Coffee Talk 1 

Lucy     : Renee, wake up…. Mail time!

Renee   : Aahh! I’m dreaming of Lucy.

Lucy     : Mail call.

Renee   : Right.

Lucy     : Where’s the mail?

Renee   : Bring ‘em on.

Lucy     : Alright. There’s a letter for you.

Renee   : Oh, alright. Well, there you go.

Lucy     : What have you got?

Renee   : Oohh.

Lucy     : The 2-0-0-2 Calendar.

Renee   : Alright.

Lucy     : And it’s a doozie. (Renee: If you’re calling them a dooze.) I channel ready!

Renee   : Very nice. It reminds me of those— (Lucy: And I have some photos here.) Yeah? These remind me of the T-Shirts.

Lucy     : Hi. I feel like somebody’s watching us. I don’t know. Creepy.

Renee   : Let’s see what do we have here?

Lucy     : Xena Warrior Princess calendar.

Renee   : Xena… what—that was from, um…

Lucy     : That was from that Roman episode.

Renee   : When Fates Collide. Right?

Lucy     : We should—you know what? You and I should never attempt to say what any of these—

Renee   : …what episode this is.

Lucy     : I wish I could remember. It was all a blur.

Renee   : This is the first time.

Lucy     : That was the Roman episode where... you know—Alti was moving really fast around… (Renee: Right, where...) up Mount Mangere?

Renee   : You were the Roman emperor—empress with, um, Caesar. You’re Caesar’s wife. Caesar’s…

Lucy     : Yeah. That’s right. Yeah.

Renee   : …lustful… Well there you go.

Lucy     : I remember now. Okay?

Renee   : Okay. Hang on.

Lucy     : Page one. Look, (Renee: How beautiful.) this was the official day for us.

Renee   : That was. That was when… (Lucy: That’s a good scene.) That was the, um, last comedic scene that we did.

Lucy     : It was the last scene where you and I were going to, um,

Renee   : …work together on a normal Xena episode before the—

Lucy     : Yeah. And just you and me, and it was just us-relating.

Renee   : Right.

Lucy     : That was…

Renee   : It’s actually quite sad. I remember being quite touched by it all. So beautiful looking out over the New Zealand…

Lucy     : And it was just us and the crew. It was very intimate. There were no extras.

Renee   : And I think I remember telling the crew I was pregnant then as well.

Lucy     : Oh, yeah.

Renee   : Lucy’s going, ‘Renee has a secret! Go on, tell them! Tell them!’

Lucy     : Was I?

Renee   : Yeah, yeah. Yeah, as a matter of fact.

Lucy     : That’s not like me. I’m very discreet.

Renee   : Yeah. What’s this one? This is, um, it’s—

Lucy     : Oh, hang on. And this is the scene where, um, Gabrielle… where Xena puts on the helmet and takes her for a ride.

Renee   : That’s right.

Lucy     : That was a nice moment. I think that was, um…

Renee   : And do you remember we had to shoot, um, the flying of that. We were up on a blue box, you and I were both huddled together, and we’re pretending to fly.

Lucy     : We’re flying! It reminds me of the last scene in, um, The Never-Ending Story. That’s a cute movie.

Renee   : Oh.

Lucy     : Anyway, this… this is one of the most miserable days of my life. Had to happen during the Valkyrie. But, um…

Renee   : Wait. Let me just fix that.

Lucy     : Could you—yeah. Please spit on your hand, now that you’re a mother!

Renee   : Here let me fix your hair.

Lucy     : Spit on my—

Renee   : Yeah. There you go.

Lucy     : See what it’s been like for me all these years?

Renee   : Yes. I’m the maternal one.

Lucy     : Alright. Okay.

Renee   : That’s better. So this is one of the most miserable days, was it? Oh because it was freezing, it was winter and you’re in the ocean. Huh. Funny, that. Very unusual.

Lucy     : Uh, yeah. That’s right. They write all our beach scenes in winter.

Renee   : Hey, but you looked great. That’s a nice outfit.

Lucy     : It was a wonderful outfit. But, um, they made the—

Renee   : Nice and light.

Lucy     : Um, there’s a corset underneath—there’s about 3 corsets (Renee: You always had to wear corsets. You know, you always had to be nice and comfortable) on that. And it had—you had to suck that *something* in. (Renee: No but you never—) Well what did you mean?

Renee   : Well, as a matter of fact… (Lucy: No…) No, but you always got the nice, comfortable outfits I’ve found… Where I get to hang out.

Lucy     : How do you know? When did you ever put my outfits on?

Renee   : First season, didn’t I? I wore one of your Xena—yeah, the Greater Good. I wore… not your outfit, but I wore one of the stunt doubles’ Xena corsets.

