An Evening With Virginia Hey

Hello! You're all wondering, where did she get the hair from? Are you?

I should embarrass you all by making you stand up and say My name is, and I come from ...

The hair - I'm not telling. Next! They're extensions. As you know I shaved my hair and my eyebrows for Zhaan. And they started to grow back last year through the hiatus, we had a six-month hiatus. It felt ever so nice to feel feminine again, to feel like a girlie, a big girlie wussy girl. And when it started to grow through it was a dark blonde colour, without the streaks obviously. And it was transparent, being quite fine, and I remember thinking, goodness me, you can see my scalp through this tufts of hair. I went to the chemist and bought some dark brown dye. I dyed it, and it actually looked quite chic. And I actually looked like I had a little bit of hair. And that's what you will see from the Farscape Convention at Burbank. I think they video'd that, so you can see me with my toothbrush hair. But at one stage I decided to dye it white, because I wanted to look a bit kind of street, I guess, very arty. So I dyed it absolutely white and I looked quite bald, because when you've got the white hair in the sunshine the light shines through it you look like a religious figure with a halo. Anyway, so when it was long enough to get extensions in I did, and a lot of the boys were going, Where did her hair come from? Well, they do these, you know the Afro-American folk sometimes put corn-rows in? They do about three rows of plaits in the hair, and then they sew hair onto it.

I did an audition, actually I did two auditions for Andromeda . Do you get Andromeda here? I was going for the part of a Nietzchien Princess. You know, it makes sense, with me being 6ft 11, the whole germanic Aryan looking bit. So, I thought, maybe I should be larger than life like a big drag queen. I thought I'd put my hands on my waist, very imposing, and everyone else was this tall.

So, now we've got that out of the way.

What did you just watch? Rhapsody In Blue ? Now, I wanted to ask you. I was just thinking about this. I've never mentioned before, but, and it's surprising with me talking, did anyone spot - Just before I ask the question, has anyone seen Road Warrior or Mad Max 2 ? Lots of people! What's it called here, Road Warrior ? It's Mad Max 2 in Australia, but in America it's called Road Warrior . So every time I mention Mad Max 2 they go Huh, excuse me?

Did anyone spot another actor besides me that was in Road Warrior in that episode? Okay, run it again.

Actually, I should have snuck out and said, you will get a prize if you guess. You get to bonk me! I'm a very generous girl. You'll have to go through Mo-Mo first, though. Mo-Mo will try you out, and if you're any good ... Does anyone know? Yes, come on then! Yo're really keen, so right, you're on! Actually, I should have said, Aww, nooooo but you're cute.

Does anyone else know who we're talking about? In Mad Max 2 he was, I can't remember the character's name. He wasn't called Humungous, because Humungous was his boss. He was played by Sheryl ... gosh.

Sh*t! In Mad Max 2 he played a character, and I should know his name, who had his fingers chopped off by a boomerang. He had cold sores and spots and so on. He didn't really have them. In this he played a crazy old priest who got knocked off by his own daughter, a nasty piece of work!

Anyway, I could probably talk all day while you're all chatting away.

If you could play a "Farscape" character other than Zhaan, who would it be?
Well, let me see, now. I quite like Pilot. Really. But who doesn't want to play Chiana? Chiana is great, or Scorpius. Scorpius is labelled deliciously evil. I actually would love to get dressed up in all that leather. It's actually an alligator. A horrible thought, but the costume department brought an alligator in and chopped it to bits. The whole entire costume is bits and pieces of an alligator, like the alligator's spine.

The costumes in Mad Max 2 are extraordinary, and I've always wondered WHY the Director of Photography and cameraman doesn't pan across the bits and pieces of detail on the costuming. I guess it's because there are much more interesting things for them to shoot. Obviously it's all about character interaction. As you know about Farscape , the thing that makes it really successful, I think, is the fact that it is not just an amazing looking show, it has everything else that every other successful Sci-Fi show has; amazing sets, obviously great script-writing and great direction, and great acting. Wonderful Visually great Special Effects and so on. What sets it apart, what makes it different, is the tension between all the characters, and character interaction. Each episode is like a feature-film. If you think about most crews of, the crew of space-ships, especially military space-ships, you think of a homogenous crew. They've all been trained together for years, and their one main aim is to provide safety and autonomy and cameraderie because they're fighting for one cause, the safety of the ship and each other. And that's in anything Star Trek or any other Science Fiction show it's always a crew who work together. But in our instance the whole of Moya is manned by escaped convicts. They don't necessarily even like each other, and each one of whom has been chucked away into the Penitentuary for murder of some description, or several murders, awful atrocities. So we have a certain number of crew members who will probably murder each other if given the chance. They feel that way, inclluding Zhaan. I don't know if she would murder someone, but she's very unpredictable. That's what I mean, they're all unpredictable. And it's not a crew like the Star Trek crew, all happy military or Naval officers. They all want to get home at any cost. And that is one of the things that make Farscape unique, that it's run by escaped convicts. I don't know of any other show that has a craft manned by escaped convicts.

