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A COLLECTION OF LESBIAN/BISEXUAL RELEVANT INTERVIEWS
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Below are interviews with people associated with the show. In most cases I
have included several paragraphs from the article. There isn't enough room
to include the entire article, please see the Xena Media Review on the
International Association of Xena Studies web site for complete texts.
Unfortunately, some of the newer articles may not yet be posted.
- -

(1) Contra Costa (California) Newspaper, November 17, 1996

HEADLINE: The Xena-Philes: TV's warrior princess draws a mighty following


   (Executive Producer Rob) Tapert says the main reasons behind the success
of "Xena" are easy to spot. "I like two things -- playing with the
relationship between the two leads, from comedy to drama to casting doubts
in the audience's minds. And the action."
  First, those "doubts."
  "I think the gay thing is there," Tapert says. "Certainly there is the
belief that Xena and Gabrielle are having sexual relations."
  He's not kidding about that. The Internet is filled with ramblings about
Xena's double-entendres and longing looks. When she gave Gabrielle a simple
kiss, the whole system almost crashed. If Gabrielle takes off Xena's warrior
boots -- forget it. It's Topic A for days.
  Tapert only laughs, saying such instances are "us being very bad." That's
because the word came down early not to make the characters outright
lesbians. "Advertisers don't like that," he says. But being coy has
certainly kept the interest up. "We blurred the lines," Tapert says.

- -

(2) The Denver Post, November 20, 1996

HEADLINE: It's no wonder this woman has become Xena: Worldwide Cult Queen
By Joanne Ostrow, Post TV/Radio


   Then there's the Gabrielle sideline and romantic subtext. A sidekick with
a powerful presence, Gabrielle, played by Renee O'Connor, is the petite,
fast-talking prot=E9g=E9 of Xena who is never far from her side. In fact,=
 their
adoring relationship is the subject of much speculation among fans, on the
Internet and wherever the mythic heroine is worshipped.
    (Lawless said) "We talk about it on set. We're all aware of how
different sectors of our audience perceive the show. If you're talking about
the lesbian element, we are aware and we're not afraid of it. This is a love
story between two people. What they do in their own time is none of our
business."

- -

(3) Femme Fatale magazine, January 1, 1996.

   "We had a sort of gay Mardi Gras recently," says Lawless. "The American
producer was down here and couldn't believe all the women's breasts around.
He said, 'This just wouldn't happen in the states!' We have no morals at=
 all!
There were families gathered and we had our seven-year-old daughter there."

- -

(4)  The Philadelphia Inquirer, January 30, 1996

   And, um, what exactly is up with Xena and Gabrielle? The relationship
between big, strong, silent Xena and small, bubbly blond Gabrielle (played
by Renee O'Connor) has made the show a favorite with gays and lesbians with
a taste for camp -- that, plus the fact that every time Gabrielle lands a
boyfriend, he dies. When Lawless answers, you can almost see her smile
across the oceans. "Hmm," she says, "perhaps I should just adopt the
American euphemism, 'I will neither confirm or deny.'"
    "All I can say about that," says Tapert, "is that Gabrielle satisfies
her every whim."

- -

(5) The Advocate, August 20, 1996

   (Out-lesbian Producer Liz) Friedman emphasizes the fact that she's never
hidden her sexuality on the job.  "(Executive Producer) Rob (Tapert) tells
this story about when I first started working here," she says.  "I was
wearing my leather jacket, and I turned around, and there  was my big Queer
Nation sticker on the back that said,  QUEERS BASH BACK.   Rob was like,
'OK, that answers that question.' "

- -

(6) October 3-10 issue of Time Out New York magazine .

HEADLINE: Who Are You Calling Princess? Meet Lucy Lawless, syndicated TV's
feistiest female--the woman behind Xena's snarl By Gillian Fassel

TONY: You also have a big lesbian audience.
LL: They're great; they're really loyal fans.
TONY: There is a New York bar, Meow Mix, that had these Xena theme nights...
LL: The Boiler Room did, too. We put one of their posters on our call sheet
and gave it to the crew. We work in such isolation that the show's success
is really abstract, so it gave everybody a big kick.

