PLEASE DO NOT POST ON OTHER SITES WITHOUT PERMISSION.

Sharon : It’s Christmas time. So you have a tree. You’ve got the decorations up.

Lucy     : I have a tree, I have a menorah. I have, um… I got it all going on.

Sharon : And uh, so uh, you guys have been singing and dancing all over the country. How was uh… What kind of… Who started this and what kind of fun does that do?

Lucy     : It was all her idea (Renee: Yeah, like, Lucy—). And I wish she would think up something else ‘cause it’s exhausting, frankly.

Renee   : Um… I’m just boogyin’ down. Yeah, lets… you know, you’re the one that brought all this on. It’s good.

Lucy     : Actually, I think it was your idea, Sharon. And I went, ‘oh okay’ and then we sat and organize it and it all happened and then… that was for the first Roxy show, and then it kind of snowballed on to New York, Chicago, now we’re back to the Roxy.

Sharon  : The addiction set in.

Lucy     : I don’t know, that’s the funny thing though. I was just talking to Ren about it, that um, I’m discovering something about myself in the last year where I hate to repeat myself. I hate to repeat the experience, you know. So, um, the Roxy was really scary (Renee: Fantastic! Your first one.) and it was its own thing. I guess the next one in New York built on… was it in New York the next one?

Sharon  : Yes, it was.

Lucy     : New York built on that, then we went to Chicago and tried a completely different feel.

Renee  : Which was great. Love that too.

Lucy     : Yeah that whole R&B feel and I was reviewing it the other day and looking at songs that really worked, which were very much in the vain of those musicians. You could tell that the songs that they innately understood really rocked out. That was very interesting to me. It’s like, so when you go to a certain town, and you want musicians that have the character of that town, you must choose music that suits them – and you.

Renee   : That is really interesting.

Lucy      : Because… some sort of magical coessence or some alchemy…

Renee   : well their culture’s right there and they can enhance what they know.

Lucy     : Yeah! And then you go on this magical carpet ride through their culture, you know, which was just unbelievable. Such a priceless experience and I would love to see them again, actually. But um, this next show, since I don’t have them and I don’t wanna go backwards… I have to do something completely different and I want it really pare it down like you said and just… get back to just… like friends and family because a good number of these fans now are... you know, they’re… they’ve become like a… a different kind of family.

Renee   : Yeah! That’s great.

Lucy      : like a weird family. And I want to do something that’s really… private, almost? I know that sounds weird, but –

Renee   : Not at all.

Lucy     : Yeah. It won’t… [it] will not be slick. That’s the only thing I could say. Right now, it will not be slick, but it will be very personal and um…

Renee   : I’ve a question going back to what you said. If you’re doing it at the Roxy, what culture of LA would you want to pull into it? Or is it… they’re so diverse you could do whatever you want?

Lucy      : I think I’m going right back to… it’s like, my living room. I don’t know about LA, it’s just like this is my…

Renee   : Oh what you’re seeing here? Like we were singing right now? Around the fire?

Lucy      : Right. This is… My backing singers are going to be Tony award winning Marissa Jaret Winokur (Renee: Oh, that’s so great!), her husband Big Judah whom my son’s named after (Renee: Wow, you’ll have such fun!), and Daisy my daughter. (Renee: Oh you’ll have a blast!) So this is not professional, but it’s gonna be really personal.

Renee   : Aw, it’s great. Wow. It’s wonderful. Love that.

Sharon  : It’s kind of like what they had – used to have in Hollywood in George Gershwin’s house. Everyone would come over…

Lucy      : This is like, ‘come over to George Gershwin’s house’, and you know what? This house actually used to belong to a famous um, lyricist from the 50s. Actually, hang on.  No, earlier than that. Like, uh, yeah… 30s, 40s, and 50s.

Renee   : Didn’t you… at some party someone was at the piano and you were singing along to Christmas carols or something?

Lucy      : Oh I can’t remember. Oh, maybe.

Renee   : Do you remember? Like that’s how I’d see you, you know? That sort of idea… OK, you know.

Lucy      : Yeah, that exact– that kind feeling. (Renee: Spontaneous) I wanted it to be like Bing Crosby Christmas Special, but it’ll be a little bit crazy because of who we all are.

Sharon  : Cause it’s you.

Lucy      : Yeah. It’ll be…

Sharon  : David Bowie will walk in. You’ll do the Little Drummer Boy.

Lucy      : Well, I can’t promise David.

Renee   : That’s lovely. What I love about your shows is that your personality and your emotion comes out in your songs and you take us all on a journey. People connect with you anyway and your music, you know?

Lucy      : Well, this time –

Renee   : So this is gonna be even wilder

Lucy      : Yeah but I have no idea yet what I’m singing. But I’m meeting with my musical director next week (Renee: That’s great. That suits you Lucy.) and, I just uh, I don’t know… Come on in to the living room, you know?

Sharon  : That’s an interesting point. You say her personality comes out in her music. What’s coming out in your dancing? Is that you? Whips and ticklers?

Renee   : Of course! Well I definitely have a whip at home. We all know that. Well there’s definitely the wild Renee that, you know, that sort of balances my—

Lucy      : Vixen!

Renee   : Yeah. I love… I love sexy clothes. I love all that stuff. I love to dance. I’ve always loved to dance. So, it’s great. I mean, I’m not used to whipping so much, you know, in front of –

Lucy      : In public!

Renee   : Yeah, you know. Actually I don’t really… it’s just f(un?)… yeah. Do I whip? I mean, I’m… Oh, whatever.

Lucy      : Do you whip? Let it whip.

Renee   : Do I really whip?

Sharon  : Go ahead. Say it out, Renee

Renee   : Only for, like, you know, (Lucy: Let it whip.) if I’m trying to be (Lucy: Whip it good.) silly. It’s exactly what you see on stage. If I’m being silly, than yeah, you know. The leather will be whipping, you know. But it’s just a person ***I can’t make what she’s saying. Sorry.***

Lucy      : You should ask some of the Xena stuntmen about Renee and meeting out punishments. She knows how to do it just fine.

Renee   : My gosh. Well you know, I do like dancing. But I haven’t seen the, uh, yeah you know, the last one was different. It’s not really what I was expecting. I thought that ‘Let It Whip’ would be similar to what we did at the Convention. I don’t know why, but it just felt different. There was just a sense of soul and groove going on and the dance felt different, yeah.

Sharon  : Yeah I told you after, that your dancing was entirely different than the first two shows. It just felt that way watching it.

Renee   : Which was fun. It’s fun being up there. But the, uh, I love that Ray Charles number. Oh my gosh! Still listen to that song and just go –

Lucy      : ‘Baby What’d I Say’?

Renee   : Yeah.

Lucy      : Really?

Renee   : Yeah, every time I hear it I just get transported back there.

*** Lucy imitates the song’s intro

Renee   : Just want to shake it. It’s funny. It was fun.

Sharon  : So it’s been, uh, a year at least since you guys were together.

Renee   : It’s been a year and a half. I was pregnant. It’s been over a year and a half.

Sharon  : Oh my gosh. I didn’t realize it’d been that long. Well this is one of the reasons why you guys have been all over the world, all over the country, doing all kinds of projects. So that we’ve covered a bit of it, uh, recently one of you played Wonder Woman and the other Indiana Jones. Who played which?

Renee   : Well, I didn’t play Wonder Woman.

Lucy      : I certainly don’t remember being Harrison Ford.

Sharon  : So you did–

Lucy      : You’ve done Harrison Ford a couple of times.

Renee   : This was a little different, yeah. I wasn’t playing the male version of Harrison Ford. This was sort of the, uh, the lady who goes on an expedition similar to Raiders of The Lost Ark. A whole different character.

Sharon  : This is a movie called Genesis Code?

Renee   : Genesis Code. Yeah. So I played a woman who basically is trying to prove that there is existence out there that is greater than our own physical being. That’s what she’s doing. She’s trying to show her ex-husband that, um, that he should have faith. He should have faith in God. Spirituality. You know?

Sharon  : Is this um… So you filmed this in Bulgaria. How did you wind up getting the part and, uh… is that the crux of the movie or I know there’s a… you have a husband, is there another male lead?

