From: daviderl31@yahoo.com   
      
               This interview was done so long ago I have no idea who is doing   
   the interview.  But at the end of the article, it's obvious this interview   
   was  before the season's final 5 episodes aired.   
      
      
   "Gabrielle is... malleable."   
      
   “Xena is such a strong and stoic figure and she doesn’t change very much in   
   the course of the season, because we always need her strength,” comments   
   Renee O’Connor, who has spent five years now on Xena: Warrior Princess   
   playing Gabrielle, Xena’s loyal and nearly as formidable partner in heroics.   
      
   “As a result, my character has to be the one that suffers the plot devices   
   from year to year. That’s why Gabrielle tends to change so often. It’s been   
   exciting for me because I never have an idea of what the writers will throw   
   at me from episode to episode.   
      
   “Gabrielle has changed quite a bit, especially this season I would say,   
   because she has been trying to fill the void of strength that’s been caused   
   by this third person who has entered the picture, because of Xena’s baby,   
   Eve. Gabrielle has been fighting for three, in a sense, just out of sheer   
   obsessiveness, to protect us all.   
      
   "I’ve been using a new weapon and I’ve been fighting this year probably   
   more   
   than I have throughout the entire run of the show. So, Gabrielle is   
   definitely a little more spunky and forthright this season than she has been   
   in the past. And that’s great.”   
      
           Many of the changes and about-faces in season five are, to be sure,   
   the direct result of Lucy Lawless’ real-life pregnancy and subsequent birth.   
   As the season progressed, Xena appeared less and less often, with Gabrielle   
   picking up much of the action slack. 'Chakram' and 'Little Problems' come to   
   mind right away.   
      
           Later, following the arrival of Julius Robert Bay Tapert, Lawless   
   took some time off to get back in shape and be with her son, providing   
   O’Connor   
   with additional opportunities to shine.   
      
   “Oh, it’s been great for me,” O’Connor enthuses. “And it was easy to   
   do the   
   extra action work. When we start rolling the camera and we’re doing a fight   
   sequence, it’s just another dance that’s been choreographed. That’s   
   automatic pilot for me. I love doing it and it’s just that we’ve been doing   
   more of it this year.   
      
   "Gabrielle kind of went from her peace-loving phase to fighting harder than   
   ever. That is all just about trying to let the character evolve over the   
   course of the years of the show. You’ve got to find tangents that the   
   character can latch onto.   
      
            Gabrielle is also the kind of person who, when she gets an idea in   
   her head, becomes pretty obsessive about trying to fulfill it to the utmost   
   capacity. Her period of being calm was really just another one of her   
   ventures.   
      
   “For me,” continues the actress, “I believe that during this last year   
   Gabrielle probably went too far into becoming more like Xena. She was   
   starting to become a pragmatic warrior. Now, I think that she is going to   
   resort back to her peaceful ways and find a balance between the two   
   extremes. And, to me, it will probably be the most solid Gabrielle has ever   
   been. Anyway, I’ve really enjoyed season five. It’s been my most   
   [physically] tiring season, but it’s just been fantastic.   
      
   "In terms of favorite episodes, if we’re talking about action, it would be   
   the one where I was wielding a fireball. That was so unlike Gabrielle and it   
   was just fantastic to do. Our 100th episode was ideal because I was able to   
   play with some of the show’s drama, which we rarely get into.”   
      
           Off-screen, O’Connor has been associating with another handsome   
   leading man. His name: Julius Tapert, the son of Lawless and Xena   
   creator/executive producer Rob Tapert, who was born on October 16 1999.   
      
   “He is just adorable,” O’Connor raves. “He is very quiet in that he   
   doesn’t   
   really cry a lot. When he wants to make noises, it’s usually just little   
   outbursts of yells and war cries. He’s very funny. I was sitting down,   
   having lunch with Lucy the other day on the set, and I happened to glance at   
   our young Julius. He was just staring up at me. Then he smiled. It was very   
   charming.”   
      
           But back to imminent happenings.   
      
   “Right now, we’re on our way to Egypt,” O’Connor says, noting the   
   show’s   
   latest excursion to a foreign land (after the China arc). “We’ll also be   
   meeting Marc Antony again and he’s going to have a battle with Cleopatra,   
   which Xena and Gabrielle will be joining in on, of course. We’ll be out on   
   boats and doing our first week of night shoots this year. After that we’ll   
   be getting prepared to have the end of the gods. That was introduced in the   
   baby episodes [particularly 'God Fearing Child'], because the birth of Eve   
   [who was an immaculate conception] means the end of the gods’ rule.   
      
      
   David   
      
   --- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05   
    * Origin: you cannot sedate... all the things you hate (1:229/2)