Houston
Chronicle -November 9, 1995
Houstonian
Revels in Role as
Xena Sidekick
by
Mike McDaniel
Herc
may hail from Minnesota, Xena from New Zealand, but Houston can claim
Gabrielle. And as loyal viewers know, Xena's nothing but a single-dimensional
sword-swinger without Gabrielle.
"She's like a comic sidekick," says 24-year-old
Reneé O'Connor, who plays the character. "She seems to talk herself
into trouble and then talk herself out of it." Gabrielle also provides
Xena the focus she needs to prevent her from annihilating her evil
opponents. Xena's one mean dude-ess, just in case you've missed the
show (8 p.m. Thursdays, Channel 39).
Xena is clearly a syndicated hit in Houston, averaging a 6
rating in October (1 rating point higher than Hercules, please
note).
And O'Connor clearly revels in her role.
Gabrielle is a romantic, she says, and "everything is a storybook
to her. She likes to study myths, mythology, maps, creatures, monsters
and all that."
"Xena is the personification of all this. That's why she has to be
a part of Xena. Through Xena she's able to live these stories."
But when it's time to draw swords, Gabrielle leaves the impaling to
Xena. Not that O'Connor is a wimp - she's up at 3:30 every morning
for a pre-work jog, plus she lifts weights.
"I think she definitely needs to be strong, and I keep myself physically
fit just to be able to sell the fact that she's walking all over the
country."
The fact that O'Connor gets to play in luscious New Zealand is an
extra-special bonus.
"It's beautiful here," she said with emphasis on the 'beau.' "It reminds
me of San Francisco - and actually Houston, too. The rain passes pretty
quickly." O'Connor, born in Houston and reared in Katy, has called
Auckland, New Zealand, home since June.
"We do our filming about 30 to 45 minutes from here, on farmlands
and in tropical forests. There's so many types of geography around
this small island. You can go to a black sand beach on one side and
maybe an hour away will be a white sand beach. It's just bizarre -
and so beautiful."
The beauty doesn't stop her from getting homesick from time to time.
On the other hand, she's already been visited by a boyfriend, a girlfriend
and her mother, Sandra Wilson, who owns, with husband Eddie, the Austin
restaurant Threadgill's.
When we reached her downtown apartment recently
by phone, her dad, Walter, who works at Houston's Greentree Financial
Corp, was visiting.
O'Connor's route to TV started during a school program offered by
the Alley Theater. From there she earned a spot at Houston's High
School for Performing and Visual Arts, although she chose to graduate
with her friends from Katy's Taylor High School. Talent manager Lee
Peterson got her an audition for a Mickey Mouse Club serial
called Teen Angel, which O'Connor parlayed into stints in Danielle
Steele's Changes (with Cheryl Ladd), a Rockford Files
movie (with James Garner), a Tales From the Crypt episode (Arnold
Schwarzenegger's directorial debut) and a guest spot on NYPD Blue.
Producers Rob Tapert and Sam Raimi had her audition for a part in
one of the pre-series Hercules movies and were impressed enough
to cast her in the made-for-video Darkman II. The leap to the
Hercules spinoff, Xena: Warrior Princess, was a natural
one.
"They're good people," O'Connor says of her producers. "I think that's
kind of rare, especially in Los Angeles."
L.A., which she now calls home, is where she hopes to be during the
Christmas break. Then it's back to Auckland for as long as the series
demands - she's signed a five-year commitment.
Which will keep the phone company happy. "Between my mom, dad and
my boyfriend, I have these huge phone bills," she says.
Maybe she should have Xena take a look at them. She's rough on bills.
And Harrys and Johns and Steves.
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