Quotes

[on how she became part of the cast of Farscape, when her role as Chiana was originally meant for one episode] It was only supposed to be for one episode. The shot that grazed Chiana's arm was meant to knock me off. I don't know what I did but obviously the gods were smiling on me because, five years later, I was still dressed up in three hours of makeup every day and doing these crazy alien movements and living on a spaceship. I was 23 at the time and it was my first long-term job and by far the highlight of my career. I've done lots of shows after that and films, television, theater, but there's something really cool about playing an alien. There's no definition; you can just create something from the Uncharted Territories and people buy it! It's awesome. And because I've grown up with the characters of The Dark Crystal and Labyrinth, and I looked at the Henson characters that are always so complex and so diverse and so unbelievably believable, I wanted to create a character like that. I didn't want to be a human wearing alien makeup, I wanted to be an alien from outer space. Because it's so rare-usually you're a doctor or a nurse or a cop or the girl next door. But now you're an alien in space-awesome!

[on why she prefers puppetry over computer generated imagery] Because they have more soul. Puppetry is old school and magical and mystical. It's just such a beautiful art. I know that there's a time and place for computer graphics. But I also think that there's something quite magical about everyone working together-you need, quite often, a whole team working together seamlessly to create a One. I really like that. Nowadays it's so rare that you actually have a tribe or you have a ritual with people with everyone working together as a team. There's something very beautiful about that collaboration.

[on finding the right voice for her performance as Chiana] At the end of Season 1, we end up doing an Australian voice, but then the Australian producer left and other producers came in, and they wanted to dub over as much as they could with my American Chiana. From Season 2 onwards, I started to get back into the flow of the voice that I'd originally found for her.

[on Chiana's outfit] That first costume had cute little fluffy shoulders. It was good too because I could move in that costume. The costume after that; we had to do a few different versions of it because when I went into the 'Chiana position', half my backside would be hanging out.

[on the look of her Farscape character Chiana] She was so beautiful and mesmerizing, I love those big black eyes.

[on which person or event did she think had the most profound effect on her Farscape character, Chiana] Geez, these aren't easy questions for this hour of the day. Let's see, I think the most fascinating and enticing thing about Farscape is that it's constantly ever-changing and I don't think I can locate one moment. I think there were so many different worlds and so many different characters and so many different creatures and so many different tastes and colors and shapes and sizes on Farscape that's it's impossible to capture one moment and go, "This is it." So I think it was her whole journey. I think it was probably the time when she realized she didn't want to run away from Moya anymore. She had always been a runaway and never really particularly fit in anywhere. So all of a sudden she had this family and didn't quite know what to do with it with all of the horrible stuff that she did with D'Argo. So I was trying to figure out where that came from because it was such a big, disgusting, horrible moral event and I was trying to make some sense of it. I thought maybe it was becoming a little bit real for her and she needs to slingshot back into the life that she knew. Everything was getting a little bit too close to home. So I think most of all I learned a lot of life lessons from Chiana. She taught me more than I taught her. Just to be brave and to play and to surrender to the moment. To really work for what I love and to experiment. To really renew my spirit.

[on the directions she was given upon first donning her Chiana makeup and outfit for the filming of her first appearance on Farscape] The very first time I walked in, I asked the director how they wanted me to show that she's alien and he goes 'I just want to see if you can act!'