesome. How did your onscreen reunion in My Life Is Murder come about?
LUCY LAWLESS: Well, we'd been trying to get Renee to Australia in the offset season and for some reason, it didn't work out, which fabricated her think information technology was never gonna happen. She was like, "This is not gonna happen." I was like, "Oh, we're bringing you, girlfriend!" And the good old Kiwis man, [product visitor] Greenstone just hauled arse to become Renee into MIQ [Managed Isolation and Quarantine, i.e. two weeks in a hotel, a mandatory measure for all arrivals to New Zealand], which she was willing to exercise and it was bachelor to practise, thank God, and we got her hither [to New Zealand]. Confronting impossible odds, nosotros managed to bring Ren into the country to do this and the fans are just gonna love information technology. It's a huge souvenir to them.
Renee, what did y'all think when the overture was made for you lot to guest star?
RENEE O'CONNOR: Every bit Lucy said, I didn't recollect it was real, peculiarly when we knew how challenging it would be to get me through border command. I was threatening Lucy [during quarantine] with putting sheets out the window [of the hotel room] and climbing downwardly so I could see her a little bit faster, especially when the crew were filming, like two blocks abroad. By the time I came out of quarantine, it was Lucy's altogether. So I snuck on set and I had my mask on and I was in the line while Lucy was getting her lunch. I wished her a happy altogether and she had no idea who I was...
LAWLESS: I didn't recognize her!
O'CONNOR: She did not take a clue! So I started singing to her in my Texas emphasis and she kind of looked at me and so she looked away again thinking, "Well, that's a strange person that's joined united states today." I finally had to take my mask off, [and thought], Lucy c'mon! I know it'southward been a long time but...
Had you two been wanting to piece of work together again for a while?
LAWLESS: Yeah, always. And life just didn't work out that way. But I was similar, by hook or by crook, now that I'k the boss — one of the bosses [Lawless is an executive producer on the show] — this is happening! Because at this fourth dimension of your life, at that place's only love. Simply these things matter, caring for one some other, doing things that aren't expedient, do the hard thing just because yous dearest.
O'CONNOR: It felt that way on prepare besides. Before I even started filming, Lucy said, "Come on and watch," because I had some nerves — it had been a few years since I'd been on a set. And it just felt similar walking into Lucy'due south living room and having friends over. It was so charming and loving. And it was like that all the way to the very end. I actually had a little withdrawal when I finished filming.
LAWLESS: Did you?
O'CONNOR: I did! I missed it. Especially you.
LAWLESS: I'm shocked that yous hadn't been on a set up in years because you were, like, right dorsum there instantly — it was quite marvelous.
O'CONNOR: Cheers, Lucy.
LAWLESS: It was incredible. The whole episode is just to dice for.
O'CONNOR: Lucy only kind of tingles off stage. She's constantly just throwing things [in] here and there just and so it feels electrical. And information technology did.
LAWLESS: Yeah a scrap of advert-libbing goes on.
Renee, who are yous playing in My Life Is Murder ?
O'CONNOR: I play this woman who is in charge of a self-help group, and she's similar a guru, and so she has a very potent ego...
LAWLESS: [Interrupting] She's a cult leader!
O'CONNOR: Okay, she's a cult leader. It's funny because I didn't really know who I was playing until I was in quarantine. I had an idea, but I didn't know what was in shop for me until there was a coming together on Zoom with the producers, and that's when I started really doing some more inquiry [into cults].
LAWLESS: But besides, Dom, we've reunited with Michael Hurst [who starred as Iolaus, the sidekick on Xena spin-off Hercules: The Legendary Journeys] equally the managing director of our episode. He played Renee'southward love interest on the Herc and Xena series and he's a very dear friend of ours from way dorsum in the twenty-four hours so it was but a great reunion. And with Mark Beesley, who was one of our [Xena] directors as well, he is producing My Life Is Murder. It was a lovely homecoming, aye Ren?
'Xena: Warrior Princess' alums Michael Hurst, Renee O'Connor, and Lucy Lawless reunite for Lawless' 'My Life Is Murder.'
| Credit: Matt Klitscher/AcornTV
O'CONNOR: Yeah, and Michael Hurst has the most enthusiasm of anyone that I know. He can easily pull together three or iv different projects at the same time and make it look so easy. Then again, I couldn't have been more than excited to accept a managing director who just kind of infuses inspiration and passion to play. Betwixt Lucy and Michael [who also appears in the episode], it was just the most wonderful way to kind of reset into feeling effectually friends and being on a goggle box ready.
