A week has gone by and yes, it is over...well, for a couple of months at least.

Noooooooo! Oh no girl! What are you gonna do? I don't know! What you gonna do?


Friday night seemed so empty without the usual Spartacus pandemonium we've all come to know and love. So until Spartacus Season 2 starts, and it will start, this will be my last blog for a while about Spartacus. I will, however, be blogging about other projects I have recently worked on, like Legend of the Seeker and The Resistance, so be sure to check back in every now and then.

Now, back on topic. I think I am safe in saying that while all actors dream about working on the most challenging and fulfilling projects, at the core most of us are quite happy to just work on anything that pays, especially in this economy. We want to sink our teeth into a role, do our best, give our all and hopefully, if all goes as planned, have it turn out to be something that we can be proud of and enthusiastic about sharing. I remember watching shows like The Tudors, Grey's Anatomy, The Sopranos, and House and longing to be a part of something as great as I think those shows are. Everyone wants to be a part of something big, part of a series that has an impact, a show that makes people talk. I had a pretty good feeling when I signed on for Spartacus that I was in for something good. But I gotta tell ya, I had no idea the juggernaut that Spartacus would turn out to be. Spartacus has been an utterly fantastic experience from the audition to the season finale and I can honestly say that I am both proud and honored to be a part of it.



One of the perks of not being introduced until Episode 9 was that I really did get to watch the show as a fan. There was no stress about my performance or what I looked like on screen or how I was making Mira come across to the audience. I could just sit back and enjoy the drama that was unfolding before my eyes. I had heard stories of things that had happened on set, plot lines that characters had gone through, and even fond memories of actors who I have yet to meet, but I had not yet seen the footage. It was great watching the characters develop before me on screen and seeing all of the nuances that filled their stories by the time Mira started to interact with them.

It was excruciating waiting for Episode 9 to air though, I have to admit. As the date drew closer I began to get a few nervous jitters. Tiny insecurities began to whisper in the back of my head, "Will the audience like Mira or hate her?" "Will I be as good as the rest of the cast?" "What will my parents say when they see me in my birthday suit!?!"



As it turns out, I was in New Zealand shooting Legend of the Seeker when Episode 9 aired and I watched it through a grainy web cam via Skype. God seemed to be showing me a bit of mercy in that I didn't have to face my friends and family directly and suffer through being in the same room with them as they watched my first episode. And Lesley-Ann, who was also watching with me in New Zealand via Skype, being the sympathetic soul that she is, kindly held my hand and said all the kind things that friends are suppose to say to each other in these moments of insecurity and then gently reminded me that next week was her episode to "bear it all" and that I sure as heck had better be there for her and to hold her hand and tell her the same exact things that she had just said to me. We're actresses. Bear with us.

I celebrated surviving the airing of that episode with the delicious loveage of a Hokey-Pokey Chocolate Bar ( I think it's a New Zealand thing).

While I was still a bit nervous about watching my scenes in Episodes 9-13, it was great to finally see what all the other cast members, crew, and directors were up too while I had been busy on set. You see, as soon as you get the script for the episode you're about to shoot (roughly a week before you begin working on the episode), do the table read, and then read through it a couple of more times, you basically spend the rest of your time breaking down your scenes and figuring out all of the hidden meanings of the words and the minute details of every emotion your character might feel and/or go through. You don't really have time to lift your head and see what the others are doing around you if they are not in the same scene. In turn, each other person is doing the same thing, whether it be with the costumes, props, lighting, set, acting, makeup, camera, or crafty. Everyone has so much work to do and they only have time to concern themselves with their responsibilities. So being that everyone spends so much time working in their own little bubbles, it's nice to see the final product and appreciate all of the hard work that your co-workers have put in. You can finally stand back and see how each piece of work fits together and becomes a well oiled machine in the form of a television show, and you can watch all of the pieces synchronize into a beautiful work of art called Spartacus: Blood and Sand.

So to STARZ, the producers, writers, actors, directors, camera men, editors, sound department, VFX, stunties, drivers, crafties, P.A.'s, grips, gaffers, and crew...THANK YOU...THANK YOU...THANK YOU FOR AN ASTOUNDING SEASON ONE and for giving me the opportunity to play MIRA. I can't wait to work with you all again in Season 2 and the many seasons beyond.

AND NOW FOR ALL OF YOU CRAZY, WONDERFUL, RABID FANS...

Without you we would be nothing; just a bunch of nuts running around in our garages wearing silly clothing, hoping the neighbors can't see us. There would be no show. There would be no crazy Friday night "Sparty Parties." There would be no drinking game made for 'Jupiter's Cock!'


From the bottom of my heart, thank you for your dedication and support. Thank you for all of your comments on Facebook, Twitter, the assorted message boards, blogs, videos and Fanfiction. I hope we entertained you all and that the show was everything you guys wanted it to be. I hope we made Friday nights a little more fun for you and I hope we gave you a somewhat risqué and controversial thing to chat about around the work cooler.
 

I know all of us on the other side of the television are chomping at the bit to get back to work on Season Two as soon as we're given the green light. The writers are already coming up with story lines that will amaze, shock, anger, titillate, and thrill you. The actors are working out, healing up and preparing ourselves to deliver every line and scene with as much of our heart and soul as we can. The whole team is getting stuff ready so we can hit the ground running. And I can guarantee you that the next season, as well as all the ones after that, is going to be just as phenomenal as what you came to expect in Season One. I hope you are ready!




Make sure to stay in touch by posting on the Starz message boards and find those of us in the cast who are on Twitter and Facebook. We'll do our best keep you posted on what's happening in the land of Spartacus as new information becomes available to us and we're given the green light to share. We'll also fill you in on other projects we're working on as well as answering questions every now and then.

In the mean time, as a display of my gratitude for all of you supporting our show, here a few pictures for your entertainment.

Last day on set of Season 1.

And finally, I have to give a special shout out to Tim O'Leary and Michael Jensen at AFTERELTON.COM and Nathan Venz at THE HOUSTON CHRONICLE. Thank you for your very entertaining and very detailed reviews of Spartacus: Blood and Sand along with all your kind articles and support. They made me laugh out loud on more than a few occasions, especially when my fiancé would read them out loud to me while doing all the voices and special inflections that were implied in the writing, and became a secret cast favorite every Monday morning.

Also, Mary D. at AUSXIP.COM, thank you for keeping your viewers up to date on just about every online detail there was to know about Spartacus and for posting all of those wonderful pictures. And thank you for giving members of the creative team on Spartacus a safe home on the web where we can interact with the fans. The efficiency and effectiveness of your site is impeccable, as are your double-secret ninja skills!




And to the readers of AFTERELTON.COM...this is for you.





Oh. And this too.



Thank you!