Virginia Hey interview - 3/30/03 at Planet Comicon, Overland Park, KS

Virginia Hey appeared at the Overland Park, KS Planet Comicon on May 29^th & 30^th and I attended both days just to see her.  On Saturday, she was scheduled to give a talk about Farscape, and her career.  She mostly took questions from fans and answered them all for us.  This being my first time seeing her "live" I was surprised with how comfortable she was with everyone.  It was quite refreshing.  After the talk, I did the "fanboy" thing and hurried out to her table to get autographs and a picture with her.  She took the time to talk with everyone that wanted to and made each person feel like a friend.

But the big news is that on Sunday, I got the opportunity to sit down with her at her table and interview her.  This is something that doesn't happen very often due to her hectic schedule at these events.  We chatted in between fan visits and I made a point to make sure that my interview didn't stop anyone from talking with her.  She talked with fans about everything from her beauty secrets to the show.  In the 3+ hours I sat with her I watched her greet fans and answer questions (some more than once) and she did it all with the grace and patience we all have seen and know to expect from our Farscape stars.  She has just recently gotten her "Green Card" papers and has been named an "Alien of Extraordinary Ability" which signifies her as being at the top of her profession.  We spoke about this, Farscape and what the future holds for our favorite Delvian.

What follows is a rare question and answer session with Virginia Hey from a fanboy's perspective.

You've had a lot of different jobs, from modeling to acting.  Of everything so far, which did you enjoy the most?

Acting, I think.  But it's a painful pleasure.  It's the most difficult task that I've undertaken in my existence.  And that's one of the reasons why it's so pleasurable.  I think human beings find great satisfaction from overcoming enormous difficulties and overcoming hurdles.  You jump over one hurdle of difficulty and you're faced with another hurdle that's higher.  And it's really satisfying to get to that place where you can jump over that hurdle and then it's good fun to race towards the next one.  I think acting's been most challenging for me and I've been able to succeed in my endeavors.  So it's been the most satisfying. 

You've just gotten your Green Card and are now legally allowed to work here.  Do you have any plans or projects lined up?

I wish I did.  I got my Green card work papers in the beginning of January.  My agency wasn't even open, they were still on their Christmas break, so they didn't come back to work until the middle of January.  Then it took a couple of weeks for them to get into gear.  It's been about 8 weeks that my agency has been gearing towards getting me work and in the last 8 weeks, America has been in what they call pilot season when most casting happens.  But so far (my agent) says there has been nothing that would suit me so far.  Which I find hard to believe because there's thousands and thousands of pilots on the table.  So I think what I'm going to have to do is personally write letters to casting agents.  Because I've discovered that American theatrical agencies don't do that.  In Australia it's a completely different system.  In Australia it's a small community, same as in England.  Your agent is you publicist.  Your agent handles everything, voice-overs, print work, theatrical work, film work, TV work, everything.  They also, if you're new to an agency, they phone up casting agents.  They say 'Hi, we've got a new girl on our books that we'd like you to see.'  So that girl or man goes over to the casting agent, shakes their hand gives them a bio.  That way casting agents hear their voice, see their face, how tall they are, everything about them and the interview is over in about five minutes.  Your acting agent in Australia also wines and dines people, takes casting agents out to lunches and has meetings with producers in the evenings.  So all the actors in Australia do is act. 

In America it's completely different.  Apparently there's huge networking that you have to do and I don't know how to do it.  I've never done it in my life, and I'm not trained to do it.  I don't know how to network with casting agents because I've never done it.  I guess what I have to do now, that I've got all my papers, is hire a publicist.  That's the only way I'm going to have the attention of the casting agents.  In the meantime I encourage everybody to write letters to casting agents particularly casting agents that cast for sci-fi shows.  Because that way maybe they'll go, 'Oh all these people are asking for this, who is this strange person, Virginia who?  We're getting inundated with letters, maybe we should look at this person.'  But if I just don't do anything there's no way I'll work in this country.  A lot of people have come up and asked me to be in their independent films and I'd love to do independent films.  So I'm waiting for a few of those things to come up.  But it's difficult.  I have a successful career elsewhere and I have to start from scratch because nobody knows me at all.  Other actors know me and producers know me but the casting agents are the ones who get you the jobs. 