What's the dynamic betwixt your characters in the episode?
O'CONNOR:We run into for the first fourth dimension in the show, and I am leading a seminar, taking people to the almost extreme elements of their highest existence possible with Michael Hurst playing the guru husband coleader [of the cult].
LAWLESS: And you can imagine that Alexa is taking this with many pinches of salt. She's there on a mission, she's not there to improve herself. [There's] lots of snark. As well, the person who plays Renee'due south son in the episode is Renee's [actual] son. It was so thrilling, the stars aligned just correct. He's a fine young actor and we managed to get him into the show.
O'CONNOR: He auditioned for The Actors' Plan, which is a one-year... acting plan in New Zealand, and he has been downwards there studying since January. As it turned out, when I arrived and heard niggling whispers that in that location was a office that he might be right for, again, I just thought, yeah, sure. I didn't really think...
LAWLESS: Renee would never enquire for anything. Her family, they don't expect any favors. [Laughs]. And he was simply bully in the role and we needed the American accent, and he's simply a fine young thespian so information technology was perfect. It was really lovely for me. I was pretty burnt out by the end of the flavor, and to have that homecoming, that sense of reward every day that you go upward to go and work with those guys. Just lovely.
O'CONNOR: His name is Miles Muir.
LAWLESS: And I ran into him in the supermarket the other day. How'south that?
O'CONNOR: That's when he chosen me. I was just maxim that he can't seem to find the time to call his female parent anymore just he called me to say, "I ran into Lucy."
Then once you lot both got on gear up and started performing together, how easy was it to slip into a rapport over again?
LAWLESS: Like a warm bathroom, baby! It was so like shooting fish in a barrel and so practiced and I suppose because Ren and I also, nosotros've played a lot of different roles with one another. It wasn't like we were stuck in a certain mindset with our relationship to one another as actors. We got to play dual roles and all kinds of things [on Xena]. So, it was merely more play. Information technology was cool, yeah Ren?
O'CONNOR: Yeah, it was even improve than I expected. Because these characters were so different from Xena and Gabrielle so there was more to play with in electric current diplomacy and relationships. And it was all there for the taking. I mean, as I said before, Lucy was throwing stuff out and we were just having more than fun than we probably should have been having playing these characters.
Did y'all have to consciously become Xena and Gabrielle out of your minds?
O'CONNOR: Non at all. Information technology's been such a long time and Lucy and I take been working on our craft for such a long fourth dimension, also, that it'due south not about the characters, just more for me, it's only about the trust of knowing that anything can happen with Lucy, and that's what I savour and detect joyful about beingness in the moment with her while interim, anything tin happen.
Renee O'Connor and Lucy Lawless on 'My Life Is Murder.'
| Credit: Matt Klitscher/AcornTV
Volition the Xena/Gabrielle shippers find annihilation in the relationship betwixt your 2 characters in My Life Is Murder to latch on to?
LAWLESS: Probably, probably. [Laughs]. It doesn't take to be put at that place for them to find it, buddy! I don't know. I don't retrieve that was part of the writing. So if information technology's there, it's because we just slipped it in considering we're like that.
That was something that Xena: Warrior Princess kinda had fun with. Although it wasn't e'er all that explicit, y'all could perceive hints suggesting a deeper human relationship between Xena and Gabrielle.
LAWLESS: You lot know what, that was written into the DNA of Xena: Warrior Princess from the get-get. It was only Renee and I who weren't enlightened. At first. In this one, times accept inverse. I've gotta say, if information technology was put in for Alexa, I would be very wary of letting it be schtick, do you know what I mean? If things are organic and honorable, and so that's one affair, merely you don't just plug information technology in there to tick a box. And then we've been really careful with that because we did an episode which is set in the trans community, and it was really important to give proper roles to proper trans people, and non accept people pretending to exist trans. And also addressing the issue — we're all learning about pronouns correct now, so how to honor that idea? Utilize that idea in a manner that is intelligible to people who have never had any exposure? And aren't looking for a lesson, by the style. It's entertainment, but nosotros wanted to exercise it correct and that'due south modern, and information technology'southward fun. It's actually challenging, but I think we pulled it off. I'm very proud of that episode.
