Lucy Lawless at the premiere of Bedtime Stories, which she stars in alongside Guy Pearce. Photo / AP

Lucy Lawless at the premiere of Bedtime Stories, which she stars in alongside Guy Pearce. Photo / AP

New Zealander Lucy Lawless became an international television icon in the 1990s as the apparently fearless star of cult hit Xena: Warrior Princess. The part seemed tailor-made for the athletic actress, who'd originally intended to be an opera singer (until she discovered that opera singers follow a strict diet and can't stay out all night). Yet after 134 episodes Lawless called it a day and has spent most of the last few years raising her three children: Daisy, 19; Julius, 9; and Judah, 6. "Now my kids are relinquishing me and I'm ready to go back to work," Lawless says with a laugh.

The actress dipped her toe in the water with a guest-starring role in the last two seasons of yet another cult hit, the sci-fi series Battlestar Galactica (seen here on C4), and is now starring in her first major film role in recent years. Bedtime Stories - out in cinemas now - is a Disney family comedy starring Adam Sandler and, alongside Lawless, a cast that also includes Courteney Cox, Keri Russell, fast-rising British comic Russell Brand, Richard Griffiths and Australian actor Guy Pearce.

Adam Sandler plays Skeeter, a downtrodden hotel handyman who tells his niece and nephew elaborate stories, full of knights in armour and damsels in distress, that suddenly start to come true.

The likeable and witty Lawless, sporting a severe black bob that made her virtually unrecognisable, talked to View about her role in the film, why she loves wigs, and how she has become used to the Los Angeles smog.

View: So Adam Sandler is the put-upon hotel handyman. Who do you play?

Lawless: Guy Pearce is the hotel manager and I play his wicked and twisted girlfriend, who's also the hotel concierge. He's putty in her deviant hands of course! The original brief description of the character was that she was a "40-ish ex-model", which I changed to "bitter 40-ish ex-model" because she never saw herself as ending up as a concierge in a bloody hotel and her way of managing her disappointment is to sink her hooks into some eligible male, in this case Guy Pearce, who is wonderfully smooth and effete in the role.

View: And how about the jet black hair? Was that your idea?

Lawless: Well, it's all about the wig! And it evolved, because I had something like a flower pot on my head at one point, but once I put on this particular wig we all said, "Oh that's the one!" And personally, the moment I put on a wig I feel different, like I'm Jim Carrey in The Mask. It's very fun!

View: What was it about Bedtime Stories that made you want to get back to work?