Xena: Warrior Nutballs

🚨 Important Episode Update: 🚨 Whānau, our Sir Richard Taylor episode went live with a track out of order, making parts of the kōrero super confusing. So sorry if you caught that version, it sounded like Dahak or Sauron got in the edit! 😬 We've fixed the audio - if you downloaded it before the fix, please delete your copy and download it again. Thanks for bearing with us whānau! ⚔️💜...now on wi...

🚨 Rerelease!🚨 Thanks for bearing with us whānau! ⚔️💜...now on with the podcast! ___ 🏆 This week, Lou and Shell are chatting with Sir Richard Taylor (KNZM), Co-founder and Creative Director of Wētā Workshop, a five-time Academy Award winner! 🧌⚔️ Based in Wellington, Wētā Workshop is an award-winning special effects and creative company who have worked on some of the biggest franchises in the w...

This week, Lou and Shell are heading into the costume department, getting sized up and squeezed into our own leather corsets and miniskirts with the wonderfully talented Kiwi Jane Holland - Costume Designer for Xena: Warrior Princess Seasons 5 and 6! 🧵✂️🪡⚔️💜   Jane is responsible for creating some of the most memorable looks in the entire series, including the iconic pregnant Xena costume 🌀(wh...

This week Lou and Shell go deep behind the scenes as we kōrero with legendary Aotearoa casting director Diana Rowan, who tells us exactly what she saw in Lucy Lawless which made her push for her to become Xena: Warrior Princess. 👀⚔️ AKA that “don’t fuck with me” energy she owns. 💜💪🌶️ Xenites, you might recognise Diana for another reason… she played The Shepherd in Xena: Warrior Princess Season...

This week Lou and Shell are welcoming into the whānau Eric Gruendemann - Producer, Supervising Producer, Co-Executive Producer, and founder and Managing Director of Pacific Renaissance Pictures!🎬🌿⚔️😮‍💨    Some people think the story of Xena: Warrior Princess begins with Hercules: The Legendary Journeys... but they'd be wrong. The real origin story starts years earlier, when Eric boarded a plan...

This week, Lou and Shell have grown out their beards and donned their muumuus as we welcome into the whānau Timothy Omundson AKA Eli!🧔🏻‍♀️💚🕊️ Yes! That devilishly handsome, charismatic man with the sparkling blue eyes who arrived in Xena and Gabrielle’s lives as a street magician, before becoming one of the most important spiritual figures in the series.🎩🪄🙏 In this episode, Tim talks about c...

In this Special Guest Side Quest, Lou gets up close with THE ACTUAL COSTUMES worn by Lucy Lawless and Renee O’Connor! 🤯⚔️ Getting to head behind the scenes at Te Papa, the National Museum of New Zealand, with Stephanie Gibson, Curator of New Zealand Histories and Cultures.    We explore the craftsmanship and artistry behind Xena’s costume, initially designed by Barbara Darragh and reworked by Ngi...

This week Lou and Shell talk with Rob Gillies, the Kiwi Production Designer on Xena: Warrior Princess⚒️🛡️🏛️⚔️ From the depths of Tartarus to the Elysian Fields, and everything in between, if you could see it in the Hercules and Xena universe, chances are Rob Gillies and his team built it. 📐⚒️🎨🖋️💪   As Production Designer across Hercules: The Legendary Journeys, Xena: Warrior Princess, and Young...

This week, Lou and Shell climb the steps to Mount Olympus and enter the throne room with Paris Jefferson AKA Athena! 🦉⚔️👑 Paris joins us to look back on her unforgettable turn as Athena, the Goddess of Warfare, Wisdom, and don't forget Weaving! ⚔️🦉🧵 She shares what it was like arriving in Aotearoa New Zealand to join Xena: Warrior Princess for Season 5, stepping into one of Greek mythology's m...

This week we're extending our whānau again! 💜🌿Shell and Lou are donning our fedoras 🤠, dusting off our typewriters 📝, and heading into the Xena: Warrior Princess writers' room with one of the most influential creative forces behind the show ✨ Steven L. Sears ✨   As a writer and producer on Xena, Steven helped shape some of the series' most iconic stories, shaping Gabrielle’s hero's journey,...

This week Lou and Shell are joined by the amazing Kiwi, Sandi Rayner 🐎🌟 We talk about her time as riding double for Lucy Lawless and Horse Wrangler on Xena: Warrior Princess.   Before CGI, before green screens, and before technology could solve every problem, there were talented people like Sandi behind the scenes working with incredible horses, and a whole lot of Kiwi ingenuity to bring us Xena...

This week Lou and Shell are joined by the wildly talented Joel Tobeck, yes whānau, that chaos gremlin you love to hate (but MAINLY love) 😈🔥🤪👺   You’ll know him as Deimos and Lucifer in Xena: Warrior Princess, but he’s known in the wider Xena-verse as Strife from Hercules: The Legendary Journeys and Young Hercules, serving pure foolishness with a smirk 😏😉   Xenites might even recognise him fr...

*Coo! Coo! Amazons, attack!* This week Lou and Shell welcome the incredible Danielle Cormack into the whānau! The Kiwi legend who brought the stoic, fiercely loyal, and beloved Amazon Queen Ephiny to life 👑⚔️🐴    Long before she became television royalty as Bea Smith in Wentworth, Danielle was ruling over the Amazon’s in Xena: Warrior Princess. In this kōrero, we talk about the REAL stuff - givi...

