Cherry Hill Convention
August 26-27, 2000
Hilton at Cherry Hill
Cherry Hill, N.J.
Cherry Hill 2000 - A Fan Report
Guests: Adrienne Wilkinson (Livia/Eve), Ebonie Smith
(M'Lila), Ted Raimi
(Joxer),
Tim Omundson (Eli), Meg Foster (Hera)
This was the first convention appearance for Adrienne Wilkinson who portrays
"Livia/Eve" on Xena: Warrior Princess. The first glimpse the fans had of
Adrienne was at the Charity Breakfast on Sunday morning. The Charity
Breakfast was established at Cherry Hill in 1999. Proceeds from the event
benefit the James W. Ellis Endowment Scholarship at Hofstra University.
Anita Ellis, who emceed the event, established the endowment. The
scholarship, in memory of her father, provides financial aid to Hofstra
University students whose lives have been affected by cancer. After
Adrienne (picture) and the
other guests were led into the room by the Creation staff, she and the
others listened attentively to a very moving speech by a current recipient
of the scholarship who has been in recovery from cancer for five years.
Following the speech, Adrienne made her way around to all of the tables
spending time with the fans
(picture), talking to them and
posing for photos. She acknowledged that she was a bit nervous as this was
her first convention; however, she answered the fans questions and
interacted with them (picture)
showing grace under pressure! At our table she recounted the story about
working with the huge Avondale spider in the episode Motherhood. While the
spider was harmless, Adrienne, coming from the Midwest, says it's just
instinct to be afraid of a spider that big. She added that any bug that size
would do some serious damage. You can imagine the funny anecdotes she had
about trying to handle and control the spider for countless takes!
Adrienne takes the Stage
Later that afternoon .Adrienne took the stage for her portion of the
convention. She was the last guest of the weekend and the room was packed,
alive with anticipation of her appearance. Following an excellent music
video salute to "Superwomen of TV Fame" (hopefully there will be an "Eve"
video salute by the next con - hint, hint!), Adrienne hit the stage to
thunderous applause (picture).
She thanked everyone for coming and for their support, expressed how happy
she was to be there and immediately opened the floor for questions.
Following some questions about her past acting roles and how she got the
part on Xena (she auditioned and was called back much later), a young boy
approached the microphone and asked for a hug. She invited him on stage and
granted his request, quipping to the audience, "Only little boys can get
away with this!" Along that line, though, later "Cupid" (James from the
Xenaversity of Minnesota fan club) asked if "Cupid" could give Adrienne a
kiss (picture) on the hand and
she graciously obliged. (Apparently, Cupid has been making the rounds at
Xena conventions and racking up kisses from many members of the Xenaverse!
Check out The Cupid Scrolls for
details.) On the subject of kisses, someone asked Adrienne what it was like
to kiss Kevin Smith, who plays the very handsome Ares. She said that the
kiss was filmed during her first day on the set in a foreign country and, in
general, on-screen kisses are just plain awkward but that Kevin was very
good at helping her relax by being humorous. When pushed to rate the kiss
from 1-10, she quickly (and cleverly) responded "Oh, a 10 ½!" Other
questions were asked about preparation for her role (she was given 3
episodes to watch prior to filming) and the similarity to Hudson Leick's
mannerisms. Adrienne said she has never met Hudson but thinks she's
"deliciously evil" as Callisto and would have loved to work with her.
Regarding Lucy and Renee, Adrienne said several times that they are both
incredibly talented actors and amazing human beings and that she feels very
lucky to work with both of them. In fact when asked which performers, past
or present, that she really admires, Adrienne put both Lucy & Renee at the
top of her list!
Early on in the questioning, a fan expressed to Adrienne that she had heard
that that she was a singer, had been looking forward to seeing her in the
previous night's Musical Cabaret and asked if she wouldn't mind singing a
verse of something. Adrienne explained that due to Season 6 filming
commitments in New Zealand, she was unable to get the musical director her
material in time for him to learn it for this convention but she would be
very excited to perform in upcoming cabarets. She then sang a verse of a
bluesy version of "One Fine Day" (a cappella!) and got a round of fervent
applause from the crowd!
All About Eve
Adrienne was asked many questions about the production of certain episodes
and the development of her character, all of which she answered thoughtfully
and knowledgeably. When asked specifically about the differences between
Livia and Eve, she readily admitted that she enjoyed playing Livia more
stating, "It's so much more fun to be the bad girl" while adding that the
character of Eve certainly allows for more range of emotion and she's
enjoying that aspect of the role as well. When questioned about what she
considered the source of Livia's rage and bloodlust to be, Adrienne gave her
take on the character's back-story. She thinks it came from Livia's knowing
that she was destined to be the Empress of Rome and, having all of that
taken away in one fell swoop with the appearance of Xena, her whole world
came crashing down. She also said that growing up without a mother and the
prospect of losing your boyfriend to your mother (ewww!) surely helped fuel
Livia's fire. She also added that, in her opinion, Livia/Eve still has some
"unresolved Ares issues"! In fact, Adrienne felt so strongly about this that
she really lobbied hard with the director to have some kind of
acknowledgement of this issue put into the script. Thus, the line in
Motherhood where Eve says to Ares "Like she'd trust anything you say, you
lying bastard" was added. It is obvious from Adrienne's answers that she
has really taken the time to develop her character's back- story and that
she truly cares about the relationships between the characters on the show.
