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Virginia Hey - The elegant, blue, spiritual centre of the original Farscape cast.

Celebrating being blue
  How did you celebrate when you found out that you got the part of Zhaan? Question from Fran Stephens

Hello Fran Stephens, big hug and a kiss to you.

I think the first person I rang was my dad and I said "Do you want the good news or the bad news Dad?" and he said, "Give me the good news," and I said, "The good news is I got a fantastic show, Farscape, and it's a long running TV series and I'm playing a priest".

He said, "What's the bad news?" "The bad news, Dad, is that I have to shave my hair and my eyebrows," and he went "Oh no." I said, "That's not all," and he said, "What else?" "I have to be blue."

"What do you mean blue?" "Er, well, I've got to paint my face and my shoulders and my head blue." He's got a great sense of humour so he made me laugh for about an hour and he just raised his eyes to god and said, "Why did you accept a role where you had to shave your hair off and your eyebrows?" and I said, "But dad everything I do is just to piss off my parents, you should know that by now."

So that was the first person I phoned, my dad, and next was my agent of course, and then my best girl friend, Mari. I don't really drink so I didn't go to the pub and get drunk or anything. I just jumped up and down and played some great music and danced around like a big fat pillock. And had fun.

Dirty old D'Argo
  What was the most fun you ever had on set? Question sent in by Vicki

Thanks Vicki, hi darling.

The most fun I had on set, well, this is a long one.

All of the cast were in the Main Command [on Moya] and we were all facing the window, and we were supposed to imagine that Marauders were racing towards us. It was a high tension moment. And it was a moment where there was no dialogue. The cameras were behind us, looking at all of our shoulders, facing the window, and Pilot was speaking.

Anthony Simcoe, who plays D'Argo, he's hilariously funny. He's always playing pranks and saying things to make you laugh in the middle of a take, and of course, you can't. But in this particular instance, none of our faces were on camera, and none of us were actually engaged in conversation, so he was able to make some noise.

So he started to tell us exactly what he planned to do to all the women in the Marauder ships, and it was extremely blue in nature. I can't tell you any more than it involved dairy products and a dreadful act that was in [the film] Last Tango in Paris.

I won't go into it any more but we all blushed every colour imaginable, we roared with laughter, we nearly fell over ourselves, because he put on a girly voice, "This is what I'd like to do to you, you naughty marauding girl."

We were laughing so much that if the camera had seen us from the front we'd all have been going "aaah." The camera just saw us from the back, and our shoulders were wobbling so much that they had to cut in the end, but some of it did make it to screen. Because Moya is a living ship, the camera always had to tilt [from side to side] to give the impression that we were floating in space and the ship was breathing, so it didn't matter so much that our shoulders were wobbling.

I think that was the most hilariously funny moment that I ever encountered in Farscape. I wish I could tell you the story, I really do, but it's so horribly X rated, it's dreadful, but it's funny.

Big moment
  What do you think Zhaan's defining moment in Farscape was? Question from Paul Robinson

Hi Paul Robinson.

It's a tricky one because playing Zhaan was, it was a strange feeling because it's like having another alternate lifetime. It's like being alive in another dimension as well as having my human life here. She very much was alive for me.

So what I'm trying to say is it's hard to pick one defining moment, but I think the best way for me to answer that is to say that every time that I was in Unity with anybody else I think was the most important and most soulful and most fulfilling and most important time for me.

Zhaan was a priest and so the expression of prayer within Unity was most intensely potent for her. The rest of the time of course she was very motherly and very loving to everybody, a highly spiritual being, but I think Unity was extraordinarily profound for me. Every time I did it I felt very light-headed afterwards, because I felt that I really was in an intense full state of meditation.

That's a really nice question Paul, thanks for that.

