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A Conversation With Kim De Lury, Part One
(Conchobar) April 2001
Q: Okay, to start off pretty generally. Who is Conchobar?
A: Who is Conchobar? He's an Irish rock star. He has a massive underground following in New York. He's quite an enigmatic character, charismatic, very passionate comes from an Irish background, was born there, came to New York, loves his music. He's a poet, really, and as an actor that's a great thing to play. And he didn't really believe that he'd ever find a woman that would truly light his fire and he'd be passionate with and I think in this, in the episodes I start off with, he's found that woman in Sara Pezzini, which is real exciting.
Q: What does he see in Sara Pezzini?
A: Well in the fourth episode when Conchobar's introduced, Conchobar finds in Sara a passion, sassiness. She's a strong woman, a really strong woman, gutsy and believes in her work and believes in being a detective and doing good work. And I think there's something that gels in them both that they find similarities in each other. Him through his music and her through her detective work and he loves that. He loves a strong woman and that's what she is.
Q: It's interesting because most of the other characters seem threatened by that aspect of her life. The police captain, even her partner. . .
A: Sara being a strong woman is quite intimidating to the criminals, the people that she works with, all most of the people that actually come into her life. And I think for that reason Conchobar finds her a challenge to be with as a partner and as a friend. And we find out through the series that they've actually had a connection in the past, in a past life back in medieval times. Which they flash back to and that's a great thing to have to play, to actually know that you're drawn to somebody. Conchobar is drawn to this character yet he doesn't actually know why.
Q: So he has no preconception? He has no idea what the Witchblade is?
A: He doesn't. He is like other characters in the show with regards to the Witchblade. He knows there's something very special about Sara. He knows there's a magical, enigmatic quality about her, but he's not actually sure why. She'll drift off into moments of magic and the supernatural and he'll just see that as another quality that he loves about this particular woman.
Q: Do you think Conchobar is sort of writing the script for this particular episode through his work on the song "Cathain"?
A: Yeah. I think so. There's something about Conchobar's music in particular, which is kind of prophetic in the sense that he doesn't know why, but he's drawing from his historical roots in Ireland and myths and legends and writing about them. But it's bizarre because it ends up in played out in his life and Sara is magically connected to that as well. The series, with regards to Conchobar's character and throughout, the whole series is very mythical and magic and that's what's really special to play as an actor.
Q: Are you a musician yourself?
A: Not, with regards to being a musician. I play the guitar. I play like acoustic, folksy sort of music. But the challenge for this for me is the actor was to actually step into the boots of a rock star and all that entails. So it was like watching videos of Curt Cobain and Nirvana and the Who and Led Zeppelin videos just to find out what is the essence of rock performer. And it's something I've never played before and it was really interesting. It's like gutsy. It really hit me at a gut level you know.
Q: So what did you find the essence to be?
A: Well, I think the most important thing about the genre of rock is truth and I guess heart and soul. But it's also truth and mixed with pain and balls and gutsiness. But all of those things have to be truthful. You can't ride a fine line with it. It's gotta be from yourself and that was a great thing to play. Absolutely. To make the song that was given to me of Conchobar's my own - that was a challenge.
Q: Will you be singing it?
A: I'm lip synching (LAUGHS). With regards to the songs, it was an amazing musician wrote the songs, and I had to embody them, learn the lyrics, lip synch to them and that was a great thing. I learned a lot about lip synching in the fact that it's very difficult to do believably. But, yeah, about rock performers in particular it's about soul and guts and truth.
Q: So what's it like to walk on a set like this where most of the actors have this camaraderie because they've done a pilot and to walk on as a guest star? What's it been like for you?
A: With regards to coming onto a show as a guest star. Often, in other shows that I've worked on, especially long-running shows, it's quite difficult because all the relationships have been developed between the other characters. They're pretty sure of who they're playing, all these friendships and dynamics have developed and you're sort of, as a new actor, are coming in and sort of you're foreign to everyone else. So it's a bit difficult. It's quite intimidating. But on this show, because it's relatively new and I came in on the fourth episode, everything was new and fresh and dynamic and added to that was the fact that the crew is really great. They're really friendly and exceptional and fun. They just wanna have fun, so from the crew and from the other actors I felt really at home from the very beginning, and as a result I think all the work really gels as a result. It's great. Really exciting.
Q: What makes Yancy Butler the perfect Sara Pezzini?
A: What makes Yancy Butler a perfect Sara Pezzini? There's a lot of things. Sara Pezzini is a really interesting character with the characteristics of being a strong woman, enigmatic with quite a history attached to her. It's a role that demands a certain kind of actress to play it. I don't think just any actress can play that and step into those shoes. It has to be a certain performer with certain qualities. And I think Yancy Butler has those particular qualities. As a person a strong woman, very interesting, very intelligent, which Sara is herself. And driven and a professional - a real professional, both as an actor and as a person working with a crew and other actors. I think that in particular is a really important quality for Sara Pezzini, that both Yancy Butler shares with Sara Pezzini. So it's great she can she can bring to the role something with ease I think other actors might have some difficulty or a stretch for them.
Q: The cast and crew are saying such great things about her. It's nice to hear.
A: Definitely she's doing a fantastic job and really they're very few shows out there where one particular actor virtually carries the show. Sara Pezzini is in almost every scene throughout the whole day and has to prop up the show and keep it interesting and alive and charismatic and Yancy Butler's the girl for the job.
Q: So you get this script, back when you were approached to do this, you read it and hear about this Witchblade, this thing with mystical powers that seems to be living and breathing. What are your first thoughts? What are your reactions?
A: When I first heard about it there were a lot of questions, a lot of unanswered things. I guess for me it's interesting as an actor because as an actor my character doesn't know anything about the Witchblade at all. I just know the effect it has on the character that I'm playing next to. So I like the Witchblade in a sense that it draws out the strength in a female character in a show. It makes her more than who she is. And brings out I think characteristics in a woman that aren't really touched on much in a lot of the shows that are out there. You know, like there are very few shows where a female detective will go and beat up the people - you know, criminals - and go single-handedly to solve a crime, a drug bust. And have flashes of insight, which helps solve the crime.. And it's this whole thing about the Witchblade being an intuitive power, which is really interesting and that's something that most of the women I know in my life are particularly stronger in - powers of intuition and gifts of second sight than a lot of guys I know. So that's interesting.
Q: So when you were asked to read for this part, what were your first thoughts of the show? Were you intrigued by this?
A: I was really intrigued at the very beginning when I first received the script, particularly to play a character which was an Irish character in New York, who was a rock identity. Interested in the fact that I didn't know where he would sit in the show, in New York, or didn't know where he would sit as a love interest for this character. It was only through reading full length scripts and developing them episode after episode that I found out where he sits in it all and where the magic and mystery and mythical qualities of the Witchblade comes into it. But it's something that you can't really glean from watching one episode. That's what makes the series really great I think, is that fact that you really have to watch all of the episodes to get a full picture of the world that you're inhabiting with the show.
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