Lucy     : Did you find it comfortable?

Renee   : No. Not at all. It’s being quite fastidious. Although it’s not funny obviously.

Lucy     : And well…I think my outfits were uncomfortable, but yours were freezing. (Renee: I used to let it hang out.) And you got to be… which was okay for you in winter—in summer (Renee: Summer.), but in winter, especially that winter where you had to go shoeless.

Renee   : Oh God! Rob’s idea, ‘and there would be 3 episodes—’

Lucy     : ‘where Gabrielle doesn’t have any shoes on.’

Renee   : Yeah, yeah. She’s the pacifist. It was muddy, I remember the mud crawling through my toes.

Lucy     : She’s going to be like Gandhi and it was freezing, and there’s mud scrotching <sp?> between her toes.

Renee   : I was sliding down, um, the hill at Sturges? Don’t know if you remember. Like there’s this one little area and it was just (Lucy: Durgatory.) raining. Durgatory.

Lucy     : Yeah.

Renee   : Yeah.

Lucy     : Yeah, that was funny.

Renee   : That was funny.

Lucy     : You thing that was you always had a cold stomach and back, and (Renee: That’s right.) you got to eat all the bad stuff.

Renee   : Oh right. Right, right, right. (Lucy: Gabrielle always had to eat the—) Yeah, but then you… you, uh, were laced up like a straight jacket. But it looked good.

Lucy     : There were times at the beginning that, um, or where I would get a new corset that, um, they would put boning in the sides.

Renee   : You had to break it in.

Lucy     : Yeah. Well they would put it in the wrong place and, um, it would press on the floating ribs, and I would just about to have panic attacks, ‘cause you—if you can’t breathe, it’s like, breathing is the seed of you relaxation kind of, and if you can’t breathe, it can— (Renee: Right.) it’s like, anxiety inducing. So um, (Renee: I never noticed that. I never noticed that you’re hyperventilating.) there were a couple of times, ‘you could take this off me!’

Renee   : I just remember you were sitting in the chair with the new leather outfit, you know, not being able to kind of relax. And then our stuntman Graham, saying that must be a new corset for Lucy ‘cause you’d hear the leather (Lucy: Creaky.), yeah, creaking. ‘Here comes Lucy!’

Lucy     : Yeah. Anyway…

Renee   : Anyway…

Lucy     : Those Valkyrie episodes were tough.

Renee   : Oh, there we go.

Lucy     : Oohh!

Renee   : That’s sexy! Whoo-hoo! Mama!

Lucy     : That was… yes. After you’ve had a baby (Renee: You had a baby! God!) getting back in those outfits just freaks you out. But, um…

Renee   : That’s amazing. I couldn’t imagine doing that right now actually. That’s a great outfit.

Lucy     : Uh, I don’t know how long afterwards that was but, um…

Renee   : That was, um, that was my directing episode. That was Dangerous Prey.

Lucy     : Oh yeah! That’s the outfit you wouldn’t let me wear.

Renee   : I know. You look too good! No, no, it’s not true.

Lucy     : Isn’t that right? You were being, like, overly sensitive about women having to wear bikinis and things and we’re going, ‘uh… are you crazy?’

Renee   : No, actually… No, it was just like—this looks, you know, you looked amazing. But the reason was because you were going into that cave and I wanted the Xena icon of the, um, the silhouette of the whole look and you were gonna continue on the story with the outfit.

Lucy     : Yeah. You had to film it laughing.

Renee   : I did, I did. ‘But it looks good!’

Lucy     : I’m going, ‘skin looks really good on screen!’ (Renee: Yeah. Sex sells!) People relate to skin—sex sells, man.

Renee   : Yeah. But, um, yeah…

Lucy     : And the Japanese outfit.

Renee   : That was so stunning.

Lucy     : Yeah, that was a good, cozy, episode, that one.

Renee   : The set was beautiful. They, um… the teahouse.

Lucy     : Yeah, wasn’t that set amazing?

Renee   : There was a teahouse right in the middle of the, um, the warehouse. Remember? (Lucy: Yeah.) Nothing was there before, and—

Lucy     : It was, uh, what was that pool? Must’ve been a hundred feet long and 60 feet across.

Renee   : We’d used that for, um, the Amazon (L  ucy: Oh, that’s right. With sharks.) episode where we’re being chased by sharks? Yeah. We’re all swimming around on our knees. Sharks. Remember?

Lucy     : Yeah, yeah, yeah. I do. Oh! Oh, kiss me, quick! Spit in my mouth!

Renee   : Yeah, here’s a little drool for you.

Lucy     : Okay. This is the last episode where Gabrielle (Renee: drools in Xe—my mouth) drools in Xena’s mouth.