Renee   : Um, the other… well the male lead is really Tim Dekay and he plays my ex-husband, which was so much fun to do. There’s so many elements, you know, that are sort of personal, that you just wanted to use, you know? You know what I mean? In acting you bring out real feelings, you know, and… or you make comparisons to your own life. And so, it was just so much fun to transcend the formula that the Sci-Fi Channel has and make it something that’s more like a personal drama, or comedy between us. So I really enjoyed doing that. And um, and it just sort of came about. So I was talking to the Sci-Fi Channel and said I was interested in doing some things and was giving them ideas that I had, ‘cause I like to sort of get involved in the whole process. And they basically said, ‘we’ve already done this’ or, ‘we already have something in production,’ and then it came up and it was just the right fit. And I was willing to go to Bulgaria for a month with the kids. That was the big thing for me. ‘Cause I’ve always been hesitant about taking my kids on location, you know?

Lucy      : But?

Renee   : Uh, it was pretty good. You know, we were in Bulgaria. Iris being very sick so she was in the hospital for three days (Lucy: Oh no…). In a hospital where they don’t speak English (Lucy gasps). So it was kind of trying. I would spend the night at the hospital and going to work all day. But you know it’s funny how your adrenaline—

Lucy      : Was your mother there?

Renee   : Thankfully my mom was there.

Lucy      : Oh my god, you must’ve had a heart attack.

Renee   : It was pretty… It was challenging.

Lucy      : It was stressful. Yeah.

Renee   : It was stressful. But you know, your adrenaline as a mother is… keeps you going, and I so loved that, the project that… I wasn’t tired at all, you know, you just keep pushing through.

Lucy      : Did you come home and collapse?

Renee   : No. But it’s funny, the third day I had all my dialogue and there was about 8 pages and just my talking. It was just like monologues of information. And I don’t know how they’ll put it together but I was worried I wouldn’t remember the lines after three days of not really sleeping much.

Lucy      : Ooohh!

Renee   : And I really, I was so lucky because I finally kept thinking… there’s a part of me that kept looking to my own spirituality; you know… it was about spirituality anyway. Going, ‘just let it go.’ You know? ‘Let it happen.’ And I did, and suddenly the words would come, you know? But each time I’m like, ‘f*ck!’ you know. Excuse me.

Lucy      : Grace. You got grace.

Renee   : I was like… you know, and the actors were all talking and it was really distracting. I’m like, yeah, let the grace of God just happen. Lalalala… happen. And um, that was a huge lesson for me as an actor (Lucy: Yeah.), that you know it, you know? You don’t have to work so hard.

Sharon  : It’s in you. Don’t worry about it, yeah.

Renee   : It’s in you, yeah.

Sharon  : I think you mentioned that a bit when you did the play on stage. Either one of the characters, or maybe you were talking to me before.

Renee   : Well you forget, though.

Lucy      : Yeah, you keep reminding yourself, eh?

Renee   : There’s some divine intervention in here somewhere, you know. I found it to be really true.

Lucy      : That’s cool. That’s really cool.

Renee   : It’s fun.

Sharon  : And how did you wind up being Wonder Woman? This was a—

Lucy      : Ah, I can’t remember. I don’t know, somebody rang up—

Renee   : When is Wonder Woman?

Lucy      : No, I did, um—

Renee   : Oh, the Justice League?

Lucy      : I did, yeah, the voice of Wonder Woman for the Justice League.

Renee   : That’s cool.

Lucy      : Well you know, somebody rings your agents and said, ‘are you available’ and I wanted to… I’d never felt that I had done that form of performance very well before. Had a taste of it on um—

Renee   : The Herc & Xena one?

Sharon  : the animated Herc & Xena?

Lucy      : The animated Herc & Xena and on Simpsons…

Renee   : Oh yeah…

Lucy      : But I was so new to it all I didn’t understand that type of performance so I did it a couple more times with Justice League and for Dragonlance.

Renee   : Cool!

Lucy     :  And um, and it was great! I really enjoyed the experience, but it’s very short. You got to remember, that you go in there for an hour and a half (Renee: Wow.), two hours maybe, you’re done. And then it takes another year and a half before they animate it. And probably a few more months before they put it out there. And um, you’ve kind of forgotten all about it in the mean time.

Renee   : Yeah.

Lucy      : Well, you could ask me a week later and I would’ve forgotten about it.

Renee   : Well, so do, uh… I remember on the animated one on Herc & Xena that you only had about maybe one chance to get it. Was it similar to that? You know, when you think of you’re doing a movie in an hour and a half; you’re really doing it one time through, right?

Lucy      : Um, you… Yeah, you get a few times.

Renee   : Okay.

Lucy      : A few times. And beca—and you just have to trust the director to say, ‘yes that’s what you want,’ because they have the image in their… you know, how the shot, the outworks going to come out. (Renee: yeah. It’s imagined.) And you can’t see… you have nothing in front of you to draw on for information.

Renee   : God! It’s so hard!

Sharon  : And no other actors.

Lucy      : And no other actors.

Renee   : That’s really tough.

Lucy      : Yeah. Very often with these things… Oh wait a minute. Um, so… what were you going from ‘no actors’?

Renee   : Yeah. There were no actors around?

Lucy      : No other actors.

Renee   : No other… No— there were no actors?

Sharon  : Get that… Get your line.

Lucy      : Yeah. Because there’s nothing else for you to draw on.

Renee   : Well—

Lucy      : You go ‘AND NO OTHER ACTORS.’ And no other actors, that’s right. Oh sh*t, I don’t remember where we’re going.

Renee   : But maybe… wait I have a question. Hold on, that made me think of something, though. Because you’ve done so much music lately, right? You’re listening, you’re actually working in a different realm completely, did that help you doing the animation then? Because—

Lucy      : No, because I did it all the animation way before I started singing.

Renee   : Oh you did? Oh, right. That’s wild.

Lucy      : Even before Duets.

Renee   : And there were no actors there.

Lucy      : And no actors! Yeah, you’re just… you’re totally alone in a booth going, ‘uh, did I say that right?’

Sharon  : I’m wondering what a director does on an animated feature. You deliver a line, I mean, they know the—I mean, do you see the whole script? Well…

Lucy      : You have the script but you don’t know what the other characters look like apart from some comic strip. Maybe you get a page of a comic strip. And, um, you don’t know what they voice sounds like. You— 

***Phone interruption***

Sharon to soundguy: are we picking that up? We are picking that up?

Lucy to Warner (?): Hey Warner there’s a couple of doors between us and the kitchen. They’re just swing doors.

Sharon  : Is there a door on that side too?

Lucy      : Yup. Shut every door you can possibly find.

Sharon  : Warner, there’s another one on this side too. If you go around there.

Lucy      : In fact, this is a big sliding door in the cavity.

Sharon  : Oh. This right here? The mirror?

Lucy      : No, shut the one there behind you, yeah. and then… *Lucy gets up* shouldn’t expect you to find your way around. Is that door shut? Let’s pull this, shall we?

Sharon  : Lock down!

Lucy      : Lock down, yeah!

Sharon  : This is the panic room. And the next nuclear exploded. Are they sitting on the same spot? 

***PHONE INTERRUPTION ENDS*** 

Sharon  : So what does a director in an animated feature actually do? Give you lined… you know, descriptions and…

Lucy      : Sometimes the director will give you a line reading. Like, ‘no I want you say it more like this,’ and you just do it because they know, uh, who’s coming up behind you… you know, they’re holding the performances of all the other actors in their head. Even if they haven’t been done yet. They have to be the continuity behind every character, I think.

Renee   : Now, some of them actually… don’t they do the voices and they end up keeping the voices in the movies? I’ve heard that happen before.

Lucy      : Yeah, I think Wonder Woman’s actually gonna be that man who’s directing.

Renee   : Yeah right.

Lucy      : He gonna go, ‘yeah that voice doesn’t work’

Renee   : ‘I can do that,’ you’re right.

Lucy      : Yeah

Renee   : That’s funny.

Sharon  : And Dragonlance, um, you’ve talked a bit about uh, they wanted a specific voice. Did you change your voice for them? Or did you use your real voice? New Zealand accent?

Lucy      : Well you know what happened? You know, with Dragonlance, she’s supposed to be, like, Native American or something. So, I don’t know how to do a Native American accent and somebody was trying to show me but it just sounded weird coming out of me. I can’t even do it. I’ve never heard it before so I’ve no reference for it and it would just be disrespectful and, you know, I don’t do that. So eventually I realized what they’re asking was, ‘can you just do the Xena voice? That’s what we want.’

