[This was Rebecca's first con.]
[David learned not to go near the SACCers.]
Audience: What was it like, being cast in
Farscape?
David: I had one day's notice. It was by Henson,
so I thought it would be a lovely little Muppet show. I heard that it was called Fire
Escape... [laughter]
I went on set the first day into this bizarre, freaky,
madness that I was supposed to be a part of. My boots were like galoshes - not very
commanding! And this commander I had to work with, was like some guy who was decomposing!
The series as I saw it was about this lieutenant - the
peripheral stuff could just be thrown out...
And then just when I thought things couldn't get any
worse, along came a new boss... [Rebecca grins seraphically] Right out of the frying pan
into the clutches of the breasts!
Rebecca: Every character in Farscape is the sum
total of so many creative (sick!) minds. I got an incredible character description of a
cold, ruthless woman (oh yeah, that's me!). [When auditioning] David was there as a
malleable weakling...acting brilliantly against type. I came out of the audition thinking
god, that was fun!
[Thinking it would be appropriate for a science fiction
role] I wore black to the audition, head to toe, including a black skivvy [turtleneck]
right up to my chin. Then I turned up at the first wardrobe fitting, and the costume was
beautiful, all velvet, with a gorgeous velvet jacket, and a top that came right up to my
chin.
I came back for the second fitting, and they said, the
sets are so dark, and the walls are so dark, and if you're dressed head to toe in a dark
costume, you're going to look like floating head; how would you feel about a low cut top?
It was my second day, what am I going to do, say no? So I said sure, whatever. I showed up
for the next fitting, and -- QUITE a low-cut top!
Certainly Blake's 7 was an influence on me. I really
thought 'cool, this is like a male warrior showing their chest (David Franklin interjects:
CHARGE!). I thought it was daring, sort of like Grayza was daring someone to stick a knife
into her chest.
People looked at me on-set in one of two ways - either
their eyes were right down here [at chest level], or they were right here [smack dab in
front of her face], sort of like, 'I respect you as a human being and an actor, and I'm
not looking at your breasts!'
I loved working with this man [looks at David].
David: I got to see her breasts all the time!
We were working together all the time and we got to be
good friends, so when I finally saw her out of makeup, I was really uncomfortable because
I'd built up this relationship with Grayza, and with Rebecca-dressed-as-Grayza, but not
with Rebecca-as-Rebecca.
Rebecca: We adored working together. We were
always the first days of any shoot, because our set was built --
David: -- the Command Carrier was a huge set, and
was fixed --
Rebecca: -- we were used to getting scripts quite
quickly before going in and rolling around and having skreeths attached to our heads. I
loved the episode where David had the squid thing attached to his head [KANSAS, and TERRA
FIRMA].
David: Rebecca said, 'What are you going to do?'
'I don't know, but I better figure out something quick, because they're going to shoot in
about 5 minutes.'
Rebecca: The skreeth on Braca's head was the only
thing all season that Grayza was genuinely fond of. She was so careful about putting this
slimy little mind-sucking thing into its little box; it was like Grayza's little puppy.
David: As a character you got placed in such
extraordinary situations. We were always being sucked up by skreeths. The amazing thing is
that you just have to commit [to whatever wild and wacky thing the script called for].
Rebecca: That's the script you have for the day,
so, you just have to dive in; mostly there's water in the pool, that's excellent...
I kept saying that ultimately there had to be some way
for them [Grayza and Braca] to come together as equals, but maybe that was just me.
David: Didn't Grayza wind up in a loony asylum?
Rebecca: Ah, but that was all part of my cunning
plan!
[one of them makes a comment about,
'Pseudo-sexual-molestation ... right down there on the food chain.']
David: Oh no, you couldn't sully yourself with him
[Braca].
Rebecca: I was busy! Busy day! Worlds to conquer!
Audience: What was the most difficult episode to
film?
David: The early ones were hard. I was, in the
beginning [of the show], almost apoplectic; that was hard. Most difficult...I think the
skreeth thing, I thought it was going to be like the Creature from the Black Lagoon. But
then it turned out all right.
Rebecca: Like David, the early ones - I watched a
couple of episodes, and read a couple of scripts, but then on set everything was so much
bigger. . There were so many people who knew so much more, and I just had to fly by the
seat of my pants. Toward the end [of the series], I was very frustrated because there were
so many things for Grayza to say and do, and there just wasn't time. I kept them all
inside.
Audience: David, did you expect to live beyond the
first season, given for whom you were working?
