From breast fondling to lolly licking -David Bassom discovers it's all in a day's work for Claudia Black, the Aussie actress playing Farscape's renegade Peacekeeper Aeryn Sun.
"Lollipop, lollipop, ooh-lolly-lollipop!" There she sits, Claudida Black in full kick-ass angel gear as Aeryn Sun, "Farscape's" shoot-first-ask-questions-later action woman, lolling about Moya's familiar command set between shots inspired to song by a lollipop she's been sucking, causing the cast and crew to crack up.
It's not quite the behaviour you expect from the ultra-serious Sebacean, but Black reckons that she is managing to inject a lighter side into the black-clad, grimly-determined ice warrior.
"The joy of season two," she reveals late, during a lunchtime break from a typically hectic day of shooting, "is that they've allowed me to explore the depth of character in ways that have been creatively satisfying for me as a performer and hopefully entertaining the audience. It's been refreshing for me to explore the more grey areas of her character, and I've made sure to push her into a more comedic realm. I think it's really heaped Aeryn to be involved in the humour rather than always the subject of it."
So, was the "lollipop" rountine a taste of things to come? Will we be seeing Aeryn burst into a verse like What Do You Do With A Problem Like Our Moya or do a stand-up routine on a weekly basis? Black laughs.
"That was a very candid moment," she admits, clearly unaware that an SFX reporter was present at the time. "Ben Browder (Crichton), Anthony Simcoe (D'Argo) and I spend a lot of time together on the set, and certainly now that Gigi Edgley (Chiana) has arrived on the show, we tend to get put together in the core of the drama. And it's important for us to keep a positive energy on the set.
"Anthony is really at the forefront of that," she explains. "He will push to have a good time and make sure that no-one forgets that there's a human being under the adversity of all that make-up and the costume. And that influences all of us in a very positive way."
As Black relaxes in her trailer -situated just around the corner from the show's main studio in picturesque Homebush Bay in Australia- chatting amicably and animatedly about the way her life has changed so drastically over the past couple of years, you can soon catch some of the nuances of the actress that have crept into the character over the past two seasons of "Farscape." In fact, Aeryn is the one character in the show who had to be adapted to suit the actress playing her even before the show started shooting. The original idea for Aeryn was to hire a 20-year-old British actress; the production team also say her as being more "by-the-book."
"Initially they were looking form someone a lot younger, and they weren't going to cast Aeryn in Australia," she recalls. "At that stage, I was asked to help read opposite actors who were being cast as other characters in the show. And the casting agent said to me, 'It's a pity they're not casting Aeryn here cause you'd be perfect for it. We might just put you down on tape just in case something goes wrong or whatever.' Looking back, I think they must have known there was a possibility I was in with a chance, but didn't want to leak that information. So I just put an audition tape down for them and disappeared, and then some time later I got a call out of the blue asking if I would film a screen test opposite Ben Browder.
"When I was cast, they threw the cards back up in the air and were like, 'Wherever they fall, that's who Aeryn should be.' Even now, I'm just thrilled that I was given the opportunity."
And you can keep "Casualty" and "Cops", reckons Black. She loves the fact that her first stab at international stardom has come in a show that's truly out of this world. "I think everyone working on "Farscape" feels that it's our good fortune that we're not in a hospital drama or a police drama or whatever," she explains. "It's very exciting for us to do a science fiction project here in Australia with a budget and production values of this kind. This is new territory for us."
Not that "Farscape" was Black's first stab at the science fiction and fantasy genre. Like seemingly half the acting community in Australia, she's had bit parts in "Hercules: The Legendary Journeys" (Cassandra in "Hercules On Trial" and "Atlantis") and "Xena: Warrior Princess" ("Lifeblood"), plus she was working on the SF shocker movie "Pitch Black" (finally to get a release in the U.K. this month) when the role of Aeryn Sun came up.
And "Farscape" obviously hasn't put her off the genre either, as she'll soon be filming her part in the sequel to "Interview With A Vampire, Queen Of The Damned." Black's star is definitely in the ascendant.
"I really feel my dreams are coming true right now," smiles Black. "I know that might sound cheesy, but it's precisely what I'm feeling. When "Pitch Black" opened here in Australia the same week "Farscape" went to air, I was in actors' heaven. Not because of the amount of exposure, but the sense of achievement and the feeling that I might get to a point where I can pick and choose projects."