Renee   : That should do.

Lucy     : It’s good, though. You got good breath.

Renee   : Thank you. You told me I was a good kisser. I’m kidding.

L          : The walls have ears! Um… Oh! Now this was a good scene. This one where you had that beautiful outfit. Man! You look good in that. It’s good style! (Renee: Isn’t it?) And I look really good in that sackcloth too.

Renee   : Yeah. I always loved that, um, (Lucy: I fish the compliments of you.) the muslin <I’m not sure about this, though>, dirty muslin look.

Lucy     : Yeah. And I like how rouged (sp?) fabric is so slimming (Renee: Yeah.) on screen?

Renee   : That was our crucifixion look as well, wasn’t it?

Lucy     : Yeah. No, that’s our cinema curtain look. When I was growing up, in all the theaters you’d have those rouged curtains, you know? Oh, hang on, that’s Xena kissing Gabrielle. (Renee: Yeah. See, there you go. Turn around…) in the very one last Valkyrie episode. That’s the one where you got to lie on a slab for three weeks.

Renee   : Yeah. (Lucy: I was so jealous.) I had it really hard.

Lucy     : Oh.

Renee   : This is the Renee page.

Lucy     : This is the Renee page, and this when you were probably four months pregnant?

Renee   : Can’t you—they can’t tell.

Lucy     : From their boobies.

Renee   : Never mind. Never mind!

Lucy     : Look at this first shot. Look at this first shot. That’s a real Renee shot. You never see Gabrielle do that, but it’s like…

Renee   : God!

Lucy     : Renee with those enormous boobies!

Renee   : Well you know, (Lucy: Oh, crikey!) the pregnancy thing. Anyway, moving on. Then we go to Ares’ Farm.

Lucy     : No, no, we’re not moving on. Hang on, this is good. It’s good. You finally got used to that outfit?

Renee   : With one? Oh, the red velvet?

Lucy     : Yup.

Renee   : Disco queen?

Lucy     : I always kinda liked that.

Renee   : I—you know, it wasn’t my favorite Gabrielle outfit, I like the one before.

Lucy     : Really? What was that?

Renee   : I like—

Lucy     : The leather one?

Renee   : I liked the leather and orange.

Lucy     : Why’d they move away from that?

Renee   : It was too much leather, between the two of us. They needed something more colorful for Gabrielle ‘cause she’s such clown.

Lucy     : And we went to India, right? No, you had got your new outfit.

Renee   : That was after India. It was just too much. Too similar. They needed to diversify it.

Lucy     : And a bit dull too.

Renee   : Yeah. So they brightened her up. But I just found the skirt—

Lucy     : Did you get that outfit? Did you get any of it?

Renee   : I did.

Lucy     : Which one? The leather or the…

Renee   : Um, well I—I have the remains of the leather, ‘cause we trashed it, um, for—what was the episode? For the, uh, the Evil Dead episode, our spin on it? (Lucy: Oh yes. Yeah, yeah, yeah. The haunted house…) Where Gabrielle was in the slush pit with all the, um, zombies? Well we had to destroy the leather outfit because we needed to slime it. So, I have the remains of that one. And then I have, um, this disco—

Lucy     : That was the best slime scene. This is pure example.

Renee   : That was awful, Lucy. Everyone—no, no, no, no. Everybody was sick in this little cave (Lucy: We were retching.) of water tank.

Lucy     : You were going, ‘no, no. it’s okay.’ It’s like the hypothermia, you just get, like, (Renee: You move beyond it.) go through that sonic barrier. And you just, are in complete denial that (Renee: Right.) anything’s wrong, right? And Renee was covered in this it was KY Jelly, and asparagus, (Renee: Asparagus puree.) and vegemite.

Renee   : And vegemite, nice. See I couldn’t tell.

Lucy     : And it was like…

Renee   : This was the smell? (Lucy: We were—) Everyone started to stay away from me. But I just, (Lucy: Renee’s going, ‘no, it’s alright.’) kept moving around. ‘Would you want a cup of tea?’

Lucy     : And we had to save your life, right? We were all going… The camera’s rolling, and we’re going—trying not to touch you, like…

Renee   : Trying not to make you sick?

Lucy     : Yeah.

Renee   : But before that, the guy in the zombie—you know, with the zombie masks that were in the, uh, water? Before you pull Gabrielle out? These guys were under water and everybody was sick at the time so they were, um, sneezing and coughing in their masks. They take the mask off and you know, rinse it out in the water. I’m sitting in this bath tub with them, going, ‘oh no…’ I mean, this is so not… That was very funny.

Lucy     : That was as asperate, wasn’t it?

Renee   : We had a good time, though.

