Michael Hinman, www.SyFyPortal.com wrote the following after an interview with Virginia Hey at the Necronomicon 2001 in Tampa, Fla.:
Will Zhaan Return?
[Photo copyright 2001 by Michael Hinman, SyFy Portal] It would be hard to find a fan that didn't admire the strength, wisdom and mystery found in Pa'u Zotoh Zhaan, the blue, bald-headed priest that departed the cast of Sci-Fi Channel's original series "Farscape" at the beginning of the third season, saving her crewmates from destruction in a wormhole that could've sent Ben Browder's character home.
Take a look at that same group, and one would still find difficulty in not admiring the actress who brought Zhaan to life for three years on the series, Virginia Hey, and how she ever finds the time to autograph the number of pictures she does.
"Last night, we were going room to room, and it seemed like everyone was offering me a drink," Hey told one fan this past weekend at Necronomicon 2001 in Tampa, Fla., who had waited more than 15 minutes for an autograph despite being second in line. "I was in the lobby of the hotel at about 2 a.m., and this one lady came up to me with a glass of this yellow substance. I asked her what it was, and she said, 'It's called Yellow.' I don't drink very much, but I do know one thing ... never drink something that's named a color."
Hey stops a moment and looks over at me, who is sitting next to her at the autograph table, with my notepad in hand, scribbling down a few unrelated notes. She drops her marker and cups both my ears with her hands. I can't hear anything she's saying, except the brief moments she removes her hands to allow me to hear a word or two. Things like, "he's a journalist" and "all I ever drink is milk."
After what seemed like an eternity of silence, Hey finally takes her hands off my ears, and by then, the entire line of fans is laughing at whatever she had said. I look at Hey and she smiles at me before glancing back at the line once again.
"There I go again," she tells the people toward the back of the line. "If you're not pushy, I'll just keep on yacking. I can talk to fans forever."
It's Sunday afternoon, and despite her late-night excursions with fans around the convention hotel and her obvious jet-lag from her trip into Tampa from Los Angeles, Hey is more vibrant then ever. Not a single person leaves the table without having some kind of in-depth conversation with the actress, whether it be about Zhaan, her past roles in films like "The Living Daylights" and her personal growth in spirituality -- all things that Hey seems more than happy to share.
Signing another picture of her as Zhaan, Hey smiles again and pushes the subject back to the parties of the night before.
"I realized I've missed a lot," she said. "I should've hung out with science fiction folks years ago."
Hey said she always thought her more than 6-foot stature and strong facial features would make her a perfect actress to appear in science fiction films, kind of like her role opposite Mel Gibson in 1981's "Mad Max 2: The Road Warriors." But she said she was utterly surprised when it took nearly 20 years to make her way back to the genre and play roles she feels she was born to play.
"I was looking into alternative healing, and wasn't even thinking about acting, when out of the blue, my agent calls me," Hey said. "A studio was looking for a fit 25- to 45-year-old alien priest, and my agent thought I would be perfect for the role. I was enthralled by the fact that this was a priest, but of course, I didn't know what kind of priest it was. For all I knew, she could've been the priest of death."
The role, of course, was of Zhaan, and the producers of "Farscape" were more than willing to bring the Australian-born actress on board. However, there would be some huge sacrifices Hey would have to make in order to bring Zhaan to life. And it was those sacrifices that made the character a heavy burden to bear.
"I loved the character so much, but for three years, I had to be completely bald with no eyebrows," she said. "But Zhaan still was one of the most positive things that ever happened to me. This character was beautiful and intelligent, and we all enjoyed her unpredictability. But the human girl (who played her) was getting weaker and weaker, and if we kept going the way we did, I wouldn't be able to muster the health to maintain the vitality of the character."
Zhaan appeared in a majority of the scenes through the first season, but a medical condition Hey suffers from forced producers to start cutting her character's involvement in the series through the course of "Farscape's" second season in 2000. While many viewers wrote asking why the producers suddenly disliked Zhaan enough to cut her screen time, Hey said it was actually the other way around -- the powers that be wanted more Zhaan, but she was simply unable to put in all that was required to maintain the role.
"During filming, I would average only about three hours of sleep a night," Hey said. "When I wasn't in the makeup, I was able to rest. We knew that all the body needed was rest, and it's amazing what it can withstand. But you need to rest, and if you don't get your rest, your body will force you to rest."
Producers of the show started to look for ways to reduce Hey's work schedule, even considering cutting her 7- to 10-day shooting schedule down to just three days a week. But that kind of schedule didn't allow too much flexibility, and would only mean Zhaan could appear in a couple scenes in each episode at best. That, along with the pressure of what she had to look at in the mirror every day, pushed to a decision that Zhaan would have to make a grand exit from the show.
"I was bald for three years, but I saw it as an initiation into a spiritual discipline," Hey said. "You don't look terribly attractive on the outside, but it's what's inside that matters. But I was still a human being, and it's still difficult to watch all the makeup come off, and still look like a thumb.