But while here roles are becoming ever more starry (in various senses of the word), Black is keeping her feet firmly on the ground.
""Farscape" is the one thing that's between me and waitressing at this point," she states matter-of-factly. "I never lose my sense of humility in the fact that I might be straight back to waitressing after this. And each time your profile is raised, the harder it is to step back into the apron and say, 'Do you want fries with that?'"
Black may have her ego laudably under control, but she still takes her acting seriously. It would be easly for the scornful to assume that "Farscape's" acting demands a little more depth than the average pantomime, but Black would defend her work and that of her fellow cast members for energetically breathing life into what could have been stock characters. She's particularly proud of the way her Sebacean alter ego has slowly begun to shrug off her militaristic Peacekeeper training and is gradually developing and emerging as more of a free-thinking and compassionate individual.
"Aeryn has certainly become more positive and encouraging character since the series began," she notes with a certain sense of pride. "In season one, she was the person who would always reach for her gun first. But I think Crichton has taught both her and D'Argo to think before they act. By season two, she's learning to value life more and has started the long process of healing. I think what makes Aeryn interesting is that she is a woman who is capable of superhuman strength and yet exceptional vulnerability. She becomes more vulnerable at some points than an adult should be. She's a woman-child. And as we see her grow up, I think her development is very endearing because it is a painful struggle."
Black can see in Aeryn a metaphor for what happened to women in the business world of the '80s and '90s. "They had to be more manly than then men and had to work harder than the men to get the same pay, and they had to leave their vulnerability at home or at the door to survive. But the more they succeeded, the easier it was for them to concede elements of their personality that they at first thought were inappropriate to display. I really do think there's a similarity, and I find that aspect of Aeryn really interesting as a parallel to how women behave in the corporate world."
From day one, Aeryn Sun's ass-kicking, girl power-charged voyage of discovery has been one of "Farscape's" driving forces. It was also one of the main elements which initially drew Black to the Henson Company's first SF series.
"When I first read the pilot, it was very obvious to me that Aeryn had enormous potential," she recalls. "She was scripted as a potential love interest for Crichton, but I know she had the potential to grow into a character who could stand on her own. And I was right."
"Farscape", then, has certainly saved the Sydney-born Black from the more traditional Aussie actor's lot of daytime soaps, U.S.-drama-wannabes and in-your-face comedies (though she has done her time on series such as "A Country Practice", "Good Guys Bad Guys", and "City Life").
"Science fiction is proving to be a very appropriate medium for me," she agrees. "The women are strong and have quite a masculine energy, and the characters I tend to play are certainly not wallflowers! So it's probably the most appropriate arena for me in terms of casting."
"One of my goals for 1998 was to have done a feature film before the year was through, and then when "Farscape" came up while I was still working on "Pitch Black", I instantly felt, 'It never rains, it pours.' From then on everything became an extraordinary roller coaster ride, and fortunately I've not had to go down the dips yet, it's just been peaks."
Somehow, you can't see Claudia Black resuming her catering career at any point soon. For one thing, she looks to remain aboard Moya for several years to come. "We'll see," she responds. "It's hard to tell how long "Farscape" will go on for. Obviously nobody wants to be associated with a failure and since "Farscape" is successful, it's delightful to ride that wave."
"Having said that, playing Aeryn is the most physically arduous thing I've done. As serial television, the hours are already long. Added to that, playing a highly, highly physical character, it will eventually take its toll. I can already feel myself aging away a bit prematurely. But the more successful the show is and the broader its reach becomes, the more of a stamp Aeryn can hopefully make on television history. I know that sounds dramatic, but hopefully she will become a famous character in television. And then I would feel that it was worth the effort and the energy."
Touching Moment
Claudia fondles her own breasts...for the sake of art, dah-ling
In the second season episode "Out Of Their Minds", John Crichton finds himself in Aeryn Sun's body. Suitably intrigued by his unique predicament, Crichton (now played by Claudia Black) decides to explore his new "home".
"That scene was completely improvised," reveals Black with a chuckle. "David Kemper (Executive Producer) said to me, 'What do you think Crichton would do when he's left on his own in Aeryn's body?' And I said, 'What do you think he'd do? Don't even bother putting it on the page, I'll do it for you.' And I just went for it! Obviously, it was always scripted that the crew had to catch Crichton inside Aeryn in the act of something. But Crichton's actions were improvised. It certainly gave me an opportunity to do something John Crichton wouldn't normally do!"