Sharon Delaney, Fan Club President
August 29-30, 1998
Sharon got rousing applause both days when she was
introduced. She showed slides from the upcoming seasons, and
on Sunday sat down with some of us lucky enough to be around
at the time and showed a bunch of the shots she's hoping to
get into next year's calendar. (Imagine Sharon seated
against a wall with a couple of dozen people gathered around
her, all of us poring over the photos she was showing like
disciples to a holy guru on a mountaintop.)
Sharon gave her own thumbnail sketch of her impressions of the stars from her dealings with them. It was a neat snapshot glimpse.
Kevin Sorbo: "One of the sweetest people I ever met." She said Kevin is very smart, nice as can be, and loves telling stories.According to Sharon, when Hudson Leick was asked what it's like working with Renee O'Connor (instead of her often-asked questions about Lucy Lawless), Hudson said that Renee's a "very sexual actress." No more explanation than that. What a quote.Michael Hurst: A big fan of the technology and technique of film and television. She says the way to really get him going is to ask about how a particular scene is done or shot.
Renee O'Connor: Renee's a very thoughtful, involved actress who muses out her characters' thoughts and motivations for every scene; according to Sharon, she can tell you exactly why Gabrielle did anything in any moment. For example, Sharon asked about why Gabrielle stroked Xena's hair after having her nightmare/vision about Xena's death. According to Renee, Gabrielle was thinking that this may be their last night on earth, and pondering how beautiful Xena was. Renee admitted to having real problems getting a handle on Gabrielle in Forget Me Not, since she had a hard time believing Gabrielle could be that jealous, but finally came to conclusion that Gabrielle is as human as the rest of us and is more than capable of it.
Lucy Lawless: As a near diametric opposite to Renee's acting style, Lucy tends to use very visceral reactions and intuitive responses in her acting instead of planned, thought-out emotions. (The classic two camps of acting.) Sharon said Lucy is very introspective and is willing to talk about anything BUT the Xena character/reactions.
Another Callisto tidbit: Sharon said that every writer she has spoken with said that Callisto really did have a last-minute change of heart and want to live at the end of Sacrifice II. But Hudson disagrees, and didn't quite play it that way. She'd say (and did, during the weekend) that Callisto was trying to goad Xena into making sure she killed her off as she had agreed.
Sharon showed a set of never-shown shots from the very end of Fins Femmes & Gems, as Xena and Gabrielle rested in their bedrolls and contemplated when to bother curing Joxer, a few sharp-eyed people noted that as the show faded to black, Gabrielle's hand moved toward Xena. Those people should now be patting themselves on the back, because Sharon has shots of how the rest of the scene went that we never got to see. Apparently Gabrielle reached for Xena's hand, pulled on it, and an arm wrestling match ensued. Sharon has a fantastic shot of Xena and Gab, arms locked, with silly, satisfied grins plastered on their faces. She's hoping the shot gets approved for the calendar - it's adorable.
Another "never made it to the screen" scene: in Armageddon Now, the Hercules episode that included the alternate history of what would have happened if Hercules had never been born. Apparently, if you listen closely to the scene when Xena the Conqueror has Iolaus in her tent, as the scene has closed and Iolaus has left, you can just catch Xena telling Ares, "Let's play." The photos Sharon found include shots of that "play". These were NOT for the weak of heart; Xena sitting in front, leaning against the reclining Ares... whose bare legs were on one side of Xena, bare chest on the other. If I wasn't awake before seeing those shots, I sure was after.
A fun moment to watch for: In Stranger in a Strange Land, when Xena and Hercules/the Sovereign are engaged in their... ahem... fun and games, the Sovereign throws Xena over his shoulder and starts to carry her off. Apparently, Xena's laughter is the real article; Kevin Sorbo wasn't scripted to do that. He just threw it in, much to Lucy Lawless's amusement at the time.
Future episode possibilities:
- Xena season two tapes and Hercules season one tapes are
on the way. No word on them being released on DVD,
though.
- A return of Janice and Mel continues to be bantered
around. As Sharon puts it, no one's denying that Janice and
Mel will return, the XenaStaff seems to want a new episode
with them, but there's been no word about an actual plan for
one.
- The Sappho episode (Warrior... Poetess.. Tramp) is still
in limbo. They want kd lang to appear and sing in the
episode (though not necessarily as Sappho), but that's
causing a huge bureaucratic tangle for song release rights
and the like. Current status: it's on the back burner, but
not an impossibility to see someday.
