Austin
American Statesman, September 5, 1996
Xena's
Sidekick/Houstonian Reneé O'Connor Makes a Splash With New Zealand's
Warrior Princess
by
Diane Holloway
It's
a long way from the mythical world of Xena: Warrior Princess, the
popular action-adventure series produced in New Zealand, to the wooden
tables and mouth-watering smells of Threadgill's Restaurant in Austin.
Reneé O'Connor, the refreshingly unspoiled Texan who plays Xena's
feisty sidekick, recently made the trek to pick up her mother, Sandra
Wilson, who's married to Threadgill's owner Eddie Wilson. The plan
is to whisk her off, in a couple of weeks, on an exotic vacation that
promises to be almost as action-packed as a typical episode of Xena.
"We're heading for Africa -to float down the Nile, see the Pyramids,
climb Mount Kilimanjaro and go on safari in Kenya," said O'Connor.
The close mother and daughter are leaving Wilson at home. O'Connor
has flown her mother to New Zealand three times since Xena
debuted last year. Now on a ten-week hiatus, O'Connor and her mother
plan to spend some offbeat quality time together on a grand adventure.
Which is not to say O'Connor doesn't get along fine with her stepfather,
who's been a member of the family for five years. "I like him," she
said. "I think he'll keep me around for a while."
Wilson served ice cream at a recent autograph-signing event in Austin
for his stepdaughter. As fans gathered around O'Connor, Wilson scooped
and smiled. "It's long been known that I'm the luckiest man in town,"
Wilson said, pulling up a chair near his wife and stepdaughter during
a recent interview at Threadgill's. Wilson brags about O'Connor and
the show whenever he gets the chance. "I tell everybody it's a medieval
Gunsmoke for girls," he said. "It's a little morality play.
And the good guys don't just win, they kick b*tt."
A spinoff of Kevin Sorbo's popular series Hercules: The Legendary
Journeys,
Xena (Saturdays at 9 p.m. on KNVA Channel 54) was last season's
highest-rated new syndicated series and is attracting a worldwide
following. The show mixes mythology, action, contemporary language,
moral messages and humor.
Actress
Gives Comic Relief
Statuesque New Zealand actor Lucy Lawless stars as the fierce warrior
heroine with a dark past. O'Connor's character, the fast-talking Gabrielle,
provides much of the comic relief.
"They actually wanted someone younger," said O'Connor, who is 25 but
looks like a teenager.
O'Connor, who was born in Houston and caught the acting bug studying
at the Alley Theatre, made her professional debut in 1989 in the serial
Teen Angel, a regular feature on the Disney Channel's Mickey
Mouse Club. She turned 18 on the set in Arizona, where the serial
was filmed, and then headed for Los Angeles.
"It was exciting, "O'Connor said. "It's actually similar to Houston
-- a big city with lots of driving. I sort of kept to myself. I don't
think I have a single friend who's an actor. It's very easy to fall
into that Hollywood club scene, and I didn't want to do that. I wanted
to stay close to my roots. I knew I had to stay focused to succeed."
Among O'Connor's credits are the movie The Adventures of Huck Finn
and TV movies such as ABC's Follow the River with Ellen Burstyn,
NBC's Danielle Steel's Changes, The Flood and James Garner's
second Rockford Files reunion movie. O'Connor came to the attention
of executive producers Rob Tapert and Sam Raimi when she auditioned
for and won the role of Deianeira in Hercules and the Lost Kingdom,
the TV movie that inspired the series.
"Gabrielle started off spunky, spirited, wanting to be like Xena,"
O'Connor said. "I just made her more of a storyteller, the opposite
of Xena. She's more sentimental and poetic now. That's the direction
I took her. Occasionally there's some soul-searching, but mostly it's
action and fun."
Playing an over the top, cartoon-type character might seem confining
to some actors, but O'Connor likes it. "I actually have more freedom,"
she said. "There are no boundaries to what people expect."
Because the cast and crew work nine months a year, 14 hours a day
on the other side of the world, O'Connor was unaware of the show's
popularity until recently. "It just started airing in New Zealand,
so there's been no reaction there," O'Connor said. "We hear feedback
from the production company in Los Angeles, and that's exciting. I've
been curious to see what the spin is on the audience."
Perhaps surprisingly, the audience is mostly young women, ranging
in age from 14 and younger to 20s and 30s. The audience for Sorbo's
Hercules is overwhelmingly female, many of whom are ardent,
letter-writing, poster-buying fans. Apparently the well-toned Xena,
whose warrior outfits are pretty skimpy, doesn't have a lot of opposite
sex appeal. "Our audience is such a bizarre mix," O'Connor said. "Lucy
and I have talked about it. I find it inspiring that the audience
is women. I'd rather have women watching than men drooling."
When the series is in production, O'Connor lives in an apartment in
Auckland and has picked up a bit of an accent. "I guess I'm a bona
fide Kiwi," she said, referring to the nickname for New Zealanders.
Although she has a stunt double for dangerous scenes, O'Connor enjoys
the action part of her job. "I love stunts, anything physical," said
O'Connor, who runs and recently took up boxing and martial arts. "You
have to have a certain amount of endurance to keep up with the show."
As for the future, O'Connor has a seven-year contract for Xena
and then hopes to move behind the camera. Seven years, a long way
from home.
"So far, so good. I like the people I'm working with," she said. "I
hope to go into the production side of the business. I'd really like
to direct. There aren't many women who can direct action films. I
think it'd be a shame not to use what I've learned."
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