Rise to Fame
The role came down to her by default. Vanessa Angel was first choice for Xena, then fell ill. Several others passed. Lawless was the local option, already working in New Zealand, drafted in to fill a guest slot on Hercules. That guest slot turned into Xena: Warrior Princess, 134 episodes reportedly across 100+ countries, one of the most watched syndicated dramas of its era every season it ran. The show developed a devoted LGBTQ+ fanbase around the deliberately ambiguous relationship between Xena and Gabrielle. Not bad for a role nobody wanted.
In the Spotlight
Three decades after Xena, she's still booking leads. My Life Is Murder on Acorn TV put her back at the center of a detective series shooting in Auckland, now in its fifth season. In 2024, she premiered Never Look Away, her directorial debut documentary about war camerawoman Margaret Moth, at Sundance. Most celebrities attach their name to causes; she boards the ships. In 2012, she climbed a reportedly 174-foot drilling derrick on a Shell oil vessel with Greenpeace, stayed for 77 hours, and took a burglary charge for it. The trespass conviction came with a NZ$651 fine. Shell wanted NZ$545,000 in reparations. The court said no.
Side Notes
Her school nickname was 'Unco' (short for uncoordinated), an odd starting point for someone who spent six years doing her own stunts. The pelvis fracture that forced Xena rewrites didn't even happen on set; it was at The Tonight Show in 1996, when a horse slipped in the studio parking lot. Before acting, she worked as a cook's assistant at an Australian mining camp, picked grapes in Germany, and picked up French, German, and some Italian. She also composed a dirge for a Xena episode, because apparently warrior princess is not her only mode.