Producer Liz Friedman says "Xena: Warrior Princess" Appeals to "Representationally-Starved Queers"

Interview with Xena Producer Liz Friedman on "One in Ten", a lesbian and gay radio program from Boston. Broadcast October 1996

MARY BRESSLOUR -- I'm Mary Bresslour and this is "One in Ten," along with

Keith Orr. The chat rooms have been buzzing for months now. The cult

television hit, Xena: Warrior Princess, has lots of fans ecstatic over

fearless heroine Xena and her red-headed companion, Gabrielle, and the twist

is that the producers also seem to be consciously using the pair to

cultivate a bit of a lesbian following. <much snipage>

KEITH -- Let's get into the whole Gabrielle thing. Let's talk about that a

little bit. What's up with their relationship? What do you take it on?

LIZ -- Well, I think that they have a, the characters, I mean we --

Honestly, we didn't write the characters to be explicitly lesbian. Going

into it we never really had any thoughts about that. I think what we really

wanted to do was we wanted to make a very strong and real relationship

between the two of them in that their friendship does not consist of the two

of them talking about their boyfriends and what kind of sanitary protection

they like, which tends to be what you see on television when women talk.

They have a real concern and respect for one another. I think that it's

interesting that when you portray that kind of a female friendship it

instantly starts getting read as if, well, they must be lovers. I think it

tells us a lot about what television doesn't tend to show in terms of real

relationships between two women, whether or not there is a sexual component

to them or not. <snips>

MARY -- It's kind of like a great female Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid.

LIZ -- Yeah. They're just a terrific pairing. My take on it is what Xena and

Gabrielle do in between episodes, I don't actually know.

MARY -- Hey, don't ask, don't tell. Right?

LIZ -- (laughing) Yes.

MARY -- But that must be some of the fun off it, too, which is their

relationship can really be anything to any viewer in many ways. And you have

some fun with this. Let's be honest.

LIZ -- Absolutely, oh absolutely! That's one of the best parts of the job,

getting to throw in references that I know the fans who are interested in

that will pick up on, but don't necessarily flash any irrevocable red

lights. We opened up a show with the two of them fishing naked and we're

about to have a Halloween episode that will certainly have some nice moments

for our queer fans, a little lesbian vampire show.

KEITH -- How do the actors feel about the sort of gay twist to their

characters?

LIZ -- I think they really like it. They get a real kick out of it. Lucy

thinks it's great and I think Renee does also. <snips>

MARY -- When did you guys begin to get the sense, Liz, that this was going

to be a cult happening thing? That there was a little bit of extra buzz

happening around Xena?

LIZ -- That's a good question. I think probably about the middle of last

season where it sort of started to become clear through buzz on the Internet

and stuff that Oh OK, people are reading it this way; that's interesting. We

always thought it was great because it means that there are people who have

a real passionate interest in your show. I know certainly that as a

representationally starved queer, as I think we all are, when you see

somebody who you feel is paying some attention to you and is even willing to

leave something open to that kind of interpretation, you have a more

positive response to it. You're more inclined to follow that show. The idea

of having that kind of loyal and supportive audience, I think, always

appealed to all of us.