Gabriella Ascari : So we have here with us Virginia Hey, this morning, which I’d like to welcome – Hello Virginia...
Virginia Hey: Hello!
Gabriella: And I’d like to start with the first question. Can you tell us a bit about yourself, what interests you in life, and what you’re doing at the moment?
Virginia: Well, I was born in Australia, Sydney, Australia, and then I went to England when I was ten, from ten until thirteen, and then back to Australia after that, until I was eighteen or nineteen. Then I went to Art School for one year, and then went back to England, and then later on I started to model, and went from... oh, basically all over the world, really, so I didn’t really stop travelling, from the age of about ten, and during the early years in England, my parents used to take us to Europe on a regular basis to see beautiful cathedrals and museums and art galleries. My mother was a painter, and she was also a journalist, and she would compose classical music, so she... It was very important to her that we experienced culture, we appreciated beautiful things. And I think as a result - that was the first time I came to Italy, when I was ten, between ten and thirteen, you know several times - and, I think, because of my mother’s need to show us the most beautiful wonders of the world at a very early age, I think I developed a very special love for art and beauty. But not beauty on a superficial level, beauty on a very deep level. And because of my father: he was fascinated by everything, and loved the way everything works, everything ticks. He was... his profession was a dentist, but he also loved to paint and sculpt, and he loved to build things, he was very good with his hands, so he built both of the houses that we lived in, just that was a hobby of his, as well as with professional contractors, of course. And he was also fascinated by anatomy and physiology, the anatomy of the human body, he thought the human body was the most superb computer, and I agree with him.
So, I think having the combination of these wonderful traits in my mother and father, created my love of science, of art, science fiction, and all, you know, sensual arts, music I love, and perfume, you know, because when you are very little and you’re taken all over the world to places of, you know, historical beauty, you not only appreciate them from a visual standpoint, but you also learn to appreciate the smells of everything, walking into a cathedral, smelling the rosewood or the walnut wood, or whatever, you know, nutwood pews, the seats, the smell of the frescos and the plaster, and the smell of the flowers that are inside the church and outside the church, the fragrance of the incense that of course has layered the walls, the incense and the myrhh, years and years of benediction. And we also appreciate, you know, the silks and beautiful robes of the... during the masses, ‘cause I was fortunate enough to see many masses in latin, as a small person, and I appreciated the whole theatre, the theatrics of it, you know, we call it "the pomp", you know.
So, with all of that it’s no surprise that I became an actor, I think, but it’s also no surprise that here I am today, and I design perfume, it’s what I do now. And also, you know, I love to act, and I will get back into acting, but I’m taking my time now.
I think when you’re older you tend to just do what pleases you, I think a lot more than what your ego drives you to do.
So, what I love to do is to design perfume, and I have my own candle business in Austr..., not Australia, in America, I live in America. My business is called "White flower lei" - which is the hawaian lei. It is, when you go to Hawaii, they put a circle, a garland of beautiful fragrant flowers over your head.- So the name of my company is "White Flower Lei". Lei is L - E - I. So I have this company, I make soy wax all natural candles, with natural fragrances, beautiful packagings, silks satin boxes, they’re really superb, and I create perfumes, I’m working on a line for a model at the moment, Elle Macpherson; I don’t know if you know her in Italy, Macpherson - I don’t know how you call her here. So, that’s what I’m doing, and that’s how I got here.
Gabriella: What’s the question that you don’t like being asked? And if you tell us we don’t, we won’t ask it.
Viginia: Yeah, right, yeah, thanks a lot. Well, the question is, it’s... I guess it’s not a matter of not liking it, it’s being I’m tired of it, you know it’s, because it’s so stupid, if... with respect to those of you who want to ask to me, and that it’s nonsensical, and the question is “When you’re blue, do they paint the make up blue all of your entire body?” And, it is such a stupid question because it doesn’t make any sense, and there’s no logic, because... with... because the camera... when the camera is on me it’s only important to paint blue the places that... where there’s skin showing. And so, what a terrible waste it would be, to paint my all entire body, which would take about sixteen hours, and then put clothes on top, and the make up will stick to the clothes, can you imagine, a make up would be, you know, like chewing gum, be sticking everywhere, and there’ll be this horrible slimy, slippery mess of blue... everywhere. And for no, for no reason, what’s so ever, I, really, I only ever... if my costume was to here, we’d do the makeup to here, only because, you know, in case you saw up... up the sleeve. Or if the costume was to my chest, we... we, you know, we’d paint, the makeup... I mean if the costume was to here, then we’d paint the makeup a little bit lower. And obviously, over my head, so... And that’s the most, it’s the most idiotic question, really, I think.
Gabriella: Now, a more serious question. How much of you is there in the character of Zotoh Zhaan, and how much creative freedom did you have in developing the character?
