Articles

An interview from Veronica Magazine, dating back to 1998.

Nikita

The deadly blonde rages over your screen at Veronica: La Femme Nikita. The actress behind Nikita is Peta Wilson. Peta: Nikita is a great woman.

De other side of the world gives us strong women; from New Zealand comes Lucy Lawless-Ryan(Xena, The Warrior Princess) and from Australia come Peta Wilson, better known as secret agent Nikita from the series known under thesame name.
As some kind of compensation for Danii and Kylie Minogue. Peta(28)already had an exiting past when she got in the skin of Nikita two years ago.
Peta: I come from a sportive family. Together with my father and my brother Robin I formed a golden team at sailingraces. We have won a lot of prices and were known all across Australia. I was also a pro-basketballer and played as youngest player for the national team. I am tall enough and my motivation was enough for two. The sportive prestations aside, Peta got some other publicity. She became a model. Peta: That is a dream when you are eighteen. De socalled world of glitter and glamour and beautiful people. I got in Paris and other European Capitals and walked on the catwalk until I had enough of it and I quit. The modellingworld did her no good. She got into a major depression and had trouble eating. Peta: Mentally everything can be explained, but when your feelings are all tied up, even the best advice cant help you. It can be a lonely life, where only looks count. I was just a thing designers could hang their designs on. I was not supposed to be a thinking, living creature. Ofcourse I made capitals. I was young and that world can be icecold. My soul wasnt there and when it isnt, you dont give a thing for the money.

Lets put the things in a row: La Femme was born in Sydney, Australia, grew up mostly in Papoea New Guinea, where she caught the Malaria. Peta:That is my youth in a nutshell. Always moving and travelling, along with my parents. Dad worked in service of the government and mum had her own cateringcompany. Malaria is awful, I was sick as hell. High fever, you know the drill. I come from a good, healthy family, so I turned out a strong enough girl.
Peta may have an Australian passport, her looks make her seem like someone from the Northern Countries, Like Norway or Sweden. Peta: Yeah, the blonde hair and the high cheekbones make it look suspisciously like it. I could go for a Swedish girl in Los Angeles.

At 21 Peta said her modelling career in Europe farewell and went to Los Angeles. Peta: I decided to go to L.A. with a friend. I had no experience with acting, but I decided to become an actress. Why did she feel she had more of a chance than all of the girls that grab their chances there? Peta: I didnt, I just hoped for it. I have an enormous amount of energy en the nessecary belief in myself. That is no guarantee for succes, but it is a good start. Even though she knew Hollywood could be as ruthless at the catwalk, she took her chances. Peta: If things didnt work out I would still have enough money for a ticket back to Sydney. I was lucky to meet Damian, who could show me around in movieland. Damian is Damian Harris, the son of Richard Harris, the english actor. Peta: Exactly. Damian just made a movie,Deceived, starring Goldie Hawn. The moviecritics put the movie down, but the public received it very well. So he must have been capable of something. The relationship didnt get her to play in any of his movies. Peta: I want to accomplish things at my own strength. And she did, in the form of La Femme Nikita. Did she see the original French movie? Peta: Ofcourse. Exiting movie, great acting. After watching that movie I had something to focus at.

Her character Nikita may seem cool and hard, she is still a woman with a lot of emotions, which she cant always combine with her work as ruthless killer. In the very first episodes Nikita is more of a killer machine than a human being. She is against her will recruted as a secret operative and has to stay alive. Even in those first few episodes she shows signs of being a woman with a lot emotions like love, and she is a operative who doe nothing by the book.
Peta: Nikita is a woman in the middle of a cold world of high-tech machinery and weaponery. Only when she takes of her sunglasses, she is human again. Nikiat must have something myserious, an illusion of being unharmable. But in every episode she shows to be vulnerable. And Nikita always gets manipulated by her higher forces. Nikita is a beautiful woman. And I admire her.
Can she name a strong woman herself, fictive or non-fictive, who she admires a lot?
Peta: My mother is a strong woman, who can make desiscions of her own. Fictive, as in movies, there are not so many strong woman. Lucy Lawless as Xena is a good example. There should be more.





Text: Lodewijk Rijff