Lucy Lawless was never interested in fantasy tv shows and movies.

The 56-year-old actress had its breakthrough when she played a character named Xena in Hercules and then landed his own spinoff show, Xena: The Warrior Princess – which ran for six seasons from September 1995 to June 2001 – but admitted it was a very unexpected move for her, not least because she struggled with stunt work and action scenes.

She told Big problem magazine: “My heroes were all stage actors. I used to buy Players and players magazine and saw myself one day coming to London and doing theatre. London was the center of that world.

“Then I got sucked into fantasy action TV – now that was a crazy U-turn.

“That was never the plan. And it was murder to have to do all those stunts.