Back and back and back...
  If you could go back to the beginning of Farscape, would you do anything differently? Question from Foodcube

Hello Foodcube, that's a very bizarre name you have there, darling,

The only thing that I used to wish could be different, all the time was, "I wish I didn't look like the TARDIS,", you know, the Doctor Who TARDIS which is this great blue big telephone booth. I felt a little bit like that as Zan because I'm an absolute giant of a woman, I really am very tall. In heels I'm about 6 foot 3.

The costume designer, Terry Ryan, and all the wardrobe girls and boys would dress me every day, and every single day I'd say, "Oh please can I have a catsuit, please can I have a catsuit and a couple of guns and please can I crawl across roof tops and kill a few baddies.," [They got] sick and tired of me saying that, which is one of the reasons why I got the catsuit in that one episode, (Liars, Guns and Money). I played Oralla with the eye patch.

So I would have liked Zhaan [to have been] in something a little bit sexier. It would have been nice to have her in a, let's say, a blue suede catsuit.

Obviously she's a priest, so she had to be in very elegant and very respectful spiritual ceremonial robes, and I was very happy, very pleased to wear those beautiful costumes designed by Terry. But there were so many layers to the costume that sometimes it was hard to get around and I used to trip over, and I did feel a little bit like the TARDIS, because with all the layers I felt massive.

Guardian angels
  How did you get into meditation, and how would you recommend a beginner to start? Question sent by Angela Dunn

Hello Angela darling, you're a real sweetheart.

I started when I was very very young and I used to talk to my guardian angel. I was brought up a Roman Catholic and my mother taught me that there were angels and fairies and all kinds of lovely spiritual figures for me to have a little chat to and play with and it started there.

Then I did some meditation when I was about fourteen and my brother came back from India with books on meditation. The Third Eye by Lobsang Rampa was the first meditation book I ever read, and then I read another book by the same author on astral travelling. I don't know why I wasn't outside playing with boys and dolls and skateboarding and mucking around down the beach, but I was a solitary child.

A lot of people have an intensely fruitful imagination, a lot of kids, of course, and they use that in their game playing, but for me I decided to use it in a form of meditation. My brother came back with so many amazing stories about the monks in India that I was intrigued.

The Roman Catholic religion was a little bit too structured for me and it wasn't giving me the answers that I needed, so I found that the Eastern philosophies really suited me. I did more and more and more study in visualisation and mediation. It was always private, as most religions are and there was no bell ringing at Heathrow Airport or anything like that.

I've always been fascinated with how the body ticks, and the connection between the human body and the spiritual anatomy, which really does exist. With this fascination that I had for science and the human body and medicine, the next logical thing for me to do was to look into energy structures, chakra centres, acupuncture, things like that as a form of healing. One thing led to another and I started learning about the energy healing which I studied for two years.

Serendipity
  How life and art came together in Zhaan.

It's really amazing that the producers chose me to play Zhaan. That that was never one of the questions in the audition process, "Are you a spiritual person? Is there anything that you can use to give to this priest?" In fact, since I played Zhaan a lot of people accuse me of jumping on a bandwagon and starting to get involved with meditation.

I just laugh to myself knowing that it's something that I started privately really a long time ago. I did a two year energy healing course before I did Farscape and I also studied naturopathy, homeopathy, herbal medicine, anatomy, physiology and biochemistry. I wanted to be a natural doctor.

Stress buster
  Virginia's tips on how to start meditating.

What you can do is a very simple meditation to beat stress and to relax, to balance and to centre yourself. While you're in that state of being you can also heal yourself, you just have to imagine that the parts of your body that you want to heal are healed, it's as simple as that.

There's no trick. The best thing to do is to just sit down somewhere quiet where there's no one to bother you, put on some nice music that doesn't have any wording to it, something very relaxing, and just get lost in your own thoughts. Stay focused on your breathing and do that as long as you can. Try and do it for fifteen minutes and then do it for 20 minutes after that if you can, every few days.

The best thing to do is to get a meditation tape or CD and listen to that. It sometimes can be a little bit difficult if you're doing it by yourself and you don't have any kind of guidance at all. A lot of book stores have meditation tapes and CDs. Get a simple one for beginners and that will set you on the right path.