Renee   : Really?

Lucy      : Yeah. The Xena accent – ‘if you can’t actually be uh, Goldmoon, Native American, then uh, can you be Xena?” And they were too shy to ask, they were sort of guiding, ‘try a bit more staccato,’ ‘like this?’ I don’t know. ‘Be more flowing.’ You just want me to do Xena, don’t you? ‘Yeah, yeah. Would you just do Xena?’

Renee   : That’s so funny. And they couldn’t ask that? Well, did they want a sense of timelessness? Is that what they’re going for?

Lucy      : No, I don’t know. I don’t know.

Sharon  : They just liked her Xena voice.

Lucy      : They were just like, ‘yeah that’s what we’re paying for’.

Sharon  : Goldmoon’s a strong character, I gather. She’s a… I’ve not read those pieces.

Lucy      : I know. You know, to be honest with you I didn’t know anything about it. I was just… wanted to do a favor for my friend George who I knew during the Xena and Hercules days.

Sharon  : George Straiton (sp?)?

Lucy      : George Straiton (sp?)? And um, I was like, ‘yeah, totally George, I’ll come and help you out.’ That’s all I thought it was. And now I hear that it’s just some worldwide movement term about 20 years ago it was like… Tens of thousands of people were into this, but...

Renee   : I had a friend who was into it, yeah.

Sharon  : Started out kind of a Dungeons and Dragons things. Became books, became you know, online. It just… it’s huge. It’s absolutely huge.

Lucy      : Right. Yeah. It’s an incredible world.

Renee   : That’s gonna be fun to see.

Sharon  : Um, voices… Ghost Town. Uh… you were hired to play a man.

Renee   : Yeah. Um… hired to play a man, but... they just– well actually not to play a man. I was hired– they wanted to hire me to play something else, and then the role wasn’t right. So they offered me a man’s part and said they will switch it to a woman. So I said, ‘sure.’ And then, yeah… and it was alright, you know. The experience was um, just sort of getting my feet wet again. Especially with being a mom as well, and on location and the whole thing. That was the first step into going somewhere, and um…

Lucy      : where’d you go?

Renee   : To North Carolina. I was one month away.

Lucy      : Oh that’s right. Yeah.

Renee   : I just don’t want to leave my kids, you know? I just—that kills me. So anyway, but I tried it out. Miles came out for a while, and Iris was there the whole time. And… it was really easy. It’s easy to be on the set, you know? ‘Cause it’s just like old hat and sort of look around and you go, ‘oh yeah,’ and they were um, pretty… pretty independent as well. It was low budget, so you just, you know, you could just sit back and go, ‘oh yeah I know what you’re doing. I know what you’re experiencing.’ Talking about all the ins and outs or tying to pull it together.

Lucy      : So she’s like, ‘you’re telling me. Ladida-da-da”

Renee   : I know! Kind of compared the notes.

Sharon  : Four years of Diamonds and Guns.

Renee   : I know! But they were further ahead, you know. Because I was still working on some sort of post-production and um… ‘further ahead’ that they have the money for post-production where I think I was still raising money for post-production. And um… But it was alright, you know. It was two directors directing which was a little weird for me. I don’t like that.

Lucy      : Yeah.

Renee   : It’s so frustrating.

Sharon  : Do they ever have a conflict?

Renee   : Oh yeah. Well, of course they do. I mean they have two visions and they’re trying to complement each other. One’s more technical, one’s more artistic, and it just um… sometimes there’s a lack of communication, you know? But you know…

Sharon  : Did you ever—well, this is a western, were you ever a cowgirl as a kid? Coming from Texas?

Renee   : Not really. I was a city girl. I have to confess, you know. I really was a city girl. Um… Yeah. But the tomboy element of Gabrielle is still sort of in me and so that sort of played into Little Jack. And then like the vicious, like, there’s a—she was just mean-spirited, you know, in some ways, and I just sort of explored… well okay, I came up with ideas that was just—they were mean, you know. Like, I hold the woman—I said, ‘why don’t I hold the woman while you beat her?’ But I have nothing to do. Isn’t that horrible? It’s horrible.

Sharon  : She came up with that. *talks to Lucy* Your friend.

Lucy      : She’s pretty dark at times. Well you’re not personally dark. But remember you used to read all that psycho-killer stuff?

Renee   : Because of Hope, though. I did it ‘cause uh, it was Hope. When I was playing Hope?

Lucy      : Oh it’s Hope’s fault.

Renee   : No. Yeah, it was Hope’s fault. But I remember before that—

Lucy      : You did not—Didn’t you do it at school?

Renee   : Yeah. No, not at school. It was another thing I was doing. Oh when I play—usually ‘cause of roles. I always like to investigate the roles. And there was something, um, I can’t… there was one where I was taken by a serial killer when I did FBI: The Untold Stories, you know? And I was working with this great actor and I just, again I like to know… you know, I like to find more to do. And the thing with Little Jack is she was so, um, there’s just… there’s nothing for her to do in this scene, so I sat there and was like, okay, you know, ‘what? You’re gonna sit there?’ you know what I mean? I mean, I’m thinking to myself (Lucy: Good for you!) am I just gonna sit here? And they knew they wanted me on camera like they’re starting to get that they should use me more, they’re trying to find ways to put me in stuff... and so they kind of sat me down next to the woman so I thought, well, hell, heck, you know… why don’t I hold her down, you know? You know what I mean?

Lucy      : That’s fair enough. (Renee: You have to be active.) You can’t… you’ll pull on having an egg on your face. No actor wants to be in the back of somebody else’s shot going, ‘na-na-na-na-na,’ and got nothing to do.

Renee   : Yeah. Making faces.

Lucy      : And ‘cause that’s not real, either. If you’re there you’ve got an attitude, you’ve got something to say about the scene.

Renee   : Yeah, exactly. So that was my contribution in that scene. (Lucy   : That made sense.) So it just—I don’t know. She didn’t come out as dark as I thought, you know, she might at times. It uh, she wasn’t fleshed out, really.

Sharon  : Would you like to play—would either one of you like to play a serial killer, like, you know, like that Dexter character?

Renee   : I don’t think I would. I don’t know. Would you like to?

Lucy      : No, I’ve turned down roles that are just—in shows that I, I just find too, yeah, mean-spirited because I don’t want to put that out in the world. Which is not to say I wouldn’t play a serial, you know, one of something. But I don’t want to be in a series that’s about hideousness.

Sharon  : Criminal Minds is uh, I’ve seen two episodes in a row now. That’s a really tough show. It’s well done, that’s no doubt about it but, I’m… I’m not gonna watch it again.

Renee   : Really? Oh wow.

Lucy      : Yeah.

Sharon  : It’s just so…

Lucy      : Well I watch—Yeah I watch a lot of crime shows. But not scripted drama, because it gives me too much pain.

Renee   : They keep calling me in for that too. Criminal Minds? It’s funny ‘cause they don’t really know me at all, so they call me in to read, and I’ve come to the idea that, ‘you know what? Maybe I need to learn something here,’ and I go in and I, and I—the parts have been so heavy and even though there—I haven’t gotten it because of… whatever reason in the end, you know. Age or… it was like age stuff. One is to young, one is too old and blabla. But um, but just to really connect with these horrible, horrible victims was… Oh my Gosh! You know?

Sharon  : Well that’s what I mean. CourtTV is actually pretty divorced from the actual crime.

Lucy      : Yeah. When you watch… yeah, or on A&E, or DTMS, or Bio—

Renee   : ‘Cause you like the investigate part. You like the analysis?

Lucy      : No. Yeah, I wanna see bad guys brought to justice.

Renee   : Yeah.

Lucy      : That’s what it is. I wanna see…

Renee   : That’s cool.

Lucy      : Yeah.

Renee   : Wow.

Sharon  : That’s why you watch it. I wondered why you were… what you’re getting at.

