Today, the Acorn TV original crime drama, My Life is Murder, returns for its fifth season. The eight-episode season season, starring Lucy Lawless as investigator Alexa Crowe, features all new intriguing cases, starting today when Alexa and her tech wiz Madison (Ebony Vagulans) investigate a cheer squad when a fitness influencer is suddenly murdered.

Star Lawless recently spoke to SciFi Vision about her character’s growth this season as well as possible romance, some of the guest cast coming up, how her character has changed her, and much more.

Read the full transcript below and tune in to the first episode, now available on Acorn TV.


SCIFI VISION:   To start out, I want to talk about the fact that Madison wanted herself and Alexa to go out a bit more, maybe go on dates and just interact with people a bit more. And even in, I think it's the [second] episode, Alexa meets Fish Guy (Mike Edward), and also Jessie (Craig Parker) comes into her life later. So, just talk about sort of, is your character more open, I guess, to that and to maybe finding a relationship?

LUCY LAWLESS:   Yeah, I think once she confronted her husband's - the person that she thought was his murderer, in the last season, then that was just a brick off her back, you know, and it freed her up to think about the murder life balance of it and what was missing. She thought she might become a bit of a people person. But as we know, that's only going to lead to trouble.

There's a little bit of romance this season, which has felt kind of weird, you know, but it's good.

SCIFI VISION:   It's cute. All right. I'm assuming that the squirting was not, but was that a real octopus that was in the tank? Did it actually interact with people? I just was curious.

LUCY LAWLESS:   Yes, it was. It was an octopus that had been rescued by the Auckland University because a snapper fish had bitten off its tentacle. And for some reason, they wanted to nurse it back to health.

So, he was about to be released, and they said, “We'll bring him in.” And, you know, have to have proper handlers. You basically have to have an intimacy coordinator for your octopus, put it that way. There are major strictures around how you deal with animals in film these days.

So, we were very, very privileged to have a real octopus and nobody actually handled the octopus except the keeper, I guess, you know, the marine biologist who rescued it. And then, ultimately, he was put back into the marine reserve and may still be alive. They don't live very long. It's really shocking.

SCIFI VISION:   It was funny at any rate. Yeah.

LUCY LAWLESS:   Yeah. Yeah. Cute.

SCIFI VISION:   In the next episode, this is an odd question, but I've always wanted to go to one. You get to go to a smash palace. I'm assuming that was really you that got to smash things. What was that like? Was that fun? Because I think it would be a lot of fun.

LUCY LAWLESS:   It was really fun, you know, especially because I suppose through Xena - like at school, I was so bad at any softball, at any sports, just hopeless. And because Xena sort of literally smacked me into shape, I'm quite good at that. I look quite good doing it, you know, now. So, it always kind of gives me a little like, “Oh, gosh, I'm better than I thought.” It's like wielding a baseball bat or a sword or whatever.

So, yeah, it gives me a strange little thrill, because I was always so hopeless and always think of myself as being hopeless. So, yeah, it's fun. It was fun.

SCIFI VISION:   Do you miss doing that as much or is it kind of a relief, though, that you don't have to do all the action at least now?

LUCY LAWLESS:   Such a relief. I always hated it, but I did it because it was part of the job. Oh, my God. They’d go, “Lucy, your fight's up.” I'd go, “Haven’t we done enough fights already?” [laughs] That was every day. Learn a new fight. And my only defense was to get really good at it really quick. Never complain. Just get it out of the way, because then you can get on with life as an actress. But there would be these interludes of physical exertion, which were just such a drag.

SCIFI VISION:   Well, now you get to relax a bit more.

LUCY LAWLESS:   Yeah.

SCIFI VISION:   In the fourth episode, they bring back Baxter (Benedict Wall). I know last time when I talked to you, you said you wanted to bring him back. So, what was it like getting to work with him again? And will we see him again after that? I really like him. He's funny.

LUCY LAWLESS:   I love him so much. He's moved to Australia. He and his wife have gone to Australia. So, well, put it this way. If there's a space for him, and he can make himself available, yes, we'd have him back anytime. What a thoughtful, good man, too. Apart from being just brilliant on screen, he's a thoughtful, good man. Yeah.

SCIFI VISION:   He and Alexa still don't get along so well, though.

LUCY LAWLESS:   Yeah. [laughs] I don't know why.

SCIFI VISION:   It’s fun though. So, talk about some of the other guest stars like Rhys Darby.

LUCY LAWLESS:   Keisha Castle-Hughes.

SCIFI VISION:   Nicole Whippy that comes back again. Yeah. Talk about working with some of them.

LUCY LAWLESS:   Nicole Whippy is another one. She's just a very, very funny, sophisticated woman. She's really fun to have around. Who else comes? Mike Edward’s plays my lover, though, I mean, it's for a short time. He disappears pretty quick. I'm surprised that they didn't keep the romance going at all. It was like, no, no, no, quick in and out, that’s it. Who else? We have Graham McTavish. He's big in the sci-fi kind of world. Marta Dusseldorp, who's one of Australia's most hallowed actresses. Craig Parker comes back as a love interest. He was in Spartacus with me and many other things. And Fern Sutherland from, oh, it's a huge, huge Kiwi crime show. [The] Brokenwood [Mysteries]. Yeah. And she's just all of them.

