Antonio Te Maioha is Happy "Spartacus" Resurrected Barca Even if it Means Suffering All Over Again

When the gay gladiator Barca came to a brutal end half way through the first season of Spartacus: Blood & Sand, most viewers figured that was the last they had seen of the Beast of Carthage. But when Spartacus star Andy Whitfield needed time off to undergo treatment for cancer, Barca got a second chance at life in the prequel Spartacus: Gods of the Arena.

Not much has changed for Barca in the prequel – he’s still a slave fighting in the arena for the glory of the House of Batiatus – but for Antonio Te Maioha, the actor who plays Barca, the second time around was definitely easier in many respects. He was already in fighting shape and filming took place in summer rather than winter – an important difference when one's costume mostly consists of a glorified leather Speedo, not to mention the fact the actors were constantly being sprayed down to give the impression they were sweating.

AfterElton recently caught up with the Kiwi actor via phone while he shared a watermelon with kids on a hot New Zealand summer day.

(Note: This interview was conducted before the last episode of Gods of the Arena had aired.)

AfterElton: Congratulations on being resurrected. How surprised were you when you heard Barca was coming back?
Antonio Te Maioha: It was great news and much needed as well.

AE: When you heard there was going to be a prequel, were you surprised that Barca was going to be a part of it?
ATM: They kind of slaughtered me in the first season, and I figured I had a pretty good chance of making it. No, it was great to find out that I was going to be involved.

AE: What do you enjoy the most about playing Barca?
ATM: He has the ability to react any way he wants to anything. It’s quite fun. He can either scream and yell and laugh or completely ignore something.

AE: Going back to the first original series, how surprised were you when the first couple of episodes became such a big hit? Did you expect that, or were you surprised?
ATM: I think I expected it during filming, based on how well Hercules and Xena and things like that have done, and this felt like the bigger brother of all of those shows. The way things were being filmed, I knew there were a lot of things that would appeal to viewers. I’m still not exactly sure how big it is because I haven’t been over to the States at all.

AE: It’s big. The first episode did even better than the original series.
ATM: (laughs) The feedback I’ve received on Facebook seems to be that people are really stoked on it.

AE: What was it like playing a character like Barca who is physically so powerful but ultimately he’s got so little power? When Batiatus tells him to go kill a kid he has to do it and when Batiatus ultimately kills him there is nothing he can do about it. Was that hard to play?
ATM: It was frustrating. I could relate to it on some level. Frustrating for having to live under the oppressor. He had to be good to the people that put him in bad situations. But getting his freedom was his ultimate objective. I don’t feel like I’ve ever played any bad characters, I just feel like I’ve played characters with objectives that get compromised. So if he has to do one thing he would do what he had to do to get closer to his objective.

AE: I’m curious, how hard was it to have to run around wearing so little? I guess you get used to it after a while.
ATM: It was definitely harder the first season because we shot in the winter. It was just very cold and the make up team was consistently spraying us with stuff to make us look hot. For me it was more difficult than the actual job because the fact that we spent so much time being sprayed with … crap. (laughs)

For the prequel it was a little bit warmer, so we figured out what to do to make it a little warmer so people were a little more comfortable.