This week Lou and Shell are catching up with the number one warlord, King of the Horde - Jay Laga’aia AKA the delightfully dark Draco! 🎶 😏⚔️   Jay, the iconic Kiwi-Aussie, takes us right back to “Sins of the Past” (S01E01), sharing what it was like stepping into the Xenaverse as the very first villain, including the very moment he saw Lucy Lawless in full Xena glory and knew this show was someth...

*Lou, Shell, and MaryD have entered the 90s AUSXIP chat room*   This week we’re diving into the fandom itself with a true OG Xenite - MaryD! The absolute powerhouse behind AUSXIP 💻⚔️ Before socials, before streaming, there was AUSXIP… and MaryD was the Aussie legend running the show.   We yarn about the wild west days of the internet and her work creating the 25th anniversary book “Xena: Their Co...

OMG babes 💖✨ we are, like, SO excited because this week, we’re adding the divine Alexandra Tydings 💘👑 to the whānau!!! Aka Aphrodite, the Goddess of Love from Xena: Warrior Princess 💕 Tubular right?!   We go FULL Gaphrodite 💞🌈 yes babe, that kiss 💋💖 diving into Alex’s thoughts, angles, and all the deliciously sapphic vibes 😍💓It’s flirty, fabulous, and totally dripping in looooooooove 💕...

Golden curls, heroic biceps, and a whole lot of Kiwi charm, this week we’re joined by Aotearoa legend Michael Hurst (ONZM) ✨   Xena fans will know Michael across the wider Xenaverse: from his iconic turn as the ever-loyal hero Iolaus in Hercules: The Legendary Journeys 💪⚔️, to popping up in Xena: Warrior Princess as Nigel and the delightfully grumpy ferryman Charon ⛵🔥. But his impact on the sh...

In this interview, Lou and Shell find themselves sitting down with one of the biggest legends in Aotearoa’s creative industries: Jennifer Te Atamira Ward-Lealand (ONZM, CNZM). 👑🎭   The 2020 Kiwibank New Zealander of the Year, honoured for her contributions to the arts and advocacy for Te Reo Māori, Jennifer reflects on her time in the Xena-verse.⚔️🥝    She stormed onto our screens as the fierce...

He’s the co-creator, executive producer, writer, director and yes, an avid fisherman 🎣 - the one and only Rob Tapert (eeeeee!!!!!) joins us for a kōrero/chat about bringing Xena: Warrior Princess to life ⚔️   Rob takes us back to the very beginning, what drew him down to Aotearoa New Zealand, the magic of building something wildly ambitious on the other side of the world, and how a scrappy team o...

This interview we’re joined by the utterly hilarious kiwi Jodie Dorday ✨🎭   Xena fans will know Jodie best as Solari, the fierce Amazon warrior from “The Quest” (S2E13) and “A Necessary Evil” (S2E14). Yes, THAT Amazon, the one that serves Bruce Campbell as Autolycus, the kind of stink eye you feel in your bones 🔑☠️ 🤣   As a multiple-character actor on Xena: Warrior Princess, Jodie shares what...

We’re extending our whānau/family as we are joined by the one and only - Hudson Leick! The ultimate Xena: Warrior Princess villain, Callisto 💀⚔️    We dive deep into everything Callisto: from that iconic campfire scene with Gabrielle in “A Necessary Evil” (S2E14) 🔥🏕️, to exploring the sexual tension Callisto had with Xena ⚡💋 and her reaction to discovering Callisto would become the mother of X...

This interview we’re joined by Kiwi legend Murray Keane AKA ‘Howar’ from fan-favourite episode “A Day in the Life” (Season 2, Episode 15) ⚔️📜   Shell and Lou dive deep into one of the best episodes of the entire franchise with Murray, he talks about working within the subtext (yes, everyone knew), working with Lucy Lawless, Renée O’Connor, Michael Hurst, and the hysterical Alison Wall who played...

This episode we chat with Tammy Barker, the legendary Aussie stunt double for Renée O’Connor | Gabrielle across Seasons 3, 4 and 5 💪   Tammy is the stunty who takes Gabrielle from the sweet, scroll-carrying bard 📜 to the fully fledged warrior, the “Battling Bard of Potidaea” ⚔️. This is the woman who did the hard yakka: the hits, the falls, the fire, even copping a broken nose at the end of (an...

This week we're pulling up our director’s chairs as we sit down with Garth Maxwell, the Kiwi filmmaker who brought us absolute bangers like "Mortal Beloved" (S1), "Lost Mariner" (S2), "Devi" and "Endgame" (S4), "Seeds of Faith" and "Looking Death in the Eye" (S5), and "The God You Know" (S6)…and honestly, the list goes on, the man does not miss! 🎬✨   He reflects on working with Alexis Arquette (...

This week we get a behind-the-scenes look at what it was really like to be one of those brilliant Kiwi actors who popped in and out of the Xenaverse as completely different characters, the ultimate ’90s TV shapeshifters.   We're chatting with Doug Kamo, the Kiwi character actor who perfected the fine art of playing, as he so quaintly puts it, 'dicks' of Xena: Warrior Princess. You may recognise hi...