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Monsters and Critics previews the upcoming Spartacus Vengeance Episode 3 "The Greater Good"

"Spartacus: Vengeance" (Fri., 10 p.m. EST on Starz) is reeling in the aftermath of Oenomaus (Mensah) and his guilt-fueled combat in the mines as penance for having helped destroy the house of Batiatus.

Lucy Lawless, Nick Taraby, Viva Bianca, Peter Mensah and Manu Bennett make Friday night a no miss event on STARZ.

"Spartacus: Vengeance" (Fri., 10 p.m. EST on Starz) is reeling in the aftermath of Oenomaus (Mensah) and his guilt-fueled combat in the mines as penance for having helped destroy the house of Batiatus.

However, the twist was that Ashur (Tarabay) delivered him into the hands of Spartacus' enemy, Claudius Glaber.

At Glaber's home in the night, Ashur said, "I have come bearing a gift that shall set you on the path for the fall of Spartacus."

Enter our blood-soaked Lucretia (Lawless), fresh from sacrificing to the gods: "The gods truly hear my prayers."

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This is an interesting Q&A with Lucy. She's asked some science related questions and Lucy also included a couple of answers on the environment in keeping with her role as Greenpeace Ambassador

Lucy Lawless, Star Of 'Spartacus: Vengeance,' Answers Six Science Questions

Huffinton Post - Science 8 February 2012

As part of HuffPost Science's new Celebs Talk Science series, we challenged Lucy Lawless, star of "Spartacus: Vengeance" and best known for her role in "Xena: Warrior Princess," to answer six quirky science questions.

1. If you could reengineer the human body, what is one thing you would change?

I would have a dual respiration system so that we could convert our breathing from oxygen to carbon dioxide to carbon dioxide to oxygen and back again. Of course we'd be excreting coal dust, which would be murder on the soft furnishings. Not sure what to do about that. Black sheets?

5. If time travel were possible, what day/era would you want to get to? Why? What would you do? Whom would you meet?

I would go forward and ask my great grandchildren what they wish we'd done better. Though I'm afraid I already know the answer to that. We have to move on climate change NOW. Or our grandchildren will damn us for our sheer laziness and cruelty.

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Find out more about Lucy's role as Greenpeace Ambassador and her interest in environmental issues

Lucy Lawless has made it no secret she loves comedies.

The "Spartacus: Vengeance" star, who frequently appears on "The Soup" and guest starred on Larry David's "Curb Your Enthusiasm," revealed to The Huffington Post that she was very close to sparking fear in the heart of Ron Swanson (Nick Offerman) on "Parks and Recreation." No, not as Xena, the role that made Lawless a star; but as one of Swanson's ex-wives.

I've read in the past that you love comedies. Is there a comedy you'd like to guest star on?
Oh, I love "Parks and Rec."

It's amazing.
Love that show. Love anything to do with Larry David.

Right, you did "Curb Your Enthusiasm."
Yeah, I've done that, but you can just never get enough of that guy. He's so unusual and so -- I find him really charming.

Do you have a "Parks and Rec" character already created in your head?
Well, they did come to me about playing one of the ex-wives of --

Really!? Tammy!
Yeah, and I couldn't because I was doing "Spartacus." I would have loved to have done that, but I had a very good excuse not to. [Laughs.]

As great as Patricia Clarkson was as Tammy 1, can you imagine Lawless going toe-to-toe with Amy Poehler's Leslie Knope? The Tammy ship may have sailed, but let's hope Mike Schur and the "Parks and Recreation" crew find a way to get Lawless to Pawnee.

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We're totally obsessed with "Spartacus: Vengeance" here and we were thrilled to get a chance to sit down with genre legend Lucy Lawless who plays Lucretia at the Winter Press Tour. Lawless, who's character is in a desperate situation this season, gives us a look at playing a crazy (or not so crazy) woman, doing nude scenes and what playing "Xena: Warrior Princess" has done for public perception.

"I think if she's crazy, she's crazy like a fox. She's entering a terrible -- she's going down a path with many snares and it's not going to be a comfortable life for her. She hasn't got any friends. She's got no support. No husband, no house, no baby, no lover and not a thing. Ilythia (Viva Bianca) shows up and that seems like it ought to be a good thing but it ain't."

We asked Lawless about playing "crazy" and what it takes as an actress to walk that fine line between over doing it and getting it just right. "I don't. People just suspect me. Because it's Lucretia or because it's the person who played Xena or who played the bad girl. 'She's in the bad girl role,' that we assume she's going to be totally bad. I can play it totally straight, absolutely down the line and you're going to suspect me anyway."