One of the toughest, yet many felt the most important, questions posed at
the convention came when Adrienne was asked if she, Lucy or Renee were aware
of the overwhelmingly negative response the chakram-ing to Gabrielle's head
(in Motherhood) was eliciting out in the fandom. In a much appreciated
in-depth response, Adrienne explained that the way that the scene aired was
very different from the way it was filmed. They originally shot a much
longer scene in which Gabrielle stabs Eve about four times with Xena running
in and repeatedly yelling for her to stop. When Gabrielle wouldn't, the last
resort was for Xena to throw the chakram at Gabrielle's head. Adrienne also
said that a scene with Xena battling the Furies was shot to follow this but
all of this got cut for the final edit of the show. She indicated that when
all was said and done, TPTB were not entirely happy with the scene
themselves and hinted that perhaps we would see some resolution on this
issue, including some of the previously unused Motherhood footage in an
early Season 6 episode. Additionally, when asked about Xena dragging
Gabrielle to Mt Olympus after the incident, Adrienne said that she thinks
that Xena was supposed to carry both her and Gabrielle, but while physically
Xena may quite capable of doing that, Lucy could not so the scene was played
the way it aired.
Season 6 Spoilers abound at Cherry Hill
A few times during her convention appearance, Adrienne was able to give us
some small hints about what is in store for Season 6. Eve is slated to
appear in the season opener, Coming Home, which was penned by popular fan
fiction writer Missy Good. Adrienne went on to say that it was fortunate
that Missy was on set for the filming because Lucy and Renee wanted some
stronger emotion in certain scenes and Missy was able to do rewrites right
there. This information was very well received by the Merpups in the Cherry
Hill audience!
According to Adrienne, her character will not be a warrior in Season 6. As
she put it, "the conversion that Eve experiences during the baptism scene in
Motherhood was real. She's going to be spreading Eli's message of peace this
season and only fighting when absolutely necessary." This philosophy may at
times conflict with Xena and Gabrielle's way of life. That, coupled with the
change from Xena and Gabrielle traveling together to adding a third person
(Eve) could, according to Adrienne, make for some interesting dynamics among
the characters. She said that it is her hope that some kind of discussion
between Eve and Gabrielle will occur and will help them deal with the duo
temporarily becoming a trio. Whether TPTB choose to address these things
remains to be seen but Adrienne seemed to think that they might. (Author's
note: Just the fact that Adrienne has reflected on this deeply enough to
give such a thoughtful answer is rewarding in itself and it shows why the
crowd at Cherry Hill loved her so much!)
As for rumors of Eve and Virgil's alleged romance and "walking off into the
sunset together" Adrienne (picture)
laughed and said that while she spends very little time on the internet
reading rumors, she had heard this one. Shortly after hearing this, she saw
William Gregory Lee (Virgil) on the set and asked him, "Did you film a
scene with us walking off into the sunset because I sure didn't?!" And so,
from all accounts, it seems that Virgil will not turn out to be Eve's love
interest after all.
Lastly, the question that all Adrienne Wilkinson fans had been waiting for
was asked. Fans wanted to know, considering that this is the final season of
Xena, is there an "Eve" spin-off in the works? Adrienne first mused about
how great it would be if that were to happen then went on to say that no one
(at RenPics) has approached her about it yet. Since they are getting ready
to wrap the season she imagined that if that were the plan she would have
heard something by now. She added that, of course, nothing is out of the
question, especially in the Xenaverse, and she would be delighted to work
with Renaissance Pictures again, as this has been a wonderful experience for
her!
At the conclusion of her portion of the convention, Adrienne thanked the
fans again and left the stage to the applause of a very enthusiastic and
appreciative crowd. In a nutshell, she totally won the Cherry Hill audience
(picture) over from the moment
she walked in to the Charity Breakfast
(picture) (where she never
stopped smiling and talking to people) until she walked out at the very end!
Battle on, Adrienne! We are looking forward to more of your work and to
seeing you at many more conventions in the future!
Find more pictures of Adrienne at the convention at:
The Official Adrienne Wilkinson Fan Club Photo Gallery
Questions/comments for the author can be e-mailed to:
christin@xenafan.com
For more information about Xena/Hercules conventions visit:
The Creation
Entertainment Homepage
