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January 3, 2001
As the title crimefighting chick in Sci-Fi Channel's sexy new serial Black
Scorpion, Michelle Lintel gets to take down evil, tool around in a
cool car, and schmooze with superheroes galore.
For example, she's been hangin' quite a bit these days
with none other than Adam West, aka TV's classic Batman, who plays the
villainous Breathtaker on Black Scorpion. "He's an icon!"
Lintel enthuses. "There is no other Batman. Those movies we saw in
the last ten years? Not it. Adam West -- that's it. People have such fond
memories of him [of] watching him as a kid. And he's just so cool with it
all. He was telling me the other day...he loves Costco. He bought this
cashmere sweater from Costco. It's like, 'You're Batman! We are not
having this conversation!'"
So Batman's a power shopper? We never knew! Still, West
and his classic show provided plenty of inspiration for Black Scorpion
(debuts Friday, Jan. 5, 8 pm on Sci-Fi Channel), which was
co-created and executive produced by cult filmmaker Roger Corman. Like the
'60s Batman, the show melds campy comedy with comic book-style
action -- and throws in a dash of playful sexiness for good measure.
Lintel stars as Darcy Walker, a stand-up LA cop who leads
a double life as the butt-kicking, black latex-wearing Black Scorpion. As
Darcy, Lintel has a staunch partner (Scott Valentine) and a by-the-book
lifestyle. As Black Scorpion, she has a cachet of high-tech weapons, the
sleek, super-fast "Scorpionmobile," and a burning need to avenge
her good-cop father, who was murdered by West's Breathtaker.
The dual role is great fun for Lintel, who enjoys
balancing the seemingly disparate aspects of the two characters. "I
am, for the most part, very ethical, very helpful and sweet as Darcy
Walker," she says, chatting via phone from Los Angeles. "But
when things have to be done and no one else is doin' it, that's when Black
Scorpion steps in. Someone's got to do it!"
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| Check out that "Scorpionmobile." |
Though she has West and other seasoned vets to call on for advice (Lou
"Hulk" Ferrigno and Frank "The Riddler" Gorshin are
also slated to appear as villains), Lintel is no stranger to certain
superhero trappings -- she has quite a thing for martial arts, having
trained extensively in Tae Kwon Do.
Way back when, Lintel got her start knocking out
competition of another sort -- on the teenage pageant circuit. A former
Miss Kansas, Lintel got into the pageant thing for one simple reason:
"My mom," she laughs. "I could sit here and go, 'Well, I
was thinking it might be good...' My mom. Good old mom. The good thing
was, she wasn't a stage mom. She just said, 'Hey, you're very shy, I'm
worried about you. Let's do something about it!' And I was. I was a very
internal, private kid growing up. Cerebral or...psychotic, I don't know
which."
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Lintel stars as Black Scorpion...
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| ...and Darcy Walker. |
"[Martial arts are] such a big part of my life," she says.
"I've done so much Tae Kwon Do, but I've switched to Krav Maga. It
means 'contact combat,' and it's what the Israeli military uses for
self-defense. What's great about this art is that it incorporates all of
the other martial arts, as well as street-fighting. You really get a
taste of everything. Like, when somebody comes up behind you and sort of
grabs you, you know how your elbow kind of jerks? Krav Maga teaches you
how to use that natural reaction that you have, but in a way that will
just hurt somebody. A girl like me, I could take on somebody 100 pounds
over my body weight and really be able to do some damage."
Which means she does all of her own stunts, right? "I did most
of my own stunts," she laughs. "They wouldn't let me jump off
buildings and things like that...but I wanted to! So that counts for
something. As much as I could, I was kickin' ass."
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| Butt-kickin' 101. |
To her surprise, Lintel ended up winning her first pageant. Naturally,
she still has the crown. "It's in a box somewhere," she
confides. "I'm sure that will come back, and we'll see that on National
Enquirer. And they'll have these people from the past going [here,
Lintel affects a pitch-perfect E! True Hollywood Story cadence]:
'Now, when I first saw Michelle, when she was 15, she was terribly
shy. But I sat down with her and said 'You don't have to be like this in
life!'' I can see it all," she laughs.
So can we. But despite the fact that Lintel is on the verge of
becoming a bona fide sci-fi star, she's about as down to Earth as they
come. As we continue to chat, she reveals various guilty pleasures (she
has a soft spot for the ultra-cheese '70s game show Match Game)
and a penchant for shopping. And like a certain aforementioned
crime fighting icon, she's occasionally inspired to shop...superhero
style.
"Yeah, I do some grocery shopping the foam latex rubber suit
from time to time," she jokes. "I have to pick up a few
things, I'm in a mood. Batman's at Costco, Black Scorpion's at
Safeway."
--Sarah Kuhn is
cerebral and psychotic.
Check back on Friday for our advance review of Black Scorpion's
premiere! Photos courtesy of Sci-Fi Channel.
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