Most Common Phrase of the Weekend: "Aphrodite? Where?"

I've decided that one of the slightly twisted pleasures of fandom is watching an actor discover rabid fans. It's a great combination of wonder, surprise, and terror. Alexandra Tydings came to GEN CON, a monstrous gaming convention that fills every hotel in downtown Milwaukee, last weekend to help promote the Hercules and Xena trading card games. She was nice as could be, very sharp, and blown away by the lines and crowds to see her. When I got to see her in the autograph line, I told her I was wishing her luck at Cherry Hill at the end of the month, which she thanked me for. I decided not to freak her out by telling her she ain't seen nothin' yet. (Ha ha)

The audience for Tydings' Q&A session was small - less than a hundred people (see my above comment about how she ain't seen nothin' yet). Those few and proud, though, had no problems filling her hour with good questions. Tydings was friendly and eager to talk. She's a great combination of California chipperness with some serious smarts. Some high points of interest:

This was Tydings' second convention - she did another small one the weekend before. She mentioned looking forward to Cherry Hill, but that she wasn't sure what to expect. Insert here the evil chuckling of the nutballs.

Tydings is headed back to New Zealand in the fall - first to shoot a Xena episode, then maybe more Hercules. She doesn't know anything yet about what the episodes will be about. In non-Xena/Herc plans, she's working on an independent film and on creating her own production company. (I think she should call it "Goddess O' Love enterprises." Ya think?)

The humor of the shows threw her at first - when she got the script for The Apple to audition, she had never yet seen Hercules or Xena. She knew it was an hour-long action/adventure show, so she called up her agent in confusion when she read the script and found so much quirky humor. She wore a short skirt to the audition since the notes had said that Aphrodite would be wearing something skimpy, but was surprised to see a lot of the other actresses in leather. (Ha!) The casting director, who she knew, warned her that many of the actresses were playing Aphrodite as a total bimbo, which was not what they wanted. The bigwigs laughed a lot at Tydings' audition, and called her back that afternoon to let her know that she had the part.

Someone asked about the difficulties of acting against invisible special effects. Tydings said that trying to react to something you can't even see takes a lot of guts. She mentioned a time that Lucy Lawless was pretending to be dragged on the ground - she had to hold onto a rope and twist and grimace a lot. According to Alexandra, Lucy's exact quote at the time was "I feel like such a moron."

Alexandra has tattoos! Most noticeably, a Celtic band around her right bicep. We now know the real reason Aphrodite always has something across her arms. The tattoo is Tydings' own design, based on a band she saw in the Book of Kells (a gorgeously-illustrated Celtic religious manuscript). She also has at least one, I thought I saw two, more tattoos on her back, but she didn't mention what they were.

Alexandra's steps for getting into the Aphrodite character:

First, put on the "ridiculous costume." (Her words.)
Second, put on the "ridiculous wig." (Ditto.)

The fish used in Fins, Femmes, and Gems and in The Quill is Mightier are mostly real, much to Tydings' disgust. Her expression when she picked up the real fish in Fins to exclaim "I *hate* fish!" didn't take much acting. She mentioned in particular that the fish that Ted Raimi/Joxer gets whacked upside the head with by Lucy Lawless/Xena in Quill was the real article - yuk!

When asked about New Zealand, Tydings waxed rhapsodic for somewhere around five minutes. She talked about how lucky she is just to make a living as an actress, but to be able to travel to a country as beautiful as New Zealand is a great bonus. One of the culture shocks of New Zealand: 4pm tea time, a half-hour break when the whole set shuts down, frequently right when Tydings is perfectly prepared for an emotional scene. ("OK, time for tea!" "WHAT?") She said the people are hysterical and the Kiwi wit shows through on Xena and Hercules - she credited the New Zealand attitude with much of the uniqueness of the shows.

Of course, the cake fight between Aphrodite and Xena (in Hercules' Stranger in a Strange World) came up. There was only one cake to be used in the fight. They had to shoot it once and shoot it right. "I sorta just fought my little heart out," Tydings said, but she complained mightily that Lucy had an advantage because she does stage fighting and action sequences all the time. She described grabbing two big handfuls of cake only to turn around and discover that Lucy had scooped up an entire layer and was already dumping it on her head. "And she's TALL!" She declared herself officially pummelled in the cake fight. The entire fight shooting took about 20 minutes, and by the end of it the cream and butter in the cake was curdling in the heat - apparently that smell will stick with you for days.

(Note to Cherry Hill convention-goers: Tydings had us on the floor with this story - she tells it GREAT. Bring up the cake fight! If you don't, I will!)

When asked about the antics that go on behind the scenes, Tydings said she's a bit like a visiting family cousin on the set - people tend to be on pretty nice behavior for her. But she's been hearing stories about an ongoing prank war between Kevin Smith and Renee O'Connor. This DEFINITELY bears more investigation!

Fame has not yet followed Alexandra Tydings home. (Helped by the fact that she has short hair and wears nothing like the Aphrodite outfits, a'course.) She has been recognized one - count 'em, one - time. These convention weekends might change that around a bit!

While the Q&A crowd was small, the lines for Alexandra's autograph were HUGE; they were about the length of a football field across the Exhibit Hall and, from what I saw, stayed that long the whole time. Tydings was friendly, smiled at everyone, signed whatever, and waved to the curious watchers who gathered at her autograph area. A class act all the way around.

Other Xena notes from GEN CON:

I talked with Terese Nielsen, who has done quite a few of the covers for the Xena comics. She has a couple still to be published, but no requests for new ones; apparently, Topps is going to pare down the comics to one line at a time. (My pocketbook thanks them - three stories at once was getting pretty ridiculous.)

The Xena and Hercules card tournaments had pretty good turnout and a lot of fun people. The winners of two of the tournaments got to go to dinner with Tydings. I think I came in second - THAT close - in one of 'em. But I didn't begrudge the winner very much since he was in a Gabrielle T-shirt. You are a true fan, young man, God go with you. I saw him about a half-hour after the dinner and talked with him briefly; he was still on cloud nine. The Wizards of the Coast folks (the company that owns the card game and sponsored Alexandra's visit) the next day said he barely got two words out of his mouth during the entire dinner - I think he was stunned. It was sweet - a deserving fellow to win!

Xena merchandise was all over the place. I saw a few Xena standees in the dealer's room, with signs ("Take me home tonight for $25!") or wearing baseball hats touting the booth owner's product. T-shirts were popular.

Total T-shirt count that I saw people wearing:

Reign of Comedy	2
Ares	3
Callisto	4
Xena	5
and... (Beth does the Bard Dance of Victory)
Gabrielle	7

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