Lucy Lawless Discusses Her New Acorn TV Show, Getting Recognized and (of Course) Xena

One of the great things about talking to Lucy Lawless is that she doesn’t take herself seriously. She knows she rocketed to fame playing the title character on her future husband’s syndicated show Xena: Warrior Princess, from 1995 to 2001, and while some actors may have wanted to distance themselves from a genre role like that, no matter how popular, she has embraced Xena. So much so that she wonders why it hasn’t returned during the Age of the Reboot — and she’s got some ideas as to how to bring the show back.

Her career since Xena ended hasn’t exactly been slow, with Lawless nabbing recurring roles in the Spartacus series, Battlestar Galactica, Parks and Recreation, Ash Vs. Evil Dead and many more, all the while raising three kids. Now she’s starring as Alexa Crowe in the Australian mystery series My Life Is Murder, now streaming on Acorn TV.

In the series, Crowe has just retired as a top Melbourne police detective, but continues to be handed cases by her former colleague, DI Kieran Hussey (Bernard Curry) that have stymied the police. It’s a very traditional mystery series, reminiscent of the cat-and-mouse game seen on the classic series Columbo. Lawless talked with Decider about her love of those mysteries, what she likes about playing Alexa (it has to do with corsets), and those grand plans for a Xena revival.

DECIDER: How did this show come about and what appealed to you about playing Alexa in this kind of format?

LUCY LAWLESS: I’ve always loved crime shows. I just do, and I’m very intrigued by true crime as well. I’ve always read it, I watch it and I wanted it to be part of something like that. So this young woman [series creator Claire Tonkin] sent me a script couple of years ago and I read it and went, “It’s a good idea, it’s not quite there,” and then I just forgot about it. I was in Australia for something and serendipity was, she called while I was there and I said, “I can give you an hour and a half on a Sunday. If you can meet me then, it’s meant to be.”

So we met and we talked about this. Just something about this young woman, I felt like she and her potential was about to explode, and I selfishly was like, “You know what? I’m going to nab this woman for myself.” I thought, “I’m big enough and ugly enough and old enough now to step up and produce and stop leaving my husband [Robert Tapert] to do it all the time.” And I just liked the idea, but it was really a bit on her.

And then we went into development hell and it all threatened to fall apart and everything. And then by golly, the issue cleared up with some careful maneuvering, and within 13 months we wrapped. When it was finally given the go ahead, was written in like 10 weeks and just kind of had good juju. It rained on us once and we were inside that day, which is kind of unheard of in the Southern Hemisphere. I don’t know, it’s kind of a magical thing. My hope is, if and when it gets green lit for a second season that we’re going to start playing … Columbo was really our model for who she is, but the form is different.

I was actually going to mention that because it felt like … Well first of all, it felt like a very traditional mystery show, but it felt very Columbo-like except you don’t see the killer commit the actual murder.

Which I would love, by the way. I really want to explore that storytelling because it’s so fun. The cat and mouse is what you enjoy about Columbo. When the audience is a little ahead, it’s not always a bad thing. It was really quite brave, I think, in terms of the writing in those days. It seemed risky. Do you know what I mean? I’m really in full admiration.

Those writers were outstanding, but they also had 90 minutes. You know, [Australian network] Channel 10, God bless them, got in behind Claire and I and gave us money, but they dictated what they want. They want that very classic format because it’s satisfying for the audience to have the Agatha Christie breakdown at the end. But those are always four-page scenes and loads of unrelated paragraphs that you’ve got to sort of join together. It’s hard work doing them, which I don’t mind so much, but Columbo never has to do that. Ultimately [My Life Is Murder] is about [how] people love a bit of justice and it’s a beautiful world with really appealing people. I hope. I believe. And so you get a little bit of a psychic retreat from the world of hideous on the news. Do you know what I mean?  You want to feel something good.

