|
|
|
|
Lucy
Lawless!
She speaks French, German, some Italian, American accents, has fighting
skills(swords, staves, etc), is an experienced horse rider, does yoga,
and
is a dedicated wife and mother!
 
 
Women's Health Update Magazine
Volume 6, Number 3, October 2001
Warrior princess in stunning new role
Cordelia Lockett reports on the New Zealand campaign during World
Breastfeeding Week.
When Women's Health
Action's breastfeeding advocate Sian Burgess decided on Lucy Lawless to
front the World Breastfeeding Week campaign in August, she was in for a
bit of a shock.
"I wanted a high-profile poster, so I thought, who's famous and is
breastfeeding? I came up with a few names with Lucy's as the biggest.
But I didn't realise quite how big! The response has been huge - from
around New Zealand but also from Australia, the States, even Europe."
The classic madonna and child pose of Lucy Lawless breastfeeding her
baby on the edge of a chair, exudes a Renaissance painterly beauty.
But read the tagline below, "Breastfeeding - my best role ever" and
it's utterly contemporary- bang in the middle of twenty-first century
celebrity stardom.
The poster was distributed widely to maternity providers and other
health professionals, secondary schools, DHBs, childcare centres and
community groups.
While the response was largely positive, it provoked some controversy.
A few people questioned the combination of breastfeeding and sexy
sophistication.
"It challenges the dominant media imagery of the breast", explains
Sian. "We are saturated with sexual images of the breast on billboards,
TV, in magazines, but here we have an image of a breast being used as
nature intended it.
Even just seeing a photo of breastfeeding is unusual in our culture and
for every one breastfeeding image, there are 250 images of bottles and
artificial feeding.
In this environment a photo of a well-dressed woman breastfeeding her
healthy, well-fed baby (and Xena the warrior princess what¹s
more), is a political act."
During its development, the poster was pretested with members of the
target audience (young women aged 15-35 years).
Sian was delighted that the group had picked up on the intended
messages, demonstrated in responses like -
- "she makes breastfeeding fashionable",
- "she makes you think you don't have to stay
home to do it"
- "she looks like she's enjoying it."
Another part of the World Breast-feeding Week campaign infiltrated
cafes and other public places young women go. Free postcards promoted
the superiority of human milk for human babies and challenged the
acceptance that cows milk formula is equivalent to breast milk.
But surely everyone knows breast is
best these days?...
"Yes and no" says Sian. "The benefits of breastfeeding are
indisputable.
But while 98% of pregnant women say they want to breastfeed, by the
time the baby is six months old, only seven percent are exclusively or
fully breastfeeding.
The social deterrents are overwhelming. Currently there is insufficient
support for women to continue to breastfeed."
Sian advocates a range of affirmative actions to change social
attitudes towards breastfeeding including:
Extending Paid Parental Leave to at least six months to enable
exclusive breastfeeding for that period.
Encouraging family friendly workplace practices, such as paid
breastfeeding breaks, to enable women to continue breastfeeding when
they return to work.
Promoting positive social attitudes towards women who breastfeed in
public.
Creating a community where mothers are supported and encouraged to
continue breastfeeding their infants beyond the first few weeks.
I asked Sian if she thought she might do something a bit more low-key
for next year's campaign. "I want to do something even bigger and
better next year - something really extraordinary. I just haven't
thought of it yet."
She also had a fabulous home birth! A water birth.
"New Zealand's very own princess Lucy Lawless sure knows how to make a
splash. The tough-talking, leather-clad star of Xena: Warrior Princess
gave birth to her little warrior prince Julius underwater. Lucy and her
husband, Xena producer Rob Tapert, were at home in Auckland with a
midwife when Julius was born in a 'pool of water', specially designed
to make childbirth more comfortable. Nothing is more natural for
a baby
According to a US tabloid, Lucy wanted to have Julius as naturally as
possible. 'Nothing is more natural than having him in water,' said the
down-to-earth Kiwi star. 'The water temperature in the birthing pool is
similar to a mother's body temperature. The baby is essentially
floating in water for nine months so it's a smoother transition when
they are born.'
Nothing of Lucy's huge acting success can compare to the magic of
having another baby. The besotted couple is over their bouncing little
: Even 11 year-old daughter Daily, Lucy's child from her first is
excited about having a brother after all these years. "
 
 
Evening Post (Wellington - New Zealand) 4 July 1998
Excerpts
She's an international
cult figure, role model and feminist hero. But Lucy Lawless, star of
the TV series Xena, Warrior Princess, rejects the labels. In her own
words, she's just "a bloody girl from Mt Albert". A traditional girl,
at that: she recently remarried (to her producer) in a traditional
white-dress Catholic wedding. In a disarmingly frank interview with
Post staffer Sarah Daniell, published today, Lawless talks about the
pressures and pitfalls of fame - and of her determination to avoid
them.
"When I started Xena," she reflects, "people were disappointed when
they saw me driving around in an old car. They were slightly bummed
that I was ordinary. And now I have all the trappings of success they
like the fact that I'm ordinary. Not exactly accessible, but ordinary."
She needs no introduction - the startling blue eyes, the raven mane and
striking physical presence are legendary qualities in themselves. But
what is most startling is that when Lawless drops her warrior shield,
she blows the myth of the staunch defender.
She has gone where few NZ actors have gone before, and without the
affectations of many of her Hollywood counterparts.
As she warmly chats on the phone from her Auckland home, it's hard to
imagine this actor throwing a wobbly on set because she has the wrong
brand of mineral water in her trailer. Lawless gets on with the job.
She describes as "precious" the people who work with her 12 hours a
day, six days a week, and insists she is merely one part of a dedicated
team.
