She became an icon on the campy but highly successful TV series “Xena: Warrior Princess” (1995-2001). At 43, Lucy Lawless remains fit for battle – or, in the case of her current series, “Spartacus: Vengeance,” nudity. Among the New Zealander’s other assets is her voice. She once considered opera as a career path.

Currently, she is playing Lucretia, a Roman woman who has lost everything and stops at nothing to regain her power and position.

“Spartacus: Vengeance” airs on Starz at 10 p.m. Fridays. Excerpts from an interview:

Q. Were you into science fiction or mythology as a child?

A. No – zero. We did lots of acting, my friend Michelle and I. We were always adapting fairy tales and things and putting them on for the old folks. My mother ran the senior-citizens brigade or whatever it was called. So we would do that sort of thing all the time as play. I don’t know how this happened to me.

Q. I also read you were interested in opera at one point, but decided against it because you didn’t like the lifestyle.

A. Well, I thought I’d have to be a big fatty. No, no, really, the truth is that’s not my gift to sing that way. So even though I love singing to this day, not opera but other things, acting just comes first.

Q. Is your character on “Spartacus” more challenging to play than Xena was?

A. Yeah, because Xena had a moral compass that we relate to. Lucretia doesn’t. I think if you live in a society where subterfuge is the order of the day, then there is no morality. Everybody is stabbing one another in the back. It’s stab or be stabbed, and she’s survived a long time. She’s got her work cut out for her this season because things get really nasty. She is going to have to be extremely vigilant and clever to survive.

Q. How comfortable are you doing the semi-nude and nude scenes?

A. Not at all, zero comfortable. Oh, God, it makes me sick.

Q. It doesn’t get easier?

A. No, it doesn’t. You’d think it would, but it doesn’t. But you know what? You believe in the role, and you just soldier on through and be as professional as you can because the scenes are not about sex.

I don’t care what anyone says, it’s not porn. There’s a transaction of power going on. Somebody’s getting screwed, and it’s not about sex. (Laughs).

Q. What about your sons? Do you think about them seeing (the sex scenes) someday?

A. Oh, I do. I think about them a lot. One of them is a very sensitive person, and he knows academically that I have to do those scenes. It’s part of a role. But he does not want to see it. He does not want to see any part of it.

The other one is like his dad. He’s just a moviemaker. Even though he’s younger than the other boy, he’s much more able to cope with everything to do with acting. When he gets old enough to see it, I will be less worried about him.

My daughter works on the show. I think at 23 years old it still grosses her out. When those scenes are on, she turns her back or she’s not on the set. She doesn’t punish me at all for it. She’s very professional.