UltimateTV
January 15, 1999
Sidekick:
Renee O'Connor
- an
interview with Renee O'Connor
by
-?-
As
Renee O'Connor puts it, who knew a pithy little action-fantasy series
about warlords and kings and gods could change her life?
When O'Connor signed on to become a sort of female Dick Grayson, the
sidekick/protegee to TV's ultimate wonder woman, she had no way of
knowing Xena: Warrior Princess would ultimately reign as a
worldwide phenomena. Heck, she wasn't sure this weird yet wonderful
series, a spinoff of Hercules: The Legendary Journeys, would
be even a blip on TV viewers' radar.
"I had seen the success of Hercules, so I knew we had a chance,"
she says. "But I had no idea the impact it would have."
O'Connor costars with Lucy Lawless in what has become, since its 1995
premiere, one of TV's top syndicated series. She plays Gabrielle,
Xena's through-thick-and-thin companion, a sensitive and intelligent
young woman who can bust heads with her fighting stick whenever necessary.
Now in its fourth season, Xena usually ranks as syndication's
highest-rated first-run drama.
If you have never seen the series, any description probably will be
lost on you. It is an everything-but-the-kitchen-sink show that unabashedly
mixes Greek and Roman mythology with martial arts, offering storytelling
sensibilities that are one part Homer, another part John Woo. It is
a show that is better than it has any right to be, a show that literally
must be seen to be believed.
"At first, I think there was some apprehension about having a woman
action hero carry a show," says O'Connor, a 28-year-old Texan. "But
actually that seems to be the draw now."
"At first, I had no idea that people were even watching it. My mom
would give me feedback here and there that people were enjoying the
show, but you really have no idea back in our little vacuum in New
Zealand, just working away."
The show's popularity and the impact Lawless and O'Connor had made
started to sink in, however, during a visit back home.
"My parents had an ice-cream social at their restaurant in Austin
(a central Texas landmark known as Threadgill's), which some of the
children from the area were at," O'Connor recalls. "So then I really
had a chance to talk with the different girls and get a feeling for
what they liked about the show and the influence it had on them. "It's
pretty exciting, having these girls tell me how they're dressing up
as Gabrielle at home, having mock staff fights and mock storytelling
wars. Going into the show, I never would have dreamed that it would
have that effect on people, on young girls. But now that it is, I'm
enjoying every minute of it."
When O'Connor, born and raised in the southeast
Texas town of Katy, began studying acting at age 12 at Houston's Alley
Theatre, a show like Xena was the farthest thing from her mind.
She made her professional acting debut in 1989, starring in the Teen
Angel serial featured on the Disney Channel's Mickey Mouse
Club, and went on to star in Match Point, another MMC
serial.
O'Connor first came to the attention of Rob Tapert (husband of Xena
star Lawless) and Sam Raimi, the executive producers of Xena, when
an audition won her the role of young Deianeria in a 1994 Herc movie,
Hercules and the Lost Kingdom. They were so impressed by her
performance opposite Kevin Sorbo that they signed her for a starring
role in Darkman II: The Return of Durant, a July 1995 video
release, and again called upon her when Xena went to series
in September '95.
"I never would have dreamed I would be doing something like this,"
she says. "I love it. But it's beyond my wildest expectations, to
be able to have a character who loves poetry and loves storytelling,
which is a lot like myself, and yet also have this physical side,
where she can be robust and spunky at the same time."
Gabrielle has become an important character on the show, O'Connor
theorizes, because "she's the sympathetic one and people can actually
feel through her, whereas Xena might be a little more detatched."
It's worth noting, by the way, that O'Connor and Lawless really are
the best of friends of the set, in much the same way that their characters
have bonded.
"I actually met Lucy before I was cast for the role," O'Connor says.
"I was still auditioning for it and she went out of her way to meet
with me a couple of days before one of my many auditions and we hit
it off right away. She even said, 'I'll see you in New Zealand,' with
a laugh. I said, 'Okay, sure. I hope you're right.' I'm glad she was."
The two actresses are such good buddies, in fact, that Lawless chose
to attend the 1998 Emmys with O'Connor when her husband, Tapert, couldn't
make the trip. "Renee is one of the few excellent friends I have kind
of added to my list of my oldest friends," Lawless says. "She's the
best."
Their real-life friendship, in fact, might have played a small part
in attracting Xena and Gabby's strongly vocal lesbian following. O'Connor
admits that occasionally there were deliberately teasing scenes that
fed some viewers' suspicions about the characters' sexuality. But
mostly, she adds, cast and crew are merely trying to make the most
interesting, most exciting, most amusing show they can make.
"We have writers who have written strong, independent female roles
and we're taking that off the pages and bringing it to life, going
for every positive that we can. In every situation, we're trying to
go for the best, trying to find for the good in people, trying to
bring that out."
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