Lucy     : Nice turn out, Renee!

Renee   : Thank you. I missed my calling as a dancer. What the heck? That was from Legacy. I remember that. Look at your face going, ‘Renee, what are you doing?’ Or, no, you’re going, ‘I wish I could do that.’

Lucy     : Yeah, yeah. Except my knees going—not my feet going…

Renee   : Look at my big feet too! That’s what you’re admiring. (Lucy: That’s a great shot!) Big feet, you know?

Lucy     : Never saw that before. (Renee: That’s when we were—) That’s an out of character moment.

Renee   : It is. That’s when we’re trying to ad-lib and come up with something at the beginning of the scene?

Lucy     : What did we come up with?

Renee   : You’re saying, ‘where’s my nose?’

Lucy     : Got your nose!

Renee   : Yeah.

Lucy     : Here’s you in that really handsome robe. That’s not your real robe!

Renee   : No, that looks like I borrowed it ‘cause the sleeves are too long. Oh, actually all the—all the robes were like that. Yeah, they came with the sleeves.

Lucy     : Isn’t that right? That’s right. In the sixth year I went, ‘guys, nobody has arms this long.’ (Renee: Right. Like there’s something on our arms.) Then we just need to compute this. I cannot possibly reach the end of these.

Renee   : Do you remember the first year when we had our robes, you know, to stay warm, and then they… they came up with the X on the back of one and then G on the back of another? I used to remember that going, ‘well, that’s really sweet.’ (Lucy: I thought it was classy.) Do you remember there’s a little—and then, um, then as everyone came, Ares had the A for “Ares”, Alex had the A for “Aphrodite”, Ted had T just for “Ted”. No…

Lucy     : Did he? Or is it—

Renee   : J, no, it’s J. I think it was J. And then do you remember when we were all in bed—we were all in bed together, you and, um, Kevin Smith and myself for the Ares’ Farm and we put our robes on top of each other and then it was just the letters of the… the, um, robes?

Lucy     : I never even noticed.

Renee   : Oh really? (Lucy: Did you do that?) The, the wardrobe girls were having a ball. Anyway (Lucy: oh, they’re so cute.) they thought it was funny.

Lucy     : Love those girls, eh?

Renee   : Yeah, I miss them.

Lucy     : Sitting on a horse…

Renee   : Drama!

Lucy     : The location where we shot this, Mount Mangere, is the most perilous place to ride horses. And I used to feel bad to the stunt people and the—you know, the pony people because it was so lethal, it’s just these volcanic rocks littering this enormous crater of this volcano.

Renee   : Did you actually go through the crater?

Lucy     : I did a couple of times but it’s horr—really scary riding. And, um, yeah, they did amazing stunts. A lot of riding at that place, but boy, I’m—

Renee   : It’s funny ‘cause it’s so beautiful, you know. It looks serene, doesn’t it? (Lucy: Yeah.) Just all green. You don’t realize—

Lucy     : And every now and then you get that herd of cows walking through the back of the shot?

Renee   : Oh yeah.

Lucy     : Yup. Ooh! The tattoo!

Renee   : Yes.

Lucy     : Just hold still Gabrielle, this won’t take a minute.

Renee   : Yes! This’ll take a second in the morning.

Lucy     : You won’t feel a thing.

Renee   : That was pretty impressive, actually.

Lucy     : That was a beautiful tattoo.

Renee   : The girls went through quite a lot of trouble…

Lucy     : How long did that take to apply?

Renee   : An hour.

Lucy     : Is that all?

Renee   : Yeah.

Lucy     : That’s pretty g—I mean that’s a long time to sit in.

Renee   : They did the transfer and then, um, Barbie and Jane – our makeup ladies – hand-painted all the scales in all the different colors. The greens, and oranges, and yellows.

Lucy     : Yeah. That’s why an hour doesn’t sound like that much.

Renee   : Huh. I guess 2 people working on it make sense... Gabrielle with a terrible headache, ‘oh, what have I done now?’

Lucy     : Oh, yeah. There she goes. Um…

Renee   : Actually that was an—a lovely day. That was in Muriwai and it was so warm. You actually enjoyed the water. Do you remember?

Lucy     : Is it the farmer first <something>?

Renee   : That was the farm. That was before we found out that cows went to the bathroom just up the stream and bathe in the water. Oh, you probably didn’t know that. Never mind.

Lucy     : Yeah. This would be us… Aww, this is us ready to bathe in winter in the <something I can’t make out. Sorry.>

Renee   : You know what that is? That’s actually from Tsunami. Isn’t it?

Lucy     : Yeah. Where we had to re-shoot that ending? (Renee: You mean we re-shot the ending?) Remember we shot twice to that rotten beach?