There’s some background to Alexa’s character, why she retired, her late husband being a former cop, that she came into some money, that kind of thing. But it doesn’t seem to be explored all that much, just bits and pieces here and there. Was that the initial intention?

Well, we thought about that we would, but it does sort of serialize it a bit when you do that, and Channel 10 definitely did not want that. They want standalone things that people can watch out of sequence. It doesn’t matter because it’s on a streaming service around the world. I don’t know, that was their preference. So they are slightly our masters in that regard. Hey, what did you just say? Because you made me think of something and I got off topic.

The bits and pieces of Alexa’s backstory.

We do explore that, especially when Alexa goes into the world of the undertaker, because we try to take the audience into these cool little worlds that are somewhat opaque, like the world of the beautiful people models and the PR world and the ugliness therein. Or the world of the undertaker. There are themes of life and death in that, so we do revisit the loss of her husband, but ultimately it’s kind of lighthearted and we try to keep it buoyant and fun because just for once, let’s do something for fun. She doesn’t have a drug addiction, she’s not hiding some crazy, disgusting secret. Columbo is good for goodness sake, and so is Alexa.

Well, the other part I like about it is the fact that there is that lightheartedness to it, and it’s not trying to go for goofy lines. Like when Alexa calls her assistant Madison, she’s like, “Ah, I don’t want to hear from her.”

Yeah, that’s hilarious!

I also liked Alexa struggling with the bread maker and all this other normal stuff-

Yeah, normal Joe stuff. And [Madison’s obsession] with the vacuum cleaner. At first I was like, “We can’t have two women in love with bloody machines in the same episode,” and the writers were adamant. They’re like, “No, no, no, this is the ‘leaner,’ the ‘go towards’ moment, when things are curious.” Man, I was like, “I get it. That’s brilliant.”

Then after that we just try to kook things a little bit. So the nosy, disapproving neighbor was supposed to be an older woman or an older couple, and I was like, “No, maybe it could be more like my daughter and me.” You know, the young person is persnickety, they are vegan. There are always things. And that Alexa, as the older generation, is such a disappointment, and there’s no way that Alexa can either change, nor can they dispute that the younger person is right on every level, but they ain’t fun. It’s where the older people are actually more fun than the millennial, which I think is kind of true. That’s why the millennials look down on us.

A lot of the enjoyment of a show like My Life is Murder is that you get to invest in the characters in that show, and it seems like from the first episode you get to know them pretty well.

Yeah. Like starting with her looking at a rent boy online, that’s curious. Draw people in because that’s not what a woman of a certain age is supposed to be doing on TV. You’re supposed to be, I don’t know, heating up a TV dinner or something. Traditionally that’s what the roles were for 51 year old women. But no, she’s checking out rent boys and nailing them to the wall for crime.

It was well done. It completely looked natural, so no problem.

Did you love the city? Could you get a feel from Melbourne? Because we tried to make her a character in the show. She’s a bit underutilized actually in Australia because they feel their audiences are quite parochial and won’t watch shows that have the identity of other states, other cities, which did reflect a tiny bit in the ratings. But we were like, no, we’re going to use this incredible city for all its art and its style and the people are really stylish. If you look at out extras, they’re really interesting looking and that’s partly casting, but just the availability of super interesting looking people. We want her to be a star, like Manhattan is a star in Sex in the City, or like Paris is a star in Parisian movies. Because she’s good looking.

You’ve done a lot of comedy over the years since Xena, and something I’ve always been curious about. What do you think when people see you on the street, do they know you more for Xena or Parks and Rec, or something else nowadays?

I used to be able to tell by their gender or their demographic, but I can’t tell anymore because I’ve been around so long. Generally it’s Xena, but then … I was stuck in Mexico and there was some problem with my, they had to check my documentation and there had been a misprinting and they didn’t want to let me into America with a misprinted document. So I’m stuck there and I’m trying to prove my identity. I’m like, “Do you know me from Xena? Battlestar Galactica?” He’s like, “No, no.” He’s really bored with me, and then he goes, “Wait a minute, weren’t you on Curb Your Enthusiasm?” Some job that I did for a day and a half is what got me out of Mexico. So I don’t know, everybody’s seen something of me, you know?