How do yous feel about how Xena and Gabrielle'south status as queer icons?
LAWLESS: Great! That's cool. I experience like, well, surely everybody's forgotten virtually usa by now?
O'CONNOR: As you were saying, Lucy, I retrieve that this is a new generation that is redefining what's accustomed, and we are being schooled in this newer generation and what they desire. And I honestly think that, maybe Xena and Gabrielle might take laid some groundwork but, boy, this generation has surpassed what they demand in a television bear witness, don't you think?
LAWLESS: Yeah it'southward much more subtle and deep and everything. I'g really in awe of this generation, really — they're fantastic.
Do people often enquire you lot virtually a potential Xena reboot?
LAWLESS: Well, certainly pre-pandemic, they used to, all the time. I hope that a new generation of filmmakers will come in and figure out a way to practise it that is really fun and modern and all that stuff. But nobody's quite been able to write the script that does information technology in the modern idiom. And so, let'southward run across.
Practise you lot retrieve if there was a reboot, information technology could be more explicit virtually the nature of their relationship?
LAWLESS: Yeah, simply information technology's non going to be almost the human relationship. Or perchance it is? Maybe it could be that. Here they are going into a world that is explicitly confronting them, that might be a way of doing it. But it's non like you're gonna run across them doing blimmin' porn, that's not the show. So [if] y'all say that we're together, it'southward kind of the finish of it, isn't information technology? Would they hold hands? Get into big PDAs? I dunno, I guess that'southward in the hands of the creatives.
O'CONNOR: They wouldn't exist hiding for sure, they wouldn't exist in the cupboard.
LAWLESS: Yeah. They never were in the cupboard. Ren and I'll be playing like, we'll exist in a fruit stall or something. We'll be in the background in some scrap office. Nosotros'll exist the old lesbians in the corner. The aunties.
O'CONNOR: Nosotros'll be the oracles.
From left, Danielle Cormack, Alison Bruce, Lucy Lawless, and Renee O'Connor on "Xena: Warrior Princess."
| Credit: Everett Drove
How often practice you both hear about Xena and Gabrielle? Are they a function of your daily life?
O'CONNOR: You lot know, information technology's funny, I've been working in and around the stage globe, theatre world over the last half-dozen years, I have people coming out of the woodwork still. They're like, "I didn't desire to fangirl or I didn't want to fanboy you, only I loved your prove." They could exist the producer, they could exist a musical director, they could exist an thespian. Information technology's amazing to me how they're all around. Just they're peers, and so information technology's not the offset thing they show when nosotros meet.
Do you get that much of that Lucy?
LAWLESS: Well, in the days when I would travel, I would go that a lot. Some countries. Filipinos can pick me out if I'm lying under a sofa in a bloody train station. Hellooo! Italians. New Yorkers. Like, certain regions, depending on if they grew up with yous. Like in Italy or something those young thirty-somethings are gobsmacked that you're walking by them on the street.
O'CONNOR: And a lot of immature girls too. And I say young, significant for me, in their twenties. They're immature.
LAWLESS: Actually?
O'CONNOR: Oh yes, [young girls] that just feel so appreciative of the feminist aspect that the characters represented and that to me is always a joy, having these girls come up out and [say], "You influenced who I am today, and thank yous for that." I go a lot of that.
How closely have you lot two stayed in touch over the years?
O'CONNOR: [Laughs]
LAWLESS: Then Ren and I might not see each other for a few years but nosotros are sisters, you lot know?
O'CONNOR: Yes, Yes. I tin't say how much I really enjoyed not merely just working with Lucy, but spending some time with her. Not plenty fourth dimension. Merely it'southward e'er profound and funny and it's like a criterion in my life, when I get to spend some time with her.
LAWLESS: Awww, that's dainty. But I retrieve people think that actresses don't get on or you're snarky or something but good people agree on to one another. So yeah, we've got a lot of skilful people from that show.
And now that you've acted together once again are you keen to do it again?
O'CONNOR: Always.
LAWLESS: Yes. Because Renee has gotten better and improve.
O'CONNOR: Oh man, thank you, Lucy.
LAWLESS: Yeah, I beloved what you did.
