Hudson Leick at her recent Sacramento con appearance.

Exercise and Yoga

GILLIAN G. GAAR:
[01] One thing I don't understand about LA [Los Angeles]. People won't walk anywhere, but they exercise a lot. Why is that?

HUDSON LEICK:
[02] I think people exercise in LA for aesthetic reasons. Walking would be a little too nurturing! I'm doing yoga every day. My yoga teacher's always saying, "Everyone in LA takes all these exercise classes, not to get healthy, but to look pretty and to look good." I think that's very true.

GAAR:
[03] But that's not why you're taking yoga.

LEICK:
[04] Well, I'm vain. I have vanity. I want to have a nice body, but no, that's not the reason that I'm taking yoga. That's a benefit of yoga. Have you ever taken yoga?

GAAR:
[05] I did take a class once.

LEICK:
[06] Did you like it?

GAAR:
[07] Yes. I found it's not just a physical thing. There's also a mental, spiritual side to it.

LEICK:
[08] Oh my God, it's so full! I have to say right now it's my favorite thing to do. I dread it. When I go, I get my body there, and I'm like, I don't want to do this! This hurts! I don't want to do this. Emotions come up, stuff comes up. 'Cause it brings up a lot of things, for me. To be, in not physical pain where it's excruciating, but where you're stretching it, it's not comfortable all the time, and to have something emotional come up at the same time is really uncomfortable.

GAAR:
[09] That sometimes happens to me during massages.

LEICK:
[10] Yes! Me too! It's a similar thing. That's because our bodies, we store stuff in our physical bodies as well.

Acting

GAAR:
[11] Well, we should get on with the interview...what is it you like about acting?

LEICK:
[12] I like to connect with other human beings on that level. It's amazing.

GAAR:
[13] Though you could say the connecting is an act; you're not connecting as your "real" self.

LEICK:
[14] But it's a part of you. Callisto's a part of me. All the characters you play have to be a part of you. I mean, you don't turn off yourself and then channel another being in. It's still you.

GAAR:
[15] You've mostly done TV, not films?

LEICK:
[16] Yes. I haven't worked a lot on films and I don't really know what they'd be like. The idea of them is really great. I love the idea of doing independent, really interesting films. Recently I had an audition with Jon Voight for a Showtime movie. It was the best audition I have ever had. It was phenomenal. It was so -- this is going to sound odd, but when it's really that good, and I've only had it with Brian James and Jon Voight, it's spiritual. Something happens, where the other person is so absolutely available for you to play with that you get lost in it, it's so incredible. I didn't get the part, and I don't care, because the experience was that incredible! The man is, and Brian James, they're brilliant! They're really brilliant. To work with someone like that, even for moments, is like art in a moment. Incredible.

GAAR:
[17] Tell me about your audition for Callisto.

LEICK:
[18] I just went in and did it. I had never seen Xena, but I knew that it was in New Zealand, and I really wanted to go to New Zealand. I'd seen Hercules and I'd seen how the women were portrayed. I didn't watch the show very thoroughly, I just saw what it looked like. I went in and played Callisto like that, like a mad woman, very stark.

GAAR:
[19] Were you in THE GREATER GOOD (#22) at all?

LEICK:
[20] I think they put my hand in, like a double that looks my hand, wearing my black outfit. But I don't even know if they did that, I never saw that one. [Editor's note: Robert Field in his interview this issue confirms that a double was used for the GREATER GOOD (#22) shoot.]

"Hijacked" scan courtesy David Meagher's page.

Training for Callisto and Hijacked: Flight 285

GAAR:
[21] Did you have any training for the role?

LEICK:
[22] Yeah, I had three days of kung fu.

GAAR:
[23] Had you ever done any fight scenes before?

LEICK:
[24] I had a done a movie of the week called Hijacked [Hijacked: Flight 285 (1996, Dir. Charles Correll)] and I played a hijacker.

GAAR:
[25] Yes, I saw that. I thought you looked like the 'grunge hijacker.' All you needed was a guitar and you could've been in a riot grrrl band!

LEICK:
[26] Talk about outfits...I was wearing this kind of short top, it showed a little bit of skin. But they kept washing it every day, and putting it in the dryer. So you can see throughout the program it's getting smaller and smaller. Sometimes it's really small, and sometimes it's long. But it's random, 'cause we didn't go in order.

