Xena and Gabrielle are alongside one another again in New Zealand — albeit in a modern day-working day location.
Lucy Lawless and Renee O’Connor, who played Xena and her faithful sidekick Gabrielle in the legendary collection “Xena: Warrior Princess,” have reunited for the Period 2 finale of “My Lifestyle Is Murder,” Lawless’ whimsical sequence on Acorn Television set.
It’s the 1st time they’ve appeared jointly on-camera due to the fact “Xena” ended in 2001. “My Lifestyle Is Murder” is shot in New Zealand, as was “Xena,” which aired in syndication from 1995-2001.
“I had this in mind for Season 1 and was really miffed when we did not pull it off,” stated Lawless, 53, who spoke to The Article together with O’Connor. “But in the next season, we moved … and the New Zealanders genuinely obtained it.
“They comprehend how significant this is, how the reunion would be a boon to the display and hence a boon to the tourism industry. Getting us jointly for the first time in 20 a long time is a big offer and they built it transpire. I’m so grateful to them.”
In the episode, premiering Oct. 25, non-public investigator Alexa Crowe (Lawless) and her group glance into the suspicious demise of a self-enable team chief. A primary suspect? His spouse, Clarissa (O’Connor), who knew about his randy trysts with his mistress.
“Literally, this was just about functioning with Lucy once again, and what a desire,” said O’Connor, 50, who past appeared on network television in a 2008 episode of “Criminal Minds.”
“I was incredibly nervous — it is been a couple of decades considering the fact that I’ve been on an real established — but Lucy brought me in [beforehand] to notice the setting, and it’s just a charming, loving problem topped by a production that Lucy developed … so the nerves went away. They’re these a good team of individuals.
“It did not feel irregular at all,” O’Connor claimed. “Working yet again with Lucy is what created it truly feel like I just left New Zealand in some capacity. It felt so typical and ideal that my nerves did go absent immediately the moment we started filming and functioning collectively once again.”
“It was easy, incredibly,” Lawless said. “Granted, Renee hadn’t been on a established in a while but you could not tell. Even nevertheless we have been playing distinctive roles in a distinctive place in contemporary apparel … all that stuff made no change.
“It was like we had hardly ever stopped.”
O’Connor and Lawless shot their scenes in the thick of the COVID pandemic. “I went by two months [of quarantining] and when I arrived out they found an extra five-working day window even though I was on keep,” O’Connor explained “It was great for me and I was extremely lucky, mainly because I was equipped to return to America to a project I experienced ready for me — and experienced [the episode] been pushed a bit extended it would have been a great deal far more demanding to figure out how to juggle it all.”
O’Connor has spent the bulk of her professional everyday living of late doing the job in the theater. “The project I just concluded right before COVID began was ‘Macbeth,’” she reported. “I made it and performed Girl Macbeth for a little theater organization I just started and it was our premiere creation prior to the shutdown. The good thing is, I was ready to apply some of the factors of that character to Clarissa for the function they made for Lucy’s clearly show.
“I’d like to do each [theater and television],” she said. “They’re very similar in offering the ecosystem into a group that connects men and women and reminds them what it usually means to be human. I would really like to be on a tv exhibit for the option to stay on a larger scale of everyday living and the visibility of it all, which just feeds into the fluidity of getting able to deliver theater.”
O’Connor’s visitor-starring part on “My Lifestyle Is Murder” is, likely a 1-time deal — but Lawless explained she envisions the two of them functioning alongside one another once more, in some potential, in the future.
“We’re generally talking about it,” she mentioned. “Renee came and aided me shoot a very small small job I was doing the job on, and I just realized how limited we are as a duo — so, of course, we will function jointly once again. I have bought to go and with any luck , shoot an additional period of ‘My Daily life Is Murder’ … but we’ll figure it out.”