Ebonie Smith (M'Lila)

Ebonie was a very nice, charming young woman who seemed to be thrilled with all the attention being paid to the show and her brief character on it. She was excited about the convention crowd and took the time to ask each questioner their names; it was a sweet touch.

Ebonie started out by saying that of all the work she's done (and she DOES have quite a list of appearances), M'Lila on Xena is one of her proudest appearances, because it was such a well-fleshed, interesting character on a "magnificent" show.

When the auditions for M'Lila were announced and Ebonie's manager contacted her about it, Ebonie said the first thing she noticed were the words "Shoots in New Zealand." She read the audition scenes that were sent to her and was really grabbed by the material. She and her mother put together the best Xena-style outfit possible from the contents of her closet, including a skirt, beads, and feathers. She just had a feeling from the start that this part was SUPPOSED to be hers.

When asked whether she had made up the language M'Lila was speaking, Ebonie explained that she was actually speaking Gaelic, and had a language coach on the set who was helping her make sure she pronounced everything correctly. She auditioned in English, so the addition of Gaelic was a bit of a surprise to her.

In the fight scenes, the boat fight scene was mostly a stunt double, but the fight in Niklio's cabin was mostly her own work (except for her flip). She said she had been looking forward to meeting the stunt double who would theoretically look somewhat like her, and was astonished to see a 14-year- old boy show up. It was his first work as a stunt double, but she said the crew "put a wig on him, painted him brown, and he was ready to go!" and that he did a great job. ("Fooled you guys, didn't he?!")

One of Ebonie's favorite things about M'Lila was that she was a small, young woman with a lot of strength. She said it brought out the point that power and strength aren't about big muscles, but about what's going on in the mind and the heart, and she was proud of that message.

Ebonie reports that a scene was cut that was a montage of Xena teaching M'Lila and M'Lila teaching Xena as they sailed the ocean.

In the final scene of Destiny, when M'Lila floats in front of Xena on the cross, Ebonie had to wear a royal blue outfit and hang on wires in front of a blue screen. She said two versions of the scene were filmed, one where she actually speaks to Xena, the other (the one that was used) where she communicates telepathically instead.

While Ebonie did learn the words to M'Lila's song, it was not her voice that was used in the episode.

Ebonie reported that Lucy was "the best" to work with and a great deal of fun. It became a running joke between them that Lucy was always eating a sandwich whenever she saw her and that both of them were constantly looking for food. Ebonie even took a picture of Lucy with a sandwich so that she'd remember her properly.

To close out her appearance, Ebonie did an encore performance from the cabaret of the night before; she sang a custom verse of "Fever" about the lovely pair, Xena and Gabrielle, "They give you fever.." She has a fantastic voice!

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