Lucy Lawless (Xena) and
Renee O'Connor (Gabrielle)

Pasadena, California: 6 May, 2001

Lucy and Renee's appearance together on stage was supposed to be the highlight of the weekend. And in many ways, it was - there was just no beating the excitement of seeing the two of them together at last, both up there on the stage, affectionately bantering with each other. But the format was disappointing.

Lucy and Renee's appearance was the only time the house lights stayed down. Every other guest either immediately requested that the house lights come up so they could see the crowd, or the lights were turned up before they could even ask. But for Lucy and Renee's two hours, the audience stayed dark, out of sight of the people on the stage, and out of the action. The crowd was reduced to watching the performance like a holographic TV set.

The format for Lucy and Renee's talk was strictly an interview setting. Xena Fan Club president Sharon Delaney stood at the foot of the stage and read questions to them, sometimes crediting the individuals they had come from. I had mixed feelings about this: it was definitely a long sight better than to have the question line clogged up with blubbering marriage proposals and requests for personal favors. But again, the format made sure that the crowd wasn't just at arm's length, it was practically in another room.

There was not just distance from the audience, but also emotional distance. Sharon's choice of questions was fine: some interesting things were asked. But I'm absolutely floored that, in all of that time, Sharon never spoke for the fans to point out to Lucy and Renee that we were all there to say thank you for six years of a cool show. This stage appearance should have been the big, final goodbyes: our last chance to say goodbye and thanks, and Lucy and Renee's chance to say whatever they'd like to say to the convention crowds. But it never happened. The crowd never got a word in edgewise, and while Lucy threw in a fast thank you as the exit music started playing and cast members started swarming on stage, we never heard anything personal from them, either.

With that said, let me get back to the good stuff and some of the tidbits and tales we heard. Renee O'Connor was introduced first, and came out to thunderous applause. After a bit of setup, she started to sing a song: Last Dance. For the 2nd line, Lucy's voice joined in before she strode onto stage herself. Lucy and Renee sang their duet and encouraged the crowd to clap along. Considering it's been kind of a running joke that Renee doesn't do singing, I thought it was especially gutsy, and she did a respectable job of it, too! They even did a reprise for the end of the show to kind of bookmark it.

Lucy and Renee were being kind enough to try to cover the whole stage and move from side to side so everyone in the audience could get as close a look at them as possible. They even made a joke out of it, every once in a while remembering "Right, we have to walk over here now!" Lucy also tended to wander out of the stage lights and bow her head when Renee was talking, a generous gesture of making sure that Renee had the spotlight. Unfortunately, some of that generosity was wasted when the idiot big-screen cameraman kept focused on shadowed Lucy even when Renee was talking, but after people in the back who could only see the big screen nearly rioted, the cameraman finally got the clue and pointed at whoever was talking.

Yes, Renee O'Connor is five months pregnant! Her round belly was showing, although Lucy joked that Renee still had better abs than she. When asked for details of the baby, Lucy quickly showed off how much she knows by explaining that the baby was "modest" in the sonograms so they don't know the sex, and no names are picked out yet. The pregnancy didn't affect shooting of the last few episodes except to "hike up the outfit a bit." Renee was very worried about what they'd do if any late reshoots were needed, but that didn't become a problem.

Lucy told a hilarious story when asked about whether anything special ever needed to be done to accommodate their differences in height. She said that for Xena and Gabrielle's dance in Heart of Darkness, she had to bend her knees to try to bring herself more in line with Renee. Problem was, in the camera that was showing a long shot of the dance, Lucy said her splayed knees made her look like "I was stalking around like a preying mantis!" and demonstrated how ridiculous she looked.

Renee spoke about auditioning for Gabrielle and told that the scene she read for was the scene in Sins of the Past when Gabrielle convinces the people of Amphipolis not to stone Xena. Lucy, though, confided that Rob had always had Renee in mind for the role of Gabrielle, even though auditions needed to be done.

When asked what Gabrielle related to in Xena at the beginning, Renee replied "I think she just wanted the breastplate" and joked that Gabrielle would try on Xena's boots at night. Ha!

Lucy bemoaned the fact that she's forgotten so much about the show's shootings. "Now I'm miffed... I've been kissing Kevin Smith for six years and I can't remember a thing!"

Renee pointed out during the interview that everyone looks to Lucy, the lead, to set the tone for the set and the work ethic they all adopt, and that Lucy always gave them a strong example to follow. Lucy countered by saying that she's always shared that responsibility with Renee, and that in her eyes, Xena has always been a two-star show. "I thank God every day for her," Lucy declared. (And the whole crowd replied: "Awwwwww.") This, by the way, was a theme of the appearance; both Lucy and Renee were twice as eager to compliment the other than they were to talk about themselves. It was sweet.

Lucy and Renee's favorite costumes from the show:

Lucy: Renee's beaded go-go-girl costume from Liar, Liar. She sneaked into Renee's double's costume while she was still highly pregnant "So I could shake my bon-bon."

Renee: The Cinderella costume from If the Shoe Fits, including the scraggly teeth and hair.

Renee: The crucifixion outfits, which Lucy agrees always signals that a "baaaaad day" is coming.

Lucy: Any costume that has rats hiding in it. ("Up my skirt! Down my breastplate!")