Saying goodbye
  Did you like the way that Zhaan was written out of the story? Question from Roland Scaper Swede

Scaper swede. A swede, it's like a turnip, isn't it?

Yes but he might be Swedish.

Oh, I'm sorry, I just insulted your nationality by calling you a turnip.

I always hate it when people use that term, "written out." Zhaan wasn't actually written out, I requested to leave because the make-up was making me very sick.

I think David Camper wrote Zhaan's supposed death really beautifully. He's an exquisite writer and he's also extraordinarily religious, and the way he's been injecting his religious fervour into Zhaan has been an incredible experience for me. By reading the script I can feel his devoutness.

I couldn't ask for a better way. We were all in tears, truly. When I first read the last script I was howling and howling and howling, and poor Gigi was a mess. We were all crying, and nobody wanted to see Zhaan go, because Zhaan was the pivotal point.

She's was the mother figure, and all of the other characters revolved around this maternal centre. So we were all very close and it was a shame to see Zhaan go, but the make-up made me really ill.

My kidneys were suffering. I stayed in for nearly 3 years, and I started to get the kidney problems after the first three months of the first season. I don't think I would have lasted for the three years had I not done intensive healing every single day on myself, and every time I was Zhaan I was in a state of intense meditation anyway, so I was healing even when I was acting.

The last script was really beautiful and I think David Kemper did Zhaan justice. I wouldn't have wanted it any other way.

I had to lie to a lot of people at conventions when they said "Is Zhaan really dead, and is she coming back?" I had to say "Look, I don't know", and all the time I knew we'd arranged to have Zhaan visit anything up to six visits per season.

So Zhaan was never really intended to go permanently, it's just that I couldn't be Zhaan every day because the make-up was hurting me.

Back to the fold
  If there was a Farscape movie or mini series would you reprise your role?Question from Sharon

Hi Sharon darling, thank you for saying such sweet things.

I would come back but I couldn't every day because the make-up is just too harmful for me to wear every day. I just can't cope - unfortunately Zhaan is humanly impossible. I could probably be able to handle being Zhaan for a couple of months, so maybe a film.

Hopefully there will be a film in the future at some stage. I feel very positive about this. Every time I break up from a boyfriend I like to think we're going to get back together, and every time something happens, something like a TV show that I love gets taken off air I like to be filled with positive thought.

I like to think that it's going to come back. Farscape's my home, Farscape's family. Zhaan is me, and I really miss her very much, more than I ever have any other character. This one I really owned. Shaving my hair and eyebrows threw me into another dimension because it was no longer just an actor learning lines and performing, suddenly it was me going into a religious discipline.

The only way I could remain sane with no eyebrows and no hair for three years was to see myself as going through some kind of Buddhist ritual so, I really threw myself into it more than most actors. So for all of those reasons it's difficult for me to say goodbye and just move on.

I'll jump at the chance to be Zhaan again. If another series starts up I won't be able to be Zhaan full time but I'll certainly give it a shot, if they want me.

Star-studded days
  What it was like working with Mel Gibson on Mad Max II? Question from Will Jordan

Well it was fantastic, he is one of the nicest people I've ever met.

Whenever any actor is asked what another actor is like, you're never going to hear the dirt. I mean you're just not. But with Mel there wasn't any dirt.

He was just starting off his career in Australia. He's American, but he went to Australia when he was ten, and he stayed in Australia until after Mad Max 3. At the time he did Mad Max 2 he wasn't really a huge superstar so we all felt really relaxed.

I try and always be relaxed anyway, so if I meet someone who's a big superstar I usually just try and be normal, it's the best thing, but it can get a little bit tricky if you are a bit star struck. I remember once I met Sting. I admire him so much, and I love his music, and I didn't know what to say.

Those of you who know how much I love to prattle on will be dumbfounded to know that I could not find any words to say. Someone said, "This is Sting, Virginia." I went, "Ahhh, I've got to go to the loo," and then I ran.

