Alexandra Tydings, Aphrodite

Cherry Hill was Alexandra's first serious Xena convention. She'd done two small events before, but nothing that compared to near to a thousand people clapping and yelling like crazy. She stepped onto the stage, took one look at the crowd, and her jaw hit the floor. I think three out of her first four sentences were "Wowwwwww!" Followed closely by "I haven't seen this many people in one place since graduation!" Alexandra kept herself almost against the back screen on the stage, but other than that show of nervousness, she relaxed into story-telling mode for the question-askers.

Two things were destined to come up for Alexandra's Q&A: the cake fight and the mud bath.

For the grand opening of Aphrodite's cake fight with Xena in the Hercules episode Stranger in a Strange World, Xena and 'Dite had to trade punches. This began Alexandra's complaints that Lucy Lawless gets tons of practice with stage fighting; she described Lucy swinging one punch at her, the director calling out "OK," then switching the angle around for Aphrodite's punch, which Alexandra tried. And tried. And tried again, never quite getting close enough to look real. "An hour later..." she joked. She also mentioned being tempted to throttle Lucy when she offered the advice to "just relax," much to everyone's amusement.

But the day's fun had just begun... now the cake came out. There was only one cake to use in the shoot, so they had to get everything in one pass and use what they got. "Now bear in mind I'm a goddess," Alexandra reminded everyone as she pointed out the problems with trying to fight against someone who gets lots of practice... plays a warrior... and is TALL. She scrapped the best she could, but described getting thoroughly outclassed by Lucy's cake-fighting prowess. Alexandra says that if you listen closely to the episode, even with all the added sound effects, you can still hear her laughing. She claims it's nervous laughter because big ol' Lucy was pounding her so bad. Then she and Lucy had to twiddle their thumbs for five minutes, covered in cake, while the film in the cameras was changed to get some final shots. The eggs and cream in the cake was curdling on their skin as they waited, no one was willing to get near them, and that curdled smell, she says, stays with you for days.

Alexandra tried her damnedest to have fun with the mudbath as Catherine the Pig (in Hercules' Porkules). She described it as an acting challenge; she had to really sell that she was a pig and absolutely loooooved getting in that mud. So she thought about ice cream. And had a grand ol' time rolling in mud with 20 aghast people gathered around her filming it. It worked most of time, except for the occasional moment of cold reality. Like when she felt something brush past her leg. Whooooaaaahhhh.

Alexandra's favorite episodes? The Apple and Stranger in a Strange World. If Alexandra could do anything she wanted with Aphrodite for an episode? She'd make her into a rock star. She even sang a line from Fiona Apple's "Criminal" for us: "I've been a bad, bad girl..."

When someone asked whether Alexandra had any favorite scenes she wanted to do with Karl, who was still behind the stage watching over Alexandra, he jumped up onstage to join her, but they couldn't remember much beyond single lines - Alexandra immediately recalled "Don't be stupid, Cupid!" but no one could remember the rest. When someone suggested the line "I have a major sense of grodiness, Cupid," Alexandra replied with disbelief "I said that?"

Alexandra never had a clue that the Aphrodite character would become so popular, but she says she's loving it. When she first read the script to the Apple, she was surprised at how weird and funny it was, especially coming from an hour-long show instead of a sitcom, but she really wanted to try out for the role so she could go to New Zealand. She hadn't seen Hercules (or Xena), but the travel sounded great. So she auditioned, and the amused casters asked her "You didn't have very much fun with that, did you?" She got the phone call later that day to tell her exactly what she was wanting to hear, "You're going to New Zealand."

Some of the toughest work she had to do was for the Hercules episode Reign of Terror. She got a break from her usual outfit... to wear a rubber catsuit instead which, while it looked slinky as all get out, was made of actual rubber. In the middle of summer. "That's when I started thinking that maybe it was personal." And she had to cry, which she says she does easily enough in real life, but she was incredibly nervous about having to cry on cue. Her makeup artist is a good friend, and while she was talking about her worries, her friend asked her what music makes her cry. Alexandra told her that the Rolling Stone's Wild Horses always gets her, so her friend came to her later in the day with a walkman and the Rolling Stones loaded up and ready to play Wild Horses for her. It worked perfectly; she curled up in a chair, listened to the music, had her emotions perfectly ready... and a half-hour break for tea was called. Ah, life in New Zealand!

Alexandra has two tattoos, and she was asked about both of them: a Celtic band around her arm and a fairy over her shoulder blade on her back, both of which she designed. What motivates one to get a tattoo? "Insanity!" Alexandra replied. All her friend's assurances that it didn't really hurt was apparently a load of bull. She got the fairy tattoo for her 18th birthday, and quickly discovered that this was NOT a fun process. A guy at the shop named "Bonehead" gave her a lollipop, though, and "the lollipop did me wonders."

Apparently one of the biggest challenges of playing Aphrodite is managing to stay warm in that outfit - no surprise there! She has a pair of pink long johns she can sometimes use, and when the camera is shooting her from the waist up, she can wear sweatpants. Aphrodite in sweat pants!

My thanks to Debbie Cassetta and Donna Alexander for helping me fill in some missing photos after my camera's batteries died on Sunday. A note to all: carry extra batteries with you! Especially if they're those blasted lithium kind that no hotel gift shop has!

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