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Words of wonder and wisdom from a 'woman warrior' on the little screen and in real life

Words of wonder and wisdom from a 'woman warrior' on the little screen and in real life
by Rajkhet Dirzhud-Rashid - SGN A&E Writer You may have missed this wonderful and very attractive actress (I did too), at the Emerald City Comicon earlier this month, but through the magic of print, you can still know what the actress who played 'Chia' for years on 'Farscape', thinks about Hollywood. And so many other things. Gigi Edgly, who came to Seattle on April first for the comicon, spoke to me a week before the huge gathering of fans, which took place at Quest Field this year. Speaking by phone, she shared that since 'Farscape' went off the air in the late nineties (you can still catch re-runs on UPN, Channel 11 on Sunday nights at 11 p.m.), she just wrapped a film in Australia (her home country), called 'Last Train to Freo', and there are plans in the works for her to start work on another film soon. "I grew up in Western Australia, and my dad was a pretty big promoter and entertainer in Australia. He was the first person to bring Russians into Australia for entertainment purposes. We toured around - all over the world - in this circus," she said in her engaging accent. She also said that one of her favorite things to do was trapeze. "Anything that gets me close to the sky makes me happy," she said. She added that along with working on upcoming projects, she is always on the lookout for really good scripts that challenge her acting abilities and make her stretch as an actress. I asked her if she'd ever consider doing a Lesbian part in a film or on television. "Of course, in fact, during 'Farscape', there were a couple of episodes where 'Chia' and one of the other main female characters got pretty chummy, and I feel that I'd like to do something like a Lesbian character, because I like being challenged as an actress to stretch myself," said Edgly. And, of course the big question, since Edgly's character played a blue-skinned alien, was how long did it take to get that make-up done and was it uncomfortable. "It took three and a half hours every day to put on my make-up and we had to work on it to make sure it didn't come off, because at first, everything I touched - including the other characters on the show - had some blue on them. You could certainly tell where I'd been on the set," she said laughing. She added that, having grown up with films like 'Dark Crystal', and 'Labyrinth', she felt honored to be able to play a regular character on a popular science fiction series like 'Farscape'. Adding more about her make-up, she said that the contact lenses she had to wear to make her eyes look black, made it so that she had no peripheral vision ."I think it added to why my character moved the way she did on the show, because with those lenses on, I couldn't really see a thing," said Edgly. But, here's some good news for all Sci-Fi and fantasy fans. If you missed the comicon, you can still scope out some interesting 'aliens', 'elves', and other fans at this weekend's Norwescon. The largest Northwest science fiction and fantasy convention takes over the DoubleTree Sea-Tac from April 13th through the 16th, so if you're looking for something really fun to do for Easter/Oestara, come join us while we party, attend workshops and in all way celebrate all things sci-fi and fantasy. For more information, go to the website at www.norwescon.org. See you there!