SPARTACUS: BLOOD AND SAND: Season 2: Retitled SPARTACUS: VENGEANCE

Spartacus: Blood and Sand: Season 2 will be titled Spartacus: Vengeance. Spartacus: Vengeance is already filming and is currently filming episode 2 according to Spartacus: Blood and Sand star Viva Bianca. Viva Bianca recently sat down for an interview about filming Spartacus: Vengeance and Jon Hewitt‘s X. What she had to say fell pretty much within the bounds of our Spartacus: Blood and Sand: Season 2: Plot, Returning Characters List.

The interview is as follows:

UGO: Is it true that season two has begun filming, will be titled Spartacus: Vengeance, and will premiere January 2012? What can we expect for Ilythia this season, given her betrayal at the end of season one?

Viva Bianca: Yes, it’s all true. We’re shooting episode two as I speak. Season two is already looking like it will be dynamite. We’ve got a great cast, production team and awesome scripts. It’s been fascinating approaching Ilithyia this second time around, because the woman we meet at the start of season two is quite different to the bright-eyed, giggly young noble woman we first met in season one. Ilithyia has walked the dark side and now carries with her a suitcase of demons from from her very recent times at the Ludus. When once she was the character that knew nothing else but to have everything, now she has a lot to fight against and a lot to fight for.

UGO: I noticed in X that you have very physical fight scene with the antagonist, will we get to see Ilithyia being any more physical, or engaging in some fights of her own this season?

Viva Bianca: Well I did get one pretty gruesome fight in season one where I murdered Licinia with my bare fists. That was wild! As far as season two goes, I wouldn’t put anything past Ilithyia!

UGO: Andy Whitfield‘s illness is a real tragedy. Does he have any involvement in the coming season, creatively? What contact do you, or the cast and crew have with him on a regular basis?

Viva Bianca: Yes, to finally realize that Andy was not coming back to the show was a real devastation. His work in season two was extraordinary and we will always pay tribute to that. Andy is a friend of mine and I do stay in touch with him.

UGO: Have you worked with Liam McIntyre at all yet? As an actor, how does it affect your performance to interact with a new actor in the same role? Does Liam bring anything different to the table than Andy?

Viva Bianca: Liam is just gorgeous. He has all of our support and he has stepped up to the plate valiantly. It can’t be easy for him, to fill such mighty shoes with so much expectation surrounding him, but he is handling himself with grace and courage. The work I’ve seen of his so far is excellent. Of course, different to Andy, but to compare the two would be fruitless.

UGO: Spartacus has such commonplace nudity and sexuality in its narrative. As an actress, and for your role in X as well, how do you feel about that kind of exposure being so regular on-set? I imagine that must be a very unique vibe for shooting.

Viva Bianca: Well in actuality the nudity would only amount to about 3% of my working on set. Mostly I’m clothed. I think people get the idea we’re naked all of the time because when it happens it’s so riske and bold. Also we have a lot of extra’s that are exposed a lot more than we are, which adds to the ‘naked’, ‘sexy’ vibe of the show. So when it comes to a day where I’m shooting a scene that involves nudity, it’s still just as confronting as the first time I did it.

The manner with which those scenes are handled, however is with such professionalism, and care (and often good humor), it tends to all happen fairly painlessly. I think it’s important to understand the scenes relevance to the story. Spartacus is set in a time where that kind of exposure, the sex, the violence, was not blinked at. On another level entirely, it’s really quite exciting to be part of a breakthrough series that is walking on unchartered soil. It can’t be denied that the ‘risk’ element to the show is part of it’s success.

UGO: What, in your opinion was the worst thing Ilithyia has done over the course of the series? Would there ever be any redemption for her character?

Viva Bianca: Seducing that teenage boy in order to conspire the death of Varro (at the hands of Spartacus) was pretty bad… I don’t know if there will be any redemption for Ilithyia. It’s hard, when you’re playing a character, to even understand what that kind of concept means. I’m so inside Ilithyia right now, it’s virtually impossible for me to see an outside moral perspective on her.

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Source: Ugo