Lucy Lawless (best known for her role in “Xena: Warrior Princess”) plays man-eater Lucretia on Spartacus: Blood and Sand, a new gladiator drama, that debuted January 22 on Starz to the tune of 660,000 viewers. It has been reported that the series has already been picked up for a second season.

She sat down with tvguide.com to talk about her role on the show.

“When you talk about it, it sounds like you’re doing a lot of sex scenes, but I don’t feel like I do that much,” she says. “My concern was that it fit with the story and that there wasn’t any gratuitous sex in this, and it doesn’t really trouble me as long as it’s relevant to the scene. It’s part of the story that they’re around in various states of undress. Human beings have always had sex, and a lot of business got done during these transactions. That’s what the sex is about.”

For Lucretia, the business of sex is to provide her husband, gladiator school owner Batiatus (John Hannah), with an heir — any which way she can, including sleeping with the gladiators at the camp. “She begins, what I think, is quite an abusive relationship with the chief gladiator, the champion, hoping that he might impregnate her,” Lawless says. “She’s desperate.”

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Have you watched Spartacus: Blood and Sand? What are your thoughts about the show?