NBC's proposed Xena reboot may have been scrapped by the studio in 2017, but that doesn't mean
fans of the warrior princess can't still get their hit.
After all, iconic Xena actor Lucy Lawless is still out there, and she's been very busy indeed.
Here's all the great stuff that's happened for the Xena star since the end of her breakout
'90s role.
Having forged her career as one of the greatest cult icons of our time, Lawless has since
managed to maintain that status by appearing in dozens of beloved shows.
In 2006, she starred as an FBI agent attempting to extract some sensitive information from
Neptune's savviest teenage detective in Veronica Mars, and a year later she enjoyed a guest
appearance on Curb Your Enthusiasm as a version of herself stuck on an excruciatingly bad
date with Larry David.
Lawless has also enjoyed a number of other unexpected guest appearances, which have included
comedies such as Flight of the Conchords, dramas like Top of the Lake and Burn Notice,
and comic book adaptations like Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D.
"Hello, I'm Murray."
"Hello there Murray."
"Stop shaking her hand."
For years, many diehard fans of Xena have maintained that the rumored romance between
Xena and Gabrielle amounted to far more than just innuendo and queer subtext.
And in 2003, Lawless was happy to confirm that the two were definitely gay.
The actor said:
"It wasn't just that Xena was bisexual and kinda like her gal pal and they kind of fooled
around sometimes, it was 'Nope, they're married, man.'"
As well as enjoying an appearance on the groundbreaking LGBT drama The L Word, Lawless has attended
various celebrations and events in proud public support of the LGBT community.
In 2017, she even received the Ally of the Year Award at the 2017 Australian LGBTI Awards
and in 2018 attended the inaugural New Zealand LGBTI Awards Ceremony as their proud ambassador.
While speaking about the influence Xena had in providing visibility and encouragement
to the lesbian community, Lawless describes Xena fans as being "a force for good" that
she's "immensely grateful for."
Lawless said:
"Nobody else outside of our world is going to understand or appreciate that but I know,
and they know that that was a profound experience for all of us."
Anyone with a fond memory of the groundbreaking musical episodes of Xena will already be aware
that Lawless is kind of an amazing singer.
What you may not be aware of, however, is just how much Lawless loves being a musician.
In 2009, the actor was a contestant on the Australian singing competition Celebrity Duets,
where she sang opposite such musical legends as Dionne Warwick and Bonnie Tyler.
Having had a background in musical theater, Lawless has returned to her roots by leading
a show called Pleasuredome: The Musical.
Billed as a "dirty urban musical" with a queer love story at its core, the camp '80s-set
musical is produced by her husband and focuses on a female business owner, played by Lawless,
standing up against a bigoted businessman.
Lawless told the New Zealand Herald that the musical feels more timely than ever today,
since the LGBT community is:
"...under threat like it hasn't been since the '70s."
In her opinion, however, the visibility that shows such as Pleasuredome gives the LGBT
community is the answer.
She said:
"People that love and support and accept [the LGBT community] need to band together and
show that there are more of us than there are of the detractors.
We have to win this for the sake of everybody."
Fans of the quirky cult filmmaker Sam Raimi will likely know that he prefers to work with
the same people time and again.
And while he might not have as much of a screen presence in Raimi's productions as actors
like Bruce Campbell, Robert Tapert shares a number of producer credits with Raimi.
The two have worked together on projects including The Grudge, Don't Breathe, The Evil Dead franchise,
and, of course, Xena: Warrior Princess.
Tapert and Lawless obviously made a terrific impression on one another, because in 1998,
the star of Xena went on to marry the producer.
They remain married to this day, and still work as creative collaborators.
In 2011, Lawless appeared in Raimi and Tapert's Spartacus series before snagging a supporting
role in Ash vs Evil Dead in 2015, even though the actor confessed to being less than a fan
of the original movie when it was first released.
Lawless made the surprising confession in an interview with Rotten Tomatoes, where she
admitted that she was so outraged by The Evil D ead as a 17-year-old that she marched out
of the movie after the infamous tree scene.
She said:
"I was so mortally offended that I got up and I stomped out saying, 'These people are
misogynists and sick and that movie's awful.'
Twelve years later, I was married to one of them.
Trick of fate."
Though Lawless has enjoyed a diverse career since leaving Xena, it's also easy to imagine
that the actor may have been typecast in a very specific type of role: a strong, ferocious
woman who typically shows up in period pieces.
And the actor has indeed returned to such roles time and again in productions like Salem
and Spartacus.
And although she's clearly proud of these roles, according to a conversation with Interview
Magazine, these "tough woman" characters aren't the ones that interest her the most.
Crucially, Lawless is interested in seeking out characters who allow her to reflect on
her own life and identity, and from the sounds of it, much of that has little to do with
being a warrior princess.
Lawless told Interview Magazine:
"As an artist, you want to be able to explore facets of yourself.
The roles that I'm proudest of…are the ones where I get to be a stain on the wall…I
like to play women who are not strong at all, because there's certainly plenty of myself
that is no kind of a warrior."
