Most people probably know Lucy Lawless as the actress who played "Xena: Warrior Princess." But now she makes her directorial debut with the documentary, "Never Look Away," about video journalist Margaret Moth.
In the 1970s, Margaret Moth (then known as Margaret Wilson) was the first woman camera person in New Zealand. By 1990, she was covering the Persian Gulf War for CNN. New Zealand actress Lucy Lawless remembers when she became aware of Moth.
"My mind just cast back to 1992, when my whole country was riveted to a news report about a CNN camera woman from New Zealand who had been hit by a sniper in the face," Lawless recalled.
In that moment Lawless knew she wanted to tell Moth’s story.
"The spirit of Margaret compelled me," Lawless said. "I made all these crazy promises that I would find the money and I would produce this."
It may have taken decades, but now that dream has become a reality with the documentary "Never Look Away."
A cursory look at Moth's life reveals why it demanded a film. Aside from being a trailblazer as a female video journalist, Moth had a punky sensibility and a fearless drive for adventure. She sought out the most dangerous assignments while working at CNN as she covered war and violence in the Middle East and Eastern Europe.
"We couldn't fit it all in the film," Lawless said. "She just had the most extraordinary life. She just tore it up. She ate life, and she was part of something greater than herself in the end, from being a completely pleasure-loving, sex, drugs and punk music person to living to tell the story of the noncombatants of war and loving the children of war. That seems to me, to be an amazing and almost biblical transformation."
Lawless, who has given us tough, powerful, and fearless women in shows ranging from "Xena: Warrior Princess" to "Spartacus" to "Ash Vs. Evil Dead," could have easily played Moth in a biopic. But she wanted to make a documentary about her fellow Kiwi.
"I couldn't let somebody else tell the story because they wouldn't tell it the way I did," Lawless said. "I didn't want it to be a hagiography because that's my compact with Margaret, that I would tell it warts and all as she would want and also be supremely nonjudgmental so that it's for the audience to decide how they feel about the lovers, the sex, the drugs, the punk clubs with 17-year-olds, the conflicts. I give you a lot of things that are in conflict, like subjective accounts of who Margaret is and it's a hunt for who is she really, and you get to make up your mind."
For a first time director, Lawless tackles the material with both assurance and a bold creativity. Because Moth was a complicated person, Lawless has to juggle a diverse group of interviewees from just tell-it-like-it-is fellow journalists to former lovers still struggling to define their relationships with Moth.
Lawless gives the film a punk visual style that Moth would have loved. But also finds innovative ways to depict things that there are no visuals for, such as when Moth was hit by a sniper bullet that destroyed her jaw and left her disfigured and unable to speak clearly.
"Obviously, no one's running the camera when they're driving to work and Margaret gets shot in the back of the van," Lawless explained. "So how are we going to do that?"
The answer was with a diorama and re-enacting the events in a way that feels fresh as well as compelling and engaging.
Although many series stars will direct episodes of their shows, Lawless never did that. But now that she has stepped behind the camera to direct a film that is all she wants to do.
"The acting has been everything to me for now 38 years," Lawless said. "And suddenly, getting up at 4:00 a.m. and sitting and having somebody spackle over my face, over my cracks for an hour and a half, and then hair and stuff is less and less attractive. But I will get up at 4:00 a.m. to direct something any day of the week. Yeah, this film has really turned my head."
And based on the results, I can't wait for her next film as a director.
"Never Look Away" starts streaming Nov. 22 on Apple TV+ and Fandango at Home.
The full interview will be up later this week on the Cinema Junkie podcast.