Virginia: There’s a great deal of every actor in the character, and there has to be, because we’re the vessel, for the character, we’re empty vessels, and, what I mean by that is that we... the character fills us, and we fill the character, it’s a two way process. And it’s important that it is that way, so that you, you can believe it. And expecially for longrunning series, when you are the character for years, it’s very important. But, I know what you mean, with all of the spiritual aspects of Zhaan, it was quite amazing actually, once the series started to go and I found out more about Zhaan, her interests, most of Zhaan’s interests, mirrored mine. She loves science – I love science, you know. She loves art – I love art. She loves spirituality – I love spirituality. The difference is that, of course, Zhaan is an alien – I’m not. Well, I have a green card, in Austr... in America, and the green card is an O-VISA. It’s called “alien of extraordinary ability”, and... believe it or not, that’s, honestly, that’s the name of the VISA, it’s very funny, to me. But, that’s another story I can tell you about, some other time. But, as far as the spiritual aspects of Zhaan, of course, I’m a human being, so I carry with me the DNA of all humans, and also of my mother and father, you know, I’m a human, and so I suffer from every kind of stress that all humans do. Zhaan, fortunately for her, she didn’t have any of that, because she, she’s not human, so...
And there’s a spiritual center, in me, that I can access, at anytime. And sometimes I’m too busy to access it, sometimes I’m too stressed, to access it, sometimes I’m too tired to access it, sometimes... You know, there are many reasons why I can’t live in the spiritual moment, you know, it’s something, as humans, we all can visit, and but it lives within us. Whereas Zhaan WAS the spirituality, she encompassed the spirituality, one hundred per cent, so, it was lovely to play a completely one hundred per cent, or, almost, one hundred per cent, spiritual character. But, it’s me, it’s all me.
And... what was the second part of the question?
Gabriella: And how much creative freedom did you have in developing the character?
Virginia: Ah, yes, a great deal, actually, because in the scripts, let’s say, in the first, in the first script there... there was a scene, the first scene that popped up with a question mark, for me, was “Zhaan prays”, it's said, you know, in the scene: “Zhaan prays”.
And so, I kept on askin’ the directors, the director and the writer, pardon me, how they wanted her to pray, because it was never really made clear to me, before we started the shooting, what sort of priest she was. And, to cut a long story short - because it can be very long this part, this explanation - eventually they ran out of time, as with all productions, you know, and they sort of forgot one of the most important things which is to define Zhaan spirtuality: she is a priest, but they couldn’t tell me what kind of priest, so, right at the last second, really moments before we were due to do the scene, I kept on askin and askin’ over the... about a month, and they kept sayin’ “Oh, yes, yes, yes, tomorrow, you know, domani, domani, tomorrow, tomorrow, we’ll tell, we’ll tell you tomorrow, yes, yes, yes”, and then it never happened, because the... prior to shooting the very first scene, in Farscape, everyone was so busy, there was, as you can imagine, the preproduction was enormous. So, luckily, I had a huge background in studyin’ natural therapies and spirituality, and I had just completed about... Two years before Farscape I’d had a year of reiki's studying, which is hands on healing art, it’s japanese, and also I did a year fulltime with another kind of healing energy study, fulltime, I went to school to study this in Australia, and the reason for that is because I want to be a natural doctor, what we call a naturopath, in Australia. And this is what I’d like to be as an old lady, I want to be a doctor, but not a modern doctor, a traditional doctor, usin’ herbs, which is why the monastery was so fascinating for me – in Italy, when we went yesterday - because I got to see the apothecary, and the cartouche, I think, at the monks’ place building. But anyway, so I’ve done lots of studies in natural therapies, really for years I studied homeopathy, herbal medicine, and anatomy, physiology, biochemistry, reiki, and... any other healing... all sorts of different massages, everything I could possibly study about the human body, and the human mind, in order to learn how to heal it, not only by using, you know, physical means, but also by using spiritual means. Physical means, I mean, with herbs and some sort of lifestyle changes, vitamins and things.
So, when I approached Zhaan, and they had no answers for me, you know, how does she pray, who is she exactly, and what methods does she use, I was able to immediately, without even thinking for one second, I was able to immediately put my twenty years of study of physiology and anatomy and herbal medicine and homeopathy, and all, you know, all these things, into... and spirituality, as well: I’ve been meditating since I was thirteen, well yes about thirteen, so, at the time I did Farscape, it was thirtyfive years, I think, or thirty years of meditating. So, I was able to put all of that into Zhaan, so, when you see her with the crystals – they’re my crystals, from home! – and when you see her using her hands to heal - that was an idea that I had to use the reiki – I used a little bits and pieces from what I learn, I didn’t want to put too much of human technology into Zhaan. I tried to use things that would suit an alien, you know, but it was also pretty much left up to me to fill her, to fill out the details of how Zhaan would do things.
Gabriella: Did you know from the beginning that she would, that your character would be part of the botanic world, like you said, or did you tell it later?
Virginia:No, I didn’t know, with most things, it was the same for all of us, we only discovered things about our characters as we went along. So, with each script that we received, every week, we would discover things, at the same time as you did, well, pretty much I mean, you know, with each episode you discovered things about the characters and about Farscape, with each episode so did we. So, no, we didn’t know anything in advance. It was a big rush, you know the... And, even if they did know a year in advance, they didn’t really tell us, you know, it was one of the things that you really just discovered as we go. So, no, I didn’t know.
It was a big surprise. But I was delighted, because I was an alien, you know! So, you know, when you love science fiction, anything is possible, and... All of the characters have been dead, many times, you know, including Zhaan, so, we... as an actor who works with science fiction, really, nothing surprises you. So, when I found that I was a plant, I went “Oh! Oh! Ok, good”.