Lucy      : I don’t know. Yeah, right. Something satisfying about that. Particularly when it’s like some doctor kills his wife then cover that up or something. You want to see the rich guy go down for being a slime ball. And often, they do it for like, well, regular people for a few… maybe a couple of hundred thousand dollars. Sometimes they do it for, like, thirty thousand dollars to go and murder some poor human being who never did them any harm and you just go, ‘I want you to go down for this. I wanna—‘

Renee   : Wow. And do they? I mean they, they actually—

Lucy      : Yeah. Well the ones that I’m watching are, you know, wrapped up cases so it’s about forensics or the cops being the heroes, you know…

Sharon  : Are you into the Drew—is it Patterson, Peterson? The latest one that’s on there with—

Renee   : Oh yeah. That’s the king. Well Scott Peterson was king, but I’m a little horrified that, you know, Laci Peterson, Stacy Peterson. They actually had a daughter called Lacy Peterson, you just know the Peterson family and, uh, up in Marion County or wherever they—I don’t know, they’re from San Diego aren’t they? Laci Peterson’s parents are reliving their misery though this other family. It’s just a horrible um, not Peterson family, sorry, but Laci’s birthmother. Um, it’s just ghastly.

Sharon  : And on a brighter note, away from serial killers… (Lucy: So satisfying.) we walk in to Larry David in Curb Your Enthusiasm.

Renee   : There you go!

Sharon  : A little more recent.

Renee   : That looked like fun.

Sharon  : I read (Lucy: That was fun.) when someone was describing that show they said, ‘I guess there’s a scripted outline but then it’s improv-ed internally,’ and I wanted to know what… what that experience was like, working with him, and what parts were—

Lucy      : You’re right, that it is loosely scripted and you have to uh, you know, you have to make sure that you end up at a certain point. From A to G by the end of the scene. And you can throw something out there and Larry will either love it and take it and include it or he will kill it dead, you know, right there. And, um…

Renee   : Meaning he just doesn’t let it go any further or you just cut and then you start all over again?

Lucy      : Um, oh, he was so good to me, and he was so, you know, they just kind of allowed me to… well I was respectful of their process; I’m not throwing complete rubbish in there, I hope. But, um, like the whole thing about, ‘so you’re a Jew,’ that was all from me. ‘So, you’re a Jew,’ ‘cause you know there are almost no Jewish people where I come from so to me they’re always like this mythical creature.

Renee   : That is so funny.

Lucy      : Yeah. I know, it was really funny.

Renee   : He seemed kind of smitten with you. You know what I mean? Didn’t he just kind of seem a little smitten? I thought that was so sweet.

Lucy      : I don’t know. He was good. Well, I didn’t know. The poor guy, that his marriage actually was breaking up. I didn’t know. I didn’t know that. He, I guess, knew. Um, because it was just the next week that it was made public. So he was right at the maelstrom at that time.

Renee   : Yikes.

Lucy      : Yeah. So, um…

Renee   : I wonder why that was on the show. Seemed so odd. They’re such a great couple, on camera.

Lucy      : Yeah.

Renee   : That was an odd element to put into their show, you know? And it’s interesting.

Lucy      : Yeah. And I saw some people, like, TVGuide was going, you know, ‘this is where Cheryl leaves Larry, this is where we leave the show,’ as if—I mean they were hurting. People were really hurting because Cheryl left him now he’s just a horrible oak emerging on his own, ‘I don’t want to know about him.’ But it’s like…

Renee   : Well, he’s got to grow.

Lucy      : Get over it. Plus, this guy is an artist. He’s not… He’s not interested in being a monkey for the network. Do you know what I mean? He—artists do what they do and you can’t stop them.

Renee   : I know. It’s true.

Sharon  : Using the situations where we can. It’s popular, it’s critically acclaimed…

Lucy      : And it’s fascinating! It’s fascinating to watch somebody, uh, put themselves—put their real life on the line.

Sharon  : So, uh, a fair amount of that dinner table, the date, that was improve-ed?

Lucy      : Yeah. I was… I had a couple of other—I had one other scene which got cut out. But you understand it, you know, when you see the episode because—I wrote in my blog, like, ‘I’d thought it was all about me, me, me!’ this whole thing, ‘cause everyday that I was there it was all about me! The scene that we were talking about, or whatever. But, (Renee: Wow. Fun.) so much was going on in this episode ‘cause Cheryl leaves Larry, she’s on the plane, and she’s having a terrible time, he won’t listen to her ‘cause he’s there with the Tivo salesman… yeah, and the black family are there, and what else? The restaurant? Was that sandwich palaver part of that drama? No, the friends are choosing between Cheryl and Larry (Renee: yeah. There’s a lot going on.). So there’s so much going on.

Renee   : And that was kind of heavy stuff, you know, for Curb Your Enthusiasm.

Lucy      : Yeah! It was like—that was an instant classic, I reckon. I’m so—I’m lucky, man, I get to—

Renee   : I was lucky I saw you because I watch it, when I can. And I, I guess I’d heard that you might be on it but then you weren’t gonna be on it. Everyone’s confused what your episode was.

Lucy      : I didn’t know—the date was confused and…

Renee   : We all watched it anyway.

Sharon  : And then Ted Danson popped up at the end.

Lucy      : Ted Danson, yeah. What a great guy. The writers told me that everybody loved it that I thought that Ted Danson was an, ‘ass-h*le!’

Renee   : That was so funny. Did you make that up?

Lucy      : Yeah.

Renee   : That’s hilarious. I thought that you might’ve made that one up.

Lucy      : Yeah. ‘ass-h*le!’

Sharon  : Yeah. I remember hearing a line and then I said, ‘that sounds like Lucy.’

Renee   : Doesn’t it really?

Sharon  : But I can’t remember which one it was.

Lucy      : Yeah. Well the way that you say it is you.

Renee   : Yeah. Exactly. I just thought (Lucy: The way that you get there is you.) that would’ve been your sort of sense of humor plugging it in, just to be funny, you know. I figured that would be funny.

Lucy      : Yeah, ‘cause who doesn’t like—

Renee   : I know! Who doesn’t like Ted Danson?!

Lucy      : Everybody likes Ted Danson.

Renee   : Exactly! Yeah. That’s so funny. Wow.

Sharon  : Although he’s doing an incredible job on Damages (Renee: Oh, really?) of being an absolute bastard.

Lucy      : Oh, he’s a good actor.

Sharon  : He’s fabulous. It’s a great show.

Lucy      : He’s a fine actor.

Renee   : Haven’t seen it.

Lucy      : What’s that on?

Sharon  : Uh…

Renee   : F/X, right?

Sharon  : F/X, right. Saving Grace is on TNT, Damages on F/X.

Renee   : Glenn Close…

Lucy      : Oh yeah, yeah, yeah.

Sharon  : So great. You know. Yeah, Holly Hunter, Glenn Close. Somebody—

Lucy      : Holly Hunter’s doing that new show.

Sharon  : Saving Grace. Yeah.

Lucy      : Oh that’s really good.

Sharon  : So much good stuff going on.

Lucy      : And Laura San Giacomo, I’m so thrilled to see her in such a great show.

Renee   : Is she on the same one?

Sharon  : She is! She plays the best friend and I’m watching this first episode and I’m thinking I know that person.

Lucy      : On Saving Grace. Oh, you’d like that show. You’d be good on that.

Renee   : I have to see it. I read—I didn’t read a very good review about it, so…

Lucy      : Oh my God, (Renee: I’ll have to watch it, then.) it’s so interesting. And good—beautiful. Really filmic. (Renee: Oh, really?) Really pretty and, yeah… great acting.

Sharon  : And now we have to plummet back into schizophrenia, because you did Boogeyman 2 (Renee: Yeah.) for Rob.

Renee   : For Rob.

Sharon  : And how did that come up? How did you know that movie was being done?

Renee   : Um, I heard about it. And I, um, I was fascinated with this woman who was dealing with schizophrenia in her life, that her mother was a schizophrenic. And then she was always afraid of being schizophrenic. And it took me back to this, um, when I was a kid I played something where I was a schizophrenic, for this foundation. And all these, uh, parents really affected me because they were hurting so much with their kids going through this treatment. And that’s what affected me the most more than actually watching the patients and how they functioned. So, um, to think that this is a woman  who basically felt the same way as all those parents did connected (Sharon: toward her charges?) toward me. Yeah, because this woman had to deal with the, um, the illness. You know? So anyway, so I immediately connected with it, and I thought, ‘that would be fun,’ and it films in Los Angeles, and um… and it was a modern-day piece. ‘Cause the Ghost Town was, again, a different period. And I was really looking for things that are current, and… yeah. It was good. It was really fun to do. I was the old lady…

Sharon  : It’s a slasher movie, right?