What about Blakes Seven?

Blakes Seven ? Someone said that there was a character in that, a bald character, that they thought Zhaan was modelled after. I got a whole heap of the videos from the video store and had a look but I couldn't find her character. I didn't know what episode she was in.

Anyway, getting back to costumes. Farscape has got every imaginable amazing aspect that you can think of that is on top SciFi shows. Including, this is just a minor detail, it certainly is on stuff like Star Trek . But I guess I have a great huge arty streak, and every time I see the costumes and the creatures and the sets, let's face it pretty much everything, I totally adore it. I'm always hanging around Jim Henson's Creature Shop, always hanging around backstage looking at the bits and pieces.

I'm the only actress who picks up the props and goes Oh! This is great! What is it for? What are you supposed to do?

PROPS GUY - You just vibe into it, whatever you want to, really.
VIRGINIA - No, really, how does it work?
PROPS GUY - Oh, I don't know, its a - [then they give you some long-winded story about how they see it]
VIRGINIA - Wow! What do you guys take at night?

When I first met the Farscape writers, I looked at the job description and I thought, they've got to be absolute lunatics, these people. They've got to be off the top of their heads. They can't help it, especially if you went to art school and were surrounded by all kinds of crazy people. We tend to imagine that anyone who is crazy will look strange or behave in a strange way. These people are very conservative-looking and very very professional, it's just that they are professionally insane. So you see, you imagine these kids craving bananas, drinking bottles of scotch and popping pills and snorting god-knows-what and staying up until - everyone's pointing. I've just described someone here!

Anyway, so we all imagine these crazed individuals, but in actual fact there is something special in Science Fiction for the writers of Farscape . They are sane people, just with warped minds, or some kind of capability to tap into that warped part of the brain that we all have and we all enjoy, they seem to be able to do it and live in that space without going nuts. I don't know how they do it. That's why there's only a few of them in the world that can live in that insane world without literally going nuts themselves. And they do it for a profession, for a living.

Anyway, that's a long answer, isn't it? Denis asked me, How long do you want?
VIRGINIA - As long as you've got, really.
DENIS - An hour, three quarters? You might run out of things to say.

I told him, don't worry. I'm famous for answering one question with half an hour So I'll start answering fifteen questions. All right. Come on, don't be shy. It's only me. I don't smell.

What are your plans for the future?

That's a very good question. Next to me, the smart-arse is that I'll be at the bar tonight.

No, next is to get an Agent. I've kind of, sort of relocated to America. When I say sort of, I haven't really, legally or physically done it yet. I'm still on a visitor's visa, coming and going, tentatively getting a foothold. I want to make the move because ... Australia is a beautiful place to live. So is England. I've spent most of my life in this part of the world, actually. I won't tell you how long - one hundred and 43 years in London - actually more years in England than in Australia, funnily enough. But in Australia the movie industry and TV industry is tiny. I know that The Matrix and Farscape and Xena is down in that end of the world, not strictly Australia. There are quite a few Sci-Fi big things like Star Wars but they are big American productions that utilise Australian actors. They have big studios set up there, and that's where the big productions come in. But they bring their main cast from Los Angeles and the Australian actors only normally get supporting roles. What I was going to say is, there's not a great deal of Science Fiction or Science Fiction shows in Australia. I think that I fit the Sci-Fi genre, being larger-than-life. I've done a lot between Mad Max 2 and Farscape , as you know, but the two roles that made me feel most fulfilled were the Warrior Woman and Zhaan, for different reasons. You have to look at yourself as a package, just even physically I think I suit the warrior, the Sci-Fi roles. But in Australia was pretty much backward. Getting anything substantial, I would probably have to give up acting and go and work in a bar or something, and just wait for the whole Sci-Fi thing to come over.

