Lucy Lawless On "Battlestar Galactica," Goofing With Adam Sandler, And Always Being The Bad Girl
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Battlestar Galactica spoiler seekers, take note: "I would lie before I gave something away," says Lucy Lawless, who will be reprising her role as the humanoid cylon (read: robot) D'Anna Biers in the sci-fi series' fourth and final season. "I'd make something really bogus up." Thanks for the heads up! Currently shooting the Adam Sandler comedy Bedtime Stories in Los Angeles, the 40-year-old Kiwi actress and cult star recently chatted with the Huffington Post about always playing the Big Bad, fooling around with Sandler's posse, and falling in line with the genius of Ron D. Moore.
HuffPo: Thanks for taking the time to do this.
Lucy Lawless: I hope it's worth it for you.
HP: Meaning you can't really talk about what happens this season?
LL: No, more like I can't really remember.
HP: So your arc was completely finished before the writers' strike?
LL: Yes. I finished right before the strike, and the rest of the cast and crew are back in production right now. Personally, I'm doing this movie with Adam Sandler. I'm playing the bad girl... again. I don't understand what it is that makes people want me to play bad; I guess I'm just good at it.
HP: Take it as a complement. How's the set?
LL: It's the most lighthearted set I've been on since Xena. These guys have made their workplace into their social life. Their life doesn't only start once they get away from work.
HP: Give us a one-line summary of the plot?
LL: Um....disinherited janitor tries to win back father's hotel and has to battle the wicked powers that be -- and I'm one of the wicked powers. The set-up is that Adam tells bedtime stories to his nephews and they come true during the day in fun and unexpected ways. Like a fantasy, sometimes you're in outer space, sometimes in a hotel.
HP: So it's the anti-Battlestar in tone, basically.
LL: It's a complete 180 from Battlestar. I'm so lucky that I get to do that - to do very naturalistic acting and take on heavy-duty situations on BSG and go and have crab claws on an Adam Sandler movie.
HP: Did you always know your character -- who was "boxed" in season 2 -- was coming back?
LL: No, I didn't know. I would only come and go as needed and as I was available, so I never counted on anything in particular. But I'm really happy and grateful my character was returned so elegantly. That's Ron Moore as a writer for you. Everything has a great elegance to it.
HP: Ron's actually directing his first episode as we speak.
LL: I know, it's so wonderful; I wish I were there, I have to say. It would be fun to be directed by him because he's so very intimately connected to every character. Ron lives and breathes these characters and relationships. He and [co-executive producer] David [Eick] are Battlestar.
HP: So all of the cast knows who the final cylon is, definitively?
LL: I think we know. I can't remember though. I'm guessing, however, that David and Ron have had this in mind from the beginning.
HP: Maybe I'm watching for it, but the series seems to be getting a ton of extra press this time around.
LL: People love this show. It's amazing who are fans of the show. All those writers on Letterman? Amazing. This almost never happens, but all the writers on Letterman came back to our hotel that night. They were so excited to be in the presence of Grace [Park], [Edward James Olmos'] Adama and Tricia Helfer, of course, that they wanted to hang out all night. You could tell they were genuine fans - It's the intelligence of the show that draws people in.
HP: What did they want to talk about?
LL: They wanted to know who the Final Five were, but they didn't really. True Battlestar fans don't want spoilers and I would never tell anyway.
HP: Since you've been in so many series with cult followings, what do most fans recognize you from?
LL: These days, Xena and Battlestar might be even.
HP: BSG is a political series - are you a politics junkie yourself?
LL: You know, everyone's drawing political parallels, because the show deals with universal themes about humanity, including its more negative aspects, like xenophobia and ethnic cleansing. I'm sure that's intended by Ron Moore, but I'm not smart enough to see it. I'm not really seeing it as a political statement because I'm an outsider, but certainly, the current war is nourishing Ron's storytelling.
HP: What else are you working on?
LL: Well, I'm on Bedtime Stories for four months. It's all encompassing. Actually, today I got there early and they told me they wouldn't need me until after lunch. So I responded, "Oh, you'll see me," and went and put on this crazy wig and these crazy glasses and this ill-fitting outfit and went to play an extra. I had this cigarette in my hand, and everyone was going, "Who is this crazy, drugged-out woman?" Then security came and arrested me and I dissolved into this shrieking crazy woman. It's all for the B-roll, which should be interesting. There's always ways to keep busy on the set.
Battlestar Galactica begins its fourth and final season on the Sci-Fi Network on Friday, April 4.
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Huffington Post | Michelle Kung | March 30, 2008 10:03 AM