Farscape - Gigi Edgley
By Anna L. Kaplan

Gigi Edgley, the blonde, beautiful, lithe young woman who plays FARSCAPE's Chiana, repeated an acting joke a friend told her, "There are five stages of acting: 'Who is Gigi Edgley? Get me Gigi Edgley. Get me a look-alike for Gigi Edgley. Get me a younger Gigi Edgley. Who is Gigi Edgley?' I hope I am still at the 'Get me Gigi Edgley' stage," otherwise I'm in big trouble this early on in my career. It's been a whirlwind."

Edgley came onto FARSCAPE as a guest star in the Season One episode "Durka Returns," which she still thinks of as a favorite episode. The writer/ producers quickly decided to keep Chiana on board Moya. Chiana, or "Chi" as she is often called, is young, rebellious, seductive, manipulative, larcenous and violent. Natural allies with Rygel, she uses her charm on all the males, including Crichton and D'Argo, although the relationships soon turn to something deeper. "When D'Argo comes into her life," observed Edgley, "I think there is a friendship there and a closeness that almost gets too close, so very interesting stuff starts turning up."

By Season Two, Edgley was a regular cast member. Chiana began to get on a bit better with her shipmates. The fans first got a glimpse of alien sex in the first part of "Look at the Princess." Some weren't sure what to think. Said Edgley, "The D'Argo and Chiana relationship, people were going, 'Where did that come from?' I said, 'I don't know, but it's kind of aesthetically intriguing, don't you think?' I remember Anthony Simcoe and I were falling around and going, 'Okay, how would they have sex? Like this?' The director looked in and said, 'What are you doing?' I said, 'We're having alien sex.' He said, 'It's got to resemble sex, so people will know what you are doing.' So this very creative, avant-garde style of sexual intercourse got a very earthbound-looking style added to it. So far, a lot of the fans I've met aren't liking the relationship at all. They say, 'What's going on? I thought there was something happening between Aeryn and Crichton and Chiana, and then all of a sudden it flipped on its head.' You've just got to open your imagination a little bit. Honestly we are just trying to fulfill the writers' vision. The writers most definitely have got the best view the big picture. So when there is weird stuff going on with D'Argo and Chiana, I guess they are meant to be bonding. In a later episode there has got to be some weird, maybe even life-threatening situation, where that interesting chemistry is going to come up again."

Although Edgley is sensitive about Chiana and sometimes concerned that people won't like her if she behaves badly, she recognizes the fact that her character is an alien and needs to be played that way: "In the initial stages, it seems that she warms to the members quite easily, and she may have killed someone. All of a sudden she turns around, and she is sweet as pie. I'm like, 'Okay, let's get into the juice. Who knows if anyone is going to talk to me after it or not, but there are going to be some nice juicy bits in there.' It reminds the viewers of the alien characteristics. When they come into these dire straits situations, this is the way this alien deals with it: She doesn't know what to do, so she goes back to what she knows, which is to cheat and to lie and to step on people because she wants to be safe. Somewhere inside, she knows it's not right, which makes it all the more painful. It brings up that alien characteristic, which is good.

"We've had hints that she can fly, or she can at least bound quite far. She has to have this sexual interplay the whole time, so I realize this is a trait. She's also very animalistic: When things don't go her way, she gets territorial, and this is all she cares about." Edgley has no idea what is coming up for Chiana in season three. She often tries to look ahead, but it doesn't always help. She said, "David Kemper has finished series three in his mind. At least he knows where it is all heading. It changes a lot, because it comes down to us on set, and how we interpret the writing. Then he goes, 'I never knew that beat was there. They've just turned this bit on its head.' But at least it's a rough plan you can sort of go by. "Sometimes I've found that if you listen to it too much, then you trip yourself up, because it changes. You are looking forward to this arc in your character, and then it's just not there, and you go, 'Where'd that go? I thought this was in this ep.' 'No, Gig, that's been scrapped.' I reckon the time you can start listening is a couple of weeks before the ep is going to come up."

What were Edgley's plans for Chiana in Season Three? "I want to play with her, really become committed to the freedom we are offered and take her back to her alien characteristics, but from a place of truth. There are a few interesting whispers of where she might be going. I want to commit to the dark side of her, which is scary. You have really got to trust the people you work with, to know that you can go the full degree, pull back and go, 'Good work, man,' and there is no weird chemistry after.