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The Singapore Press -October 22 1997



Hit With A Fish, Left In A Coffin
by Michelle Ang

The stars of the hit US TV show, Xena: Warrior Princess, trooped out to meet their fans in New York and Valley Forge earlier this month. MICHELLE ANG battled her way through the horde for an exclusive interview with Reneé O'Connor, who plays Gabrielle, Xena's sidekick.


As Gabrielle, Xena's sidekick on the hit TV series Xena: Warrior Princess, Reneé O'Connor has been hit by dead fish, eaten raw octopus and nearly suffocated in a smoking casket.

In one episode, a playful Xena (Lucy Lawless) was catching fish with her bare hands and flinging them at her sidekick. "It was terrible, I was trying to keep a straight face, but by the end, I had scales in my hair, my eyebrows, and my teeth, it was g-r-o-s-s!" said O'Connor, 26, in an interview with The New Paper in Philadelphia earlier this month. Then came the raw octopus, in the Lost Mariner episode. "They marinated it for me. It was the worst! It was so bad, it took me months to try to eat calamari after that. I am not kidding," she said with a laugh.

In another episode, the crew forgot about her while filming the last scene in Blind Faith. She said: "I am in the coffin, and there's all this smoking there. And they closed the lid and they had to change the lights, rework some of the scene, and in the meantime I am in this coffin you know (cough, cough), just can't breath in here, and they go 'Oh yeah, oh yeah, Reneé!'"

Like her feisty but gentle character on the show, O'Connor takes it all in her stride. "Stuff like that happens," she grinned. All that hard work -and her boyfriend, Steve Muir, who manages a bar and restaurant in Auckland, New Zealand, didn't even know who she was when they first met a year ago. O'Connor told him that she worked the set of Xena. He had never seen the show, and so did not know she was a main star. But a few nights later, the body double for Kevin Sorbo on Hercules who also used to be Muir's employee, told Muir what O'Connor did for a living. "He told Steve, 'Oh yeah, that's Gabrielle,' and Steve said, 'No, no, her name's Reneé!'" she recalled.

On her co-star, O'Connor says that unlike their screen characters, Lawless is actually the madcap one, and she the quiet one. "She's actually really, really funny when she's not playing Xena, and she's the one who will crack a joke and give me a hard time and I am usually quieter when I am not filming," said O'Connor.

The stars' friendship is very real. "She's one of my best friends. She's amazing, she's a wonderful person... you can tell her anything, and she usually takes the lighter, optimistic point of view in any situation... she has this sense of humour she uses to approach everything."

The sentiments are returned. At the Xena convention in New York, Lawless told fans: "I can't do without Reneé."

More Than A Sidekick
Reneé O'Connor was no sidekick at the Sheraton Valley Forge Convention Centre in Pennsylvania earlier this month.

The actress, famous for her role as Xena's sidekick, Gabrielle, in the hit TV series, Xena: Warrior Princess handled the adoration of the 2,000 fans present like a trouper. She answered questions, danced and rapped for her audience and still had enough energy to sign hundreds of autographs at the Xena/Hercules Convention.

This despite being nervous a few hours earlier. "It's my first one so I am thinking oh, what is it going to be like, tossing and turning," she told The New Paper. She admitted she was still trying to adjust to fame. "I 'm still trying to get used to it all. But it's not too bad. People are so nice. Most people say, 'Hey I love the show, great job'!" she added. Fans also got a pleasant surprise at the convention. While she was answering questions, O'Connor suddenly got a call from Lucy Lawless, Xena herself, who was performing in the musical Grease in New York. The call was put on speakers. "When are you coming to see me? Tuesday?" Lawless asked gaily. O'Connor, who had been hoping to see Grease without any fuss, tried to avoid answering. "Soon, soon," she said. But Lawless was persistent, and sounded eager to see her co-star. Fans soon heard that the two would be at the Eugene O'Neill Theatre on Broadway two days later.

The fans were thrilled.

So, when the day came, the crowd outside the theatre started forming at 4 p.m. By 7 p.m., about 150 people were squashed against the theatre's backstage door.

As Lawless signed autographs before the show, she growled in a big sister way: "Reneé is in New York! Y'all be good to her, you hear?!" At the end of the show, the crowd stood at least eight deep. The stars obligingly signed autographs. O'Connor looked a little bewildered at the attention. Lawless, by now an old hand, leaped onto the roof of her waiting car, and signed anything that was thrust to her.

Then, together with Lawless' daughter, Daisy, nine, and other family members, they sped into New York's busy night.

Both women will return to New Zealand in a few weeks. Lawless' stint as Betty Rizzo in Grease ended on Sunday.


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