Lawless expands on that bombshell, explaining, "I know it makes no sense now, because, of course, a character takes on a life of its own. But I wanted to underplay everything and have Xena be dark and mysterious. Of course, the show took over and [Xena] became a whole other animal. They had to keep reining me back during my [X-Files] episodes, because I was going, 'Where's the blood? Who do you want me to kick first?' And there was just none of that. The X-Files is just a whole different style of acting. So it was a real learning curve for me, but they were tremendously generous and [are] just wonderful people."

Though she has moved on from Xena, Lawless is still dealing with the fallout caused by the show's two-part finale, "A Friend in Need," which saw the main character not just killed, but brutally beaten and then decapitated. Many fans decried Xena's fate and felt betrayed by Lawless and series writer-producer Rob Tapert, who also directed the episodes and is Lawless' husband. "I'm proud of the work we did," Lawless said. "It was a job well done. We worked like dogs to the very end. We never gave less than 100 percent every day. So while I'm proud of Xena for so very many reasons, you never really want to hurt people. And I see that it actually hurt people that the show ended that way and that Xena was killed."

The cable network Oxygen will air a director's cut of "A Friend in Need" as a two-hour movie at 9 p.m. ET on Nov. 3, a version supplemented by 16 minutes of previously unseen footage. Following the movie, Oxygen will run a 10-minute segment of its animated series X-Chromosome, then an encore presentation of Lawless' life-after-Xena interview from its Pure Oxygen program.

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