Claudia Black tells why Aeryn Sun should win the award for "Farscape's" most abused character!
Claudia, who keeps her age a secret, has always been versatile. Although born in Sydney, she was a finalist in the 1990 Globe Shakespeare competition, and toured Europe as Portia in "The Merchant Of Venice."
Back home in Australia, her continental looks allowed her to play a young Italian-Australian woman in the long-running soap "A Country Practice." She later starred in the short-lived New Zealand series "City Life", as a woman of Greek background. Away from television, she is a professional singer, lending her famously deep voice to jazz and classical songs.
You might recognise her as Cassandra in a few episodes of "Hercules: The Legendary Journeys", or even as Karina in the "Xena: Warrior Princess" episode 'Lifeblood.' She is also in the upcoming movie "Queen Of The Damned" and made an impact with her brief role as Shazza in "Pitch Black."
In her native Australia, science fiction fans first noticed Claudia in the summer of 2000. Two days after "Pitch Black" opened in cinemas, "Farscape" made it's Aussie debut. Both had been shot around the same time, and Claudia had been flying frequently between the movie set in the South Australian desert and the "Farscape" set in Sydney. As she freely admits, she was exhausted.
Claudia might not have suffered as much as her Sebacean alter ego, but the series has certainly changed her life. As we speak, she has just finished shooting season 3, but is still revoicing scenes in the studio. For someone who isn't overly fond of interviews, she has none the less done more than her share of magazine interviews, online chats and convention appearances to support the series in the past 2 years.
"I think, for the show, Aeryn has the most interesting arc," she says. "She changes the most and she stands to lose the most. The stakes are always high with Aeryn. The show was always told from Crichton's perspective, because he was the earthman within the alien context, the one the audience could most relate to. But Aeryn has gone on this incredible journey, becoming perhaps more recognizable as a human, even though she is alien. It creates a lot of tension within her, has she starts to let go of one side, as a new one prospers."
Season 2 continued Aeryn's streak of misfortune. As if it wasn't enough to grow very old, go through a Nebari mind-cleanser and have a Vorc use her quarters as a toilet, she even lost Crichton temporarily to a princess. Oh yes, and she died as well!
In the season 2 final episode, her funeral scene provided a moving respite from the usual breathless action of "Farscape", even reducing the director, Rowan Woods, to tears. But as with Spock from "Star Trek", the dedicated fans assumed that she would somehow return to life. "The viewers know they're being manipulated, and most of them suspected, or at least, really hoped, that I was going to come back." This didn't make the scene any less effective. "They were carried away by the emotion of it."
When discussing her 'death', one is struck by Claudia's immense faith in the writers. She claims that, unlike most viewers, she had no idea whether she would return.
"I didn't know it had actually been written into the script. One of the writers, Lily Taylor, came to me to say 'just to let you know, you don't actually die.' I said, 'Thanks for letting me know, but I don't actually mind. lf it's for the good of the show, great. I'll be free to do other things. And if not, I'll just carry on.' It really wasn't a big deal for me. Either way, it's the longest I've ever played a character in my entire career, so I was happy to go and happy to stay, as long as I was given the opportunity to extend myself and do different things."
Her wish, it seems, was granted. Just because Aeryn died in season 2, it doesn't mean that her troubles are over. Following her revival in the season premiere, year 3 has continued to explore and develop Aeryn's character. The season has also allowed Aeryn to show a degree of tenderness that would have been unthinkable for her a year earlier.
"I wouldn't say that she's softening," Claudia is quick to point out. "It's more that there's another side to her developing. It may be construed as a softness coming through, but as a warrior, she's making decisions based on valuing life a little more. Crichton's obviously influenced that. Where he is concerned, she's opened herself up, certainly through season 3, to the possibility of being happy in love. We're definitley seeing her smile more, and she's become more human and more accessible."
The Crichton-Aeryn love story has been one of the most intriguing aspects of "Farscape", never heading in the direction that we might expect from TV relationships. After all, the rules are different in Sci-Fi. These two have already grown old together, even swapped bodies, something no romance in "Coronation Street" has ever involved. At the start of season 3, Aeryn still loves Crichton, but she doesn't trust the Scorpius clone in his head.
"I think they're a classical love story, set in a contemporary context. There's nothing new about the idea of two people being very much in love, then finding it difficult to get together. That's the essence of most good TV shows."
A major barrier for them is still Aeryn's past. Though she has certainly changed, she is still a Sebacean by breeding, if not at heart.
"She fights with external elements that keep challenging her, reminding her of what she used to be and what she's becoming. There are episodes in each season where Aeryn comes across Peacekeepers and she's reminded of what she used to believe in."
Though she knows Aeryn inside out, Claudia really has no idea about the character's future. "Just as long as they continue to surprise me and give me new things to play with, I'll be happy," she says. Once again, she surrenders to the will of the writing team, however cruel they have been to Aeryn in the past.
"I have no idea what they're going to do, and sometimes they have no idea. David Kemper has an idea of where the show will end up, but in between he has to fill in the blanks. Aeryn will continue to be shaped by her environment and by the circumstances. All I'm really interested in is that the story is solid, that it creates a platform for me and Ben to play."
So enough about Aeryn Sun's future on the show. What of Claudia Black's?
Now that Ben Browder has extended his CV as a writer, pening the episode 'Green Eyed Monster', will she follow his lead and go behind the camera?
Claudia laughs at the idea, obviously aware that it will not rest for some time. "There's a few people that would be standing in line to direct an episode before I would, by virtue of their previous experience," she says humbly. "Anthony Simcoe is an accomplished director. Ben, I'm sure, would love to direct an episode. I think we'd be at the end of season 10 before they'd think about me. But down the line some day, I probably will write and direct something. God knows what, but there are definitley things that thinking actors become interested in." Wait a minute; Season 10? "That ain't gonna happen!" she quickly retracts, "Not for me. I wouldn't stay on something that long."
Aside from "Doctor Who" and the various "Star Trek" incarnations, how many Sci-Fi series have ever lasted so long? "No one thought "Farscape" would last as long as it has, so I suppose anything is possible," she points out. "But I need creatively to do other things. It would get to a point with Aeryn that I would cease to be capable of playing other characters."
This would lead to another dilema. How would Aeryn be written out? After all, she has already had a truly memorable death scene, even if it wasn't as final as it seemed. How could she possibley top that? Claudia mumbles "Ooh, I don't know," and pauses. It seems that we've actually found a question that, in interview after interview she still hasn't yet been asked!
"With a big bang," she says finally. "In as dramatic a fashion as possible, or perhaps in a lyrical way. Who knows. As long as the character is honoured, if that death affects the other characters, then that character meant something. I'm always very moved when I see the way other characters respond to the demise of someone."
Of course, all this talk of her exit is both pointless and premature. With 3 season's in the can, Claudia Black intends to stick around for as long as Aeryn interests her which is for the foreseeable future, at least.