They just bring their A-game. They're so funny, so good-hearted. Dean O’Gorman.

And they're at the top of their game, just talent-wise. These people are match fit, and it's a real pleasure to work with people like that. I work with a lot of new people often, and you're always bringing them along, making them feel comfortable so they can do their best work. But these people just, boom, bring their A-game and bring me up too, with their talent and always a pleasure. Plus, I've got my posse with me of Madison and Reuben (Joseph Naufahu) and Rawiri [Jobe]’s character, Harry. They are the funniest human beings. We formed a little tennis group, and we went off and started to play padel and things, which is like pickleball.

SCIFI VISION:   I know you mentioned that last time. You're still playing?

LUCY LAWLESS:   Well, no, the group's kind of broken up, because the guys have gone back overseas. But we love one another so much, so they're the reason I keep coming back.

SCIFI VISION:   I did want to talk about Alexa’s friendship slash whatever you want to call it, relationship with Harry. Talk about that, because there's some jealousy this season, and I know that he maybe keeps things from her, too, which was interesting and unexpected. Do you think that, I don't know, did it affect her that maybe he's not as open with her as she thought he was, that she didn't share with him?

I'm trying not to spoil it. Do you think that she knows he's even jealous?

LUCY LAWLESS:   No, I don't think she knows. I think they used to have a thing, but I think she can compartmentalize. And also, he's too young for her and all the stuff, so if he has any residual feelings, I guess that's his problem.

But yes, she's surprised that he did not share information about his private life with her. I think she would have winkled that out of him had she detected any suspicion around his marital status, let's say. But she never saw it coming, so yes, she's a bit blindsided by that.

But it's good. I think it's good. We shouldn't know everything about one another. That's for kids. That's for people who are 13. All right. But yeah, she doesn't know.

I have friends that I knew for like 20 years, and they finally one day said to me, “I didn't know you had brothers.” It's like, you never asked. I've got like five brothers. And they're like, “I didn't know you had brothers.” Because you're not interested in me. Yeah, never asked. We only talk about you.

SCIFI VISION:   Speaking of brothers, her brother Will (Martin Henderson) comes back again. It seems like she's rubbed off on him. Do you think he's rubbed off on her at all?

LUCY LAWLESS:   Oh, I think he reminds her of their father, Tricky Dick, and that he uses his evil powers for good. Whereas Will kind of would go to the dark side willingly and cheat people. Whereas Alexa, she's also a bit of a rule breaker par excellence, but she does it within the bounds of decency, for the most part.

SCIFI VISION:   Fair. You talked a little bit about this, but talk a bit, I don't know how much you want to say, because it is in the end of the season, but with Jesse and her reconnecting with her old partner. Talk about that.

LUCY LAWLESS:   So, she gets an SOS call from her old partner in Australia, who knew her husband. They go back that far. And about a case that they never cracked properly, or a killer they never brought to justice, who's still at it on a Paradise Island in Fiji.

And so she goes to join him and romance ensues, and they do indeed bring down the killer.

SCIFI VISION:   Very true. Where was that filmed at? Was that, I mean, I'm assuming it might not be in New Zealand, but maybe it is. I don't know, because I've never been to New Zealand.

LUCY LAWLESS:   It actually is. It is all in New Zealand. We did send a small crew to Fiji to shoot the drone shots overhead and everything, but the rest is cobbled together from parts of New Zealand.

But I don't think people need to know that. Let's let them go on the fantasy. But I was really glad, to be honest with you, not to leave.

There was a terrible hurricane, you know, storms going on in Fiji at the time. And there was a terrible storm going on here. We're very close to Fiji. Yeah, awful weather, but you cannot see it. You cannot see it on screen. It's amazing.

SCIFI VISION:   Yeah, I definitely didn't know.

LUCY LAWLESS:   Yeah, that's our brilliant, brilliant locations team who cobbled Fiji together.

SCIFI VISION:   So, is there a possibility of a season six? I mean, are you still good to go?

LUCY LAWLESS:   Of course, of course. Yes. I hope to be directing some of this season if we can figure out how to do it, because Alexa is very all encompassing. She's in nearly every scene, and you don't get a lot of time to think about meta things because you're rushing to change your problem solving with writers, whatever. Whereas directing is in its own way, extremely immersive.

Acting is all about having zero control and directing is about being across everything. So, they are antithetical processes and skills employed. So, we'll figure it out.

And so it drops on Jan 5th, and I think AMC just wants to see how people love it, and they'll be making up their own minds.

SCIFI VISION:   Well, I hope there's more. I got my mom to watch it. She enjoyed it too.

LUCY LAWLESS:   Good. Yeah, it's a nice hang. It's just a cozy little hang so people can feel good about the world for a change, you know?

SCIFI VISION:   What has your character taught you about yourself, if anything, or has changed since you've become Alexa?

LUCY LAWLESS:   Well, really, I am brewing sourdough as we speak…I was very concerned that it was not growing. So, I changed the wheat and put a little heat mat under it, and it's going bonkers. So, I'm excited. I'm going to make a panettone, those Italian big Italian sweet breads, you know, with all the eel and raisins in it. Oh, so good! Very labor intensive though, so you're better to buy them unless you're a nut like me. But yeah, that's what Alex has done for me. She's made me into a baker.