We talked about doing nude scenes and whether or not she'd gotten comfortable with it. "Who's comfortable?" she says. "Actually, we have to hire people who are comfortable. If you're doing a brothel scene, you can't have extras who are being prima donnas. It just holds everybody up at $100,000 a minute, or however much it is. For us, no. There is no getting used to it. It's a very funny thing."

She also says that you sort of lose your sex drive working on the show. "Those things lose their taboo. We're so sick of thinking about it, worrying about it, talking about it. The show is great for everyone else's sex drive but ours," she laughed.

Source

She Magazine interviews Lucy for its 13th anniversary issue.

You can read it online here

Spartacus Season 2 Episode 2 A Place In The World
Screener Preview by MaryD

Spartacus and his men liberate a Roman villa, but its slaves are wary. Oenomaus throws himself into the brutal Pits, and Glaber supports Lucretia’s prophecies, despite Ilithyia’s protests.

I held back from watching the second episode from the press kit until today. There are no spoilers in the preview below so it's pretty safe.

Credits | Official Site | Episode Stills

Continue to Spartacus Season 2 Episode 2 A Place In The World Preview by MaryD - NO Spoilers

She became an icon on the campy but highly successful television series "Xena: Warrior Princess" (1995-2001). At 43, Lucy Lawless remains fit for battle -- or, in the case of her current series, "Spartacus: Vengeance," nudity. Among the New Zealander's other assets is her voice. She once considered opera as a career path.

Although Lawless is heterosexual, married twice with three children, Xena's sexuality was always suspect. In the last episode, the Warrior Princess basically came out of the closet, which garnered Lawless a loyal lesbian following. Currently, she is playing Lucretia, a Roman woman who has lost everything and stops at nothing to regain her power and position.

"Spartacus: Vengeance" airs on the premium channel Starz at 10 p.m. EST Fridays. Nudity, violence and a lot more make it appropriate for mature audiences only.

Excerpts from an interview:

Q: Were you into science fiction or mythology as a child?

A: No -- zero. We did lots of acting, my friend Michelle and I. We were always adapting fairy tales and things and putting them on for the old folks. My mother ran the senior-citizens brigade or whatever it was called. So we would do that sort of thing all the time as play. I don't know how this happened to me.

Q: I also read you were interested in opera at one point, but decided against it because you didn't like the lifestyle.

A: Well, I thought I'd have to be a big fatty. No, no, really, the truth is that's not my gift to sing that way. So even though I love singing to this day, not opera but other things, acting just comes first.

Q: How comfortable are you doing the semi-nude and nude scenes?

A: Not at all, zero comfortable. Oh, God, it makes me sick.

Q: It doesn't get easier?

A: No, it doesn't. You'd think it would, but it doesn't. But you know what? You believe in the role, and you just soldier on through and be as professional as you can because the scenes are not about sex. I don't care what anyone says, it's not porn. There's a transaction of power going on. Somebody's getting screwed, and it's not about sex. (Laughs).

Q: So with that said, there has to be pressure to stay in shape.

A: Yes, I try, but (laughs) that's a mystery to me, that whole discipline thing. I do work out with a trainer, but I don't know. You can go 10 pounds up and maybe 3 pounds down but tend to stay in a certain zone.

Q: Is your character on "Spartacus" more challenging to play than Xena was?

A: Yeah, because Xena had a moral compass that we relate to. Lucretia doesn't. I think if you live in a society where subterfuge is the order of the day, then there is no morality. Everybody is stabbing one another in the back. It's stab or be stabbed, and she's survived a long time. She's got her work cut out for her this season because things get really nasty. She is going to have to be extremely vigilant and clever to survive.

Q: Does it enhance your acting if you know the arc the character will be taking a few episodes ahead?

A: I think it's really important to know. You don't telegraph that to the audience, but I think it's very important to know. I remember on "Xena" we would set up for something being a fact and true and all your acting would sort of cleave to that rule, and three episodes later you are doing something completely the opposite. (Laughs) It kind of makes a liar of you.

For instance, in the last episode when they almost explicitly came out and said that Xena was gay, I was cross with them. All these years, they could have told me that ahead of time that they were going to do that. I wouldn't have had to sort of obfuscate. In this case ("Spartacus"), it was extremely important. By the end of this season when you see the final episode, I guarantee you're going to say, "Oh my God, now I have to go back and watch it again from the beginning." It's like a feature film.

Q: With the sex scenes, do you find it easier to do them with a man or a woman, or does it matter?