"I wanted to be a girl again. I wanted to be human again."
Hey talked with the producers about reducing Zhaan to six to eight episodes per season instead of 22, where she could be a member of the regular guest cast. And even though Zhaan died at the beginning of the third season, Hey said that the discussion of a reduced role is still on the table.
"That's how we left it, that's where it is now," she said. "There is no real death in science fiction, and it's really up to the producers and writers on what they want to do with Zhaan.
"And even with all that prosthetic makeup, she looked so beautiful. If I could be her and sleep and have hair at the end of the day and it didn't damage me in any way, I'd want to be Zhaan for the rest of my life. I'd love to play that character again."
But if Hey does return to the "Farscape" Australian set, it would have to be on a visit from the United States. Hey is spending a lot more time in Los Angeles these days, looking for an American agent with a specialty in science fiction that could help her continue her love for the genre that "Farscape" helped revitalize. And because science fiction is so expensive to make, she felt the only place she was going to get a wide variety of science fiction to consider was half a world away from where she grew up.
Despite not having an agent yet, Hey said she already is drawing some interest from television and movie makers, agreeing to take part in several projects that are "still on paper and looking for funding," as well as hinting about a couple of auditions she had with Tribune Entertainment's "Gene Roddenberry's Andromeda."
"I don't think it would be too wise to say a lot about that, since nothing has been signed yet," she said. "But yes, I've auditioned, and they have said they want to create a character for me. But we'll have to wait and see what happens there."
But whatever happens with other projects, Hey said she still wants to make any possibility of resurrecting Zhaan a priority. Especially if they can create a safer makeup process for her.
"Those kinds of questions are really hard to answer, though, because you never know what's going to happen," she said. "But if they really wanted Zhaan to come back, I'd be there."
A convention representative stops by Hey's table and lets her know that Necronomicon is ending, and that she might want to start packing up. As she pulls out her metallic briefcase and piles up her pictures, gathers her pens and "What Would Zhaan Do?" buttons, fans continue to line up at her table to get one last autograph, or to say goodbye with a long hug and maybe even take a picture or two.
"I'm going to be in Orlando in a couple weeks, so come see me again, please," she tells many of them, visibly saddened to see them go as if she's saying good-bye to her own family.
Hey finally says farewell to me, who sat with her most of the Sunday afternoon as she brightened the faces of nearly everyone who stopped to share a word or two with her.
"This definitely makes it all worth doing," she said. "People are just wonderful, and I'm always told to act a certain way when I'm with the fans. But I'm not like that. All I want to be is me, and I wouldn't have it any other way."
Will Zhaan Return?
[Photo copyright 2001 by Michael Hinman, SyFy Portal] It would be hard to find a fan that didn't admire the strength, wisdom and mystery found in Pa'u Zotoh Zhaan, the blue, bald-headed priest that departed the cast of Sci-Fi Channel's original series "Farscape" at the beginning of the third season, saving her crewmates from destruction in a wormhole that could've sent Ben Browder's character home.
Take a look at that same group, and one would still find difficulty in not admiring the actress who brought Zhaan to life for three years on the series, Virginia Hey, and how she ever finds the time to autograph the number of pictures she does.
"Last night, we were going room to room, and it seemed like everyone was offering me a drink," Hey told one fan this past weekend at Necronomicon 2001 in Tampa, Fla., who had waited more than 15 minutes for an autograph despite being second in line. "I was in the lobby of the hotel at about 2 a.m., and this one lady came up to me with a glass of this yellow substance. I asked her what it was, and she said, 'It's called Yellow.' I don't drink very much, but I do know one thing ... never drink something that's named a color."
Hey stops a moment and looks over at me, who is sitting next to her at the autograph table, with my notepad in hand, scribbling down a few unrelated notes. She drops her marker and cups both my ears with her hands. I can't hear anything she's saying, except the brief moments she removes her hands to allow me to hear a word or two. Things like, "he's a journalist" and "all I ever drink is milk."
After what seemed like an eternity of silence, Hey finally takes her hands off my ears, and by then, the entire line of fans is laughing at whatever she had said. I look at Hey and she smiles at me before glancing back at the line once again.
"There I go again," she tells the people toward the back of the line. "If you're not pushy, I'll just keep on yacking. I can talk to fans forever."
It's Sunday afternoon, and despite her late-night excursions with fans around the convention hotel and her obvious jet-lag from her trip into Tampa from Los Angeles, Hey is more vibrant then ever. Not a single person leaves the table without having some kind of in-depth conversation with the actress, whether it be about Zhaan, her past roles in films like "The Living Daylights" and her personal growth in spirituality -- all things that Hey seems more than happy to share.
Signing another picture of her as Zhaan, Hey smiles again and pushes the subject back to the parties of the night before.
"I realized I've missed a lot," she said. "I should've hung out with science fiction folks years ago."
