Gena Lee Nolin in her starring role as Sheena. Photo copyright of Columbia Tri-Star.
In today's Sci-Fi Blast From The Past, former Baywatch beauty Gena Lee Nolin talks about her role as Queen of the Jungle in TV's syndicated action/adventure series Sheena.
Back in 1938, artists S.M. Iger and Will Eisner created Sheena, Queen of the Jungle, the first successful female action heroine in comic book history. The blonde, curvaceous, scantily clad Sheena made her debut in Jumbo Comics #1 ready to take on all those who would dare invade her African paradise and threaten its inhabitants. Irish McCalla played the character on TV from 1955-56, and then Tanya Roberts took on the role for a 1984 feature film.
This fall, former model and Baywatch babe Gena Lee Nolin swings into action as the star of Columbia Tri-Star’s syndicated action-adventure TV series Sheena. Still beautiful and sexy as ever, Sheena must protect her wild untamed domain from such modern-day dangers as special Ops forces, corporate moguls and fortune hunters. Like her predecessors, she does so by using her brains, cunning and, if necessary, a powerful right hook.
“The history surrounding the character is what first attracted me to the role,” says Nolin. “Sheena has been around since the 30s and is a strong and, more importantly, independent woman, which was something almost unheard of back then. I had a chance to talk with the original Sheena, Irish McCalla, before we began filming the show’s pilot episode. She lent me her diaries to read, which she wrote while playing the character on TV. I found them absolutely fascinating and a great help to me when it came to deciding how I wanted to portray Sheena.”
Climbing trees and swinging through the jungle is second nature to this former tomboy who grew up in Duluth, Minnesota. Nolin was in her senior year of high school when her parents divorced and she and her mother moved to Las Vegas. With her friends’ encouragement, the actress began to enter modelling contests. To her surprise, she won the Ford Agency and Elite Agency regional “Look of the Year” competitions, and the Miss Barbizon USA national title. “They flew me to New York, I did the advertisements for all of their magazines and thought, ‘Wow, this is great.’ ”
With no intention of either continuing modelling or pursing acting, Nolin eventually moved to Los Angeles and enrolled in Santa Monica College. It was her then-boyfriend-now-husband Greg Fahlman who told her about an opening for a Showcase Model on the daytime game show The Price Is Right. With his help, she arranged to meet with the producers and they hired her on the spot.
“I was terrified,” recalls the actress. “I was the type of girl that wasn’t shy until the cameras were turned on. At first, it was hard for me to go on stage and show a microwave oven or whatever. Fortunately, I overcame my fear and grew to love the job. Then the producers of Baywatch called and asked me to come in to audition for a part on the show. I’d never acted before. I had never even seen a script until I began working on the series, so I took baby steps when I started out. God was definitely watching over me and still is.”
After playing lifeguard Neely Kapshaw for three seasons on Baywatch, Nolin left the series to spend more time with her husband and newborn son. In the midst of her break they moved to Scottsdale, Arizona to live part-time. She was enjoying a quiet life as a wife and mother when Douglas Schwartz, the creator and one of the executive producers of Baywatch, called her. “Doug said to me, ‘Listen, I know you’re taking some time off, but you’ve got to do this TV pilot of mine. Hundreds of women have already auditioned for the role but the only one I can see in it is you. You’d be perfect.’
“My first thought was, ‘Wow, what a nice thing for Doug to say.’ Then I asked myself, ‘Do you really want to do this again?’ After all, I left Baywatch to have a normal life for a while and be there for my son. I thought about it long and hard, discussed it with Greg, and then I called Doug and told him, ‘OK, I’ll do it.’ I had to audition for Columbia Tri-Star to prove myself to them so to speak. So I did and here I am today, the Queen of the Jungle.”
In both the comic books and original TV series, Sheena had a friend named Bob, a trader who was her romantic interest and daring sidekick. In this new version of Sheena, Nolin’s character meets up with Matt Cutter (John Allen Nelson), a rogue American adventurer who will do just about anything for a buck. Sheena eventually manages to persuade Matt to work with her to help protect the jungle.
“Matt and Sheena start off as enemies,” says Nolin. “He has to really prove to her that, deep down, he’s a gentle spirit who truly loves nature and the world she lives in. Matt intrigues her and vice versa and there are hints that this may lead to a romance. For now, though, they share a deep friendship much in the same vein as the Cybill Shepherd/Bruce Willis one on Moonlighting. They have this wonderful banter back and forth. John and I have a lot of fun working together.”
Sheena’s oldest friend and confidant is her spiritual mentor Kali (Margo Moorer), the last living member of a native tribe, the Kaya. Kali raised Sheena after a tragedy in the jungle killed her real parents and left her orphaned at a young age. “Kali is a Sharmaness with incredible powers who watches over Sheena and treats her like a daughter,” explains the actress. “My character has a great respect for her and often seeks her advice in matters of the physical and spiritual worlds.”
Kali’s people possessed the ability to shape-shift and she has passed on this gift to Sheena. “In times of danger, my character can connect with the soul of an animal by looking into its eyes and turn into that beast. Unfortunately, if Sheena remains in that form for too long she will start to take on characteristics of that particular animal,” says Nolin. “I’ve seen the actual finished process on the screen and it looks amazing. Basically, they take a close-up shot of my eyes and then take a shot of, let’s say, a lion’s eyes and layer it over mine. Computer graphics are then used for the actual ‘morphing’ and voila! In just a few seconds, Sheena becomes a lion, a tiger or other denizen of the jungle.”
Unlike Baywatch where she was part of an ensemble cast, Nolin is the star of Sheena and, as such, has certain responsibilities not only in front of but also behind the cameras. “When I was on Baywatch I always looked to David Hasselhoff to set the tone on the set because he was, after all, the show. With Sheena being my series it’s up to me to do that,” says Nolin. “Luckily, our cast and crew are really down-to-earth and, like me, are here to have some laughs, but, most of all, turn out a show that we’re all proud of.
Steve Eramo
As noted above, photo copyright of Columbia Tri-Star, so please no unauthorized copying or duplicating of any kind. Thanks!
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