"If I'm a crumb-bum and make their lives miserable, for God's sake
they'll leave. I know my mood affects so many people's work and that
the staff set the tone on the set. They may not set the pace but they
certainly set the tone."
She breaks off to tell the dog, Lucky - "a crazy mutt" - not to be sick
on the carpet ("I'm not really a huge pet person") and laughs when
confronted with questions of fame and icon-ism.
Two years ago, she reeled when American magazine Ms saddled her with
leading a mass-culture movement. "I feel they [feminists] are
objectifying me .... they think I'm a counter Barbie Barbie," she said
at the time. "Well f... you. Don't set me up as television's gladiator
Roseanne..." And: "I don't wanna be anyone's role model. Go away. I
have enough trouble being my daughter's role model."
Now she seems to shrink from such impassioned responses. "It's just
that I was terrified. I mean, you're a bloody girl from Mt Albert [in
middle-class Auckland suburbia] and all of a sudden they're hailing you
as an icon. And that's hard to deal with. Now I can take it all with a
grain of salt. I know it's not me, it's just some media spectre they've
helped conjure up. They need it. People need that sort of thing. When I
started Xena," she reflects, "people were disappointed when they saw me
driving around in an old car. They were slightly bummed that I was
ordinary. And now I have all the trappings of success they like the
fact that I'm ordinary. Not exactly accessible, but ordinary."
It's probably just as well she's more relaxed about being a role model,
because her massive following would be hard to ignore. Young men and
women identify with this "bloody girl from Mt Albert". She is
strikingly beautiful but about as far from bimbo as it's possible to
get. She's tall (1.8m) and she's not likely to blow over in a gust. And
there has never been a female character like Xena on television. Wonder
Woman? The Bionic Woman? They were, well, just too nice and besides,
Xena's strength comes naturally - she hasn't been tampered with
electronically (at least, not that we know of....). The closest Xena
gets to enhancing nature is a Wonder bra. "Real women wear padding,
they don't get plastic surgery," says Lawless.
Does she ever forget where Xena ends and Lucy begins? "I'm always Lucy.
I never feel any pressure to be anyone else. I mean, who else can you
be?"
"There were times when it was difficult and then I kind of got over it.
And what amazes me is that your ordinariness all of a sudden makes you
unique. So it's really easy to go on being yourself and it's the
happiest way to deal with life too. I don't want to be miserable. I
know how short this life is, that I'll be 80 one day."
The fearless qualities that sparked such labels as "feminist icon" seem
part of Lawless herself, who intermittently throws in statements like,
"Feel the fear and do it anyway". It is less a conscious political
statement. "It seems totally natural to me that women are equal to but
different to men. I never questioned that it was any other way."
Lawless was the fifth of seven children and decided from an early age
to perform. SHe sang at home to her treasured Grease soundtrack and had
an affinity with bad girl Rizzo - unwittingly rehearsing for the role
she would play 20 or so years later on Broadway. Later she appeared in
TV commercials and co-hosted a travel programme. She travelled, worked
in Australian gold-mines and got married to Garth Lawless, with whom
she has a daughter, Daisy, now 10. The marriage ended, but she is
philosophical about that chapter in her life.
"All experience in life should make you a better person..... If you
don't accept 50 percent of the responsibility, not blame.... for
whatever position you're in, you can't heal yourself. You can't go on
and do things because you're playing the victim. It means now that now
I'm a far better potential partner, yep."
And then along came Xena, a role she only got because others were sick
or turned it down.
"Fame was never the end product. I'll bet your bottom dollar I'm still
working when I'm 80."
She is clean living, has given smoking and vegetarianism the boot
("being a vegetarian made me anaemic") and says she's in bed by eight
o'clock each night. But she enjoys "killing a few brain cells about
once a year".
She is fiercely protective of her privacy and aware of the
repercussions of fame for those close to her. And she's more than a
little gun-shy after a recent column all but revealed her Auckland
address.
"You don't expect a weasel not to act like a weasel. And you don't
expect a gossip columnist not to act like a gossip columnist."
Women's magazines get a swipe of the warrior's sword too, and though
she has graced the cover of many, she has never granted any an
interview.
"It's like making a pact with the devil, you know. If you take the ups
from them, you also have to take the downs with them. If they don't
keep you rising and falling in popularity in their own personal poll,
then they have nothing to fill their pages with."
This Mt Albert girl who cite mega-clever actor Susan Sarandon as a
hero, keeps her own counsel. She knows Xena has an expiry date. But
right now she's having a hell of a time. "I know that when I'm 80 I'm
gonna say 'Wow man, I did Broadway'. And I know that if I die young, I
know that I'm sucking the life out of every day. I'm not waiting to be
happy later."
Send a letter to Lucy!
Get
her address Here!
...or get your Backstage Pass to contact
all your favorite warrior women celebrities, here!
_________________________________
Fair Use Notice:
The material on this page is provided for educational and informational
purposes. It may contain copyrighted material the use of which has not
always been specifically authorized by the copyright owner. It is being
made available in an effort to advance the understanding of scientific,
environmental, economic, social justice and human rights issues etc. It
is believed that this constitutes a 'fair use' of any such copyrighted
material as provided for in section 107 of the US Copyright Law. In
accordance with Title 17 U.S.C. Section 107, the material on this site
is distributed without profit to those who have an interest in using
the included information for research and educational purposes. If you
wish to use copyrighted material from this site for purposes of your
own that go beyond 'fair use', you must obtain permission from the
copyright owner. The information on this site does not constitute legal
or technical advice.
|
|
|
|
|