So it was a big decision. I thought, I do want to keep working, I don't want to give up. Where do I go? Where there was a largish market for someone like me. There are lots and lots and lots of Sci-Fi shows in America. In fact, I mentioned this evening that I auditioned for Andromeda . I was doing a Convention, that's how I got the audition. I went to America last year to do a Farscape Convention, then I did a few more and a few more, until eventually I rented a flat that I have to keep leaving every three months, it's hilarious.

I met Keith Hamilton Cobb. He was headlining one of the Conventions, we were both headlining, and he said You'd be perfect for one of the Andromeda . I think he was thinking of a Nietzchein warrior. And he said, Do you mind if I take some photos back to the Producers? I gave him some pictures and he took them to the Producers, and hey phoned me the same day. It happened so quickly. The next day I get an audition, and then I have to leave America again because of the visa situation again for another three months. It wasn't three months from that time, it was about three weeks. I decided to go up to Canada to see an old girlfriend of mine, she's in Stargate , she plays the doctor. Teryl Rothery . I'm not a drinker, but she and Thomasina Gobson got me pissed. I don't know why I'm telling you this.

Thomasina Gibson, she is a, have you ever heard of Cult Times? I think there are a copies over there somewhere, she is the journalist that did the feature spread. She happened to be there, and she did the interview up there in Canada. She's scottish and she loves her scotch, and Teryl loves her scotch as well. She and her boyfriend have the most amazing cellar full of very fine scotch. And they were saying, Do you like scotch?
VIRGINIA - Well, not really.
TERYL - Try this one. Go on, don't be a poof! This one's a -

I don't know, a triple, something-or-other. Anyway, they made me try about ten of them. I was in my jammies, we were all in flannelette jammies, and I went -

Virginia mimics flashing her arse.

It doesn't seem funny now that we're all sober. But gosh, it was funny! I drank more than usual. So I met Thomasina who works for Cult Times and did the interview with her.

I did the audition for Andromeda , and they said that they liked me very much. They said I should get an Agent and do the right thing. They would find the right character for me and work me into the plot. A similiar sort of thing happened to me with Enterprise , and that came before I had an Agent, so I know I'm in the right place. And I just have to wait and see what happens. So that will be my next move, to join a SciFi series there. And here, as well, hopefully. I'd love to work here.

That will be it, but I'm still in between stages. I'm neither here nor there.

You see, I don't necessarily, in Science Fiction I don't necessarily see that there's a death. Because so many characters, it seems to be cheating really, but Aeryn was dead. I buried her, I gave her the last rites. I, not me, my character, Zhaan. But Zhaan surely would have noticed any sign of life. At the end of Season 2 Aeryn was as dead as a doornail. At the beginning of Season 3, Oh, there is a sign of life after all. Unless she had suddenly had a lapse of memory. She gave Aeryn the last rites. So I think that there's no such thing as really dead in Science Fiction. Too many Science Fiction characters have died and come back, or come back from some other dimension. I don't know where she is, but she's not necessarily killed off. It would be interesting to know what's really in the writer's mind. They daren't tell me, because they know I'd tell you. Unfortunately I don't know. But it was, I suppose people want to know what happened. Have any of you got a website? I got an explanation, I think, early on after I left. What happened? You didn't get the sack, did you? No! I didn't get the sack.

Actually, as you know I was bald for the character, I didn't know that when I went for the role, which is a different story, which I shall tell you if you want later. But I was bald as Zhaan for three years. After a while you feel that you really are in the reality of Moya in outer space. You know, you really are for a certain amount of time each day. You really are that person and you really are in those circumstances.

The reality of it is that we are humans. Anyone who loves Science Fiction would love to be really exploring the uncharted territories I mean, wouldn't you love to? So it's wonderful to play that. Especially as an actor, you have to make it look real, because you have to make that reality. You absolutely have to, otherwise we wouldn't believe it on the screen.

