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Prevue: What is your favorite aspect of Highlander: The Raven? EG: My favorite part is doing the flashback sequences. I really love the different costumes and hairstyles. The different time periods are a great challenge. Our wardrobe department is the greatest and so is the crew.
EG: I hate it when Amanda is under utilized. I love a challenge, so I really like it when Amanda has a really strong arch-nemesis. Although I have had a couple of episodes that I really have liked where both Amanda and whoever her nemesis is that week... The nemesis has been female and very well developed but when those moments come, they are bright, shining moments and it's always a let down to be brought back to a very basic, credibly human level which I think Amanda is a bit more heightened than that. Prevue: What about any fan comments about comparison between the two shows? EG: I really haven't read anything. Literally we put our blinders on and trudge forward when we start working. There's no time to do anything. I'm not online or anything and don't really read much. I don't want it to affect me very much or effect what I do as an artist, as an actor, which it would if I start being concerned with what people are thinking, so I don't even know what people are thinking. You can tell me, as long as it's good, you can tell me.
EG: It's a very different show. We have some episodes, I think our better episodes are closer to a Highlander format in terms of flashbacks, fights, very clear enemies, I think those are our better shows because they are very succinct and the scripts are more lucid. It's very different. I showed an earlier episode to Adrian Paul the other night, as he hadn't seen any of the shows, it looks different, it's a different feel altogether. Amanda's very different than MacLeod. The only similarities are that I am immortal and run up against the bad-guy. Otherwise, it's a very different show. Prevue: What's it like working on the convention circuit? EG: I really haven't done that many of them. I did couple a few years ago. It is rather strange, when I was Miss America, basically I would sit down and sign autographs for hours on end in department stores or conventions or things like that so I automatically have a memory of that and get tired immediately! The fans are very appreciative and very loyal and it's always good to touch base with that. Because I've been working on the show, I haven't had time to do that. I don't know if we'll do that during the hiatus or not. It's good, it's work, it's like being on all day, but its interesting to see who the fans are. I don't know if they'll be the same people as they were with the original Highlander. Prevue: How about the ever-changing hair color? EG: Yes, it's always changing! It's on a slightly different journey at the moment, because of necessity of a couple of things. It been easy and fits the character and fits the format of the show and makes it easy for me as an actor that after 12-13 hours you have the hair, make-up and wardrobe people fixing you. It's great that my hair basically does not move. One less thing for people to touch me with and it makes it easy for wigs, an easy hairstyle.
EG: It's good. It's a completely different relationship than I had with Adrian Paul on the show. Adrian and I on the set of the first episode that I was in, Lady and the Tiger, we were supposed to have known each other for a long period of time, hundreds of years, so we had to develop an immediate camaraderie. With the Nick character, it's completely different; it sort of fits our personalities, in general. We don't know each other that well, didn't really see the necessity to do that because we represent opposite ends of the spectrum. It's what makes the chemistry on the show work. The polarity, opposing each other makes for fireworks. He's great to work with. I'm missing a lot of the people I worked with in Canada. Patricia Gage who plays Lucy on the show. I adore her terribly and am missing her. I hope they bring her over here. She is definitely Amanda's confidant and you don't really see Amanda opening up to many people. Lucy has her number and uses her as a sounding board. She and I have such a good time on the set, just laughing and carrying on.
EG:We do on our days off, and then I'll come in an hour or two before we start the day. The shows here in Paris have been had a lot more fighting sequences in them, which entails a lot more work. I have an amazing swordmaster named Philip Gigot. He just did the swords for the new Luc Besson movie, Joan of Arc. He is really competent and the stunt people he brings in are just excellent. I think the fighting on the show has become much more dramatic and dangerous. Virginie's [Arnaud, Elizabeth's stunt double] quite the acrobat. That whole aspect of Amanda's background of being a circus performer is added to it and is very slick. I always go "You're my hero Virginie! You make me look so good." She's like flipping all over the place. It's a lot of hard work, but it gives me the opportunity to work out a little bit. Otherwise I would have no time at all. It keeps me physical.
EG: I just saw Adrian a couple of days ago; he was here in Paris. But I have been so busy; I don't even have time to turn around at this point in time. Peter Winfield, [Methos], is a very good friend of mine; he and his wife are dear friends. Jim Byrnes, [Joe], I guess the last time I saw him was one of the last episodes in Toronto and that same weekend we flew to Vancouver to see Peter Wingfield and Carolyn, his fiancée get married. Jim sang at the wedding and I did a reading at the wedding. It was great. We are just friends…through time. They are just great, great people. I wish they were on the show. I don't understand why they are not, because they truly made the show come alive, not just because they are great actors but because of their personalities and who they are as people. I am missing them so much. Prevue: Tell us about your photography. EG: Oh, I haven't done photography
in so long. There are so many things I haven't done in, since at least
June or before, since I started training for the show. I used to do
a lot of black and white photography. I did some shots for Jim for
his album cover. I shot them here in Paris actually. Those are things
I'll get back to eventually. I just haven't had the time. I'm a painter;
I left Hollywood and went travelling around and lived in Arkansas
for a while with my parents doing painting and mosaic work. I love
it very much but have just not had time. I did make a documentary
film, that Independent Film Challenges bought and which they are re-editing.
It's called The Damn Deal financed by the Willis Entertainment Fund.
It's about 3 female impersonators I met in Arkansas and they compete
in beauty pageants (female impersonator pageants). So I did a little
film about them. It's good because they're so good. It's very intimate,
very honest. Telling what it's like to be a young gay man in the South.
Ideas on competition, what makes a good person, politics, etc. We
covered every subject I could think to ask them. I'd like to do that
some more. I would really like to delve into the documentary field.
I feel I'm well suited for it. EG: Oh, I doubt it. I have no desire. It's a real roller coaster. Episodic television is a real roller coaster. I've done a lot of episodic television in my career. It is one of the hardest things to do, mainly because of the pace especially on the Highlander show the amount of content, the actual scenes that you cram into an hour show is amazing. It is at breakneck pace. Too much pressure. I really don't see how Adrian did it. I guess maybe if I were on the show for 6 years, I guess maybe I would get the bug because it would be more of a challenge. If I ever directed anything it would be more of a documentary, a more simple film. Watch me with a huge film on my roster. No, at this point I can't imagine doing episodic television at all.
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Elizabeth Gracen talked to
us right before Christmas from Paris on the set of Highlander: The
Raven. Elizabeth's first feature film role was opposite Charlie Sheen
in Three for the Road, and was followed with a starring role in Marked
for Death opposite Steven Seagal. She also starred in Lower Level
and Discretion Assured with Michael York. In addition to
her recurring role on Highlander: The Series, her television work
includes telefilms 83 Hours Till Dawn with Peter Strauss and Robert
Urich for the CBS network, Shelly Duval's Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll
and Mr. Hyde, Sidney Sheldon's The Sands of Time, Death of the Incredible
Hulk and a starring role in the series Extreme for NBC. 
Prevue:
What's your least favorite?
Prevue: The show Highlander:
The Raven wasn't even out and there were already comments on it. I
thought it was funny that these comments were written before the show
had even started and these people were dogging it already.
Prevue:
What's it like working with Paul [Johannson]?
Prevue:
Paul told us you even work on your day off, working with the swords
and the like. Tell us about that.
Prevue: Do you still get together with
anyone from Highlander: The Series?
Prevue: Anything that
you want to tell your fans?