SPOILER SECTION FOLLOWS! If you don't want to read
any hints about next season, that's the end of Sharon's
report! G'wan back to the main
Cherry Hill Report page.
As of this weekend, here's the episode schedule Creation
knows of for the fourth season. This can VERY easily change,
but it's the plan so far:
Adventures in the Sin Trade I & IISharon had tons of pictures from Adventures in the Sin Trade, the two-part season opener. This is the one that Sharon has said before, and said again, that you "combine the scope and majesty of The Debt, include the death of Gabrielle, and shoot in an unscheduled rain, and you get a Xena you've never seen before." The pictures were amazing. There seemed to be two major plotlines going on. One set of shots looked to be in the present - Xena was on a dark horse (where's Argo? - Sharon promised she's around in later shots/episodes, but not in this part), in heavy dark furs, in the pouring rain, with expressions of grief and pathos that'll bring you to your knees.
(these start showing on September 28th)
A Family Affair
In Sickness and In Hell
A Good Day
Crusade
Past Imperfect
Key to the Kingdom
Tale of Two Muses
Shark Island Prison
Paradise Found
4 episodes set in India, although not a four-parter
Amazon Reunion
Charon's Boat
an unnamed episode
Last Temptation
Weekend at Joxer's
A side note: Sharon also had an outtake photo of Lucy between takes of this incredible set of shots/scenes - huddled under a slicker and an umbrella looking miserable. Pouring rain, Sharon said the temperature at the time was about 50 degrees, your usual partner on the set is gone, you're tearing your guts out for the camera for goodness knows how long... no wonder the poor lady was feeling roughshod! Sharon said the director, TJ Scott, asked Lucy if she wanted to stop the shooting, but she elected to keep filming... in an incredibly pitiful voice. Must have been a hellish shoot.
The other shots from Sin Trade showed a group of people, including ol' Borias back again (post-Debt flashback, Sharon says), and a lot of ladies that Sharon said are Mongolian amazons. The goofy thing is that the Mongolian amazons are in American Indian-style leathers. (Ah, the Xenaverse fun with timelines and geography!) Everyone's wearing soft brown buckskins, lots of bone and beads, and Xena wrapped in it from head to toe, including a hood with short antlers on it. Sharon had a great shot of Xena in the indian leathers in mid-flight, looking as bad-as-Hades as ever.
Here was the part that really interested me: the past shots included lots of a shamaness (Sharon's word)-looking woman. The "present" shots showed a huge elk-like animal on Xena's horse, and after Xena had gotten off the horse, her holding a dagger and doing something with what looked like blood or maybe part of the elk. I thought it looked like a ritual of some kind going on, that maybe that was the link between the flashbacks and the present going-ons: some ritual Xena had learned from those amazons a long time ago. But that's my guess only, folks - I'm going to pitch my Xena dollie at the first person I see relating any ritual rumors as an established fact.
Waiting another month for these episodes is going to be hell.
Caesar's back in at least two episodes, A Good Day and one other. So's Pompey. One slide showed Xena with what looked to be a Roman brown leather armor top over her usual armor, and Gabrielle (there she is!) in full Roman leather armor and the helmet - what a weird combination, that armor look on our bard!
We saw some shots from Tale of Two Muses, too. This is the episode that we saw briefly on Entertainment Tonight, the one that's supposed to be a "Footloose"-style episode about a town that's outlawed dancing. Bruce Campbell is in the episode as Autolycus, and so's Tara, the kid from Forgiven. As Sharon put it, "I don't know what she's doing there, but if dancing's been outlawed, she's probably dancing." There was a cute shot of Gabrielle dancing with a young boy. And there's a bizarre shot of Xena and Autolycus with goofy expressions on their faces in the middle of doing something; Sharon chose that moment to mention that the episode includes limbo-ing. Yeek!
The last episode we saw some shots from was Daughter of Pomira. The Horde is back! We saw a Horde nasty-looking guy, and one person in total Horde red and black face paint, with the heavy mud-filled Horde hair... and piercing blue eyes. Xena in a Horde getup. Wow!
Sharon mentioned, but had no pictures of, an upcoming episode called Wild Horses, and said it would be an Argo-centric episode. Ohhhhkay.
OK, THE SPOILER SECTION IS DONE. CONTINUE ON ABOUT YOUR BUSINESS.
Return to the Cherry Hill Report.
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