A: I find it easier to do with a man. To me, a man feels like I expect they are going to feel (laughs) and a woman doesn't. (Laughs) Even fat dudes feel differently to me than a woman. (Laughs) Just when you touch the flesh, it's different. I guess that means I'm straight.

Q: You have fans in both camps.

A: I know. I love them. But I know all I need to know. (Laughs)

Q: What about the choreography? Is it as complex as a fight scene?

A: Oh, it's much more complex.

Q: What about your sons? Do you think about them seeing (the sex scenes) someday?

A: Oh, I do. I think about them a lot. One of them is a very sensitive person, and he knows academically that I have to do those scenes. It's part of a role. But he does not want to see it. He does not want to see any part of it.

The other one is like his dad. He's just a moviemaker. Even though he's younger than the other boy, he's much more able to cope with everything to do with acting. When he gets old enough to see it, I will be less worried about him.

My daughter works on the show. I think at 23 years old it still grosses her out. When those scenes are on, she turns her back or she's not on the set. She doesn't punish me at all for it. She's very professional.

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Swords-and-sandals epic lovers arise and claim your show: "Spartacus: Vengeance" is slashing its way back onto the Starz network on Jan. 27 with a new season of battles, escapes, affairs and intrigue.

But there will be one major difference: Spartacus himself has been replaced. Fans of the show are familiar with the untimely death of character originator Andy Whitfield, who portrayed the rebellious slave in "Spartacus: Blood and Sand" in 2010 before being diagnosed with non-Hodgkin’s lymphoma.

"It's a horrifying thing to get everything you ever wanted – a wife, two children, your big break – and after one year, a horrifying diagnosis," Lucy Lawless, who stars as Lucretia, told TODAY.com. "We thought he'd go into treatment, we'd execute a prequel and he'd come back. But that never happened."

Well, the prequel, "Spartacus: Gods of the Arena" did happen, but Whitfield did not return. Enter Liam McIntyre, an Australian actor who some may have spotted in HBO’s "The Pacific," but who is mostly unknown.

"(Whitfield) wanted the show to continue," Lawless said. "He requested that they replace him quite early on, and even rang Liam to encourage him and congratulate him. He was a big man, and we remember him fondly for that. The tragedy was really his family's, and our loss is nothing compared to his."

McIntyre slips easily into the role, but he's more than just a new face, said Lawless. "He's a great morale leader on the set, which is what you need when you're leading 100 dudes in their underpants around without much to do for long periods at a stretch. They can get a bit ... distracted. They're totally nice, but you need someone to help focus on the work, and Liam has that kind of charisma."

Click here for full interview

TV Tango: What was it like filming that last, bloody scene in BLOOD AND SAND?

Lucy Lawless: Sticky, all wet.A hard floor. The tiles on that floor -- I don't know what the hell they were made out of, but they were sharp. They did put down a rubber version of them for a tiny bit.It was fine, but it was sticky. Arrrr...so gross! I hate it when they pour sticky blood all down your dress, and your legs are sticking together in the most unpleasant way -- sort of caramelizing.

TV Tango: They filmed two endings for BLOOD AND SAND. When did you know that your character, Lucretia, was going to live?

Lucy Lawless: After. After we shot it.I think even though I didn't know -- and I would've been fine either way -- I think I had a sense that Lucretia would be back. I didn't panic about it, and I think that's why I don't remember. I don't remember it upsetting me; I just had a calm awareness.

TV Tango: The finale of BLOOD AND SAND was not what Lucretia imagined or wanted. What would the ending have been if it was up to her? What was she going after?

Lucy Lawless: The whole kit and kaboodle -- the husband, the baby, and status for the first time in her life. I don't think she came from status; she's one of the aspirant, hard-working, lower-middle-class girls. Her husband was her true love. Who knows what would have happened down the line, but that was her man -- beyond the need to have the male support in Roman society at that time and the status that came with that man. Aside from all of that, I think she loved him. He was a megalomaniac. She did whatever he told her to do -- she didn't want to throw those sex parties.

Click here for full interview

Yes I have plagerised Star Trek's Tasha Yar. I love that holodeck eulogy so I'm using it (since my fandoms collided at the con..might as well go with the theme)

The 2012 Xena Convention is over and it was my final convention despite what Creation may or may not do next year. I suspect this the last convention for many other folks judging by the chatter.

Here's some interesting news about an upcoming Lucy project.