GAAR:
[27] You did your own fighting in that movie?

LEICK:
[28] I did. I did my own stunts.

GAAR:
[29] Was three days enough training for your work on XENA?

LEICK:
[30] Well, the director, T.J. Scott, believed in me. 'Cause Peter [Bell] -- I don't know Peter's last name, he's the head coordinator of the stuntees -- when he saw me, he was like, "She's never going to be able to do this." And T.J. goes, "Give her 10 minutes to learn the routines." So I was learning it and Peter was looking at me like I was this fragile little bunny, like, "What are you doing?" He looked at one of my hits and he said, "You couldn't hit the skin off of a pudding!" I remember hearing that going, "I don't think I like that! I don't think that's very nice!" But I could do it. Clearly, Lucy could beat the s*** out of me, and Renee could easily beat the s*** out of me. But my fierceness inside I think covers up a lot for that. And also -- now I'm getting egotistical from my yoga -- I'm getting much stronger, even now, physically.

Recurring Role

GAAR:
[31] The end of the CALLISTO (#22) was obviously left open so the character could come back, but at the time the episode was shot, was it known that the character would return?

LEICK:
[32] They said it might be recurring. They said it's a possibility. They liked my character. If it was received well, then I would come back.

GAAR:
[33] And it was received well.

LEICK:
[34] Yes. At the time I remember Lucy came to me and said, "You know, the producers and I think that this show is the best show so far." That was in February ['96]. That was really nice to hear, because I was a part of it. But that was Ted's [Raimi] first time as well. We all kind of jumped on.

Callisto gives Xena a piece of her mind on the road to Delphi.

Callisto and Xena's Relationship

GAAR:
[35] In the first episode, Callisto was more malevolent, but since RETURN OF CALLISTO (#29), there's been a lot more humor in the character. At first, it seemed like she really wanted to kill Xena, but now it seems like she'd never be able to kill her.

LEICK:
[36] No! No! She's had moments. You've seen times where she's got the sword to Xena's throat. She's not going to kill her! She wants to torture her as best as she can, but she can't do that when she's dead! I think she would kill Gabrielle in a snap. In a snap Gabrielle would be gone if she had anything to do with it.

GAAR:
[37] I have to ask, whose idea was it to have Callisto smile when she gets smacked by Xena in RETURN OF CALLISTO (#22)?

LEICK:
[38] T.J.'s idea. He goes, "All right, I want you to get hit and I want you to enjoy it. Because she would really enjoy it." I said, "Yeah, that works!" 'Cause Xena's engaging with me. Have you ever been around people that are really really angry? Or you don't even know them, and they're angry and they take it out on you. You're driving and they're swearing at you and you respond back and then you've got this thing going. But if you don't respond, the people get even more angry because there's nowhere to go. You have nothing to connect to. So I think having Xena fight back and fight with me is attention. It's attention and she's connecting with me. She's feeding that part of me. My character is obsessed with Xena. She loves Xena and hates Xena and wants to be Xena! It was interesting, you know?

[39] The last time I worked, I was supposed to be on their side. I was trying to help them [in A NECESSARY EVIL (#38)]. There was one point where I could get really close to Xena, Lucy, as my character, and it felt so odd! Because she'd let me get really close to her, physically. I remember being like -- it's Hudson and it's Callisto -- what am I going to do with this? She's letting me get really close to her. Like I was circling her. But she was on the normal defense. She was defensive but she was letting me that close.

GAAR:
[40] Which scene was this?

LEICK:
[41] It was right before the twister god of chaos took Gabrielle up. I just circled her once, and I remember that awkward kind of feeling like 'Oh boy oh boy, she's letting me close to her! What am I gonna do? What am I gonna do? Ooh, I feel weird.'

Gabrielle had a hard time adjusting to Xena's "Callisto" look.

Callisto and Gabrielle's Relationship

GAAR:
[42] I felt Callisto was working to undermine Gabrielle's position with Xena throughout that whole episode.

