Xena - warrior mother and lazy cook: 10 facts about Lucy Lawless (11 photos)

The New Zealand actress and singer, who gave the world the most famous heroine Xena, the warrior princess, celebrated her 55th birthday on March 29. Even though after the hit series of the 90s Lucy was never able to become a star of the first magnitude, viewers still adore her.





Her first passion is music



In her youth, Lucy Lawless dreamed of becoming a professional singer. At the age of 10, she got a role in a local musical and was even going to study opera at the University of Auckland, New Zealand.

As a result, Lucy’s musical career never took off, but her ability to sing came in handy in several roles: even in “Xena,” Lawless sings herself.

She Almost Missed Her Chance to Become Xena





In interviews, Lucy was repeatedly surprised that people still remembered Xena. Moreover, initially a completely different actress was competing for the role of the warrior - the British Vanessa Angel, known for the TV series “Miracles of Science”.

However, in the final round of casting, the producers approved Lawless.

And even the series itself was not originally planned



“Xena: Warrior Princess” is a worldwide hit that lasted six seasons until the end of the plot.

However, initially the series was not in the plans at all: for the first time, Xena, performed by Lawless, appeared as an episodic character in the series “The Amazing Journeys of Hercules.” They came up with a small arc for the warrior for three episodes, at the end of which they planned to kill her.

But Xena instantly became a favorite of the audience and even eclipsed the series protagonist Hercules, which the leading actor Kevin Sorbo was not at all happy about. Given the popularity of the heroine, they created their own series for her.

Her Xena look is inspired by a professional tennis player.



Initially, they wanted to make Xena blonde. Later they proposed a completely different visual direction - a “stocky, dark-haired and bronze-clad” warrior. The image of Argentine tennis champion Gabriela Sabatini was used as a reference.

Of course, this option was much closer to Lawless herself - after all, she did not have to lighten her own dark hair.

She doesn't like action scenes



Surprisingly, the actress playing the role of the great warrior actually did not get any pleasure from filming the battle scenes.

In an interview, Lawless admitted that she put maximum effort into performing all the stunts and chakram throws - just to get the task over with as quickly as possible.

Lucy protects nature



In 2009, Lucy Lawless became a Greenpeace ambassador, and in 2012 she was arrested for environmental activism: the actress tried to interfere with the expedition of an oil-producing vessel.

Such consequences did not break Lucy's spirit:

“I would love to do it again. My responsibility is to be a good person for myself and my children. It’s very difficult to live up to the expectations of others.”

And children's health



Lucy sits on the board of trustees of the Starship charity, which owns one of the largest children's healthcare facilities in New Zealand.

In addition to her honorary role, Lucy also actively donates money to charity.

She can't cook



The actress once admitted that she had absolutely no culinary talents:

“I'm terrible at cooking food in general. I am not interested. I get very good at making 20-minute nutritious, pretty tasty meals that I only use one pan for, because I don't like doing dishes.

My husband is a chef, he cooks incredible, divine things, and he doesn't like cleaning up after himself either. You know, when after the wedding you stupidly agree that you will cook and I will wash the dishes. And you think that, yes, it sounds fair. And then you regret it all your life. By the way, I changed this agreement.”

Her main priority is family



Lawless is very different from ambitious movie stars who are willing to spend months preparing for complex roles and disappear for days on set.

For her, spending time with her children is much more important:

“I'd rather do two films in a year and raise my kids because it would make for an interesting career. I don't know how attractive it is from a financial point of view. But if I don’t come across a suitable offer, then it’s better to just do nothing.”

Lawless doesn't care that they started to forget about her



Over the past 20 years, Lawless has starred in dozens of films and TV series, but mostly in minor and episodic roles.

The actress, however, is not at all bothered by such an unremarkable career - quite the contrary:

“I'm not chasing anything. True, I am extremely passive. Maybe this has changed a little lately, but I still don’t particularly strive for anything.

I'm quite happy to be forgotten. It doesn't matter to me. I sign up for projects because it’s part of my job, or to help someone with something.”