Renee   : Because the first time was a cyclone or some sort? That one? No, no, no. (No that was Bobby, um, uh, <someone>’s episode.) That was different. You’re right. The end of Bitter Suite. Is that what you mean?

Lucy     : No, this is the end of Tsunami, I believe. Oh! Bitter Suite!

Renee   : We all were lying in the ocean.

Lucy     : Oh that’s right. Because we started telling the truth to each other.

Renee   : The truth? What’s the truth?

Lucy     : Well that’s why we had to sing. ‘Cause, ‘our hearts are hurting beyond words.’ I actually really like that song.

Renee   : I liked that episode. I know no one appreciates the musical as much as we did, but.

Lucy     : I… I think that’s—I know Joss Whedon who does Buffy really liked it and that was his (Renee: Oh, they’re doing a musical?) inspiration. Yeah, I saw it the other night, actually. But, um…

Renee   : Well, there you go.

Lucy     : But this was a really… you know, I’m really proud of that. When I look back and go… under the circumstances…

Renee   : The first one. Yeah.

Lucy     : Yeah.

Renee   : I appreciated the first one.

Lucy     : Yeah, the other one was fun, but that was—the first one was classic.

Renee   : How Xena feel throughout. Whereas the second was just a rock—rock ‘n roll concert.

Lucy     : Yeah, yeah.

Renee   : Yeah. Which was our fun.

Lucy     : And there were really big ideas and just stunning visuals and… yeah. That was, um…

Renee   : And I remember you had just finished Grease. Remember? Because you came back and it was one of our first episodes together. (Lucy: Oh, okay.) And you were just amazing. Like you’re energy of doing everything live and… and being right there and present.

Lucy     : Really?

Renee   : Yeah. You’re going—no, you’re just repeating lines to me that, you know, to, um, to help me get a scene that I wasn’t getting.

Lucy     : September.

Renee   : Fall.

Lucy     : Here’s you directing, right? (Renee: Yeah. So engrossed in directing.) Which episode? This is the next one?

Renee   : Dangerous Prey. That’s Dangerous Prey, ‘cause I’d to have headphones.

Lucy     : You didn’t have headphones in your first episode?

Renee   : I did. Probably didn’t remember them. ‘What do you mean I need to hear the sound? I trust them!’

Lucy     : Just blablabla..

Renee   : ‘I trust all the actors,’ yeah. ‘Let’s get to the action!” Will you please do it like— would you please do it my way?

Lucy     : Lucy would you please shut the hell up? Go and stand over there and don’t stump into furniture. Yeah that’s right, me going, ‘Renee, don’t you think,’ ‘uh… no!’

Renee   : No, I didn’t do that: listening.

Lucy     : Oh, here’s me at the end, going, ‘Yeah, yeah…’

Renee   : ‘Oh, now what do you want?’ (Lucy: ‘Okay.’) I can only save this for one more day.

Lucy     : ‘I’m not responsible.’

Renee   : You know, that came on yesterday, I happened to trail the television until the end of Dangerous Prey, (Lucy: Oh yeah?) and I—the first thing I thought was, ‘you know, Lucy was pretty good to tolerate the fact that I was directing.’ It was very funny. Just, you know… it was a great time.

Lucy     : Well, you know, I try—I try to be good for my director.

Renee   : Yeah, you were encouraging. It was great. I just thought, you know, it’s very funny. It must be weird having one of the other actors on the show come and say, ‘okay, here’s what we’re gonna do next.’ That must be strange.

Lucy     : Um, I don’t think so. ‘Cause you know the show as well as anybody could possibly. And, um, no I didn’t find that hard.

Renee   : Yeah?

Lucy     : Yeah. You knew what you, you know, what you wanted, and…

Renee   : I just thought it was great. You just went right along with any little, um, you know… idea.

Lucy     : Yeah. I’ll only approach it—I’ll go, ‘nananana..,’ and you’ll go, ‘No!’

Renee   : ‘I think I should wear the costume.’

Lucy     : ‘Please, Renee. Would you consider reconsidering?’

Renee   : But you were so great! She said, ‘okay. I don’t agree with you but okay.’

Lucy     : Right. It was uh, director’s show. Yeah.

Renee   : There you go. Now where did you wear this outfit, Lucy? Besides the—

Lucy     : I actually wore it to Ben&Jerry’s Bowling—not Ben&Jerry’s… some—I mean, wore it to this bowling club. It was Adam Sandler’s birthday.

Renee   : And you bowled in it.

Lucy     : I totally get it. Actually being in a, um… (Renee: Who cares if she strikes?!) a premiere before and got changed in the limo to different outfit. And then, like, bowling, also in these clown shoes.

