What was the last movie you've seen?

[marurun]

I think Lucy Lawless would have found a career even without Xena. She has a modicum of charisma and talent. Xena eclipsed Hercules spectacularly, and there's few doubts about why.

[REPO Man]

Yeah. SHE can act.

[Raging Justice]

Right, because her acting talent made her such a huge star BEFORE she got cast in Kevin Sorbo's Hercules. She was a nobody before that show. You can't argue with facts.

[marurun]

Right, because her acting talent made her such a huge star BEFORE she got cast in Kevin Sorbo's Hercules. She was a nobody before that show. You can't argue with facts.

Kevin Sorbo is American and Lawless is a New Zealander. Her opportunities for entering the industry were inherently more limited as a result. Lawless was cast in the same pilot Sorbo was for Hercules and was later recast as Xena. I mean, I think it’s pretty clear which one has better acting chops, for sure. Sorbo’s fame seems to stem from, “has muscles, is more charismatic than a cardboard cutout.”

[REPO Man]

Yeah, but now Sorbo's mostly known for right-wing Christian "cinema" that basically filters Christianity through a hyperjingoistic lens. Also, didn't he abuse steroids in the '90s and it gave him health problems?

[Ack]

Yeah, but now Sorbo's mostly known for right-wing Christian "cinema" that basically filters Christianity through a hyperjingoistic lens. Also, didn't he abuse steroids in the '90s and it gave him health problems?

No, he had an aneurysm, which in turn is believed to have caused several mini-strokes during the later seasons of the show. He never did steroids, but he did overtax his body through excessive workouts to play the Hercules character.

[REPO Man]

Oh. I'm not sure where I heard steroids.

[Ack]

No worries, he brought it up himself in interviews at the time saying that he had been asked by the doctors but hadn't ever taken them.

[Raging Justice]

I was looking for something to put on TV as background noise while cooking recently. Stumbled onto this on TV without knowing what it was and it seemed interesting. Ended up almost overcooking my food as I kept getting distracted by this movie. It's funny, charming, and quirky. The movie had already been playing for a while when I put it on the TV, so I didn't see all of it, but I intend to now. I want to watch it from the beginning with no commercials and without whatever was edited out to make those commercial breaks possible. During the end credits I saw that it was directed by Wes Anderson, which would explain how quirky and different it felt. The humor is very dry and witty which is not what you normally see in something like this that looks aimed at families with kids. The stop motion really gives it a unique vibe too.

I really dug this and can't wait to watch it in full.

[Raging Justice]

For all her "acting chops", which basically consist of her one facial expression that she always uses when she expresses emotion, Lucy Lawless is still only known and remembered for Xena, a role she never would have had were it not for Kevin Sorbo's success with Hercules.

I thought she was also outshined by Hudson Leick, who would have been a better Xena than her (Callisto was BY FAR a cooler character), Bruce Campbell, and Renee O'Connor, but I guess that's all subjective.