Battlestar Galactica recurring guest Lucy Lawless recalls the intense environment of the sci-fi series, sharing her view that the actors were in a state of insecurity. A legend in the realm of genre television, Lawless is known to many for her influential role as Xena, The Warrior Princess. But she’s also had stints on The X-Files, the Spartacus shows, and the reimagined BSG where she portrayed D’Anna Biers for 16 episodes.

While promoting the new season of her show My Life is Murder, Lawless reflected on some of her most notable performances in an interview with Business Insider. When it came time to discuss her time with BSG, the actor shared her view of the fact that actors were in a constant state of fear and uncertainty because of the fact that they might be killed off. She also talks about why now, as an executive producer on My Life is Murder, she doesn’t agree with that approach. Read the full quote below:

“It was difficult coming in, because they felt if I was coming in, then one of them was on the way out,” she said. “They were really nice people so I could tell it wasn’t because they were awful, but there was a little bit of a culture of fear. And that was a shame.”

“In my opinion, the actors were kept in a state of insecurity, which I don’t agree with as an executive producer. I don’t agree with that at all. “Because they didn’t want any spoilers getting out there at the time — people didn’t know if they were going to be killed off, and they were extremely nervous. So there was a culture of anxiety on that show,” she said. “You’re filming all day in the dark. You get to work in the dark, you are in space all day, and then you come out, and it’s dark again,” she said.

“That isn’t conducive to a very joyful, lighthearted environment, because human beings need the green of trees and the blue of the sky and all that stuff to be truly mentally happy and nourished on some level.”

BSG Had Some Memorable Character Exits

Over the course of its run, which stretched from 2003 to 2009, BSG included several surprising character departures. Taking one example, f Louanne “Kat” Katraine (Luciano Carro) was given a hero’s death. Carro was getting a steadily increasing on-screen presence, which made it all the more surprising when Louanne died after being exposed to a fatal amount of radiation in the sci-fi show’s season 3.

Several of the supporting cast were also given shocking exits, whether it was Billy Keikeya’s sacrifice in season 2 to pave the way for Paul Campbell’s BSG departure or the demise of Callandra Tyrol (played by Nicki Clyne) in the wake of a horrifying revelation. These twisits and turns were not without impact, as the reimagined Battlestar Galactica often gets cited as one of the best shows of its era.

The sci-fi space opera even won a number of awards, including a Peabody Award, the Television Critics Association’s Program of the Year Award, and three Emmy victories from a total of 19 nominations. But it also sounds like, at times, the Ronald D. Moore take on Battlestar Galactica could be stressful and came at something of a cost for the supporting and recurring guest group that Lawless was a part of.

Source: Business Insider