It took some real effort to get Lucy and Renee to discuss the subtext. And of course, no definitive answers were forthcoming when they did. But Renee said that however the relationship is viewed, the show is "all about love" and that the relationship between Xena and Gabrielle was a first for television. When she pointed out that nobody on the show wanted to turn their relationship into a gimmick, Lucy was quick to chime agreement. Lucy worried that sometimes they might have been too jokey on the show, but that it has "never been in our hearts to make that subject into a grubby little joke."

When it comes to practical jokes on the set, Lucy is apparently much more successful than Renee. "Ren always tried to pull lame jokes on me," Lucy explained, but said they never work out. Renee bemoaned trying to nest Lucy's chair with crumbs only to have Lucy brush them away before she sat down, and trying to slime up a door handle that Lucy would grab, but then Rob would use the door first. Lucy, however, managed to knock everyone for a loop during filming of the hot tub scene in The God You Know when she "just got hungry" and Renee's big toe was in easy reach.

Here's an all-time-winning trivia question: Renee's full real name is Evelyn Renee O'Connor.

When asked at what point Lucy and Renee knew they would work well together, Lucy immediately responded that she never had doubted that. Renee pointed to their solidifying friendship as the best sign to her that things would work out in front of the camera. Lucy also credited the subtext, that the fans spotted and encouraged, as the first real "hook" they had for the characters and the way they would relate to each other.

When asked what about Xena annoys Gabrielle and vice-versa, Renee quickly responded that Xena never brushes her teeth, while Lucy said Xena is apparently still sore about Gabrielle using her chakram to cut fish.

Lucy spoke up at one point with a special thanks to the fans for all their charity fund-raising. She pointed out that the fans could just "be there" and not do anything, but called the charity work that fans do "a force for good" that everyone with the show is incredibly grateful for and really holds on to.

Renee got the best zinger of the day when they were asked if they've learned any skills on the show that have been useful in real life. Renee immediately replied, "Well, I use that bullwhip every night." Cracked the house up. She also got silly in one moment when the boom camera (for Creation's video) swung a little too close; she tilted her head like a bird and brought her face within an inch of the lens. That moment of video is gonna be priceless.

Lucy has been singing in a band recently! She said it's something she wants to continue doing with some of her time. Lucy also, upon request, performed one of her Stevie Nicks burritos songs from her Saturday Night Live appearance.

A few stories surfaced about Old Ares Had a Farm: Lucy started it out by asking Renee (while already laughing) if she remembered when Renee "felt up Kevin Smith?" Apparently they tried the scene when Gabrielle rolls over and flops her arm onto Ares a couple of times, but Renee said they finally decided the joke wouldn't work unless she really hit him. So she rolled over and really hit him, in a really sensitive area, and Renee was already cracking up before the cameras had even stopped rolling.

Another fun moment on Ares' Farm was Xena and Gabrielle's staged fight. Renee said they kept adding more belly-bumps to egg each other on. Lucy said it's great to work on a fight with Renee because "she's so damn good": she said Renee makes sure to make the other fighter look really good.

Lucy and Renee spoke a little bit about the final episodes, although of course didn't reveal any plot elements. Renee said that Gabrielle reads a poem by Sappho to Xena in Many Happy Returns that Renee feels is a perfect goodbye poem for them. (Lucy joked that Xena was busy going "Hey, that doesn't even rhyme.") Both said they're satisfied with the show's ending. Lucy said it gives a "sense of closure" and that there would be "shocking moments," but that if it wasn't a bold ending, it wouldn't honor the last six years of "blood, sweat, and tears." Renee said the finale was "heart-wrenching" and "beautiful," and that it brought the characters to a complete circle. They said that a staff member at RenPic watched the last two episodes and cried the whole way through, so everyone have your tissues ready!

Renee spoke a bit about how much she's grown up on the show. She said that she's "made the best friends of my life" during these past six years, and how glad she was that the show came along at the time of her life that it did, when she was learning who she would be and what kind of person she is. Lucy chimed in that everything had changed for both of them during the show's years, and that in a strange way, Renee has learned to be more self-assured while Lucy has learned to less self-assured (more willing to consider other possibilities).

When asked if she would take up the role of Xena again, knowing what she knows now, Lucy answered absolutely yes. She said Xena was the part of a lifetime, that she knew it then and knows it now. Both women said they would absolutely do the show all over again if given the choice again, although Lucy pointed out that she didn't think the magic of the show could ever be reproduced, that the freshness and perfect timing couldn't be recreated. Lucy used the word "magic" about three times in as many sentences to describe the whole Xena experience.

At the end of the day, Lucy and Renee swung into another performance of "Last Dance." When it was over, Rob Tapert rushed onto the stage to hug both women and kiss their cheeks. And with that, many of the guests from the weekend poured onto the stage from every corner for one final appearance. Many hugs, kisses, and waves were shared while the crowd stood on chairs to better cheer (and see - short me could barely catch a bit of this).

All in all, I think it was a good appearance - we got lots of new tidbits, and seeing the two of them on stage together was incredibly neat. But I got the impression that when it was finished, Lucy and Renee were both heaving huge sighs of relief. I'll say it here, even though it never got passed along to them: my thanks to Lucy and Renee for two hours on stage and six years of awesome entertainment.

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