- -

(7) Interview with Xena Producer Liz Friedman on "One in Ten", a
lesbian and gay radio program from Boston. Broadcast October 1996

        MARY BRESSLOUR -- I'm Mary Bresslour and this is "One in Ten," along
with Keith Orr. The chat rooms have been buzzing for months now. The cult
television hit, Xena: Warrior Princess, has lots of fans estatic over
fearless heroine Xena and her red-headed companion, Gabrielle, and the twist
is that the producers also seem to be consciously using the pair to
cultivate a bit of a lesbian following.

       KEITH -- Let's get into the whole Gabrielle thing. Let's talk about
that a little bit. What's up with their relationship? What do you take it=
 on?
        LIZ -- Well, I think that they have a, the characters, I mean we --
Honestly, we didn't write the characters to be explicitly lesbian. Going
into it we never really had any thoughts about that. I think what we really
wanted to do was we wanted to make a very strong and real relationship
between the two of them in that their friendship does not consist of the two
of them talking about their boyfriends and what kind of sanitary protection
they like, which tends to be what you see on television when women talk.
        They have a real concern and respect for one another. I think that
it's interesting that when you portray that kind of a female friendship it
instantly starts getting read as if, well, they must be lovers. I think it
tells us a lot about what television doesn't tend to show in terms of  real
relationships between two women, whether or not there is a sexual component
to them or not.

        MARY -- It's kind of like a great female Butch Cassidy and the
Sundance Kid.
        LIZ -- Yeah. They're just a terrific pairing. My take on it is what
Xena and Gabrielle do in between episodes, I don't actually know.
        MARY -- Hey, don't ask, don't tell. Right?
        LIZ -- (laughing) Yes.
        MARY -- But that must be some of the fun off it, too, which is their
relationship can really be anything to any viewer in many ways. And you have
some fun with this. Let's be honest.
        LIZ -- Absolutely, oh absolutely! That's one of the best parts of
the job, getting to throw in references that I know the fans who are
interested in that will pick up on, but don't necessarily flash any
irrevocable red lights. We opened up a show with the two of them fishing
naked and we're about to have a Halloween episode that will certainly have
some nice moments for our queer fans, a little lesbian vampire show.
        KEITH -- How do the actors feel about the sort of gay twist to their
characters?
        LIZ -- I think they really like it. They get a real kick out of it.
Lucy thinks it's great and I think Renee does also.

        MARY -- When did you guys begin to get the sense, Liz, that this was
going to be a cult happening thing? That there was a little bit of extra
buzz happening around Xena?
        LIZ -- That's a good question. I think probably about the middle of
last season where it sort of started to become clear through buzz on the
internet and stuff that Oh OK, people are reading it this way; that's
interesting. We always thought it was great because it means that there are
people who have a real passionate interest in your show.
        I know certainly that as a representationally starved queer, as I
think we all are, when you see somebody who you feel is paying some
attention to you and is even willing to leave something open to that kind of
interpretation, you have a more positive response to it. You're more
inclined to follow that show. The idea of having that kind of loyal and
supportive audience, I think, always appealled to all of us.
   

- -

(8) Mr. Showbiz on-line interview, January 1997

MR. SHOWBIZ  -- A lot of people like to speculate on the true nature of the
relationship between Xena and  Gabrielle. Does
the fact that people like to read things into the show have an effect on
your performance?
LUCY LAWLESS -- Ah! You mean do we play up to it? What are you asking here?
We do have fun with that aspect, but I never want to shove it down people's
throats because it can also be alienating and we don't want to do that to any sector
of our audience. But we don't want to alienate our lesbian following. We
love 'em all! We love 'em all equally, whether they're on the edge or not.=

MR. SHOWBIZ -- The reason I didn't ask "Do you play up to it?" is because I
didn't want to put words in your mouth.
LAWLESS -- Well, that was my little Freudian slip there! We all--I think I
can speak for some of the people who work on the show--we all like pushing the
boundaries a little. We don't want to make a bloody middle-of-the-road show.
We're not interested in watching those kind of shows. We try to make highest
common denominator viewing. Not lowest, not middle. We want to make the=
highest.

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Updated 3/1/97

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