Mel's a lovely guy and very very funny. He started to play all the pranks I think later on in Hollywood when there was more time. In the beginning stages of your career, and certainly in Australia, there's not the time to play pranks because we shoot very quickly, but he used to keep us laughing.

Mel [had] to keep his energy up, because he played that kind of driven, energetic character. He's naturally a very humorous guy and he's got a sick sense of humour, but also it helps to keep the energy of the character going. He's a really beautiful gentle soul, very much in love with his wife. They had a little baby on set and now he's a real family man

Mel is a really lovely guy and he's not up his own bum, so he used to hang out at the pub with all of us. We were in the desert so there was one pub and one motel and we were all squished in the motel. Poor Broken Hill, that's all I can say, [it was full of] these lunatics punks with bare bottoms and Mohawks and mad face painting. Nowadays you see it in the street, but in those days in the middle of Australia you didn't see anything like that so.

Energise yourself
  Virginia tells us how her Farscape cast members kept themselves going on set.

Different actors have different ways of keeping their energy up. What you've got to do is try and maintain the same level of energy that your character has.

Zhaan is very still and very quiet, and as Virginia, I'm a bundle of energy all the time. Someone once said to me, I'm like a Labrador puppy. I get very excited and jump up on people. so for me to keep my energy as Zhaan, I had to keep very still and be very quiet. Whereas Anthony Simcoe, who played Dargo, was always tap dancing and telling jokes. It was like he was like a stand-up comedian, which was fantastic because he kept us laughing the whole time, especially with Ben. Both Ben and Anthony needed to keep their energy at that level, so the second the director said "Action," they had that energy already ticking over in their eyes.

Ripley times
  Which film would you most like to have been in and in which role? Question from Terry Richards

I love that question. The first one that pops into my head is a superficial one, but I always wanted Sigourney Weaver's role in Alien., I really fancied that and I was peeved that the casting agent didn't even know I was alive.

I don't even know if I was acting then but I thought, "Gosh, that could have been me." I'm a big girl and I'm naturally strong, not so much now, I'm a bit of a pudding now, because I love my biscuits and tea and chocolate cake. But I was actually skinny until only about 5 years ago and naturally muscular and lithe and athletic. I've got a very strong face, you wouldn't ever call me petite and delicate, so the sorts of roles that I thought that I'd be good for, and that also suited my personality as a bit of a tomboy would be roles very much like that.

I used to be a model before I started acting so to be really honest with you I got sick of the glamorous roles. With all that modelling you have to get gussied up very early in the morning, full face paint. That was in the late 70s and 80s, so you're talking major make-up, tons of black, false eyelashes, hair pieces, full-on and totally glamorous. I mean completely plastic glamorous Barbie doll.

After years and years of playing those intensely made up, very elegant, glamorous roles, I was desperate to rebel and do the opposite. Having worn so much makeup during the day, the first thing I do when I got home was rebel against that, scrub all the make up off, wash my hair and just let it fly and put on a pair of jeans and a singlet. Most models, when you don't see them dressed up in a job, you'll see them with absolutely no make up on and just flip flops and a pair of shorts because they're so sick of getting glamorous. Most women are not so glamorous for their work during the day so they love to come home and put a bit of lippie on and curl their hair and put the heels on and go out and be glamorous at night, because that's fun, but for us, we wanted to do was the opposite.

I really craved for a meaty, non-glamorous role so that's why I said Sigourney Weaver in Alien. I loved Blade Runner as well, I would have loved Darryl Hannah's role in Blade Runner. Priss. Yeah, I would have loved that role in Blade Runner. They're the two that really jump to mind and they're both crazy, eccentric, arty warrior roles.

Words for life
  What is your motto for life? Question sent in by Julie Martis

Hi Julie Martis - hallo sweetie. My motto for life, that's a tricky one.

One of the hardest things, that I still to this day don't have command of, is in a saying, "What other people think of me is none of my business." Just think about that. It's really hard.

