I auditioned. She was called Zenn at that stage and Farscape was called Space Chase.

Sci fi fans will know how it works, they�ll understand the casting process - a sheet is sent to various theatrical agencies with a breakdown of what they�re looking for. It�s like a shopping list: "Today we�re shopping for two characters." On the first casting sheet that came out of the Space Chase production offices, they were looking for a character called D�Argo, who would be completely covered in prosthetics: "Must be tall, strong, with a great voice, will not be seen except for the eyes."

Then, the next little paragraph underneath was "Zenn, Z-E-N-N, alien priest, actress must be fit, statuesque, between 25 and 45," - a huge age group, and that was it. When an actor looks at breakdowns we have to be psychic. It�s gut instinct, because you�re not given any information. You have to say "Yes, I�m interested," or "No I�m not interested," based on three lines. If it�s a film you can read the whole script and decide whether you�d like to audition, but for TV you don�t ever know anything about the piece until you start working, so you just get a feeling for it.

The thing that stuck out for me was "priest". I do a lot of reiki and energy work, and I studied naturopathy and homeopathy and herbal medicine and, when I grow up, somehow, sometime, I�d also like to be a holistic doctor. I believe in spirituality, in Eastern philosophies and I�m open to any kind of shamanistic work, so when I read, "Alien priest" my subconscious jumped into play. I thought "Oh, wouldn�t that be wonderful, to channel through some of the things that I�ve been learning in the last 20 years."

I didn�t even know whether Zenn had any kind of eastern philosophy. Well, she�s alien, so it�s nothing to do with the Earth and Earth philosophies but I thought, "Wouldn�t it be great if I got the job and I could put some eastern philosophies into the character," so I jumped at the chance. I auditioned and eventually, after a long process, got it. I had no idea I�d be blue and bald.