Chatting with Lucy Lawless about her hair!

Lucy Lawless has a new series starting tomorrow – Spartacus: Blood and Sand – so I did a couple of interviews with her in recent days for a piece I wrote for Fancast.com.

First we talked after a panel at the Television Critics Association press tour and I reminded of her of our first meeting around two years ago. She was one of the celebrities attending a charity burlesque show in Hollywood and was standing off to the side of the red carpet. She had blond hair – her natural color – so I did not recognize her as the dark-headed star of Xena: Warrior Princess.

So I asked the reporter standing next to me – a bit too loudly it turns out – “WHO is she?”

Lucy turned around and said to me: “It’s Lucy Lawless!”

We had a good laugh then and again during our interviews. Lucy called a few days after press tour ended – she was in New Yoek City making all kinds of promotional appearances – and we talked more in depth. She said that now that her hair is darker again, she’s recognized everywhere!

“For eight years I was blond or had red hair and the minute I dye it back, all of a sudden, bam!” she says. “I had gotten used to being unrecognized. I realize that it’s currency. There are roles where you will vanish into a character but out in the world, being recognizable is currency.”