Yancy
Butler lets out a hearty laugh when asked about the look of her character,
Detective Sara Pezzini, in the TNT movie, Witchblade.
"She doesn't have outrageous breasts and she wears sensible shoes. I totally
agreed with those choices; I'm very happy about it myself," says the decidedly
petite Butler.
Based on the best-selling Top Cow comic book, Witchblade centers on a tough-as-nails
NYPD homicide detective determined to bust the mobster who killed her best
friend. While working on the case, she discovers the Witchblade, an ancient,
sentient weapon that attaches itself to a female host once a generation.
Capable of morphing from a bejeweled bracelet to an armored gauntlet to
a mystical sword, the Witchblade is a mixed blessing, a powerful mystical
weapon with a tendency to suddenly stop working at the most inopportune
times.
The daughter of Joe Butler from the '60s band "Lovin' Spoonful", Greenwich
Village native Yancy (her name is derived from an early Native American
mis-pronunciation of the word 'Yankee') first came to prominence in the
John Woo-directed actioner Hard Target (co-starring Jean-Claude Van Damme)
and later the short-lived NBC sci-fi series Mann & Machine.
"Goodness, Mann & Machine certainly is a favorite on the SCI FI channel,
[they] play it all the time, thank God," she says. "[But] I never thought
it would lead to my being an action hero; I sort of fell into it. You do
a couple of films and people start thinking you're a black belt, but, I
know from a business standpoint it's what I do well."
Butler is, in many ways, the perfect actress to bring this character to
life. Having paid her dues in Hollywood for the last decade, her story
somewhat parallels the difficult process of finding lasting success in
Tinseltown.
Firmly entrenched in "development hell" since 1997, Witchblade was originally
pitched as a syndicated television series by Oliver Stone's Illusion Entertainment
company. Later it was slated as a series for TNT and in 1998 was set to
be partnered with the troubled Babylon 5 spin-off Crusade. Following the
shutdown of Stone's production company in 1999, it seemed as if the series
would be just another development casualty. Finally in January, director
Ralph Hemecker, who has helmed episodes of Millennium and The X-Files,
was handed the project, with Stone's former Illusion partner, Dan Halsted,
as the sole producer.
In February, Butler was cast to play Pezzini. Following the demise of Mann,
Butler was cast to play another tough police officer in Steven Bochco's
Emmy and People's Choice Award-winning cop drama Brooklyn South. Premiering
to rave reviews from the critics, it seemed a sure hit during the 1997-98
season. While it received positive critical notice, viewers were decidedly
lukewarm to yet another story of mostly white cops in the racially diverse
borough of Brooklyn.
"We were surprised about Brooklyn South as well. I think that [network
executives] don't have the patience anymore. You've got to give the time
to build an audience," Butler says. "We were pre-empted often by the Olympics.
I think both you and Bochco were surprised. Thanks for watching. I knew
there was somebody out there," she laughs.
Returning to the topic of Witchblade, Butler describes what attracted her
to the part of the warrior woman/police officer.
"I
liked her duality. She's obviously very tough and very competent, obviously
more so when she finds this beautiful bracelet. [But] she's very vulnerable
as well. She's in a lot of pain. She's lost a lot of people. That makes
it all the more realistic, and I dug that."
The big question is how fans of the comic book will respond to the movie.
"I expect that there will be a lot of criticism of our translation, but
hopefully people will like it better," she says.
"Besides, I look very good in a pair of Levi's, and having grown up in
New York, I consider myself very strong. However, because people do associate
me with action, how do I say this... they believe my stick might be bigger
than it actually is. So it was quite easy to play a character that hits
so close to home."
That's
unexpected vulnerability from a superhero... "Oh, I'm not really a superhero,
you know. I just play one on TV."