LEICK:
[43] Yes, absolutely. Though I don't even think Callisto's trying to undermine Gabrielle -- she doesn't give a f*** about Gabrielle. She just doesn't care about her. You know? She's like, 'What is this fluffy thing doing with you?' I have no concept of what this is -- and no interest of what this is. But if I can torture her a little bit, by all means I'll give her a little wink! Just because I enjoy it. I really love torturing Gabrielle. I don't care about it the same way I would care about Xena -- I'm talking as Callisto. But when me, Hudson, read the script, and I was reading the part where we were sitting around and she's like, "What were you thinking when Xena was saying all this..." I laughed out loud when I read that part. I thought that was so funny how Callisto [turned the tables] on Gabrielle. She was so serious and then she's just so sick! I love her! You know, 'cause Gabrielle's like this serious really earthy trying to be kind and good and loving and Callisto's like, "Yeah? How about some of this?"

GAAR:
[44] I wondered if Callisto was lying in the earlier part of her speech -- the whole "Think back to when you were a little girl..." part, to make a for better contrast when she laughs about killing Gabrielle's husband.

LEICK:
[45] No. I think that was true. I think Callisto's pretty honest in a lot of ways. If you ask her questions point blank you never know what you'll get out of her, but I don't think she's afraid of what she really thinks. She's not a liar. She will lie, but she's not a liar. She's not disconnected to what has happened. She knows what's happened. She doesn't know what to do with it. But she knows what's happened.

Callisto discovers that an apple a day can indeed keep the doctor away.

Callisto, Post-Death

GAAR:
[46] Did you think Callisto would return after INTIMATE STRANGER (#31)?

LEICK:
[47] I really thought that I was not going to come back after that. I was really ready to go. I was like 'Okay, I'm going. Thanks so much for everything.' I wrote Lucy and Renee and Ted to say goodbye, and to thank them for working with them.

GAAR:
[48] Then Lucy had her accident and you returned to New Zealand to reshoot the ending of INTIMATE STRANGER (#31). What was the original ending?

LEICK:
[49] The original ending was, it's Callisto in Lucy's body, she's talking to her mom and she's going "No no no no!" and then we switch over somehow. I start walking backwards. I fall into a rock as Callisto and all these hands come out of the rock. All these dead people are walking toward me that I've murdered, and all these hands pop out of the rock and start grabbing at my flesh. It was really cool. Very scary. Grabbing everywhere. It was like all these gnarled hands. Then it all explodes. The big finale! How could they bring me back from that? I had no idea how they could bring me back from exploding!

GAAR:
[50] Were you going to be Xena in more episodes than just TEN LITTLE WARLORDS (#32)?

Hudson as Xena checks out the local village with Gabrielle.

LEICK:
[51] I think they weren't sure what they wanted to do. I think they were going to see what happened with it, if it took well. Just take it from there. I remember them saying that I would be there. I did TEN LITTLE WARLORDS (#32) then I went home. Then I went back to do Hercules [SURPRISE (#H49)] and then I did another Xena [A NECESSARY EVIL (#38)].

GAAR:
[52] How did it feel to be Xena for a whole episode?

LEICK:
[53] I'm so blatant about this. I hated it. I absolutely hated it. Did not like it. Completely not enjoyable! It felt so boring and I felt so dull.

GAAR:
[54] I have to admit I was disappointed. It was great to have Callisto back, but I wanted to see her be Callisto, not be Xena.

LEICK:
[55] Yeah, me too! Me too. It's really hard. It was really hard to do. To play somebody else's character, especially that character. I suppose if it was some other bad guy's character maybe I would have more fun. But to play the good guy is very hard. Lucy's job is really, for me, very hard.

GAAR:
[56] So I take it you were glad you only had to do one episode as Xena.

LEICK:
[57] Yes! I think I made myself pretty clear! I wasn't trying to be a jerk but I really didn't like it.

GAAR:
[58] Who's more responsible for how the character's played, you or the director?

LEICK:
[59] I don't know how to answer that. I think it comes from me. It's me. T.J. is the only director that I've really worked with that really dug the character. He was the only one that I felt would add things to it. I worked with him only twice. The first Callisto episode and the second one. I don't know. He would give me ideas for the character and I felt free to add things to it. But the other things I did myself. I felt like I had the freedom to just create her and do whatever I wanted. To hiss or scream or smile or whatever.

GAAR:
[60] When in doubt, hiss!

LEICK:
[61] Exactly. There's no wrong. There's just no wrong.

GAAR:
[62] I like how the characters play up different readings of the text.

LEICK:
[63] I think the writing is getting much better for Callisto. Not that it was poor, but it didn't have a lot of humor. Now they're getting very cheeky with her. I love that! I get to have fun with that.

