Syndie series "Xena: Warrior Princess" wrap party was held at the BevHills Museum of Television & Radio Tuesday night. A panel discussion followed the unspooling of the final episode. Among those attending was exec producer R.J. Stewart, stars Lucy Lawless and Renee O'Connor.
photo #1: 'Xena' exec producers Sam Raimi, left, and Rob Tapert joke around at the skein's wrap party.
photo #2: 'Xena: Warrior Princess' stars Lucy Lawless and Renee O'Connor at the series' wrap party at the BevHills Museum of Television & Radio.
Images 3, 4, 5 and 6 came from the Cinescape story on the event
Limited to only 150 attendees, the seminar surrounding the end of XWP featured a panel discussion with Sam Raimi, Rob Tapert, RJ Stewart, Lucy Lawless, and Renee O'Connor. One lucky Xenite, Rachelle, was able to attend, and graciously posted this review of the event to the Chakram mailing list...
Xena seminar at Musuem of TV & Radio (No spoilers)
I just want to say it was a real honor to get to be one of the 150 people to attend this one of a kind event. Thank you so much to the woman who gave me a ticket, I am forever grateful.
I just want to let those who are interested that Lucy and Renee looked great and were in good spirits. Lucy and Renee sat side by side but they put Renee's mike on her left side and she was looking to her left smiling at Lucy while she talked so they should have put it on that side instead. Renee had like a netting shirt over a tub top like shirt so her belly was really exposed and pants, she looked absoultly great. Lucy wore a black skirt and blazer with a dark blue lace under and red boots with painting type design. She looked gorgeous and she kept taking care of Renee, like if she felt she was getting sad she would make everyone laugh and was giving her a bottle of water whenever she needed a drink so she wouldn't have to reach for it.
They asked about 3 questions submitted by the fans who attended and I am happy to say one was mine. The host got my name right but had problems reading the rest of my writing so RJ had to help her out and everyone got a big laugh out ot it. I recently injured my hand so my writing is a little worse for wear. It was, "We know Lucy and Renee have said they would like to work together again, but do they have any idea what they would want the project to be?" They both said they would like it to be a comedy and it will happen sometime in the future. They went on to talk about how they kind of felt like they grew up together on the show, because the person you are when you start your twenties is not the person you are when you end them. They also said that out of all the people they have worked they were each others favorites because they know each other so well and can tell what the other is thinking or wanting by just a look and can finish each other's thoughts.
They talked about Renee's directing and about the time she toyed with writing an episode, Lucy piped up and said "Ya we can do that!" So they tried to co-write one. Renee said "What a humbleing experience that was." Everyone got a real laugh out of that.
They talked about their favorite episode and most challenging. For Lucy she said her favorite was Is There A Doctor In The House because the death scene with Gabrielle was the first time she let herself go and put everything into a scene. Most challenging was Friend In Need because she was just struggling to get it down and was very tired and just wanted to crawl into a ball and go to sleep. She said watching she could see it but didn't know if we could.
Renee said she liked the comedies but the one that stuck out the most was If The Shoe Fits because of Ted and the disco thing. Lucy piped up and talked about Renee having her tooth blacked out in it. Renee said the most challenging was The Abyss because of all the environmental conditions she had to face with all the water and being caked in mud.
Rob liked the scene in Sacrifice II when time suspended when Gabrielle was falling in the pit with Hope. RJ's was Sins Of The Past when Xena spun around the staff kicking people, because it was the first piece he saw that he wrote.
They talked about the effect the show had on other countries and Renee said she didn't realize it until they offeneded a whole country with the way they personified a god, talking about The Way. She and Lucy still felt bad about it and apologized again.
As for future projects Lucy said Renee wanted to to theater and Renee said she also wanted to do more directing. That they are taking a little time off to spend with their families who they feel they have neglegted over the years, but that we haven't seen the last of them.
When asked about the ending of the show Rob said they know some people aren't going to like it and Lucy chimed in and said "But we never did anything the easy way, if we had chosen that way it wouldn't have been Xena."
All in all I think they talked for about an hour.
That's all I can think of for now, if I think of more I'll let you know if you want to.
Rachelle
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