Comic Con 2012: Entertainment Weekly’s Powerful Women on Television (aka Women Who Kick Ass)

Last week at Comic Con 2012, Entertainment Weekly once again hosted their Powerful Women on Television (otherwise known as Women Who Kick Ass) panel this time featuring the following actresses: Kristin Bauer van Straten from True Blood; Sarah Wayne Callies from The Walking Dead; Kristin Kreuk formerly from Smallville and now the star of the new CW series Beauty and the Beast; Nikki Reed from the Twilight saga franchise; Anna Torv from the soon-to-be retired Fringe and the one and only Lucy Lawless of Xena fame and more recently on the various incarnation of the Starz series Spartacus.

Sarah Wayne Callies, Anna Torv, Kristin Bauer and Lucy Lawless (Photo by Rueben)

Once the applause from Lucy’s presence on the panel died down, Entertainment Weekly writer Lynette Rice (who was acting as moderator) asked each lady to talk about the most ‘bad ass thing’ each of them have done with Lucy giving probably THE best answer: “I got arrested for protesting on an oil rig. I am guilty of protecting the environment”.

Kristin Bauer followed that up with sharing that while it wasn’t “bad ass” she did commit to wearing the yellow Walmart sweat suit in recent episodes of True Blood. Sarah shared that “I’m raising a 4-year old so I’m not a bad ass but I’m raising one”. That one statement obviously raised a big round of applause from the women in Ballroom 20, let me tell you.

Then when asked what the panelists’ think of the recent statement by Joss Whedon that the Wonder Woman movie has failed because it’s about a girl, as opposed to the success of the superhero movies focused on men. Lucy shared that her way to combat that way of thinking is that she will start to produce her own stuff while Sarah said that the way forward is with woman. Then, Anna commented that you’re only as good as the people you’re working with; but she also said that for every one female lead there are five men and she believes that can change.

The subject was then changed to what was the worst costume or outfit they were asked to wear, with Kristin Kreuk sharing that she was once asked to wear red lace lingerie while playing a character that was 15 years old and knowing how inappropriate that was; while Kristin Bauer joked that she is the most dressed person on True Blood, but most of what Pam wears is “uncomfortable and painful”. Whereas Lucy joked that “there is no ‘it’s gratuitous in my country’ – she obviously meant filming Xena in New Zealand and the costumes worn in that show.

Soon enough, it was time for the audience Q&A to start and among the things the audience learned about the panelists was the following:

Kristin Kreuk, Nikki Reed, Sarah Wayne Callies and Anna Torv (Photo by Rueben)

• Kristin Kreuk would eventually like to move away from acting at some point and get into producing project with a focus on women;
• Sarah would love to see women on TV being seen as strong without having to be physically strong or using weapons;
• That among the panelists role models are Sigourney Weaver, Holly Hunter and Cate Blanchett; and,
• The panelists would like to see the cliché of body image eliminated, allowing girls to not worry that they are not a perfect size 2 or tall or have perfect hair; and that there would be a change in how strengths and weaknesses in women are perceived.

Fans of the ladies on the panel can expect to see them returning to TV either this week with Kristin Bauer in True Blood on Sunday nights on HBO; this fall with Kristin on Beauty and the Beast on The CW, Anna on Fringe on FOX and Sarah on The Walking Dead on AMC or on the big screen this November with Nikki in the final Twilight movie. And, Lucy will be facing the courts for her recent arrest for protecting the environment so we will all see her in the news.