Monika Schnarre in "The Arizona Republic"

6-2 Actress Often Stands Alone

SECTION: TELEVISION; Pg. 49
LENGTH: 852 words
HEADLINE: 6-2 ACTRESS OFTEN STANDS ALONE
BYLINE: By Kate O'Hare, Tribune Media Services
BODY:

At 6 feet 2 inches tall and strikingly beautiful, Monika Schnarre is hard to miss. But in her role as the Sorceress on the syndicated action drama BeastMaster, which films in Australia, the statuesque blonde frequently finds herself alone.

"I'm sick of that bowl," she says. "I'm always looking into that bowl."

As the apprentice and acolyte of The Ancient One (Grahame Bond), the Sorceress lives in her cave, learning the ways of magic and observing the actions of the mythical world of the Mydlands in her crystal bowl. Her main focus is Dar (Daniel Goddard), the last surviving male of the Sula tribe, who can communicate telepathically with animals.

The Sorceress also is pining for her lost love, Sharak, who has been transformed into an eagle. But aside from the bird and The Ancient One, she doesn't get much outlet for conversation.

"I'm isolated personally," she says, "because when I go in and shoot, I do all my stuff pretty much on my own, or with one other character, and then the rest of the week I'm at home, twiddling my thumbs. That was hard, until I got a car.

"But for the character, I think it's good for the story line that she's always following the BeastMaster, but they don't interact much. I think it's good for the story line that she's trying to get his powers and is intrigued by him and, I think, fancies him a little bit. I don't mind doing my stuff in the cave alone. But I do get tired of talking to a bird. Often we don't have the bird there, so I'm talking to a can of WD-40, and I'm crying for him to come back to me.

"It really is a test."

Playing the Sorceress also requires Schnarre to wear a flowing costume with a dramatically plunging neckline (a seeming requirement for women's costumes in fantasy series).

"Well," she says, "it's not the most comfortable thing. Last night, I was watching the show (with friends), and one of the girls said, 'Monika, how do they get your bust to look like that?' She knows I don't have quite that much.

"I'm like, 'Well, lots of work, and it's painful!' I have a corset on and - I hate to make the boys at home sad - but there's a lot of padding and pushing and taping going on. It's not comfortable, the corset especially, because I can't bend at the waist. So at lunchtime, I usually have them release me."

But, Schnarre says, at least it's not the skimpy costumes favored by Xena: Warrior Princess. "I am pleased that the rest of me's covered up. I don't mind a little bit of sexuality, but it's not like I have on a miniskirt. Other than cleavage, which doesn't bother me, it's not too risque.

"Conversely, Daniel is half-naked. Equal opportunity, that's all I'm saying."

For better or worse, Schnarre is going to get her wish of spending less time in the corset this fall, when BeastMaster returns for a second season on Oct. 2. Schnarre is scheduled to appear in about a half-dozen episodes, and several new characters are being added to the series.

Goddard continues as Dar, with Jackson Raine as his sidekick, Tao. Also returning are Steven Grives as the evil King Zad, and Bond as The Ancient One.

New to the cast are former model Marjean Holden (Mortal Kombat 2, John Carpenter's Vampires, Speed II: Cruise Control), as the fierce warrior Arina, who tries to seduce Dar; Dylan Bierk (Relic Hunter) as another sorceress (but she doesn't appear until the second half of the season); David Patterson as the bloodthirsty Boy King; and Sam Healy (a woman) and Danielle Spencer (Mission: Impossible) as the dual faces of the deadly servant Iara.

Gone from the series is Emilie De Ravin, who played the demon Curupira, who has joined the cast of the WB's Roswell.

With a reduced role in the show - and not having to spend half the year in Australia - Schnarre may be free to seek other roles ... if co-stars who are tall enough can be found. "Every time I see a male guest star," she says, "I hear them whispering to the wardrobe lady, 'Do you have some inserts for my shoes?' They do, they wear all these lifts."

CYBERSPATIAL ANOMALIES ... To learn all about Dar and the Mydlands, head to the official site for the BeastMaster series (www.dars-home.com/). To learn what fans would like to be happening in Dar's world, visit the "BeastMaster Fan Fiction Library" (http://beastmaster_seriesff.tripod.com/).

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