Renee   : Did you have any idea you were going to a bowling alley?

Lucy     : Um…

Renee   : Or was it going—it was just this party, somewhere?

Lucy     : Somebody said, uh, ‘let’s go to Adam Sandler’s party! He’s my client,’ or something. So we showed up and I, I looked ridiculous.

Renee   : That is so—what did they say when you walked in?

Lucy     : Well I had my coat on. And then it gets really hot, bowling, right?

Renee   : Of course.

Lucy     : And, uh, so I take it off and uh…. It’s me and all the neon.

Renee   : My God. I wish I could do that. That is wild. Tell me about the shoes. Did you wear the heels?

Lucy     : No, no. I wore the clown shoes that you go bowling in. yeah. Slip sliding down the bowling alley.

Renee   : They’re twice as long as your feet?

Lucy     : Yeah.

Renee   : There you go.

Lucy     : Size 12, men’s.

Renee   : So you go from that and look at this next, um…

Lucy     : Yeah. I am happiest when I’m in, like, drag.

Renee   : Yeah, you were having a good time. Lucy, you—remember when you were walking up to everyone – all the stuntees – and, like, just asking for their autograph or… what you were—they were just so fooled.

Lucy     : ‘Hey what’re you doin’? Oh, what’s your name?’ and they’re looking at me, and somebody’s going, ‘who are you? (Renee: Yeah. We do on the set.) Who are you?’

Renee   : You’re familiar. (Lucy: Yeah. I look familiar.) And you’re awfully friendly.

Lucy     : They kind—but I was, yeah. I was too familiar with them, it was really really cogent (Renee: it was kinda creepy.) all over the place.

Renee   : And you kept demanding the big pillows, you know, for your stomach?

Lucy     : Yeah. ‘Make me fatter!’

Renee   : ‘Bigger! Bigger!’ It was so funny. And the action—

Lucy     : I look so much like my brother.

Renee   : Really?

Lucy     : Yeah. My brother Daniel.

Renee   : Daniel’s much better. Kidding! Anyway...

Lucy     : Alright… We’ll see. What’s the next photo?

Renee   : Okay.

Lucy     : Oh, here’s us.

Renee   : Oh, that was funny, actually.

Lucy     : Annie Bananie and—what’s your character’s name?

Renee   : Mattie.

Lucy     : Mattie.

Renee   : Mattie. And you had the little Joxer vest on again.

Lucy     : You look good in that outfit. See, if you stop bleaching your hair, you—

Renee   : Right. I—yeah. I look younger. I look younger with the long hair.

Lucy     : No, no. you look good in long—and any color actually.

Renee   : That was beautiful… beautiful, um, silk costume that they gave me, actually.

Lucy     : And that Annie one is my favorite costume in (Renee: Really?) the whole six years. Yeah. (Renee: Seriously?) ‘Cause it’s so comfortable.

Renee   : ‘Cause of the long socks that went up to your knees?

Lucy     : The long socks and the goofy shoes which I had (Renee: You liked those golf shoes?). I have those shoes.

Renee   : They were golf shoes, weren’t they? They look like it. They do!

Lucy     : They’re bowling shoes. (Renee: I mean—yeah, right. Yeah.) They’re two time bowling shoes. No, no, no, um… yeah, they kinda look like golf shoes. But…

Renee   : How funny.

Lucy     : They scuff them up and—

Renee   : You have those?

Lucy     : And here’s you doing your Southern Belle. (Renee: Oh, God. Yeah) You were so good with that. It’s a good character.

Renee   : I never needed an accent where I’m full opposite of the Southern—

Lucy     : You’ve only done it once, haven’t you?

Renee   : Um… Oh, Ares’ Farm, again. Kevin Smith started with a Southern accent so I—but slightly older.

Lucy     : But the older woman was much more poised.

Renee   : Like <something>? Where you were, like, coming on to… I can’t remember what you’re saying.

Lucy     : Yeah, yeah, yeah. We were doing the, uh, (Renee: ‘that’ll stick.’) my character was digging hers. But I don’t think—I think they cut that out.

Renee   : Oh, I caught it. I don’t know. Maybe no one else did.

Lucy     : Right, little-dee?

Renee   : I thought that was funny.

Lucy     : November, oh…

Renee   : Here’s Gabrielle, ‘I really don’t wanna do another fight.’

Lucy     : Helicon. Were you pregnant by here?

Renee   : No. No, Lucy I wasn’t. (Lucy: It’s them boobies again.) One too many marshmallow puffs, yeah.

Lucy     : I tell you, some shots—well, not you, but one looks great and then some shots… (Renee: You go, ‘what happened?’) I look at me—yeah, even a few days later, the next—in the same episode, and I go, ‘whoa, I’m doughy there.’