David: I knew I was going to last for the first
two episodes, because that's what I was contracted for. It wasn't until season 3 that I
kept getting booked, getting booked. After season two, I was sure I was going to wind up
as galactic goo.
Rebecca: When I watched Farscape on Australian tv
(which was very difficult to do), I saw David and thought, 'I want him to end up running
the world.' . With the way he played the character, I knew he was going to survive.
Playing the low-status fool with all the brilliant people around you ... that's what you
were doing, right?
David: Uh, yeah.
Audience: Rebecca, what else can we see you in,
look for you in?
Rebecca: Come to Australia and see some theater.
Hmmm...some Australian telly - All Saints, Fire - by the way, that's where I first met
Wayne. When I met him again on Farscape [looking cadaverous as Scorpius], I told him,
'ooo, you've gone downhill'. I did a couple of really bad movies of the week that I don't
even know the name of. But mostly theater - Shakespeare, etc.
Audience: How did you play these very large
emotions on this more intimate setting of television (vs theater)?
Rebecca: Both theater and film have technical
aspects that you need to be aware of. In theater, you're at the point of the triangle
focusing out. In television, you're at the base of the triangle focusing in. You want to
not gesture as well.
Scorpius would have lived quite well on stage - he was
just a huge character, and wouldn't take much to shift onto stage. David and I were more
tightly controlled, we would need to be expanded [as characters] to work on the stage.
David: I wanted to say what she said.
Audience: David, you were in the second Matrix
movie...
David: Ah, yes, my role as the snotty maitre d'.
That was fun, but I was a bit shocked when I saw it, because the directors were getting me
to do it all different ways (American, French, etc.), so I got a shock and a half seeing
that. 'Oo, I'm French! I really sound French! I must be French!' That was very fun to do.
Once again, Matrix is a movie about a maitre d'...
Audience: What did you think of the rape scene
[WHAT WAS LOST]?
David: I'll tell you what I think was interesting,
because that was very controversial.
Rebecca: I think that some people were very upset
because a character was raped ... I didn't think that, but that was the word I heard.
David: In almost all shows, it's okay to blow the
whole galaxy to pieces with a lethal weapon, and yet it was interesting, when one of
Grayza's weapons is her sexually predatory nature --
Audience: Boob Sweat!
Rebecca: [Justin] Monjo wrote the 'boob sweat',
and had indicated that it was going to have some succulent quality, some sort of schloopy
sound effect to it, and a lot of people said 'no, Monjo, that's too far'.
Those scenes were a combination of people's weirdness and
crudity. Monjo and Kemper came up with it, they gave it to Ben and I, and we said, 'oooo,
cool'.
'Okay, I'm strapped down to a table and I'm nude, okay,
I've never done that before...' That was a really long day. It was uncomfortable; I seemed
to be face down for quite a long time.
Rowan said, 'can you go crawl on his back, because that
would be really alien'...I said, 'alien, my ass!' The end product was sort of a strange
mix of S&M, romance, violence -- it was a really strange, dark mix, but I thought it
worked well.
Audience: What was it like to get Scorpius on that
leash?
David: Did you ever have one of those days when
just everything goes right? Sun shining, a spring in your step? For Braca, that was damn
fine, a damn good day at the office.
Rebecca: One of my favorite physical acts on the
show was kicking Scorpius. Grayza wasn't violent enough ... even though it's perfectly
okay for a woman to use sex to get what she wants ... I mean Grayza! I didn't want to see
her just limited to sex, because I thought she was perfectly capable of garroting someone.
I thought kicking him in the guts was just ace.
David: And Wayne would say, 'do that again!'
Rebecca: Wayne would say, 'no, no you can push me
over, it's all right!'
Audience: Rebecca, what role in Shakespeare would
you like to play most, and which is your favorite?
Rebecca: Too many. I played Juliet and that's a
really great role. Violet in TWELFTH NIGHT, and Rosalyn is the largest female role that
Shakespeare wrote, and she's hot. I played Lady [MacBeth? didn't quite catch this], she's
extremely cool. One character I haven't played, and would really like to explore, is
Cleopatra. There's also a really small role in TEMPEST that's wonderful.
David: I did A MIDSUMMER NIGHT'S DREAM; I played
one of the lovers and one of the mechanicals. I worked so hard as Demetrius [the lover],
and then on the mechanicals I just relaxed and had a good time. I got really good reviews
for the mechanicals...
I have raped and killed so many people. I get the girl,
but I rape her. In Australia, I always get cast to play only lawyers and sleazy roles, so
I don't get much chance for comedy.