Renee   : Well it doesn’t feel like a slasher movie at first. It felt like a normal drama, and then, I think the last day I was on, everyone started—at least, I die. People started dying, you know? And I was, like, ‘oh yeah I’m in a horror film.’ You know what I mean? You watch Tobin Bell walking across the parking lot, uh, with two syringes in his eyes, and I was like, ‘oh yeah. That’s what we’re doing.’ It’s crazy.

Sharon  : You were supposed to do something visually. I don’t remember what it was, maybe it’s just mead, but you wind up being in horror makeup, uh, for the whole day.

Renee   : Yeah, which looked fantastic. The, uh, blue veins on my skin and it was peeling away ‘cause I’m electrocuted. So I went home that night like this. Because I knew Iris was asleep, ‘cause I wanted to see what Jed would do ‘cause he hates horror films, you know. So I went and he was just mortified, yeah. I’m sitting down next to him, ‘honey, hi honey.’ And I was, um, I was begging them to let me take my head because I get decapitated. I said, ‘please let me take my head home.’ You know what I mean? That’s just so mean. Um, I wanna put it in my refrigerator, you know? Isn’t that horrible?

Sharon  : And then we open the door.

Renee   : Wouldn’t that be great? And they said no. And I said, ‘well can we at least put it in the craft service refrigerator as everyone’s coming through?’ and they said, ‘well, we have to wait till it wraps then maybe we’ll do it. I don’t think they did.’

Sharon  : Lucy, she holds down women while they’re being beaten, she (Lucy: She has a head in her— I know.) wants to put a head in the refrigerator. (Renee: But I loved horror films.) This is not the Renee we know and loved.

Lucy      : I know. I won’t go to her house ‘cause I’m afraid I’m gonna end up covering a lampshade.

Renee   : Yeah right. But you know, I was thinking about it and I loved horror films as a kid. You know? Someone’s asking me why, I said, ‘cause it was such a thrill, you know? I loved the idea that I could sit here and be on this journey and I knew it was perfectly safe, and then, um—

Lucy      : Do you get Chiller Sta—that cable station? Chiller?

Renee   : No.

Sharon  : I’ve never heard of it. It’s a horror station?       

Lucy      : It’s pretty good.

Renee   : Well I’ve kind of outgrown it. I don’t like it as much as I did as a kid, you know.

Lucy      : Me neither. But they’re a little cheesy so they’re really good, you know? Like, they’re old stuff we used to watch from we were kids. (Renee: the 70s.) So it’s okay. I quite like being a little bit scared, but not a lot...

Renee   : We just had this wild library of horror films so I would go in and I wouldn’t really even know the titles but I put them in and started watching them. And then I would start to figure out how they did it. So then it actually detached me a little more from the… the gore.

Lucy      : Did you ever get a fright?

Renee   : Sometimes

Lucy      : Put in a video that… that, you know, that nobody meant you to see.

Renee   : Yes.

Lucy      : Something adult?

Renee   : Yes.

Lucy      : You go, ‘whoa!’ And yet somehow I— (Renee: well that’s where I got the uh… yeah. Exactly. I did that.) it’ so compelling, you have to watch it!

Renee   : well that was my joke on diamonds and guns ‘cause my character put, you know, she was channel surfing and then a porn comes up and she’s like, ‘oh…’ you know? ‘porn,’ like no big deal. So that was my own little joke about how nonchalant, you know? I thought that was funny that she’s just so nonchalant.

Sharon  : I had that happen to me. I was sorting someone’s tapes. An unnamed person. And I put in—he was… I put in a tape—I couldn’t even say what the other ones are, but I put in a tape and I’m watching this, like, Victorian 17^th century woman…

Renee   : Really?

Sharon  : And then it progresses. And a lot of things are going on and…

Lucy      : so it’s not an old-fashioned movie?

Sharon  : this was a period—no, this was a (Renee: a period porn!) period porn. Period porn!

Lucy      : When was it made?

Renee   : Probably in the 80s. 70s-80s or something?

Sharon  : Uh, I’ve been out here 20 years... uh, I’m going—I’d say, yeah. That was, uh, maybe around the 80s. Late 80s.

Lucy      : Was it badly shot and hor—trashy?

Sharon  : Um, I didn’t watch all that much and I didn’t know what category—I was just categorizing.

Lucy      : You didn’t know where to file it.

Sharon  : I didn’t know where to file it!

L & R     : That is so funny.

Sharon  : Unexpected things. Somehow you’re going to be unboxed. You have gone back to Vancouver and shot a bit more of Battlestar.

Lucy      : Yeah. I get uh, unboxed. That’s about all I can say. They’re very secretive about this stuff.

Sharon  : It was nice seeing the… seeing your old buddies? It had been a while.

Lucy      : It was really nice, actually. I um, uh… everybody is very relaxed. Unlike us in the run up to the end, because we all got more tensed.

Renee   : We were so excited too. You know what I mean?

Lucy      : We were excited, but I think people, like, the crew was very afraid. They’d had this job for a long time and, um, I don’t know. By the end I was so (Renee: Yeah, you’re right. It was…) incredibly tired that I didn’t—I was out of my mind. I’ve never admitted that before.

Renee   : Mind you that was crazy—the end was crazy. Four units going at the same time with those two episodes. (Lucy: Yeah.) So that wasn’t—

Sharon  : It’s a lot more physical show. It’s a lot more physically wearing. I mean you guys were outdoors in the least bit of clothing and the craziest weather. No other (Renee: yeah.) TV actors ever had to do anything quite like that.

Renee   : And it was Rob’s episode and we really wanted to get it right for him. You know what I mean? Don’t you think? We really wanted to come together and be the best.

Lucy      : Yeah.

Renee   : That was probably where some of the pressure came in. But overall, weren’t we just really excited? I mean, we seemed so pleased with every episode. Every one’s… every single one in the sixth season stood up, you know? I thought… I thought that we did a good job.

Lucy      : Wow. That’s your—that’s what you remember?

Renee   : Yeah.

Lucy      : Wow.

Sharon  : And for you it’s a blank. What do you remember?

Renee   : You don’t remember the sixth season? The last season?

Lucy      : No. I remember that Japanese—those two episodes being incredibly uh, painful, difficult… stressful. Cold. No, I don’t remember any of the other episodes that season.

Renee   : Really?

Lucy      : What were they? I would if you rememb—reminded me.

Renee   : Heart of Darkness…

Sharon  : Gurkhan.

Lucy      : Oh really that was the last season? I remember that quite well.

Renee   : The one where uh…

Sharon  : Many Happy Returns.

Renee   : Many Happy Returns with the uh,

Lucy      : Was this the pony thing? (Renee: No.) What was that?

Sharon  : That’s where you were—you went swimming, she had a black eye. It was—a lot of practical jokes were going on. Read the Sappho Poem (Renee: the Sappho Poem at the end.) on the hill side. Almost toss the helmet over the cliff.

Lucy      : Was Kevin Smith in that one?

Sharon  : No, he was in uh, Soul Possession which was maybe (L: Oh my God I can’t believe you remember) the third or fourth from the end.

Renee   : Remember that’s where we were—look like uh, clones. We were just—that was a really easy—that’s such an easy episode. We were in heaven, because you know, there were so many people in the cast, there was very little for us to do on that episode, and we just got to sit and pretend like we’re sleeping.

Lucy      : I was wearing Annie… Annie clothes.

Renee   : Yeah. That was an easy one…

Lucy      : Always my favorite costume.

Sharon  : Yup. Drinking chocolate milkshakes and burping.

Lucy      : *makes slurping noise*

Renee   : Kevin was in there a lot.

Sharon  : You’ve been talking about Army Wives and there seems to be some hinting going on in the recent interviews that you’ve done.

Renee   : That you’re a big lezzy? What?

Sharon  : That character’s…

Renee   : Well I’m not supposed to give that away, so I just—all I can say (Lucy: oh. Cut.) is that um, I’m a lady who uh, who… um, befriends one of the Army Wives.

Lucy      : Let’s be friends!

Renee   : Yeah. But it’s gonna be fun. I’m looking forward to it. Something I’ve never played before. Put it like that. That’ll confuse them.