It's so easy to buy into what other people think of you at school, what other people think of you at university, listening to the gossip, especially as an actor, reading things about yourself. Thankfully I've always been really lucky, and the press has been very kind, and they haven't said anything horrible ever, ever, but you do hear gossip about yourself, and it's really painful. But even in everyday life, it's the hardest thing to muster.

There's that one, and then this is really my favourite - "Nothing is impossible". I know it's corny, but it's true. A lot of people ask me advice, which is really nice, because I like to think I'm a bit of a mum, and I don't have kids, so you're all my kids [the fans]. So it puts a smile on my face.

People always say, "I don't know what to do, and I don't know how to attain what it is that I want to attain," and I just keep saying to them, "just keep remembering that nothing's impossible." You can actually do whatever you want to do.

Even if you're not doing any math or science at school, if you want to be a doctor, you can. You just have to study, that's all. But it's not impossible, you can do it. Alright? Good.

Close encounters of the fan kind
  What's your opinion on us, the fans? What's it like going from being a relative stranger to being recognised and mobbed? Question sent in by Amy Tyndall.

Amy Tyndall - hi sweetie! You're lunatics, the lot of you! What do I think of fans? You're all mad! You�re stark raving insane, all of you! [She's definitely joking - Ed.]

I�ve been in the business a really, really long time, so it�s hard to remember being really anonymous. Going to America has been refreshing in that respect, because very few people know me, so I can actually walk down the road and just be really normal, and it doesn't matter if I go out without makeup on.

In Australia it�s virtually impossible. They don�t mob me, but they always recognise me, but they are always really nice and ask how I�m doing and about the various projects I�m in.

Over here - I lived here for a really long time, twenty-seven years I was here, I came when I was nine. I used to go back and forth [between the UK and Australia] a lot. But as soon as I'd done Neighbours and it was shown [here] I was suddenly chased by school kids!

That was the most bizarre time, when fans were running after me and I felt like a popstar. Most of the time the fans are very respectful.

There�s only been two times when it�s been a little bit odd. Both instances happened in America. Once a video camera got popped under the door when I was in a [toilet] stall. I kicked it out of the way and gave chase, but they had gone.

The second time I heard this voice say, �Hi, how are you?� and because of the camera incident I looked down, but then they said, "No, no, I'm up here!" I looked up and they were there, standing on the toilet in the next booth, leaning over the top. They wanted to know if Zhaan went to the loo. I said, "Yes, she does, thank you very much for asking, honey, but tell you what, we'll talk all about it outside." Of course they were gone by the time I came out. I didn�t want to shout or scream or be aggressive any way because if they were doing that then they had no boundaries and they could have a gun. They might say, "Zhaan's dead and you should be too," or something crazy.

All in all, the fans know that I really, really love them and that I'm really normal and that I�m not up my own bum. I'm not one of those actors that thinks she's superior in any way.

The future
  Are you already involved in any projects that you can share with us? Question from Bob Clabots

I want you to write letters to casting agents all over the world and don't tell them that I told you to because that will be really embarrassing.

At the moment I've just got my work papers in America, so I have to be patient now, although I've been over there about a year and a half doing a lot of conventions. I did so many conventions was because that was the only way that I could stay in the States, it was either do that or go back home to Australia. I really enjoy doing the conventions and [they've] done the world of good for my self confidence.

I'm just dying to get my teeth into something. With Zhaan, I believe that it was the first time I could ever act. I don't think I could act terribly well before that, I just blundered around, but I really learnt the craft properly with three years on Farscape.

I'm really dying to use it again now. Last year I was forbidden to work so I couldn't even audition for anything which was really frustrating for me, so I'm just hoping that the casting agents notice me soon. They say that it can take anywhere from three months to three years. I hope I don't have to wait three years

I'd like to do independent productions too. I just love to work so I'm hoping that something will come up very soon . Wish me luck, fingers crossed.