Hudson Leick (Callisto)

Usually, Hudson has the crowd wrapped around her finger from the moment she walks onto the stage. This time, it actually took her a moment or to grab the reins, by commanding the raucous cheering to "SILENCE." and saying that she has to let her alter-ego out now. She did slip again a bit at the beginning when she giggled and told us "All I hear is the woman in the front row saying 'She's stunning!'" I can understand how that would crack anyone's working of the crowd.

Hudson has donated a few of the outfits she has worn to charity auctions before. After asking the crowd how they like that practice (and receiving hearty approval), Hudson held an auction on the spot for the slinky red vinyl dress she had on. A fellow took home the rights to it for $5000 to the James Ellis Foundation.

Hudson said her favorite physical moment was in Necessary Evil, when Gabrielle takes her hand to help her out of a hole, expecting it to be Xena's, and finds Callisto hauling herself up instead. She said she felt like Smeagol (the proper name for Gollum - geek points for Hudson), and subtitled it "Hi! Want a kiss?"

Contrary to most convention appearances I've seen from Hudson, this time it took almost four questions before someone asked her to scream. Hudson had to take a while to build up to it, saying that she just didn't feel very mad at the moment and needed to get mad. When someone in the crowd tried to encourage her by shouting that she should think of Xena, Hudson peeked out from under her bowed head and said "I don't want to confuse anybody, but that was a TV show," which cracked the house up. But after kicking off her shoes and spending a moment to collect herself, she satisfied the crowd with one of her roof-raising screams.

The scream was mostly of Hudson's own making. When working with the producers on the role, they asked Hudson if she could "do anything special," to which she just replied "no." They asked about special yells like Lucy's battle cry, and Hudson offered to simply scream. After demonstrating those lungs, the producers blinked and said "OK, that works!"

Hudson said that playing the angel was the toughest part of the show for her, because "the tail keeps wanting to come out." She added to the Fallen Angel's line "You shouldn't trust me, Gabrielle" with "Because I'll eat your face!" Her favorite moment was playing the demon perched on the rock.

When asked what the hardest part of the Callisto role was for her physically, Hudson confessed it was riding a horse. When she was asked if she could ride a horse for the part, she demonstrated answering "Uh-huh!" while shaking her head. She managed to stay up on the horse long enough to "try to get Lucy," but then points out that Callisto never rode a horse again.

Hudson's parents were in the crowd, and we learned where Hudson got some of her performance genes from. When the parents were brought onto the stage, Hudson's mother took the microphone and started into "We are the pa-rents, the mighty mighty pa-rents" before Hudson quickly snatched the mike back and playfully shooed her parents away.

Hudson had her usual fun working the crowd into a lather, like when she curled on the stage with her legs a little too far apart, then when she realized it, declaring "Now they all know what color my hair really is." The crowd nearly fell on the floor in unison. She also literally rolled her way on the floor from one end of the stage to the center.

Those saucy moments were leavened by a healthy dose of sweetness, too, when she showed her genuine fondness for the fans. When one fan broke into sobs when it came time for her turn in the question line and told Hudson how pretty she was, Hudson replied with "You're pretty, too! You are!" and demanded her turn with the fan's camera to take a picture of the fan. She also, near the end of her time on stage, produced a huge bowl of Hershey kisses and strolled down the aisles of the massive auditorium, throwing out kisses like a queen throwing coins to her subjects. "Eat! Eat!" She didn't throw any into my general section, but somehow handfuls of kisses still made their way down our rows to be passed amongst everyone. We all got to end our time with a kiss from Hudson.

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