Sharon  : And the scripts are not written now right? So now we’re just… So what do you guys—Have you done any picketing? Anyone, uh… Anything—

Renee   : I haven’t been out there yet.

Sharon  : What’s happening to the turmoil in Hollywood right now. I know the Xena fans are out there providing donuts and, uh… and support.

Renee   : Yeah. Yeah they are.

Lucy      : Wow. I didn’t know that.

Sharon  : Yeah. Surprising the heck out of the picketers. Because the only show that’s supporting them is the show that’s been off the air for 6 years.

Renee   : They’re sending, uh…

Lucy      : No way!

Renee   : Oh yeah.

Sharon  : Absolutely way. Yes, they’re not getting stuff from anyone else.

Renee   : Isn’t that wonderful? They have a website, it’s the uh, MaryD’s website – an Australian website – and there’s a Paypal button and you can go in and you can donate, and then what they do is they take the funds—

Lucy      : Donate the donut.

Sharon  : And the sunscreen…

Renee   : They put, yeah, water out there and um, Katherine was just amazed because there were all these boxes arriving for her and Steven Sears from the Xenaverse. And so she said to all these—

Lucy      : Unbelievable.

Renee   : I know. Isn’t it? She was so blown away and then so—she’s telling all the writers within the Guild, ‘thank the Xenaverse,’ so people are coming up and they know nothing about it, (Lucy: Oh my goodness!) and they’re saying, ‘I wanna thank the Xenaverse,’ you know what I mean? People are really starting to—

Lucy      : Get outta town! Really?

Renee   : Yeah! Aren’t they amazing?

Sharon  : And they’re just, ‘why—this show—you’re show’s off the air! Why are they doing this for us?’ They appreciate.

Lucy      : Wow.

Renee   : Isn’t that nice?

Sharon  : Fantastic. Your people, guys.

Renee   : Well… those guys….

Lucy      : Thanks for letting us be your people.

Renee   : I know, isn’t that really nice? To organize that? It’s incredible.

Lucy      : Wow. It’s really, uh, this is the amazing—that they’re a force for good. Or for what they believe in.

Renee   : Yeah.

Lucy      : Which is, generally speaking, really good causes. Spreading the love. Spread the joy.

Renee   : Yeah. Someone said, ‘it’s funny, because we seem to be better because of you guys, but then we also think that maybe you guys are getting better because of us.’ Not getting better, but I mean like, you even go out again and try to be even more generous, or you push ahead and you keep finding new ways to keep it going, you know what I mean? Like your creating music and then bringing everybody into your world, you know? It just seems to reciprocate, um, each other and the generosity. Like look at the Kevin Smith—

Lucy      : That’s unbelievable.

Renee   : Yeah. It’s amazing.

Sharon  : Um, I was—my parents had moved out here so thinking a bit about childhood. Not having my parent around more than I’m used to. And uh, you recently performed at the Young Storytellers Foundation.

Lucy      : Oh yeah!

Sharon  : Yeah! How did that come by? Did you uh…

Lucy      : Um, Yes I forgot to tell you about that ‘cause it was a very last minute thing. The woman who used to be my nanny, and is now a uh, Social Worker. So she’s an incredible young woman too. Her boyfriend is one of the guys who, uh, runs Young Storytellers so they’re trying to sort of, um, encourage that spark in children to tell stories and be scriptwriters, though I hope they’re not writing during the strike. But I was trying to support the young writers. I took them a donut, each. Um, and they have—once a year they have professional actors come and read the kids’ scripts at somebody’s house.

Renee   : Oh great!

Lucy      : So, um, Amy and Bill asked me if I would come and, uh, do it, and I said, I was like, ‘oh yeah, okay.’ Oh, actually it was really funny! So this little girl – I’m afraid I don’t remember her name – wrote a story ‘The Mystery of The Voice of Elmo’ and there was another story. And they’re about 5-7 pages long. I don’t know. And, uh, everybody – that was Tate Donovan, whole other actors who you would know if you watch network drama but I don’t know ‘cause I don’t, you know. Um, but wonderful young people – Ben from the O.C. – he was somebody I got to know a bit. Um, anyway, they came down, they wanna do those ice breaking games. You know, where you repeat a pattern or something, and I came to it late ‘cause I was trying to cared (?) a drink of somebody and I was like, ‘what? Oh! I better get over there with the actors.’ And I came to it late so I was a bit behind the eyeball. And (Renee: There’s a group of actors trying to warm up?) they’re going—well they’re doing all sorts of warm up games and they were all, like, into it, jolly hockey sticks. And I’m like, ‘what?’ and then you gotta go like, (Lucy gives the game example), whatever. And I’m like, ‘huh? What is this?’ And then this kid goes, ‘and YOU!’ and then I’m into it, (Lucy gives example again). And I’m trying to be, like, cool and hip and down with it, you know. But I’m like so lame at it, and the kids are (Renee: Oh no!) observing us. I didn’t realize they were observing us to see who they wanna cast.

Renee   : Oh wow. Really?

Lucy      : So… in the end, like, nobody wanted to cast—you know, the kids were giving out all their piece of paper to the—you know, to the pretty girl, whatever her name was. She was like really, you know, she was quite slinky, really pretty. A nice young woman whoever the hell she was. And… so she got a couple and everybody else. And at the end it’s me and somebody else, I’m going, ‘this is hysterical, that I cannot get cast in Hollywood by a bloody 8-year-old,’ you know? (Renee: Oh my Gosh) So eventually this kid’s standing there and I’m going, ‘have you got a dog role?’ She was, ‘No, no, all the dogs are gone.’ ’Oh. What about a fat man? I would like to play a fat man.’ Like, now I’m just being ridiculous, right? And she go—eventually she’s like, stuck, and I’m the only person and she goes, ‘Ugh, do you wanna play the part of the principal?’ ‘Oh, yes I wanna play the principal. Thank you.’ (Renee: Wow.) So she’s, like, gives me the principal role. I’m playing the principal of the school, Mrs. Gullat (sp?) – spelled Gullat – who turned out to be a real person, she was actually there, Gullat. So we were saying her name wrong, and it turns out to be, like, the main role, right? The title role – the Mystery of the Voice of Elmo. So these kids go to the Elmo show on Broadway and they come out going, ‘gee I wonder who plays the voice of Elmo?’ and they, ‘let’s google it up!’ So when they get home they google it up and it comes up ‘Anita Gullat’ or something. And, ‘hey that sounds like our principal’s name. Let’s sneak around by and try to find out what her first name is.’ So at school the next day, (Renee: that’s fun. Wow.) another teacher says, ‘hey Anita, I’m sorry I’m gonna be late to that teacher’s meeting after school’, ‘no trouble,’ says I. Well, because my character is the voice of Elmo, of course I start playing her totally with the voice of Elmo from the start, like, (Renee: Oh my God! That is hilarious) I’m like—and the kids come and say, ‘Mrs. Gullat, everybody—we know that you secretly played the voice of Elmo.’ And I’m like, ‘what are you talking about? Me not play Elmo!’

Renee   : Oh my God! That’s hilarious!

Lucy      : So all—the audience loved it because they’re grown-ups and they just thought it was funny that I would even know—‘cause they see you get given the role and you’ve had no practice or whatever. They just are amazing, you know, I’m the voice of Elmo, right? And… but the kid was going, (Renee: Oh no. She’s giving it away.) ‘*gasps* Look, she’s ruining—if you talk like this, everybody would know you are Elmo!’ (Renee: That is so funny.) Right, but I’m just being a fool. And um, anyway, I had a great time but the poor – as writers often know, they would be horrified with what I do with their words. Anyway, (Renee: That is really funny!) ‘What are you talking—no, me not played the voice of Elmo.’

Renee   : Aw she’s just a little kid. Oh my gosh, that is funny!

Lucy      : Miscast.

Renee   : It was perfectly cast.

Sharon  : Oh boy. Oh that’s great.                    

Lucy      : She should’ve given me the dog role.

Sharon  : Woof, woof. No accent. Hey, you have said you use music to help you find a character. Especially when you don’t have much time to prepare. Can you give us an example? What music does help?

Renee   : Yeah, I’m trying to think. I think it might be an emotional connection to the character? That’s what I’m thinking, ‘cause I’ve nothing comes out of—you know… no inspiration on the story. I don’t know, but it must just be, uh, probably the tone of the piece or the tone of the character. Uh, maybe even, um, the words, or the voice of the musician. Could be that sort of thing.

