Lucy Lawless
Lucy Lawless won international fame in 1995 with Xena: Warrior Princess, a spin-off from Hercules: The Legendary Journeys. A rare female hero on television, Xena was hailed as both a feminist and gay icon, and appeared on the covers of Rolling Stone, feminist trailblazer Ms, and men's magazine Maxim. Since shooting the last scene of Xena in New Zealand in 2001, Lawless has acting extensively, sung, and directed feature-length documentary Never Look Back.
Lucy F Lawless grew up in the Auckland suburb of Mount Albert, as Lucy Francis Ryan. Her family of seven was mainly made up of brothers; her father was longtime Mount Albert Mayor Frank Ryan. She appeared in her first musical at age 10, and considered becoming a singer. But university studies in opera and languages were abandoned after she decided that opera would mean compromising her own mantra of being the best she could at everything she tried.
At the age of 18 she set off to Europe on her OE, picking grapes in Germany and goldmining in the Australian Outback. While in Australia she got pregnant, returning with partner Garth Lawless to New Zealand.
In 1987 Lawless was invited to join sketch comedy series Funny Business. She stayed with the show for two and a half seasons, then later moved to Vancouver, where she spent eight months studying drama.
The next five years saw Lawless appearing in a run of small roles in Kiwi television and film, plus the occasional advert. She was a genetically-engineered assassin on miniseries Typhons' People, and a member of the Greenpeace crew in The Sinking of the Rainbow Warrior. There were also appearances in classic movie The End of the Golden Weather, and episodes of Marlin Bay, Ray Bradbury Theatre, and police show Shark in the Park. Shortland Street though, was not to be: Lawless failed to win a part on the long-running soap.
In 1995 she co-starred in Peach, the second short film directed by Christine Parker. Lawless played a charismatic tow truck driver who enters the life of a young working class woman.
The jump from struggling actor to international star involved good timing, and a bad dose of the flu. In 1993 American producer Rob Tapert came to New Zealand to work on Hercules: The Legendary Journeys, the first of a series of shows written and completed in the United States, but filmed in and around Auckland.
At age 25, Lawless auditioned for the role of the Amazon Queen in the first Hercules TV movie, Hercules and the Amazon Women. At the time she was co-presenting long-running travel show Holiday (including this visit to Queenstown). Although impressed, the producers of Hercules were reluctant to cast an unknown New Zealander in such a key role. Instead Lawless contributed solid work in a smaller, but still Amazonian part. Later she was invited back to act in Hercules episode 'As Darkness Falls'.
Tapert had hoped that the Hercules series would merge American-style fight scenes with acrobatic Asian-style martial arts. In the end, that idea was transferred to a new character: Xena, a female warrior who was set to debut over a three episode arc of Hercules. British actor Vanessa Angel was set to play Xena — but then she caught the flu, two weeks before the scheduled filming date. After a number of American actresses proved unwilling to take on the role, frantic calls were made in search of Lawless, who was on holiday.
Soon Tapert proposed abandoning the plan to kill off Xena in the third episode, and reactivated the idea of a Xena television series, this time with Lawless in the main role. But there were worries about basing a series around a heroine with a dark past. "Xena was a very tough sell to the syndicators," Tapert has said. "Everyone believed there was no market for a woman superhero."
The new show would be faster, grungier and darker in tone than its parent, swapping the clearcut morality of Hercules for a flawed, brooding character, inspired partly by the female superheroes of Hong Kong cinema.
Debuting in the United States in 1994, Xena quickly became the country's highest rating new syndicated series. The show inspired a fervent fan following, action figures, and books. Women especially embraced the strong female character, in a television landscape then lacking in them. The at times deliberately ambiguous nature of Xena's relationship with Gabrielle also helped bring the show a strong gay audience.
In 1996 Ms magazine described Xena as a feminist icon for the 1990s. Lawless was initially resistant at being turned into a role model, but later reminded herself of what she had always known: Xena and Lucy Lawless were very different beings.
After six seasons — seasons which ranged in locale from ancient Troy to World War 2 Macedonia, and which mixed drama, comedy and even a musical episode — Xena: Warrior Princess was cancelled in 2001. Lawless married Xena producer Rob Tapert in 1998, and they now have two children.
