Comic-Con Chatter with Chiana

By Sarah Kuhn
08/04/2000
From Scifi.ign

Farscape's Gigi Edgley talks with IGN Sci-Fi about
upcoming episodes, alien romance and glitter.

The stars come out to shine at Comic-Con -- and spritely Gigi Edgley, it seems, is shining just a bit more brightly than the rest of 'em. Natural charisma? Well, yes...and the fact that she's covered from head to toe in body glitter.

The effect is actually quite dazzling -- so will Gigi be incorporating glitter into her wardrobe for Chiana, the lusty young troublemaker she plays on Farscape? "They don't like it!" she exclaims, presumably referring to the almighty powers that be on the Sci-Fi Channel's hit show. "I give out these cards for thank you cards or birthday cards on set, and I've always put my little fairy signature, and I've put my glitter in there. I've gotten in trouble so many times taking glitter onto set, 'cause it just goes everywhere."

Glitter is, however, all too appropriate for the rather, er, flamboyant atmosphere at Comic-Con. "I came in yesterday thinking it was a pretty casual event, and then I saw some of the costumes and stuff, and I thought, 'OK, we can go [with] the leathers,'" Gigi laughs. "This is alright. We can go a bit sci-fi, a bit glitter, a bit punk rock."

For the record, Ms. Edgley is looking quite punk rock in her sparkling black tank, short black skirt and space-age rock star boots. She strikes a few poses for our IGNtv camera, still brimming with energy after a long autograph session. "Sparkle, sparkle," she giggles, showing off her glitter one more time. And with that, we're off and running. Ever-loquacious, Gigi chats it up about the con, her blossoming onscreen romance with fellow Farscape alien D'Argo (Anthony Simcoe), and why fans should keep an eye on Chiana in upcoming episodes...

(Pssst! Be sure to check out video clips from this interview in our IGNtv piece on Gigi!)

IGN Sci-Fi: So what are your impressions of the con so far?

Gigi: Well, yesterday, we [were] getting off a fourteen hour flight, and then [a] two and a half hour drive here to San Diego, and we opened up the blinds and there's this huge convention center. And we didn't know what it was -- we're going, "Aww, wow that must be the train station, yeah!" And my boyfriend's going, "No, no, that's a shopping mall, let's go and check it out!" And then we realized it was Comic-Con!

We woke up this morning and there were kids lining up from 7 [am]. So it's been very exciting, and [so is] coming over and seeing all the merchandise and stuff, because we haven't actually seen a lot of it. Fans coming up and getting you to sign stuff, it's like, "Oh, wow, this is great, yeah sure! Can I have one?" So it's been fantastic so far.

IGN Sci-Fi: Speaking of merchandising, where are the toys? Where's the Chiana doll?

Gigi: Tell me, tell me! I've seen, like, some prototypes for it, which look great. And this is what we do around the set [here Gigi goes into her "robot dance," moving around as if she's a fully-articulated, life-size action figure]. We try and see what we can fit in our hands and see what action figures can pick up the other action figures and muck around. But I've only seen prototypes, I haven't seen actual figurines or anything like that. Or on the net, I've seen a print-out. But apparently in about a week or two, [they've] promised me [they're] gonna show me [figures] in live form. [They] said, "Are you gonna buy some?" I went, "Buy some?! Don't I get a big crate?!" Otherwise, I might be lining up with the fans.

IGN Sci-Fi: OK, I have to ask you, what is the deal with you and D'Argo? What's gonna happen there?

Gigi: D'Argo and Crichton and I...no! [Laughs] We've been mucking around together, and Look at the Princess, which I think is the first of a three-parter that's on tonight, is gonna be a fantastic sort of hint to what goes on there. And we come up with some nice sort of kinky chemistry, you could say. In [the episode "Home on the Remains"], there's one of Chiana's old friends, and she says, "Chiana gives her body away freely, but her heart is a different matter." And I think D'Argo actually inspires her to look at that, because she is a very sexual, very sensual character.

I think he sort of makes her head turn in that essence. She is astounded by him because he is so noble and so honest, and she can't understand that, because she's always lived for her mantra of survival, and basically to get what she wants, however she can get it. So to see these traits in D'Argo, I think, is a really attractive thing in him. And when he comes up to her and kisses her -- she's been sort of chasing him for a while, and suddenly he turns around and smacks it on her -- it's like, "Oh! Whoa!" [Laughs] So I think there's a really nice friendship there, and there's some good chemistry that comes, and they're a really interesting match. I think it's really interesting to see two aliens play and see what comes of it. I can't say much more than that, otherwise I'll get in trouble!

IGN Sci-Fi: Last question: last time you and I talked, you said sometimes you feel a little bit like Sydney on Melrose Place. I was wondering if that's still true...

Gigi: Ahhh! I'm much more comfortable with it now! I'm much more comfortable with my evilness! No... Ben [Browder] and I were talking about it, because in the script coming up in the cliffhanger, you see a lot of Chiana's old traits coming through again, you see a lot of her Nebari traits, basically her playing more. As you see her sort of come to terms with the ship and the people on it, you see good connections there. But I think when there are raw situations, intense high stakes situations, she turns back to her old ways, which is sort of the Sydney of Melrose, the stab-your-friend in the back kind of deal. And it's not necessarily a weakness of hers, but it's definitely something that she turns to when all else fails, because that's how she knows to communicate, to act in those kind of circumstances.

She is coming for a turn, so I'd keep an eye on her, as the cliffhanger comes up, and there are some interesting little sparks that do arise. We're getting into the real nice sort of...juicy part of Chiana again. And I was having a chat to Ben about it and I said, "Oh, look, the writers want me to do this thing, and I know everyone's gonna hate me after it, and I'm really nervous!" And he said, "Look you know, it's Chiana, it's the way she is. You're Gigi, that's Chiana, it's two very different people. And in earthbound terms, we would call it a slut or a trollop or whatever else, but basically in space, this is how she works, this is all she knows."

So watch out for it -- there are some really nice ones. And it's good because over the break I want to try and spend some times on her movements and her alien characteristics and really dive into them again and grow more brave and confident. Because there is so much freedom on the set -- you are allowed to go as far as you like with the character choices, with your emotional stakes, with everything. So I want to sort of endow that more and become more committed to it and just take a deeper step into it, into the nice juices of the belly. Yeeeeah! The gory stuff!

IGN Sci-Fi: Cool. Anything else you want to say?

Gigi: Ummmm...playing in the Uncharted Territories is very fun. Come and watch!

-- Sarah Kuhn wants boots like Gigi's.


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