BYRON BREWER: Corinna, can you compare and contrast, in the reality of your miniseries, Sheena with Jane please?
CORINNA S. BECHKO: Jane is older, and wiser. She’s very brave, but also practical. She doesn’t let her temper get the best of her, having learned that it does no good. Sheena is still pretty unseasoned as far as dealing with a city environment, and sometimes lets her emotions get the best of her. She likes to solve problems directly, and right away. Sheena has a natural rapport with animals, much as Tarzan does, whereas Jane has had has had to learn that ability. Instead, she’s good with people, something that Sheena hasn’t quite mastered.
BB: How might this team-up been different, in your mind, had we seen Sheena join forces with the Ape Man in his very early days, barely away from Kala’s arms?
CSB: I think Tarzan would have been a lot quicker to judge and slower to ask questions. Sheena’s probably lucky she didn’t meet him then.
BB: How different would this have been in the jungle rather than London?
CSB: The jungle is the place that both Tarzan and Sheena are most at home, so they would have a much easier time there. In London, they have very few resources other than their wits and their finely honed senses. With few friends and a lot of enemies, it’s not easy to navigate a city!
BB: I know you did a lot of Tarzan research before you began this mini. What was the one or two things from all the diverse portrayals of Tarzan you viewed/read that you knew you did NOT want to use?
CSB: Well, there were some pretty “of their time” portrayals of women and people of color that definitely didn’t age well. That stuff isn’t much fun to read now, and some of is downright painful. I also didn’t want any scenes of Tarzan killing animals. That’s something that often turns me off in literature and film, so you won’t see any of that in this story.