Lucy      : Do you have to pick the artist for the character? Or is it just something that strikes you?

Renee   : Um, I think it’s just if I’d run across something. For instance, okay, here’s a story. Uh, for One Weekend A Month, it was such a raw, angry character. And it was actually Eric’s idea, the director, to listen to Liz Phair. I’ve—Liz who? You know, I didn’t know who she is. Do you know her stuff?

Lucy      : P-H-A-I-R, right?

Renee   : Yeah, she is intense, and angry. So angry, and that’s what he wanted. So I was like, ‘oh, okay.’ And I started listening to her and I just—I understood what he meant. So then I asked another friend who is, um, more fluent in different artists to make a compilation of music for me. I told her what I was looking for. So she gave me some stuff, and I just used… I used that to get that, um, feeling, you know. Just keep it—to sustain that the feeling, really. (Sharon: brings out the emotion in you?) That keeps me going, yeah. It’s good.

Sharon  : You also said, uh, might be even in the same interview that you love the raw emotion of acting. Can you think of the rawest moment for you on Xena? Either both of you?

Lucy      : I know what hers is.

Renee   : You do?

Lucy      : Yeah.

Renee   : What?

Lucy      : That cannibal one.

Renee   : Oh. I wouldn’t have thought—well that was pretty raw, yeah. That was of sense where I felt like if I had said anything I was gonna lose (Lucy: my shit. Yeah.) control. I was gonna lose control of, like—‘cause you gotta be professional. You gotta do your job, you know? You’re here to do a job. And there was so much anger in that that I just was like… But my most raw when I was thinking with you is, um, when you were in the um, the water, and you had that one piece around your neck. (Lucy: That was heavy. Yeah.) You know what I mean? And just to have that sense of—there’s dialogue, and then there’s emotion. There’s no… there’s no hesitation, it’s just complete connection to the material and to the situation. That’s what came to my mind at first. Especially working with someone else, where the cannibal thing was just the mind in my head going—

Lucy      : That—right. Yeah, that wouldn’t have occurred to me as the rawest, though that was certainly similar in that if-I-had’ve-given-an-inch-i-would’ve-lost-my-business.

Renee   : Really?

Lucy      : Yeah. Because it was so heavy, I was so—and everybody’s like totally casual, you know. Having a cigarette and, ‘oh, yeah sure. We’re filming it,’ and I’m sitting there with this, like, 20 pounds of wood on my head that’s really wildly uncomfortable, and… there are other people—you particularly don’t wanna (Renee: That’s interesting.) be a brat because there’s other people in the water with you. And I think the ones they had on them weren’t so (Renee: They weren’t—they were Styrofoam. Yeah.) heavy, they were, like, foam ones or Styrofoam or something. But (Renee: Yours had to look real.) yeah, and it was really, miserably heavy. The other times that was hard to keep it together was yeah, in water. Often—it’s the water (Renee: it was the water for you?) ones, right. In water and cold. When we were wet and cold.

Renee   : And the other thing about that is that you couldn’t do anything. You couldn’t use your arms. You couldn’t take it off, you know what I mean? Like, you were sort of trapped in this thing. Your body was trapped. And I think that’s how I felt with the cannibal, you know, my arms were tied. I had all these strangers—

Lucy      : I feel sometimes a little bit mad now, when I look back and I go, ‘you know what? There’s no—‘ It’s kind of what you said before, I’m afraid is true. I do not think that anybody puts up with that level of discomfort and stuff in America. Ever. Not that I’ve seen. I mean, they don’t bloody tolerate having to walk 50 feet to the bathroom.

Sharon  : Yeah.

Renee   : Right.

Lucy      : Let alone lying being crucified half naked in middle winter, regularly.

Renee   : You have to laugh. You do wonder how—

Lucy      : You have to laugh, and... yes, but… (inaudible) now I think of it I just go, ‘that was wrong, man. That was unfair.’

Renee   : But you know what? It didn’t—at the time it felt like we were (Lucy: We did not know any better) serving the material. We were serving the material though. You know what I mean?

Lucy      : Yeah, but the more we did, the more they could write. (Renee: oh, instead of just saying no) because you and I didn’t know any better and we were tough enough chicks to, like, suck it up (Renee: Yeah, you just do.). That’s great, but it’s like, I don’t wanna remember, to be honest with you.

Sharon  : You were relatively new.

Lucy      : Yeah.

Renee   : I don’t think it was that. I don’t think that if, like, they asked us to that now, if they asked us to go back and—not go back but, ‘we wanted you to be in these roles and we want you to do it right now,’ would you say no? Would you say, ‘no I will not be crucified at all,” period.

Lucy      : Yeah.

Renee   : Really? ‘Cause I don’t think I would. I would be, like, ‘oh if it serves what this script needs, I would do it.’ I would probably have a different feeling about it, but… isn’t that funny? I would—

Lucy      : No interest.

Sharon  : And I have a feeling when you say, ’would you do it again,’ basically what you’re envisioning is 6 more years.

Renee   : Oh no, I mean—

Lucy      : Yeah, that’s what I—that’s why I’ve never signed on to…

Renee   : No, I’m talking about, say there—let’s just say in this world there was a Xena movie and you had to be crucified. Would you do it? Would you do—

Lucy      : Oh, yes. I would, actually.

Renee   : That’s what I mean.

Lucy      : I would.

Renee   : I figure you would. ‘Cause you would just do it.

Lucy      : Yeah, and also… it’s mind over matter, now. You know, like, I’m a much calmer person, I’m not… I see it just for the gig that it is, yeah. I just don’t—I think I had a sense of religion about what I did before.

Renee   : At least you did, you know. At least you committed to it, you know what I mean?

Lucy      : That’s right.

Renee   : If you had done anything in a halfway manner, it wouldn’t have sold. You wouldn’t have been the person you were, the character wouldn’t have come across like it did, you know?

Lucy      : That’s right, and I—

Renee   : So at that moment that was really important for sure.

Lucy      : It could only have happened then, that’s right. That’s like, it could only have happened at that time.

Sharon  : Yeah. I supposed if you haven’t done it the way you did, people wouldn’t be delivering water to the picketers.

Renee   : Yeah, exactly.

Lucy      : Right. Maybe that’s the difference, eh?

Sharon  : Maybe that’s why you spent 6 years on Xena. So the picketers outside the Buena Vista Disney gates (Renee: get some water.) would have sunscreen.

Lucy      : Yeah.

Renee   : That’s right.

Sharon  : Domino effect. Um, at the last Burbank convention, Renee, you talked about uh, being at the Roxy. You said, ‘I had a great time just sitting back and watching Lucy. I could see why you guys love her so much.’ You said you could see the love from Lucy to the fans and from the fans to Lucy. And then you started to cry. Do you remember doing that? Why’d it got you so emotional?

Renee   : Yeah. Oh, it’s just so moving, you know? It’s um, I’m so proud of you being up there, for one. Seriously, you know? And I just—oh, you know, I think that’s wonderfully courageous and… and it’s just so fun to see you have this dream – whether be for right now or whenever, or however long – and to bring it out there and share it with everybody. I loved that, you know? It was so fun to watch you go for it. And then, um, and to see the fans that were there just, um, love you that much too, you know? It was just so fun! They were all united in this wonderful moment, so… and it’s because you stepped up to do it, and I thought that was cool.

Sharon  : Does love make you emotional?

Renee   : Well, I’ve—I’m… Love—everything. Everything makes me feel sensitive, you know? I think I’m very compassionate and… yeah. Don’t think that’s a bad thing, though.

Sharon  : Well you talked to, you know, you just did an online interview and you said you had a colorful childhood and you also mentioned in Chicago I think it was, that there was some, you know, there was some abuse in the family (Renee: Yes. It’s good.) what have you and, I don’t know has that made it harder or easier for you to be open as a person and as an actor?

Renee   : Um, I think I’ve just, this last year, started to realize that if I can own up to who I am – that gets me upset – then I can be a better person, yeah. I feel like I’m on Barbara Walters. (Sharon: Wait a minute I don’t do things like that.) Anyway, what I wanna say is, yeah, the more I can share, the more I get to, um, wow… live this really great life. And what’s good about it is just not being so emotional about it, really. Though I am right now. Usually I’m not. Maybe—I don’ t know.

