Lawless hits gym for nude TV role

Starz

GRITTY WOMAN: Lucy Lawless stars as Lucretia in her new TV series Spartacus: Blood and Sand.

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New Zealand actress Lucy Lawless says she has had to hit the gym for her latest sword-and-sandals series for television, Spartacus: Blood and Sand.

Lawless, 41, was speaking as United States cable TV channel Starz unveiled the trailer for the gladiator series at a fan gathering in California, the Los Angeles Times reported.

Billed as looking like the film 300 - which was based on a graphic novel - with the nudity of HBO's Rome and the violence of Gladiator, Spartacus will have "a death toll like nothing you've seen on television before", producer Steven DeKnight told the audience.

Lawless said the nudity had forced her to hit the gym. "I do have to work out. Being naked on-screen is no fun."

The series has begun production in New Zealand and is scheduled to be shown on Starz next January.

Lawless plays Lucretia, who, with husband Batiatus, own the Ludus (a gladiator camp) - as well as Spartacus, a slave. The couple have fallen on hard times and have bought Spartacus, hoping his fighting prowess will help them regain their status in the brutal world of gladiatorial contests.

Best known for her leading role in Xena: Warrior Princess in the long-running TV series filmed in New Zealand, Lawless has also appeared on the critically acclaimed sci-fi series Battlestar Galactica.

Spartacus is played by Briton Andy Whitfield (McLeod's Daughters, Packed to the Rafters), who lives in Australia, and the producers are Sam Raimi, Joshua Donen and Lawless's husband, Rob Tapert.

Other cast members include Manu Bennett (30 Days of Night, The Condemned) as Crixus, the top gladiator at the training camp; Antonio Te Maioha (Xena: Warrior Princess, Legend of the Seeker) as Barca, bodyguard for Batiatus and hitman; and Craig Parker (The Lord of the Rings, Legend of the Seeker) as Glaber, a Roman legate, who blames Spartacus for his failed military campaign.

Watch the trailer for Spartacus: Blood and Sand below (warning: explicit content):