Tales from
THE NEVERENDING STORY

VICTORIA SANCHEZ
as
"XAYIDE, THE DARK PRINCESS"

She sits tall and rigidly on her black horse and points a ringed finger at a new victim captured by her Dark Knights.

"Neutralize him!" she snarls.

This is Xayide, the beautiful but sinister Dark Princess of Fantasia. She commands the Dark City, a desolate town peopled by brainwashed workers called Drones. The City is surrounded by a wasteland of toxic, molten lava.

She is, of course, the inspired creation of Bastian Bux, a 12-year-old boy, who, in reading the Neverending Story book, brings to life such fantastical characters as Xayide.

"She is wonderfully witch-like, a child's interpretation of evil," says Victoria Sanchez, who plays the Dark Princess in The Neverending Story.

Xayide is the polar opposite of her sister, the Childlike Empress, who rules with love and wisdom from the Ivory Tower. The Childlike Empress is also an imaginary creation of Bastian's and represents all the grace, virtues and goodness of womanhood.

The relationship between Xayide and the Childlike Empress is a recurring story arc in The Neverending Story television series and is based on the archetypal battle between good and evil.

To understand the personality of Xayide, one must know her past. As a child, Xayide was ambitious and resented having to share the reins of power with her younger sister. Against the strict instructions of a great wizard, The Curiosity, Xayide shape-shifted to the human world, thereby bringing The Nothing to Fantasia. As a punishment, The Curiosity put a spell on Xayide, taking away her magic powers. Banished, Xayide created the industrial wasteland of the Dark City. She rules over an enslaved population of Drones, who fear but don't revere her. In her quest to attain absolute power, she and her Dark Knights have set out to destroy all the beauty, creativity, colour, memory, hope and spirit in Fantasia by spreading The Nothing.

"Xayide's ambition is to command the entire world," says Sanchez. "She lies, manipulates, intimidates and destroys to get what she wants. She never gives up."

There is a lot more to Xayide than meets the eye. Says Sanchez: "Xayide is evil because she's bitter. She feels she didn't get the appreciation she deserved. So she's trying to get her revenge for being treated unfairly. I sympathize with her."

The challenge that faced Sanchez when she auditioned for the role of Xayide was how to interpret her. "There were different ways I could have played her," she says. "Very big, natural, wanton…"

She decided that malice was the key to Xayide. "The Dark Princess reminded me of the wicked and terrifying Maleficent in The Sleeping Beauty. I also thought about Gloria Swanson's interpretation of Norma Desmond in Sunset Boulevard. Both characters are powerful, evil and confident but deep inside them there is sadness."

Since childhood, Sanchez has always wanted to act. "I would pretend that I was a princess, a detective, a gang leader, or Scarlet O'Hara," she says.

After graduating in Performance Art, Sanchez went on to film and television work. "I've played a native Indian girl, a spoiled brat, an angel from heaven, a clumsy girl and even Medusa," she says.

Her role as Medusa in Big Wolf on Campus comes closest to her role as Xayide. "Medusa was also vain and evil. Whoever looked into her eyes turned into stone," says Sanchez.

Sanchez has had other television series roles, among them Misguided Angels, P.T. Barnum and Student Bodies. Some of her television film credits include Sublet, The Promise and Sideshow.

When not acting, Sanchez is honing up on her multi-languages and accents.