Saving the Arctic at all Costs

New Zealand-born actress Lucy Lawless, who was recently in Rio de Janeiro to launch Greenpeace’s Save the Arctic campaign alongside Sir Richard Branson, talks to the Guardian’s Susanna Rustin about her latest role as ecowarrior. “By joining in a direct action and risking a maximum of three years [for illegally boarding Shell’s Noble Discoverer oil drilling ship] in jail Lawless, who began as a singer but made her name as the leather-clad Xena: Warrior Princess on television in the 1990s, has taken celebrity involvement to a new level. ‘I never got myself confused with Xena, trust me. But I knew that she would be useful for this ecowarrior thing.’ She sounds utterly down to earth now; practical. ‘We’ve got to save the Arctic, you know!’”