And it speaks to the fact that you’ve been doing this for a long time. Everybody’s seeing something.

Yeah. That’s so lucky and so lovely that I still can work.

What do you think is different about Alexa’s character than Xena or some of your other past characters?

Elastic. No corsets, no sword, no weapons. I’m a modern woman with all the mobility and relaxation that comes with modern clothing. I cannot tell you how influential that is. How I go through a day, how I experience my days, modern clothing is such a blessing.

Also, she’s far more me. There’s more space for Lucy to be utilized in this role. Instead of me sort of bending myself into a shape for the confines of the role, this is no, you can expand the confines of the job to encompass whatever I want to bring up. I’m amazed at the ad-libbing that makes it into the final cut. Sadly for them, I’m encouraged by it and I’m going to do a lot more of it.

What’s an example of an ad-lib that made it in?

Oh, I don’t know. It’s every scene there’s something. Oh, I can’t think it now.

Is it just a look or a or an aside or something?

Yeah, you know, you can’t change where you’re going in the scene. You have to service the scene and it can’t take any more time because television has to progress. You don’t get a lot of time to luxuriate and navigate, but you can throw in little things all the time. Like when Madison goes, “So my Granddad…”, and I go, “Oh God, here we go.” That’s me using Alexa to be an unfiltered woman. I’m probably a little kinder than Alexa would be, but it’s fun to be Alexa because she is not remotely concerned about what people think of her and she thinks it’s their responsibility to take care of their own emotions. She’s what we all want to be. Utterly unfiltered.

It seems to be freeing to play a character who just doesn’t really give a shit at all.

Yes! That was the term I was trying not to use. You hit the nail on the head.

I know in previous interviews you talked about Xena coming back and that it almost came back at some point. Why do you think it hasn’t come back? How would you do the show, almost 20 years after it ended its first run?

I was like “Gosh, put an African-American in the role and let her go kick ass.” But they have not figured out, and this is their words, not mine, they haven’t figured out how they can do it better. I just saw Linda Hamilton on the new Terminator playing herself, that character, as an older woman, as the age she is now, and I thought, that’s awesome. I’m slightly jealous that they had the vision and the clout to make that happen because if I had the vision and clout, I would also, I would do the same thing. Have me and Renee [O’Connor, who played Gabrelle] come back as this age and then hand over the baton to a younger warrior woman, because it’s no kind of a life. It’s a hard life, let me tell you, shooting those kinds of shows.

Could you see yourself in that corset, in the metal bra that you were in?

I’m going home to put it on now. Every other week this is how I keep myself in shape. Like can I still fit the leathers?

And it’s great in the heat.

It’s great in the heat!

You said you like true crime. Have you had any thought about hosting? I think I saw something on Page Six that you were talking to somebody about doing an Investigation Discovery show or something like that?

Henry Schleiff runs it and he’s always trying to get me to do it and I was like, “But my acting career is not over yet, Henry. Back off, you know?” Well, I’ll do that when I want to rest, but I’m actually at this age stepping up. My kids don’t need me anymore, so it’s time. I have much more mental space and energy for my own career, which has taken a back burner for the last 15 years. So I’m ready to go and work harder and I have been working harder. I think this time if we go again, we’ll have more time to write, more time to prepare. Make it more enjoyable for the audience.

Joel Keller (@joelkeller) writes about food, entertainment, parenting and tech, but he doesn’t kid himself: he’s a TV junkie. His writing has appeared in the New York Times, Slate, Salon, VanityFair.com, Playboy.com, Fast Company’s Co.Create and elsewhere.

Stream My Life is Murder on AcornTV