GAAR:
[64] Where would you like to see the character go? I take it you wouldn't like to see her reform.

LEICK:
[65] No. But I want changes. I don't know how they can do it. But I don't always want to play the same character over and over again where it's consistently the same, which is boring anyhow. But I wouldn't mind having a sister that was good, that looked just like Callisto. They can do anything on this show. I had a great idea, how I wanted, while I was a god, to get impregnated by Hercules so I could have an almost god child; dress up as another character to try to seduce Hercules. But they're already having something similar to that going on right now, so that didn't work out. [Editor: TWO MEN AND A BABY, slated for the 4th season premiere of Hercules: The Legendary Journeys]

GAAR:
[66] I have to say, in SURPRISE (#H49), I thought Callisto looked like she was auditioning for the role of Althea Flynt.

LEICK:
[67] You know, I think I read the script. I think I did audition for that. What did I audition for? I think I did.

GAAR:
[68] You auditioned for The People Vs. Larry Flynt (1996, Dir. Milos Forman)?

LEICK:
[69] Yes, but I don't remember what part anymore. I think it might have been Courtney Love's part. Must've been. It's interesting to read lots of scripts and then see the movies.

Hudson Leick at the Burbank convention.

The Burbank Convention

GAAR:
[70] What did you think about the Burbank convention?

LEICK:
[71] I didn't know that it was so big. I didn't know that Xena was really big. But I really thought that they wouldn't know who I was for some reason. I don't know why. I didn't plan a speech, but I planned to come out there and tell them who I was.

GAAR:
[72] Where's that ego now?

LEICK:
[73] It's in check! It was just very shocking how many people were there.

GAAR:
[74] You spent a long time signing autographs.

LEICK:
[75] For four and a half hours. It didn't hurt, really. I think I was so high from all the attention. It didn't hurt. It was fun. I could barely go to sleep that night because of all this energy. It was just a really interesting experience. Odd since the reality of it is, it's really nice to be honored for something that I did, but they're not necessarily honoring Hudson, they love the character Callisto. But I'm just another human being when all these other human beings are like 'Oh!' They're looking at you like you're really really different and that's kind of odd. I don't really like that very much.

Other Roles

After seeing Hudson Leick in "Hijacked" and "Surprise", would *you* want her serving you food on an airplane?

GAAR:
[76] You've made two appearances on Touched By An Angel (1994-). Will you make any more?

LEICK:
[77] It won't be a regular role. It might be reoccurring. I might go again. But I don't know. [Editor: At the Sacramento Convention on May 31, 1997, Ms. Leick said she would not be making any more episodes. This convention was reported upon in excruciating detail in the July 1997 Whoosh! #09]

GAAR:
[78] It's up in air?

LEICK:
[79] Yes.

GAAR:
[80] After you had been on twice I thought it would be a reoccurring role. But you're really "on call"?

LEICK:
[81] Mm-hmm.

GAAR:
[82] Are you up for more roles as a result of your role on Xena?

LEICK:
[83] No. No. I don't think so. I'd really like to do Star Trek. My sister's a Trekkie. She keeps begging me to be on Star Trek. So I'd love to do a guest star appearance on that.

GAAR:
[84] Where would you like your career to go?

LEICK:
[85] It changes all the time. I'd like to do movies. I'd like to make a lot of money. I would like to do independent odd films. Not like really odd. How do I explain this? Something that means something to me. Usually the blockbusters don't mean that much to me.

GAAR:
[86] A lot of TV is like that too.

LEICK:
[87] Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm. Absolutely. Touched By An Angel is beautiful. I think that show's beautiful. Xena has also got such wonderful messages in it. It's enjoyable. I really enjoy it. It's getting better and better all the time.

GAAR:
[88] So you'd like to be in the position to be able to choose to do meaningful things?

LEICK:
[89] Yes, I would. I would love to. I am in a position, but then I won't make any money if I decide to be really picky. It's working out nicely right now. Whatever's coming to me.

One more recent Sacramento con picture for the road.

On-Line

GAAR:
[90] Have you checked out any of the online sites about you?

LEICK:
[91] I haven't seen a Hudson web site. I have seen a Callisto web site. I don't know d*** about computers, but my boyfriend's a writer and he has a computer, and my sister is a total computer geek and her husband has his doctorate in computers and so they all keep me informed. I have friend that sends me print outs of the fan stuff on the web and sends it to me so I can see it.