Sharon  : Maybe because you’re with your buds.

Lucy      : I think Ren was very buttoned down for a long time, right? You were very keeping a lid on everything.

Renee   : Well you have to. There’s—

Lucy      : And now you’re allow— able to let the lid up a little bit and allow these things to express ‘cause otherwise it’s impressed in you.

Renee   : But I expressed it in my acting. I always knew what I was doing as an actor. That, you know, you let the demons come out, you know, and you express yourself. And that always works for me which was so great about Xena, you know. There’s so many ways to explore different feelings, you know? But, um, so I always knew that but to actually share stories with people was a whole other thing. Because you’re so ashamed, you know? And to go, ‘why? why am I ashamed?’ you know?

Lucy      : Yeah.

Renee   : So I am, though. It’s really cool. And I’m writing about it, oh my gosh, it’s incredible. (Lucy: Yeah.) I had these wild—I had such a wild life. You have no idea… no one has any idea, really, what it was—this world I was in. So bizarre. But I’m starting to write about it and the more I write about it, the more I realize how absolutely ridiculous it was and that we’ve lived this life, and that people… it’s so ridiculous, it’s like J.R. Ewing lived—was our… the man who run down (Lucy: J.R. Ewing?) our world. It was like, I swear, it was like, this Texan, crazy, crazy man, you know? And I’m—it’s so absurd to me that he got away with it, and that we all had to be dragged along the way and no one did anything. It’s so amazing to me so I’m starting to write about that—

Lucy      : Keeping up appearance to…

Renee   : Yeah. That’s what it was all about. You know, we were basically the appearance of a normal family. So, even as a young kid, I had the insight to know this was wrong, but I had no voice to say, ‘what the hell?’ you know? What can we do about it? But now I do have the voice. This is all so new for me, so I’m just gonna see where it goes. And… Yeah. We’ll see.

Lucy      : ‘Cause there’s nothing to fear by letting it out, right? When you’re a kid you feel like you have to…

Renee   : Well you think you’re gonna be punished for it. 

Lucy      : Yeah. Something so terrible is gonna happen if you even admit something to yourself.

Renee   : Yeah. So anyway, it’s good.

Sharon  : It’s good?

Renee   : It is good. (Lucy: It is very good. It’s really good.) I don’t normally get so emotional about it. ‘Cause I am—‘cause it’s uh, it is what it is, you know, and I’ve realized that if I hadn’t lived the childhood I had, I wouldn’t be on the TV show I was on, I wouldn’t have the ability to have the exposure I have to let other people know, you know? Have faith, you know. (Sharon: And touch people the way you have through that.) I can help them, yeah. But it’s taken me a while to get there. So the answer to your question’s: yes I was closed off because I didn’t want people to hear all the bad stuff, you know? Now’s, like, okay, well, that’s life. You know? It is what it is. So…

Sharon  : You had crazy brothers when they were growing up, and so, you know, you have 5 older brothers, right?

Lucy      : Four older brothers and…

Sharon  : Four older brothers, right. And uh, you know, being the girl in the family can be uh, you know, they could be teasing and they would, you know, quite some age differences. And I wonder if that affected uh, kind of the way you look at the male of the species as when you were a kid.

Lucy      : No, I went out, um, with Marissa yesterday and we were canvassing around, like, frat houses around the university campuses. Um, and she was terrified. She’d go, ‘oh no, don’t… don’t give them one of these flyers. We’re, um, I got a bad feeling about them.’ So I, and I’d go, ‘hey, dude, you wanna go to the blablabla,’ and such and he would, you know, smile, and he was totally human. But I realized that some people are very—just deathly afraid of strangers. And these are not—it’s not like… I mean this person could be her brother sort of thing. So I’m saying ethnicities or—but just a stranger. And um, I’m not afraid of men at all because I’ve had so much exposure to them, good and bad, and whatever.

Sharon  : So you think you’re maybe stronger and more…

Lucy      : No, no, I’m not prejudice against them. Put it that way. I’m not afraid of them, I’m… yeah. I don’t have a chip on my shoulder about men. I, uh… or women. I just kinda see the human being behind. I don’t care what their gender is. I don’t care what they—who they sleep with, I don’t care… as long as it’s not MY daughter.

Sharon  : Rob was asked recently, uh, and answered to—and Rob answered recently on how close you guys are to your characters that, ’Renee is probably more like the character that Gabrielle became. I also suspect,’ and perhaps he was looking at your socks, ‘that Renee is wilder than Gabrielle. But that is just speculation,’ Rob said.

Renee   : These are my socks.

Lucy      : No, those socks aren’t wild. (Renee: They’re not wild! Ladybugs.) That’s her fey side. She’s also quite girly.

Renee   : Yeah. I like uh, colorful socks in anyway. No, but, what is he talking about? My belly button ring? What is he talking about? (Lucy: You have a belly button ring?) That I like to dance on stage?

Sharon  : He just thinks that perhaps you’re wilder than people—

Lucy      : I told him.

Renee   : Probably, I don’t know.

Sharon  : You told him. You gave it away.

Renee   : I told him. Haha! Um, that’s def—I’m sure that’s true, yeah. I don’t think Gabrielle was—

Lucy      : But, I’m sorry. She’s an awe—they’re all awesome characters and they’ve been on television for a long time, 6 years, to develop... But it’s still a television character. So human being is always gonna be more complex, and infinite. Though I guess the reason that um, Gabrielle and Xena are—have some sort of infinite possibilities is because it’s in the imagination of the audience.

Renee   : Right.

Lucy      : But no writer can write, can capture the essence of Renee. They can only suggest certain things for the character.

Renee   : They might have ideas of a back story, but I guess you then—you know what I mean? Some writers write a whole treatment on the character development. You know? Sometimes that happens, but… um, I know what you’re saying. Yeah. Anyway, that was just my other… But you still have to bring the essence to life. The soul has to come out, right? That’s what you’re saying? Yeah. I know what you’re saying I’m just… blah.

Lucy      : That’s right. Yeah. Me too. I was just thinking, ‘I’ve lost trait of what we’re talking about.’ All my thoughts are gone. Next!

Renee   : Sorry.

Sharon  : I have one last peaceful *something* here, which caught my attention. You said, um, in that online interview, ‘I feel a sense of grounding in the desert where there aren’t any people.’ You wanna explain more about that?

Renee   : I just—I loved Egypt. I loved Israel. I’ll never forget being in the Dead Sea, looking out over the mountains. And just feeling such a sense of peace and serenity. So when I think of, like, what’s the most expansive I can feel outside my body I think of the desert. I don’t know why. But I love that.

Sharon  : And where’s you most peaceful place, Lucy?

Lucy      : Um, I’m pretty peaceful right this mo— *Lucy hums*

Renee   : Yeah, you are.

Lucy      : These days, I mean I just power down whenever I’m *hums again* and then I’m okay.

Renee   : That’s great. Wow.

Sharon  : Except inside your exciting closet, right?

Lucy      : Eh?

Sharon  : Have you shown Renee the closet in here?

Renee   : No!

Sharon  : I come in and she’s got this, you know, great house here, and she says to me, ‘you gotta see the closet!’ So I opened the door… and it’s a room! (Renee: I wanna see.) And she’s just giggling like a little kid. ‘I’ve got a room for a closet!’

Lucy      : It’s outrageous.

Renee   : But you are really peaceful now. Just hanging out with your family. I mean…

Lucy      : Yeah.

Renee   : Yeah. That’s really great.

Lucy      : I’ve stopped thinking that I can’t live without the acting, or the money, or the fame, or whatever it is. None of that stuff is, um, none of that is relev—in fact that would get in your way of being happy and being peaceful. If you think that without these things… you can’t exist without a certain job, without a certain person… when you realize, ‘oh no, actually I don’t need any of that to be happy,’ then um, yeah, your natural state is peaceful and free. And, um, joyous. It’s your natural state.

Sharon  : One of your natural states at the moment is running around college campuses as you said with Marissa…

Lucy      : Oh yeah.

Sharon  : Asking people questions, well you got someone here.

Lucy      : Yeah, well, uh, I was gonna, uh, ask you Renee…

Renee   : We’re live?

Lucy      : So, hooking up with a much older partner, what’s so wrong with that? Have you ever uh, you know, dated somebody much older? Or much younger than yourself? Would you?