Hey said she always thought her more than 6-foot stature and strong facial features would make her a perfect actress to appear in science fiction films, kind of like her role opposite Mel Gibson in 1981's "Mad Max 2: The Road Warriors." But she said she was utterly surprised when it took nearly 20 years to make her way back to the genre and play roles she feels she was born to play.
"I was looking into alternative healing, and wasn't even thinking about acting, when out of the blue, my agent calls me," Hey said. "A studio was looking for a fit 25- to 45-year-old alien priest, and my agent thought I would be perfect for the role. I was enthralled by the fact that this was a priest, but of course, I didn't know what kind of priest it was. For all I knew, she could've been the priest of death."
The role, of course, was of Zhaan, and the producers of "Farscape" were more than willing to bring the Australian-born actress on board. However, there would be some huge sacrifices Hey would have to make in order to bring Zhaan to life. And it was those sacrifices that made the character a heavy burden to bear.
"I loved the character so much, but for three years, I had to be completely bald with no eyebrows," she said. "But Zhaan still was one of the most positive things that ever happened to me. This character was beautiful and intelligent, and we all enjoyed her unpredictability. But the human girl (who played her) was getting weaker and weaker, and if we kept going the way we did, I wouldn't be able to muster the health to maintain the vitality of the character."
Zhaan appeared in a majority of the scenes through the first season, but a medical condition Hey suffers from forced producers to start cutting her character's involvement in the series through the course of "Farscape's" second season in 2000. While many viewers wrote asking why the producers suddenly disliked Zhaan enough to cut her screen time, Hey said it was actually the other way around -- the powers that be wanted more Zhaan, but she was simply unable to put in all that was required to maintain the role.
"During filming, I would average only about three hours of sleep a night," Hey said. "When I wasn't in the makeup, I was able to rest. We knew that all the body needed was rest, and it's amazing what it can withstand. But you need to rest, and if you don't get your rest, your body will force you to rest."
Producers of the show started to look for ways to reduce Hey's work schedule, even considering cutting her 7- to 10-day shooting schedule down to just three days a week. But that kind of schedule didn't allow too much flexibility, and would only mean Zhaan could appear in a couple scenes in each episode at best. That, along with the pressure of what she had to look at in the mirror every day, pushed to a decision that Zhaan would have to make a grand exit from the show.
"I was bald for three years, but I saw it as an initiation into a spiritual discipline," Hey said. "You don't look terribly attractive on the outside, but it's what's inside that matters. But I was still a human being, and it's still difficult to watch all the makeup come off, and still look like a thumb.
"I wanted to be a girl again. I wanted to be human again."
Hey talked with the producers about reducing Zhaan to six to eight episodes per season instead of 22, where she could be a member of the regular guest cast. And even though Zhaan died at the beginning of the third season, Hey said that the discussion of a reduced role is still on the table.
"That's how we left it, that's where it is now," she said. "There is no real death in science fiction, and it's really up to the producers and writers on what they want to do with Zhaan.
"And even with all that prosthetic makeup, she looked so beautiful. If I could be her and sleep and have hair at the end of the day and it didn't damage me in any way, I'd want to be Zhaan for the rest of my life. I'd love to play that character again."
But if Hey does return to the "Farscape" Australian set, it would have to be on a visit from the United States. Hey is spending a lot more time in Los Angeles these days, looking for an American agent with a specialty in science fiction that could help her continue her love for the genre that "Farscape" helped revitalize. And because science fiction is so expensive to make, she felt the only place she was going to get a wide variety of science fiction to consider was half a world away from where she grew up.
Despite not having an agent yet, Hey said she already is drawing some interest from television and movie makers, agreeing to take part in several projects that are "still on paper and looking for funding," as well as hinting about a couple of auditions she had with Tribune Entertainment's "Gene Roddenberry's Andromeda."
"I don't think it would be too wise to say a lot about that, since nothing has been signed yet," she said. "But yes, I've auditioned, and they have said they want to create a character for me. But we'll have to wait and see what happens there."
But whatever happens with other projects, Hey said she still wants to make any possibility of resurrecting Zhaan a priority. Especially if they can create a safer makeup process for her.
"Those kinds of questions are really hard to answer, though, because you never know what's going to happen," she said. "But if they really wanted Zhaan to come back, I'd be there."
A convention representative stops by Hey's table and lets her know that Necronomicon is ending, and that she might want to start packing up. As she pulls out her metallic briefcase and piles up her pictures, gathers her pens and "What Would Zhaan Do?" buttons, fans continue to line up at her table to get one last autograph, or to say goodbye with a long hug and maybe even take a picture or two.
"I'm going to be in Orlando in a couple weeks, so come see me again, please," she tells many of them, visibly saddened to see them go as if she's saying good-bye to her own family.
Hey finally says farewell to me, who sat with her most of the Sunday afternoon as she brightened the faces of nearly everyone who stopped to share a word or two with her.
"This definitely makes it all worth doing," she said. "People are just wonderful, and I'm always told to act a certain way when I'm with the fans. But I'm not like that. All I want to be is me, and I wouldn't have it any other way."