But the reality, the real reality was that in my time off as Virginia Hey, but in my time off I was more alien-looking out of make-up than I was in the make-up. The Zhaan make-up is really quire beautiful, very attractive make-up. You wouldn't go ewww, yuck, what a horrible ugly alien. She was really something. But in reality I was ewww, yuck, what is that? Because, some of the girls without hair are quite attractive. But it's the no eyebrows that make you look repulsive. Have any of you ever been shaved when you were drunk and unconscious? No? None of you get it? The man in the purple shirt does - the weird drug addict! I suppose as well. Oh, deary. Don't kill me later! What was I going on about?

So nobody had their eyebrows shaved off? You've never been to Australia when you're drunk. So you've shaved someone else's eyebrows off.

I went out looking ... I'm trying to explain how it was for me. I looked a little bit like a skull. Your eyebrows frame your face, and without eyebrows your eyes are just holes. I can't describe it. I know that I have a strong face with sticky outy cheekbones. It made me slightly reclusive, and year after year after year I had to deal with it.

I was feeling very frustrated because any time I wanted to go out, even if it was just to the shops, I had to draw on eyebrows and wear a bandana. I looked like I was trying to be - what was that band? They've gone out of fashion now. Guns 'N Roses!

Someone once thought I was Axel Rose! I was in America, and I was wearing the bandana and a leather jacket. Someone came up to me and asked, Are you Axel Rose?

No! Who? Who?!

And I had to wear wigs. I painted on my eyebrows and wore wigs for photos. In photographs I looked quite normal, but in reality I looked like a bald person. And I do feel awfully sorry for people who are having chemotherapy. I have a lot of compassion for them. I know it's awfully superficial for me to make that comparison, but in a way, I can sympathise with a tiny, tiny aspect of it. How not only do they go through horendous agony, but they also go through some kind of social agony I wasn't even aware of. I went through that kind of social agony myself, not that I'm making any comparison. But we do suffer for the sake of art, and I suppose under the circumstances I would have been all right for a few months or possibly even a year, but three years on the job started to really wear on me ...

People giggling at the back! Are you looking for a smack? You need a smack. We'll have a bottom-smacking session in ten minutes! Please line up. Get the ruler out!

Anyway, all actors are used to being a little goofy. All actors are usually a little crazy, I mean really we are, really the lifestyle is such. Are there any actors here? Any bullshit artists? We'll get your surname and your mother's phone number. Shame on you!

Anyway, where were we? So all actors are nuts. It's almost like the harder it gets the better we like it, something crazy like that. But you know, if you're an artist person and someone sets you a challenge it's good to accomplish that challenge and get on with it, then you look forward to the next one and the next one and the next one. A new challenge instead of the old one is great. Artistically it was wonderful.

I didn't want to leave because I think I'm crude. Gosh, I look at the first few episodes of Farscape and then I look at the last year. I think I came a long way in terms of performance ability. It was like acting school for me, and the directors were extraordinary. They taught me an awful lot. So there was that part of it that I wanted to hold on to. But the prosthetic, the whole routine was between 3 and 5 hours long every day. And the you'd have, depending on how long the day, the shoot, your involvement was, It could be anything up to a 14 hour day - a 14 hour shoot day!

You're looking at your watch to see when 20 minutes is up. You want your botty smack? And they think I'm joking.

So there you go. I don't know whether you really were wondering what happened to Zhaan, but I thought I'd tell you. So that's the thing. I actually, it was the, I didn't want to mention anything but it was three years out of my life. It's just that you, I think I probably got about three hours sleep a night, and after years of that you start to grave up and down, and I started to get affected very physically, I started to get ill, and on top of that was the didn't want to go on for ever and ever thing. So I brought it to the Producers that I would like to reduce my involvement, not to leave permanently but just reduce my involvement so that I could get some rest. I also wanted to grow my hair. The rest aspect of it is not a problem - well, it is a problem but only to me, Virginia that is. But the actual hair growing, in the Third Season I did four episodes with a bald cap and the bald cap took 5 hours every day so for the first two and a half years it was three hours in make-up. Well, first of all it was eight hours and then it went down to three, and then it was five hours with the bald cap. And the trouble is that there is certain amount of time they can have me in the day, because in make-up they can't. I mean they would have loved if I could have slept through it, and have the make-up put on while I was sleeping, I don't know, but of course by law they have to release me for some hours at least. So the problem is, how do they still shoot Zhaan, include Zhaan in the storyline in the schedule when

Virginia Hey

Mad Max 2