Rebecca: I get cast mostly as warm, victimized
women. So, Grayza was fun. It's fun to be evil...on the theoretical level.
Audience: Rebecca, it seemed like in the last few
episodes your makeup changed.
Rebecca: Oh, you're a clever boy, aren't you? Yes,
my makeup girl left for a better paying job. [pretend sob] Jen Lamphee designed it [the
makeup] but then went on maternity leave, and Anna took over. Anna, I adored, and we
worked toward perfecting it [the makeup]. Then, she left, and *ahem*.
It was assumed that the makeup wasn't difficult. We did
little tribute in the ep where we got captured, and then she left, the bitch! [laughter]
There's a little scene [in BRINGING HOME THE BEACON] when I get put in this sort of
pod-like thing, which was Anna's last day. After I came out I had this line, 'exceptional
work, Aeryn' - that I really put in for Anna, to thank her for her work on the makeup.
It was difficult getting a new person to do the makeup.
And yes, one rises above these things, but not really ... the camera guys were very good,
the lighting guys were very good, you shift things around. Farscape, like everything, is a
combination of abilities, passions, love, creativity - when one of the bits goes away, or
falls back, then it diminishes the whole thing.
David: The Gynotron ... little fallopian tubes.
Audience: Which was better, when you [David] got
the best of Scorpius, or got the best of Grayza at the end?
David: They were both GOOOOOOOD! He's a good
Sebacean, Captain Braca, he has a bit of inner malice. To survive, to quench the natural
Sebacean desire for power, to be subservient was a difficult thing for Braca, it breeds a
lot of resentment. My benefactors [Scorpius and Grayza] were both horrible people, but the
relationships with both were necessary.
Audience: Tell us about bloopers.
Rebecca: Just the fact that the bath kept falling
apart [WHAT WAS LOST].
David: Yeah, that was sexy!
Rebecca: Looking at the rushes, I don't know how
we got through each scene, because the thing kept crashing in the background. We had to
ADR everything for that scene. There was one point when I slipped and said, 'I want Braca'
instead of 'I want Crichton'.
David: I waved and said 'here I am!'
When I had to go back and reshoot some flashback scenes
as a lieutenant, they didn't get me to try my outfit on again; it no longer fit me. My
outfit was skin-tight, and the belt wouldn't do up! They finally had to glue the belt on.
I looked like a sausage.
Audience: Given that he was similarly abused by
Scorpius and Grayza, did Braca ever have any empathy for, or identify with, Crichton?
David: That would be a big, fat NOOOOO!
Rebecca: I always felt sorry for Braca when
Crichton was around; Crichton was horrible to him, vile!
David: I understand your question, but NOOOOOOO.
Audience: What species was Grayza?
Rebecca: She was born a Sebacean. The first makeup
test I had was Sebacean - human, with brown tones and shading. Monj suggested that Grayza
could have black teeth (Josephine, Napoleon's partner, had black teeth). So then they
said, 'we could shift her'.
I justified it to myself by thinking, well, she's had all
kinds of genetic engineering -
David: If you look close you can tell!
Rebecca: -- had all kinds of genetic engineering,
including the 'boobs of death', but also some other things. She can sense people's heart
rate. You focus on her eyes, and she's checking people's pulse, perspiration, and other
things. It's something that shows up in the backstory. She's got quite a lot of things
done [genetically], so it's no stretch that her coloration would change as well.
David: Isn't that a double-edged sword? Hasn't
Grayza reduced her lifespan considerably?
Rebecca: [grins] Potennntially...
David: Oh, she thinks she's so smart!
Audience: What was it like to work with Ben
Browder?
David: That was great fun, very intense, full-on.
That was season two [LOOK AT THE PRINCESS], wasn't it? I had something to do in
that season! That was the first time I'd worked with Ben, I think, and he was
extraordinary. It was just fun and very exciting. [on having Fran Buller on that episode
as well:] She was extraordinary as an actor.
Audience: Crichton had a way of sort of converting
his enemies, so that they wound up aboard Moya. Could you see Braca joining Moya?
David: What would Braca do? He'd be doing the
dishes.
Moderator: That's it [for the Q and A session].
David: KILL HER!
---
Rebecca at the autograph table later that
afternoon:
Q: Did you have to use something to stick your
costume in place, to kind of keep everything where it should be?
A: I never really thought of myself as
particularly well-endowed before this role! There were actually two versions of my
costume; they were supposed to be exactly alike, but for some reason one stayed exactly
where it was supposed to, all by itself, while the other had to be stuck down. But the
moment I started to move, the second one would come unstuck anyway.