O'CONNOR: And every bit you asked before, Dominic, I'yard always thinking of ways I tin can piece of work with Lucy, whether it'due south someone writing a project and there would be a role correct for her or if I tin can straight her in anything. Stage work, I've always in the back of my mind wondering if Lucy would exist bachelor. So this 1 really the get-go time it worked out and I'm hoping information technology'southward not the last.
LAWLESS: No, no. There'll exist many more. Super fun.
Getting back to My Life Is Murder , Lucy, can you tell u.s. where Alexa is in flavour ii compared to season 1?
LAWLESS: Well, she'south moved back to New Zealand and we get to find out nearly her nefarious family unit. And nosotros become a actually fun guest star in Martin Henderson [Virgin River, Gray's Anatomy]. What a joy to accept him bachelor and willing to come and play my blood brother. It was written to be my father. When we couldn't find the exact right person to play my begetter, information technology was [executive producer] Claire Tonkin who said, "What if information technology'south your brother?" And we all went, "Oh, that interesting." Considering there's a long fashion to get with a brother. With a father, your relationship's kind of done and dusted by the time you're eight. It's all unpacking that. Simply with a brother, it goes on and on and on.
How does being back in her hometown of Auckland touch Alexa'south investigative prowess?
LAWLESS: Oh she'south sharper than ever! The primary problem is getting effectually the road cones, of course, those are the main obstacles to justice in [roadwork-heavy] Auckland. It'southward the same testify in a fresh surroundings. So if you've got Ebony [Vagulans] playing [Alexa'due south partner-in-criminal offence-solving] Madison and y'all've got bully invitee stars and we've got a couple of new male person coleads in Joe Naufahu [Game of Thrones] and Rawiri Jobe [The Dead Lands], and so you've got a family. It's but so much fun. The team really managed to kick information technology into high gear and brand Auckland look like a encarmine star. Which she is.
Renee, did yous watch season 1 prior to becoming involved?
O'CONNOR: Yes I did. I saw a few faces that I recognize from the Xena days. But I was actually curious to run into how it would alter in Auckland. And I agree with what Lucy said: even the times when nosotros were filming, the metropolis looked so lush and shiny. Information technology looks similar any international city that you lot could visit and accept multiple shopping experiences, tourism experiences. Information technology's changed quite a flake...
LAWLESS: Since you were hither?
O'CONNOR: Yeah, merely you lot're also capturing that in the show.
Lucy, I understand that y'all are personally a little bit obsessed with murder?
LAWLESS: Aye. Don't estimate. No judgy judge!
Can you expand on that?
LAWLESS: Yes, I exercise like true crime. Well, actually, information technology's not the crime, it's the justice that I like.
Is that what drew y'all to this series?
LAWLESS: No, that's casual I call back actually. Because, actually, the experience of real offense, if I become scout it in a courthouse or whatever, and what we depict on Telly, could not exist further apart. One's entertaining and i is only tragic and banal and ugly, hardhearted, and stupid. Unremarkably, it'south stupid — murder is so stupid. Whereas on our TV evidence, you're rewarded for watching the justice unfold because [the murderer] is so smart and they were given everything in life and they still did something atrocious and they deserve to get slapped for it. And nosotros're doing it in a beautiful setting with adept-looking people and a little pseudo-family that you lot similar. And yous go to take some armchair tourism. So information technology'south this lovely piddling precious stone box of an experience. Whereas, real crime is only one big [makes honking noises]... information technology's a big ugly, stupid thwarting.
To wrap upwards, what do you lot think Xena and Gabrielle fans will get from seeing you two together in this episode?
LAWLESS: I think they will enjoy [the characters'] proximity [to Xena and Gabrielle], and even so beingness so far apart. It's great, it's like turning our old human relationship on its head. Right, Ren?
O'CONNOR: Yes. And I recall that they'll capeesh knowing that Lucy and I are having as much fun as possible working with each other.
The first two episodes of My Life Is Murder season two will be available to stream on Acorn Boob tube on Aug. 30, with new episodes weekly after that.
Related content:
- Lucy Lawless explains — and demonstrates — how she came upwardly with Xena's state of war weep
- Xena: Warrior Princess: An oral herstory
- Why Xena and Gabrielle never got together on Xena: Warrior Princess
Source: https://ew.com/tv/xena-costars-lucy-lawless-renee-oconnor-tv-reunion-my-life-is-murder/
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