Renee   : It’s all the lighting.

Lucy     : Who’s this in the middle? Is that you?

Renee   : Yeah. (Lucy: oh, ‘cause your hair…) Making that face…

Lucy     : What was that for? Oh, any episode… can’t reach it.

Renee   : I don’t know. Fighting… I think I might’ve been fighting you. Yes, actually there’s a little piece of leather, in the corner. That was the fight, um, (Lucy: In the tent) when we’re pretending—yeah, right.

Lucy     : Yeah. ‘Cause we—

Renee   : The one time we fought each other, really. And had a good… wasn’t it?

Lucy     : That was really good. Yeah. (Renee: It was so great.) It was nice fighting you actually, ‘cause you are very good.

Renee   : Yes, you were actually quite precise yourself. There were no injuries, amazingly.

Lucy     : This was a nice scene, I thought.

Renee   : That was a sweet scene. That was our… one of the goodbye scenes, wasn’t it? Officially…

Lucy     : This is a—yeah. ‘I can’t tell you,’ (Renee: I can’t—) ‘what’s about to happen. But I want you to practice killing me.’

Renee   : Yeah. Xena, you’re so bleak.

Lucy     : Um, (Renee: Well, that was a huge—right.) Teaching Gabrielle the pinch, really.

Renee   : That was a huge turn for the characters.

Lucy     : Well, it really was. Because I think there were plenty of times where Xena wanted to tell Gabrielle how—all those secrets. But she’d had such a bad experience with Akemi, I think she was blocked.

Renee   : See, if Gabrielle’s known that in Season 2 she wouldn’t have harassed Xena anymore about teaching her the pinch, (Lucy: Right.) you know, or how to throw the chakram.

Lucy     : No, I don’t think Xena was ready. (Renee: She wasn’t ready. See? If only we had known that.) She wasn’t ready to divulge everything.

Renee   : But then, it came. The time came. Then we just needed Xena to be around a little longer so Gabrielle could practice it, but… ‘Does it work?’

Lucy     : ‘Okay, kill me again! Now bring me alive! (Renee: ‘Okay. That was fun!’) Now kill me again!’

Renee   : ‘That was my fix!’

Lucy     : But that was a cool—that was a devil of a scene for you to fight—uh, to shoot.

Renee   : You know, it wasn’t as bad as you would think.

Lucy     : But you had to go back and re-shoot it, and you’re pregnant, and…

Renee   : Yeah. I think it’s because I was pregnant I was warmer than normal, you know?

Lucy     : You know, I wasted time feeling so bad for you. (Renee: You do, at first I was like—) You would go, ‘yeah, it was okay.’

Renee   : You know, actually it wasn’t that bad at all. What surprised me, though, is um, the very last shot, for me, on Xena, was a close up. And because the rain machine would make too much noise and it was too far away, they decided to take a, uh, fire hose and hold it right over my head, right above the camera. So instead of having the time for the water to—to warm up a bit in the air, it just poured down me.

Lucy     : Freezing. Yeah.

Renee   : And that was cold. And I just thought, ‘okay. Yeah, that’s right. Now I remember. Now I remember what it’s like to be cold.’

Lucy     : ‘Now I remember hypothermia!’

Renee   : But that was the last shot.

Lucy     : …the lovely T-shirt (Tisha?). And this, see, where I’m shooting those arrows… (Renee: Look at those abs.) That’s where I’m, like—(Renee: Go on.) there’s no abs. it’s just a thinner layer of dough on, yeah. But anyway, they got me on this crane thing, and they’ve got my shoes kind of nailed down to (Renee: The platform?)… no, no, no. I’ve got, like, bindings on, like, ski bindings or something. So I’m only anchored by my feet. I’m going, ‘whoa!’

Renee   : So you’re on the other end of the crane? (Lucy: That freaked me out.) And they’re moving you with your flying?

Lucy     : If you’re only anchored with the soles of your feet (Renee: Right.) there’s nothing to lean against.

Renee   : But you were literally being raised up and down like you’re flying through the trees?

Lucy     : Yeah. But I, I would’ve just fallen off, actually.

Renee   : How funny. You had no, um, barrier? Nothing at all?

Lucy     : No, in the end they had to give me something—I just couldn’t cope with <something> to anchor. February! Oh, there’s so much to look at here!

Renee   : Hm… What do we have?

Lucy     : Here’s you. Your hands all over in—your hands all over Kevin Smith’s body. Devi! You licking me.

Renee   : Oh, yeah. I enjoyed that.

Lucy     : Me too.

Renee   : Yeah. I thought you would.

Lucy     : Um…

Renee   : That goes back a long way. The Reckoning. That was first season, wasn’t it?