But the United States government I.N.S. officially named me an "Alien of Extraordinary Ability".  It's called an Alien of Extraordinary Ability Visa.  But the irony is that I played an alien of extraordinary ability so I find that fantastic that I am officially named an alien of extraordinary ability.

Is there anyone you haven't worked with that you would like to?

I've always wanted to work with Ridley Scott.  Because I fell in love with Blade Runner and I'd love the opportunity to work with Ridley Scott.  And actors, I'd love to work with Gene Hackman and I'd love to sit on a set one day and quietly watch Robert Deniro all day and watch how he approaches his work.  He has such powerful stillness that man.  He barely even moves an eyelash and he manages to say everything with his presence alone. 

We've heard others in the (Farscape) cast describe the relationships on the set being like a family.  Did you find that is the way it was?

It always is on every production.  If it's not the production won't work.  It's like a business; you run a corporation or are a member of a corporation it has to be a big family.  No corporation can work if all the individual components don't have a homogenous view.  It just has to be that way.  On every production that I've ever been on it's always been a family feel.  You spend more time with your film crew family than with your friends and family.  You're with those people approximately 12 hours a day and that's much more time than you spend with your family.  You can't isolate yourself even if you want to.  Nobody can.  Maybe the crew doesn't particularly want to be in close.  There might be a makeup artist or someone in the production office or maybe even a cast member or someone who works in the props department who just feels like being alone for that day.  Guess what, you can't be alone for that day.  You've got hundreds of people that you gotta work side by side with.  It's very important that you take your personal preferences hat off in the morning and enter every single day as though you are entering your family's home. 

Some of the others in the cast have talked about the writers and producers being open to suggestions from the cast when it came to the character development.

Regardless of Australia or America, the rules are different, the unions are different, the hours are different, everything's different.  But the one thing that is the same is that there's always a certain amount of input from the actors.  The actors are not writers.  My personal view is that actors should concentrate on acting and writers should concentrate on writing.  I don't believe that the actors should have a part in writing because they're not employed as writers.  If they're employed as writers then they'd be writers.  But I'm old-fashioned like that.  I believe that an actor does what they're told, you read the script, do what you're told.  You're contracted to tell a story, a story's given to you each week and your job is to make that come to life.  Your job is not to pick the script apart and then decide how you want it scripted.  You're an actor, not a writer.  It's none of your business. 

But if you have a main cast role in a series you obviously have more of an interest in that role than you would if you were just coming in for a days work on a production.  I can't speak for anyone else, but in the case of Zhaan, I am Zhaan.  Zhaan's me and I'm Zhaan.  I must admit if I do see something in the script that I feel Zhaan wouldn't say or do, if there's a new writer that's coming to Farscape and they're not 100% familiar with what all the characters do and how they think, then sometimes I'll say something.  But it's only happened once in three years and that was when Zhaan cut off Pilot's arm and I felt so strongly about that.  So for the very first time, the one and only time I ever did it, I went up to the writer's room and I said I'm sorry but I don't understand.  From what I understand of Zhaan she wouldn't do that.  Can you just explain to me why?  What is the motivation?  Why would she suddenly go from a peace loving, highly spiritually evolved priest that believes in a complete respect of all life to snap to a barbaric act like that.  That's the only time I did it.  But other actors feel differently.  They're constantly in the writer's room every day popping up there demanding explanations or requesting changes.  It's a personal thing.  But like I said, my personal view is that actors are actors, they're not writers.  Unless the actor is a writer like Ben (Browder).  Ben Browder is a writer, who did two brilliant scripts and is an extraordinary writer.  Now here's an example of an actor who is a writer and a writer who is an actor.  So he has every right to be in the writer's room and he has every right to be there and to question every breath that Crichton takes.  But the rest of us are not writers.  But of course we're interested in the direction the characters are going.  I think the writers are watching us and we're watching the writers.  They watch the way we portray their work and we give them ideas.  For example if in the script it says Zhaan prays, it doesn't say how she prays.  So I decided to pray with crystals and to bring the Eastern philosophies into Zhaan and so they'll take my lead.  But most of the time I'll do as I'm told.  That's what I feel a good actor does.