Possessing the nerd-cred that she does, it made sense when Lawless joined the cast of
the Battlestar Galactica reboot in 2005.
Arriving in the eighth episode of Season 2, Lawless depicts D'Anna Biers, a trashy tabloid
reporter for the Fleet News Service who is filming a warts-and-all report about the Galactica.
The episode is disarmingly fun and lighthearted, but it comes with a bombshell at the end that
has been called one of Lawless' most unexpected TV scenes ever: the revelation that Biers
is a Cylon.
"Yeah.
It truly is a miracle from God."
Considering Lawless' apparent love for philosophy, it's perhaps unsurprising that the religious
aspect of some of the deeper themes of Battlestar Galactica are what drew the actor to the show.
Lawless told Galactica.tv that she saw D'Anna as a character consumed by the nature of the
philosophy of God, and she loved the character's complex, questioning spirit.
Lawless explained:
"She was a zealot, she was an outlaw, she was a betrayer and yet she saw herself as
a great patriot in a way."
By far one of Lawless' most beloved roles since leaving Xena has to be that of Diane
Lewis on Parks and Recreation, the single mother with whom Nick Offerman's Ron Swanson
falls madly in love, and eventually marries.
A self-confessed Parks & Rec superfan, the role was a huge win for Lawless.
Lawless only appeared in ten episodes of the widely adored comedy between 2012 and 2014,
but her character was pivotal in taking Swanson out of his comfort zone.
Diane transformed Ron from a surly bachelor into a surly husband and father, giving the
character something he had never had before on the show: a genuinely healthy romantic relationship.
Lawless has also confessed that Diane is the character closest to her own personality of
anyone she's ever played.
On top of that, she has also admitted to being something of an aficionado for the show, who
had seen every episode prior to stepping foot on set, to the point that she was able to
correct Offerman about Parks and Rec continuity during filming.
A self-described "court ghoul," Lawless is something of a true-crime fanatic who is so
fascinated with the subject that she even attends real-life trials whenever she has the chance.
As she told the Associated Press:
"It just teaches you so much about life and your own society and justice and about yourself.
It’s really important that we participate in the democracy.
That’s a really good way to hold the justice system to the standards of the people."
She has also discussed the thrill of chatting about trials with the cops and journalists
involved afterwards.
And that fascination appears to have led her to one of her more recent projects, the Acorn
TV streaming series My Life Is Murder, which she says "closely mirrors" her personal interests.
And it's probably no surprise that the character so closely aligns with many of Lawless' interests,
since the star has stated that creator Claire Tonkin wrote the role with her in mind.
Lawless told AP News:
"There's a lot of me in the character and that's the advantage of having writers build
something around you.
I'm a very lucky woman."
Beyond her acting career, Lawless has also demonstrated a firm commitment to fighting
for the environment.
The Xena star is a passionate activist and even worked with Greenpeace as a climate ambassador
in 2012.
Clearly, the title wasn't just for show, as the star joined in on some direct action and
was arrested along with seven other activists after climbing to the top of a Shell oil drilling
ship in opposition of planned oil drilling operations in the Arctic.
At the time, Lawless stated that her reasons for the protest were logical, saying:
"I believe passionately that renewable energy is the way of the future…We don't have to
go to the ends of the earth to suck out every last drop of oil.
Instead we need to smarten up and begin the transition to a clean, green, sustainable
energy future and right now that means keeping Shell out of the Arctic."
During interviews that followed her arrest, Lawless remained proud of her actions and
insisted that her celebrity, something she calls "a very silly kind of currency", helped
to raise visibility and awareness in the urgent fight against climate change.
Lawless later pleaded guilty to trespassing charges and was ordered by a New Zealand judge
to pay a minor fine and complete 120 hours of community service.
In interviews, Lawless has stated that she and her siblings were raised by their hardworking
parents to be what she calls "contributors."
She told Stuff:
"On the weekends, Mum and Dad would visit people, maybe they were sick or celebrating
their diamond jubilee, that sort of thing."
Since leaving Xena, it's clear that contributing to communities and to good causes has continued
to be a great passion of hers.
Over the past couple of decades, Lawless has done a great deal of work for various charities
aiding LGBT people, environmental causes, breast cancer research, and HIV/AIDS causes.
She even sits on the board of trustees for The Starship Foundation, which provides fundraising
efforts for New Zealand's largest children's hospital.
And Lawless' altruistic nature has long inspired her fans to do the same.
In 2007, Lawless and her fans set up Feel the Love Week, an annual charity drive at
the end of September that encourages fans to support a charity they care about, be it
by donating money, supplies, or volunteering.
Speaking to Vice in 2017, Lawless suggested it's the thing she's most proud of in her
career thus far.
She said:
"People started doing random acts of kindness in their communities rather than giving to
my charity or something I'm involved in.
I asked them to go and do something to enrich their own communities and we did amazing things."
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