Lucy Lawless highlights 'bad girl' of CNN in directorial debut

Actor Lucy Lawless said she was inspired by the subject of her directorial debut, the documentary Never Look Away, in theaters Friday.

Lawless' film chronicles the late CNN camerawoman, Margaret Moth, whom she felt served a greater good without compromising herself.

She first discovered Moth in the 1992 CNN report in which Moth was shot in the jaw by a sniper in Sarajevo, the political, financial and cultural center of Bosnia and Herzegovina.

"I knew she was a rock 'n' roll bitch," Lawless, 56, told UPI in a recent Zoom interview. "I love a bad girl and a bad girl who lives for something better and greater than herself."

As an actor, Lawless is known as the heroine, Xena: Warrior Princess and villainess Lucretia on Spartacus. Both Lawless and Moth hailed from New Zealand.

Lawless interviewed CNN anchor Christiane Amanpour, CNN reporter Stefano Kotsanis, CNN CEO Tom Johnson and several men who were romantically involved with Moth simultaneously. They wanted to be sure Lawless did not sanitize Moth.

The film includes stories of Moth drinking and doing drugs after filming in war zones, and in one case slapping an Iraqi officer who pushed her out of the way.

"I had to convince them that that was not my intention and Margaret wouldn't want it," Lawless said. "She was proud of her sins. They were part of the fabric of her being, and I think that's what we relate to."

Moth died of cancer in 2010. However, her 1992 injury posed challenges returning to camera work.

Despite jaw surgery, Moth lost part of her tongue and teeth, which limited her ability to speak. Moth underwent physical therapy to regain mobility after her head trauma, and would carry a notepad for instances when people had trouble understanding her.

"She lost so much and managed to do so much after having this catastrophic incident," Lawless said. "Who are we not to fulfill our potential?"

Lawless reviewed footage Moth shot from Kuwait, Sarajevo, Rwanda and other war zones, some of which aired on CNN and some that never did. She wanted to include Moth's most graphic footage.

"War is ugly, and you should know how ugly it is," Lawless said. "She's trying to tell people what happens to simple human beings, non-combattants of war everywhere."

However, in early screenings Lawless discovered that some footage was so graphic that it became counterproductive. The film includes a shot of a 7-year-old killed by a sniper, but Lawless did not include footage she saw of a dead baby.

"You have to draw the line at the point at which the audience starts to puke in the aisles," Lawless said "It's no good if people have to leave because it's too overwhelming."

It was only Moth's story that motivated Lawless to direct, she said. Now, she wants to continue directing.

"I feel like Margaret kicked my ass through the director's door," Lawless said. "Part of the lesson of her life is that your potential is not the horizon. Your potential is over the horizon."

One of Lawless's ambitions is to make a biopic of Moth with actors. She feels she can apply her experience in Never Look Away to directing actors on a set.

"I've learned an awful lot of lessons about sound design, music, colors. tone, color correction, all that stuff," Lawless said. "Now, I want to apply it to what I know best, which is drama and actors."

Lawless has not completely transitioned out of acting. She will appear in another season of her Australian mystery series My Life Is Murder.

"Since things that work are very precious in this day, I'm going to keep that going as long as it wants to go," Lawless said. "But in every other way, my attention is on the next directing gig."

She also filmed an introduction to the upcoming revival, Spartacus: House of Ashur, but was clear she is not starring in the show.

"I think they felt they needed the connection to the past," she said. "I'm doing that as a favor to my friends."

Lawless also frequently hears interest in revisiting Xena. However, she explained, those ideas have never come to fruition.

"They talk about it all the time, but somehow they can never pull it off," she said. "How do you reimagine it in a way that is satisfying? But nobody's ever done it."

In Never Look Away, Lawless said she felt responsible to her subject, her country and the audience.

"I just wanted to do right by Margaret, principally, right by the New Zealand Film Commission and entertain the audience, not teach you a lesson," Lawless said. "I want to entertain you, make you feel something."