Young Offender
By Thomasina Gibson

A late addition to the Farscape gang, Gigi Edgley has fitted in remarkably well. And with only a few dissenting voices from the series' fans it looks like the lovable Chiana is here to stay.

THERE'S a fair few sexy aliens around at the moment but none more 'in your face' than Farscape's feisty firebrand, Chiana. Played to perfection by Australian native Gigi Edgley, the tempestuous temptress has burst onto our screens in an explosion of sassiness and sensuality, a role the actress clearly relishes. "Chiana came onto the ship as a sort of criminal slut," she drawls. "This girl has experienced lots of hellfire in her life and come through it by doing whatever it took and she's entered the Farscape universe seeking the adrenaline rush of adventure. The original character description says that she's mercurial and her mantra is 'survival for herself and only for herself'. I love the idea that by doing any thing by any means, Chiana has got to where she is now."

It's not often actors will own up to loving the more unsavoury facets of a character, but Edgley is utterly delighted that her tough, Space-wise urchin breaks a few moulds, not least because variety is the spice of her life. Despite the fact that she has numerous body piercings (she says you have to guess where they all are) and has "a few tats" (tattoos to you and me), Miss Edgley insists, "I've always been the gentle one or the girl-next-door, you know - the virginal type. It's good to stretch to quite the opposite extreme and I love Chiana's mystery. She's a very sultry individual, capable of using every device known to woman to get her way. When she arrives on the ship it's as a criminal but no one really knows what she was charged with. Later on in Season Two a little more of her mystery is unraveled and you get more pieces of the puzzle to reveal her back story."

The fact that she got the role at all is a bit of a mystery to Edgley herself. With the charm that really would behove the girl-next-door, she shrugs, "Initially I was just auditioning as a character for one episode and had no idea it would be an ongoing thing. I literally thought it would be one episode and that would be it. Then on the wrap of episode 15, a script appeared in my changing room. I started reading through it and thought, 'My goodness! What's this?' Then I got the giggles and started to shake and I rang up and said, 'What's going on here?' They said, 'Oh didn't we tell you? We're thinking of digging Chiana in depending how you go.' It was more than my wildest dreams to get to portray this creature who is really playful and who pushes people's boundaries and gets right in their face and always wants to find out what's in it for her... I just thank my lucky stars daily!"

Ah, but is the actress like the unorthodox character she portrays? "Well, I don't think I'm as outgoing as Chiana, but she does give me a license to do a lot of stuff I'd never dream of attempting." Paraphrasing a well-known intro she laughs, "Chiana boldly goes where no alien has gone before." Edgley certainly boldly goes to kung fu classes to achieve a standard of excellence in her screen scuffles. "With the sort of schedule we work, it's a bit tricky to fit my kung fu classes in, but a lot of the moves I make and the fight sequences I do are so dynamic that I thought, 'If I'm going to do them, let's make 'em good!'"

As one of a trio of strong females in a show with a hero noted for his gentler side, Chiana's character has to withstand a fair amount of lambasting from the girls on our own home planet. A fan of the Internet, Edgley's learned that you don't always get exactly what you want with regards to feedback when you surf the Net - a fact of life she accepts with a huge grin and a twinkle. "When my character first came onto Moya [the ship, not another woman], there were a couple of things between her and Crichton [Ben Browder] where they were pretty much one on one, and I wanted to know how our audience felt about that. I went into a chat room where there were some people talking about Farscape's new character and joined in anonymously asking what they thought of Chiana. I was amazed at the strength of the love/hate relationship being discussed there and thought, 'Well, at least the interest generated is strong' which is good in one way. But then one girl said, 'She's all right, but if she comes between Aeryn [Claudia Black] and Crichton's relationship, I'll get my pulsator out myself and shoot her dead!' and I thought, 'Well, that's lovely!'" "I wasn't really aware of the fan base until I was chatting to Ben," she laughs, "and he gave me the web addresses. I jumped into one of the rooms and then kept going through site after site after site." Bewildered, but thrilled about the whole phenomenon, Edgley grins, "In the States there are actual Chiana websites so I get on the computer at the weekend and there's no end of things you can find out about yourself. It's bizarre, but hilarious and wonderful all at the same time, that viewer commitment is so fantastic."

Although she's been in a few Australian staples - Water Rats and Day of the Roses to name but two - Edgley used to think of herself as a theatre actor and above anything to do with the screen until Farscape brought about a radical change. "I love theatre acting and had been doing this snobby thing about film and television, saying, 'Oh, I only want to do live plays'. I ended up living on 65 bucks a week in a tiny house with four other students all trying to get through and devote themselves to 'their Art'. Then my dad said, 'This is ridiculous. You're going to have to get a couple of really good TV or film gigs to support your theatrical career." Inspired by those words of parental advice, Edgley set about doing just that. Sadly, it's all come back to haunt her well-meaning old man... "It took me about six months, but I finally got a guest gig and called him up and said, 'Dad! Dad! I got a part!' And he said, 'Great, love, what is it?' And I screamed, 'I'm a junkie whore!'" Things didn't improve much with the Farscape role. "This time, I rang up and said -'Dad! I'm an alien criminal' and he went 'Ah Jeez - it just gets better and better!'"

Edgley's way with words is such that she can paint a great picture of a scene just by the tone of her voice. A natural child of the universe, her genuine enthusiasm for her craft is matched by her loyalty and affection for her family with whom she spends a lot of her 'down time'. "They have been just great to me, supporting me in my whole adventure. It's part of why the Chiana role means so much to me. I was brought up mainly on a farm with my mum who's a natural therapist, and we'd spend days and nights constantly talking about life beyond the stars, the wisdom of native peoples, fairies and the like. To get a crack at playing an alien, who could incorporate all of these philosophies and more, it was like... this is mine! This is meant!" It must have been. She survived seven auditions and two months of nerve-racking anticipation before she finally landed the role. "When they told me that I had the part, I just wanted to hug everyone."

As heart-warming as all this joie de vivre is, it's barely 4.30am when we talk and though Edgley is disgustingly bright and full of the joys of the morning, all this journalist wants to do is find a warm corner to snuggle into and sleep. Bright as a button let's-get-at-it Edgley is having none of it. "Nah!" she beams. "Usually once I'm up I'm all pepped up and ready to go." Oh dear! No sinking into a Zen-like state whilst she's enduring three hours of make-up preparation then? "You don't want to know what I'm thinking at that stage," she grins. "It's definitely not for publication... actually, our make-up artist is brilliant and sometimes we'll have a chat, but mostly not because it's difficult with her adding bits of prosthetic here and there and working on the skin tone." As a true professional, Edgley does feel that those hours are incredibly precious when it comes to getting ready for the day's work. "It's a great way of getting into Chiana's head, because as the layers and layers of make-up go on it's building her up visually and gearing me up mentally, then once it's all completed, we have a 10 minute break for breakfast and it's all systems go."

Currently showing on Aunty Beeb, with a complete run of Seasons One and Two due to start on Sci-Fi in November, Farscape is certainly riding high in the ratings. The actress's star is firmly on the ascendant - a fact that brings a shout of delight. "Yippee!" she yells. "That might mean I get to come and spend some time in the UK to say thanks to all you guys over there."

There might just be a few appreciative whoops in her direction too.