Lucy     : Yup.

Renee   : Wow. Isn’t it funny how the costumes changed?

Lucy     : And in those days, in the very beginning, Rob just saw it the other day and he says, ‘I was trying to do something with my voice, like, make it really deep.’ ‘Cause I thought I sounded like a chipmunk, you know? When you hear yourself on tape and you go, ‘I sound like a chipmunk’ (Renee: Right, right.) So I tried to make Xena’s voice really deep and manly. (Renee: Did Rob think that?) You can hear—oh yeah he just heard it the other day. But he mentioned it and I know it’s true ‘cause I was deliberately doing it, but…

Renee   : That’s funny, I don’t remember being—you know, what’s funny is, um, Steve and I went to Italy just recently and Xena was airing and—I think it was The Reckoning that was on, but it was one of the first season episodes, and they have all the voices dubbed? So it’s in Italian voice.

Lucy     : Do we have good—are we sexy?

Renee   : Yeah! There’s a great Xena voice. It’s very deep and full and sexy. So I thought, well—

Lucy     : What’s the Gabrielle voice like? Did they give you—(Renee: Actually it’s kinda high.) They give you the chipmunk voices all over the world, right?

Renee   : ‘Xena!’ Ted’s and mine were kinda funny, actually.

Lucy     : Ooh! Quick! June! We’re getting married!

Renee   : Look at that! How many times did you get married? Oh, no, wait. Here we go.

Lucy     : Just one.

Renee   : Three?

Lucy     : Just once. The same frock.

Renee   : Oh, that’s right.

Lucy     : That was on the other day on, uh—

Renee   : You’re marrying Kevin Smith, that’s right. Er, Ares.

Lucy     : Oh my God!

Renee   : Oh, fantastic. There you go! I like these cherries.

Lucy     : You’re giving away… You’re giving far too much of yourself, really.

Renee   : That is so funny.

Lucy     : Um… ‘Who’s my little Bubba? My little Bubba. Who’s my little Bubba. Puh-chu-ke-chu-ke-chu.’ That was a song I used—I made up, used to singing it to Julius when he was really little. And then we did it, jumping out of the cake.

Renee   : Oh I remember this. I remember, um, Ted and Bruce making up my birthday song at the end of the—end of the show? I don’t think it made the cut. ‘For he’s a jolly good fellow’?

Lucy     : What’d they sing?

Renee   : They kept going, ‘for she’s getting older, for she’s getting older.’

Lucy     : Yeah, that’s right.

Renee   : They kept getting worse and worse as they went along.

Lucy     : That’s right!

Renee   : ‘Her hips are getting wider, her hips are getting wider.’ I was, like, ‘Oh my God!’ Thank God that didn’t make it.

Lucy     : Those guys were such fun. Really.

Renee   : They are so much fun… And didn’t you have to learn how to blow fire for this? I mean, it’s amazing. Everytime you did that, I—I looked away or went to a different set.

Lucy     : And then Eric Gruendemann, our producer decided enough was enough. We weren’t gonna write that in anymore. And then he left, and we did it again!

Renee   : Oh, really?

Lucy     : In the very last—in Friend In Need, um, (Renee: Well, what happened?) the very last episode.

Renee   : You just, um, obviously felt comfortable doing it. Enough to go along with it.

Lucy     : No, it was that it was the last episode, we were all giving our everything and…

Renee   : Wow.

Lucy     : It seemed like the right thing to do for... It was fine. I was feeling reckless.

Renee   : Yeah. And then you had Motherhood.

Lucy     : Oh! Yeah. Oh this is when I forced you to lie down in the mud and I would drag you across the… the puddle.

Renee   : Yeah. Because you—you know, I know I couldn’t carry both of us.

Lucy     : Yeah. That was actually your idea to, um, lie down.

Renee   : Yeah, but there’s no way for me to carry both of us, so it’s like, what’re you gonna do? (Lucy: No. No way.) Might as well drag me out.

Lucy     : So she lies down in the mud.

Renee   : I bet this one’s to watch when the rain comes down.

Lucy     : And you had to make your body stiff so that I could drag you ‘cause—

Renee   : Yeah. There was no other way to limp—just, like, dead weight.

Lucy     : Yeah. But, uh, it looked very good. It was a good, you know, good image.

Renee   : I think it’s—visually, you know, horrendous, isn’t it? (Lucy: Yeah.) It’s wonderful. That’s what you want. You wanna shock people, sometimes.

Lucy     : Yeah, you wanna make people feel something (Renee: Yeah.) and… you know.

Renee   : And they did.

Lucy     : They did. Alright. Got some photos here. I love this moment. This is me doing a phony, ‘okay I’m gonna be looking at this.’