Assignment X has an interview with Lucy and Steven DeKnight about the new season of Spartacus but this following nugget was right at the bottom of the interview: Lucy will be starring in a Jane Campion mini-series in New Zealand called "Top Of The Lake"

AX: Do either of you have any other projects we should know about?

LAWLESS: I am going to work on Jane Campion's TOP OF THE LAKE [feature film] in New Zealand with Holly Hunter and Elisabeth Moss. I'm excited about that, a chance to work with an auteur director. Whoo-hoo!

The following is a press release about this mini-series (OnFilm)

BBC Two, UKTV Australia and New Zealand, and Sundance Channel announce Top of the Lake, a Jane Campion series from See-Saw Films.

Sydney, November 4, 2011 - The upcoming drama, Top of the Lake, directed by Oscar® winner Jane Campion (The Piano, Portrait of a Lady) and rising Australian director Garth Davis, will feature an esteemed ensemble of award-winning talent - SAG® winner and three time Emmy® nominated actress Elisabeth Moss (Mad Men, On the Road), Holly Hunter, Best Actress Oscar® winner for her performance in Campion's The Piano, BAFTA® nominee Peter Mullan (War Horse, Trainspotting) and AFI Award winning actor David Wenham (The Lord of the Rings, Australia).

The six-part miniseries (6×60, 7×50) for transmission in early 2013 will be co-produced by BBC Two, UKTV in Australia and New Zealand and Sundance Channel in the United States. Screen Australia, Screen NSW and Fulcrum Media Finance are providing investment and finance. BBC Worldwide will distribute the television series internationally and also wholly owns UKTV in Australia and New Zealand.

Produced by Academy Award® winners Emile Sherman and Iain Canning (The King's Speech, Shame) of See-Saw Films, and Philippa Campbell (Black Sheep) of Escapade Pictures, Top of the Lake is a powerful and haunting mystery about the search for happiness in a paradise where honest work is hard to find.

Set in the remote mountains of New Zealand, the story follows the disappearance of a five months pregnant 12-year-old named Tui who was last seen standing chest deep in a frozen lake. In this classic mythic struggle, investigating detective, Robin Griffin (Moss), must lose herself in order to find the missing girl. During the investigation, she collides with Matt Mitcham (Mullan), Tui's father, a local drug lord, and G.J (Hunter), a guru at a local women's camp. Robin will find this the case that tests her limits and sends her on a journey of self-discovery.

Writer and director Jane Campion said: "I am in love with the intense beauty of southern most New Zealand and am excited to be setting a story in this end of the world paradise. To be able to tell the story over six hours gives myself and my brilliant team a chance to make something truly absorbing and memorable."

Emile Sherman and Iain Canning commented, "We are so thrilled to be working with Jane Campion and the incredibly talented collaborators who have come on board this unique series. To have Jane turn her creative energy to longer form drama is further proof of how exciting television has become, a key medium for sophisticated and original storytelling."

They added, "We are also thrilled to be working for the first time with the BBC Two, who commissioned development of the series, as well as with UKTV, Sundance Channel and BBC Worldwide, all of whom have unequivocally embraced Jane's vision."

Ben Stephenson, Controller, BBC Drama Commissioning, says: "Jane Campion is a storyteller like no other. We are delighted to bring to screen an unforgettable landscape and characters who are unique, original and yet utterly recognizable - this is a story which will touch us all."

Says Deirdre Brennan, Director of TV for BBC Worldwide Australia: "Top of the Lake is a unique creative collaboration, a truly international project that showcases a remarkable production team, cast and location. It is an honour to play a part in bringing this landmark drama series exclusively to UKTV audiences in Australia and New Zealand."

The series, written by Jane Campion and Gerard Lee, will commence filming in February 2012 in Queenstown, New Zealand, marking the first production Jane Campion will film in her homeland since 1990's An Angel At My Table. Commissioned for BBC Two by Ben Stephenson, Controller, BBC Drama Commissioning and Janice Hadlow, Controller, BBC Two.

Despite getting a knife to the gut in Spartacus: Blood & Sand's season finale, Lucy Lawless' lascivious Lucretia is back, for better or worse, in Spartacus: Vengeance -- which kicks off tonight on Starz.

Roughly six weeks have passed since the events of that finale, but an entirely new Lucretia emerges in the episode as she doesn't retain a single stitch of her life. In other words, she's lost her mind. So part of the season two joy will stem from watching bits and pieces come back to her -- in obvious and subtle ways.

I caught up with Lucy to talk all about this exciting new season, what she's excited for fans to see and how the finale will make you view the entire series through new eyes!

Click here to read