Lucy Lawless was never interested in fantasy TV shows and films.

The 56-year-old actress made her breakthrough when she played a character named Xena in 'Hercules' and then landed her own spin-off show, 'Xena: Warrior Princess' - which ran for six seasons from September 1995 until 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 Issue magazine: "My heroes were all stage actors. I used to buy 'Plays and Players' magazine and saw myself as one day coming to London and doing theatre. London was the centre of that world.

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

"It was never the plan. And it was murder having to do all those stunts.

"I was known in school as Unco, for uncoordinated, so it was a horrible shock to do all the fight scenes in 'Xena: Warrior Princess'.

"I didn't watch fantasy or sci-fi, I'm just not into it.

"I'm into real people and exploring humanity.

"I will always watch Judi Dench rather than people with pointy ears."

And Lucy is still amazed at the huge cultural impact 'Xena…' had.

She said: "I was spirited away to Hollywood and doing cheeseball TV. There's nothing wrong with cheese, I love cheese. But looking back, it's not 'The Sopranos' is it?

"But the fact Xena had such an impact on people's lives would have blown my mind.

"It had this effect down the line of giving courage to people. So it's an honour to be an LGBT+ icon and part of something that makes people feel safer and more valuable."