Spartacus' Lucy Lawless: "We're a Perverse Bunch"

You loved to hate her in Spartacus: Blood and Sand, and then again in Gods of the Arena, and now Lucy Lawless is back, somewhat the worse for wear, as the scheming Lucretia in Spartacus: Vengeance – which premieres January 27th on Starz.

We here at IGN TV had a chance to speak with Lucy Lawless a week ago at the TCA Winter Press Tour and talk to her about all the new and returning characters in Vengeance, the fragile state of Lucretia's mind and how Spartacus is a lot more like Downton Abbey than one might expect.

Oh, and by the way, you can watch the unedited first episode of Vengeance, "Fugitivus," right here, before it airs on Starz.

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Warning: Bloody, naked Spartacus spoilers await you…

IGN: I hear the Lucretia gets a new love interest this season. Would you care to comment?

Lucy Lawless: [laughs] I think that's all you want to hear.

IGN: Is it someone we know?

Lawless: It's someone who's been in her life that she never really paid any attention to before. That we've met before, yes.

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IGN: Does this season top the two previous ones? Is it a challenge to out-do yourselves?

Lawless: It's not as if they all sit around thinking of ways to top themselves, but the show itself evolves. So, Lucretia, after this terrible trauma she's suffered, goes off on a tangent. So it's not more of the same, but it is ramped up.

IGN: But I assume that those who might tune in to see bloodshed and nudity won't be disappointed either.

Lawless: Doesn't matter even if they are. The quality of what they're shooting - the stories we're telling – even the nudity and the sex or whatever is always about advancing the story. And it's undiminished. So I don't have any fear about that or about people who might only be tuning in just for that. And I don't think there are many people who tune in only for that. You'd have to be a complete simpleton. But the people who tune in for that won't be disappointed. And the rest of the people who want complex, rich and rewarding storylines and wicked drama will also be extremely pleased.

IGN: It was a surprise to learn last year that Lucretia had survived the ludus massacre. Where do we find her in Vengeance?

Lawless: She's forever changed. She does eventually come back to us as the Lucretia who all know and love, but what motivated her before doesn't motivate her now. She has a new dream. A new dream for herself. When we first see her, she is in quite the state. A shell of her former self.

IGN: She seems quite mad. Is that for real, or is it an act?

Lawless: Well, you're going to have to judge that a little bit for yourself, but after a couple of episodes she becomes more recognizable as herself. But there's still a twinge of madness there. The thing is, if you play somebody mad, after a while it's like "enough already." Like, if Tony Soprano all of sudden had turned into a gibbering wreck you'd be asking "Where the hell is Tony Soprano?" I'm not saying she's Tony Soprano, but you can't do that for too long. It'll frustrate the audience. You have to keep developing. Not stalling.

IGN: So far, the man who Spartacus wants to truly seek vengeance on, Glaber, seems pretty evil. But people loved Batiatus and Lucretia, as cruel as they could be.

Lawless: I try to make her as human as possible so that it's not just arch-villain melodrama. We don't want melodrama. We want human drama, and that means being as real as possible. So you can do wicked things because you feel as though you have no other choice and people will understand that. I mean Batiatus was a terrible little monster when you look back at him. He stomped people to death. But it was because he felt as though he was backed up against the wall and that was his only way out - was to drop a bloody log on Solonius, a man who was once his best friend. He was quite monstrous and really a megalomaniac. And people thought that Lucretia was power hungry. But I don't think she was. She wanted what her man wanted. And whatever he wanted she was going to do her darndest to make happen. She stood by her man. But now she's lost absolutely everything and now she'd better find a friend and quick. Because Ilythia is not really coming to the party. Ilythia wants her dead. So she needs some allies and if she's crazy now then she better be crazy like a fox.

IGN: What's Lucretia's path like this year?

Lawless: Oh, she gets out and about a fair bit... Eventually. You start to see her new role in society. Glaber tells Ilythia to clean her up and he uses her like a hand-puppet. As a prophet. Or a priestess. And that fits with the religious nature of Lucretia. So she fully embraces that role. She sees herself reflected in people's eyes and think "Oh, that's who I'm supposed to be? Okay." She's surprised by that and it helps her get through all the pain. But the catalyst for her getting back to her old self is when she sees Ashur for the first time since the ludus attack.

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Lucy Lawless talks about the new Spartacus, Liam McIntyre, and how Spartacus is like Downton Abbey on page 2...