Following Xena's demise, Lawless worked mainly on productions aimed at the North American market. She guest-starred as a genetically-engineered being on The X Files, played Tarzan's Aunt in an ill-fated TV update, and had cameos in big-budget movie Spiderman (as a punk) and low-budget Kiwi romp I'll Make You Happy.
In 2005 alone, Lawless headlined in TV movies Locusts and Vampire Bats, and played addled mothers in both The Darkroom and Kiwi-filmed horror Boogeyman (which was produced by Tapert). She also began occasional guest slots on an acclaimed television update of Battlestar Galactica, playing one of the Cylons — including on key double episode 'Exodus'.
Lawless was also being heard behind the microphone. In 1997 she spent time on Broadway as bad girl Rizzo in Grease, and later toured New Zealand with Dave Dobbyn. After time as a guest judge on New Zealand Idol, she was runner-up on America's Celebrity Duets (2006), winning over doubters after a duet with Smokey Robinson. The same year, she featured in World Vision documentary Lucy Lawless: Five Days in Bangladesh.
She returned to comedy in 2008's Bedtime Stories, playing a woman on a mission to destroy Adam Sandler's love life, and joined Xena stuntwoman Zoë Bell in American web series Angel of Death.
Lawless had an ongoing role on locally-shot, adult-themed show Spartacus — as "bad girl" Lucretia, wife of Batiatus (John Hannah). She played a witch over two seasons of Salem, guest-starred as the pregnant wife of beloved character Ron Swanson on comedy Parks and Recreation, and was an outback teacher on acclaimed Australian series The Code. Back in New Zealand, she cameoed in Margaret Mahy fantasy The Changeover, and was a widow in Jane Campion TV drama Top of the Lake. Lawless has also done voice work on a number of animated projects, including Kiwi movie Mosley.
In 2015 she began playing the mysterious Ruby Knowby across three seasons of cable series Ash vs Evil Dead. Shot in New Zealand, the show was a sequel to her husband Rob Tapert's horror classic The Evil Dead.
In 2019 she took on another starring role: TV series My Life is Murder. Lawless plays "complex, chatty and contrary" Australian private investigator Alexa Crowe. The comedic crime mystery was set in Melbourne for its first season, before relocating to Lawless's hometown of Auckland.
Lawless made her directorial debut in 2024 with Never Look Away, a feature-length documentary about complex and courageous CNN photojournalist Margaret Moth. The Gisborne-born camerawoman captured war zones and conflicts from the frontline in the 1980s and 90s.
Lawless was instantly drawn to the subject and Moth's story. "Something made me...I was so afraid that somebody else would grab this project." Screen Daily critic Tim Grierson gave Never Look Away a glowing review, arguing that the film "leans into its subject’s complexities, presenting viewers with a layered, intelligent study of a woman who lived unapologetically and ferociously".
Never Look Away premiered at the 2024 Sundance Film Festival, before playing at New Zealand festival Whānau Mārama.
Profile written by Ian Pryor; updated on 26 July 2024
Sources include
Cesar Miguel Escano, 'Lucy Lawless: Warrior Woman' (Interview). Business World Online website. Loaded 27 March 2004. Accessed 26 July 2024
Tim Grierson, ''Never Look Away': Hot Docs Review' Screen Daily website. Loaded 25 April 2024. Accessed 26 July 2024
Philip Matthews, 'Badass, kickass gal' (Interview) - The Listener, 17 August 1996, page 26
Donna Minkowitz, ''Xena' - She's Big, Tall, Strong - and Popular' - Ms. magazine, July 1996, page 74 (volume 7, number 1)
Laura Prudom, ''Ash vs Evil Dead': Lucy Lawless Reunites with Bruce Campbell on Starz' - Variety website. Loaded 9 March 2015. Accessed 26 July 2024
Robert Weisbrot, Xena Warrior Princess - The Official Guide to the Xenaverse (New York: Doubleday, 1998)
Bianca Zander, 'The Artist formerly known as Xena' (Interview) - The Listener, 9 February 2002
'Lucy Lawless on telling Margaret Moth's story on film' (Radio interview) Radio New Zealand website. Loaded 14 May 2024. Accessed 26 July 2024