In case you haven't heard already, the new Starz series, "Spartacus: Blood and Sand," has a lot of nudity in it. We're talking full-frontal, kids. Did I mention there's a lot of sex, too? And a lot of sweaty, grunting, oiled-up dudes grappling with each other? Moreover, there's a lot of bloody violence, which is made either more or less graphic by the fact that it's stylized, "300"-style, with slow-motion streams of blood that hang in midair after spurting out of a man's jugular. As star John Hannah puts it, "We're really pushing the boundaries." Last night, Sling.com chatted with John Hannah, Lucy Lawless, and Andy Whitfield about their new series, which premieres on Friday (and has Starz so excited that they've already ordered a second season). See the full interviews, below.

John Hannah

Did you physically prepare for this role at all? You're shirtless in a lot of scenes.

Well, my character is just a businessman, so I don't actually have to fight. I didn't prepare anything physically.

Were you pointing and laughing at all the guys who had to work out and buff up?

No, I was impressed. Those guys worked really hard. They had to be on location for a month before we started, working out and getting fit. And not just getting fit in like, a looking-good kind of way -- a lot of the work they were doing on-camera was very physical, and to avoid injuries and be able to do the things their characters did, they had to be very fit.

You and Lucy have some pretty risqué scenes. Was it ever awkward? Did you have any sex scene mishaps?

Yeah, some of the stuff we had to do was pretty out there. There were certainly some things that I haven't done before, and things that Lucy hadn't done, and sure, you get embarrassed and you laugh out loud at some things that, if I were to tell you now, really aren't funny at all. But at the time, because of the tension and the stress, just the stupidest little thing makes you laugh. But better to laugh than to cry, I suppose.

What was it like to watch the finished product with all the crazy effects added in? Was it shockingly different from what you imagined while you were filming?

It's kind of nice. It makes for a nice experience -- we know what we've done, but how they add to that, and how they compliment that with the world that they create is fantastic. When you're filming, there's a leap of faith. You're reacting to something that's going to be added in later and you hope it'll look good.

Is there a particular scene that was especially different from the set?

Yeah, all the arena stuff, when we're sitting in the royal box -- everything else was added in later. Even the gladiators that we were supposed to be watching were just a director running around with a broom behind the cameras, giving us an eyeline and explaining what was happening.

So you filmed all the arena stuff in a studio while sitting in a little box?

Yeah, all of that.

This series is pretty bloody. Are you squeamish around blood?

You know, if you go back to like, "The Rockford Files," or "Bonanza," or stuff like that where people are shot and there's never any blood -- I think that's more annoying, when you don't see the consequences of violence. The violence we have here -- some people might argue that it goes too far, but it's of a particular graphic style. If you're going to portray violence, I think that you're behooved to show the consequences of that violence, and that is death and blood. It's not some satirized version where guys in black hats get shot, but you don't see any bullet holes or anything.

In a more abstract sense, do you think that there is such a thing as too much blood or sex on a television series?

Well, the boundaries are getting pushed all the time, and when people have had enough of it, then they won't tune in. At the moment, we've got the technology to film this in a stylized way. You know, it's like theater as well -- you look at something like "Titus Andronicus" and you've got people eating their own children and things like that. If the story and the script are good enough, then people will watch what the story is about, and if the story calls for certain actions, then it's the means of telling and illustrating the story, that's all.

Do you think that stylizing it makes it less risqu é ?

I think that stylizing it allows you to be more graphic with it in a way that removes you -- in a Brechtian sense -- from the immediacy of the emotion. So yeah, possibly.

Lucy Lawless

While you were filming, was it difficult to imagine all special effects that were added in later?

It's really not as hard as you would expect. All of your focus is on the other person in the scene, anyway.

Was it a huge shock to see how different the footage looked after all the special effects had been added in?

You know, you just get locked into the magic of it -- all of our expectations were so high, and the fact that we were able to produce these major motion picture-quality images on a TV schedule and TV budget takes some real genius.

There's a lot of buzz about your nudity. How did you prepare for it?

Oh, I ate a doughnut.

On a set with so much nudity, was it ever strange? Were you talking about it, or was it sort of ignored?

You know, it's really, really hard. In theory, I don't have any problem with it, but the reality of shooting those scenes is quite confronting and quite inhibiting, and you just have to get over it and get the job done. It's important for the scene; it's not gratuitous. However, nudity as opposed to sex scenes is such a different thing, because once you've been exposed to nudity for a while, it ceases to be an issue. There are people with no clothes on [in the series] all the time, because they're slaves, and that was historically accurate to portray them as such. After a while, you get so desensitized that all you see is the person, and it has nothing to do with their boobs at all. It's kind of a cool thing in a way -- it's true human interaction. You hear what they say, and you hear how they say it, and you look at their eyes, and you're not betraying stuff with your clothes. Once you take that away, it's more true. Anyway, you get used to it. It became a non-issue. We're so inhibited in our culture, so to see it be splashed up there in all its glory seems to be creating a huge buzz.

Do you think that people will be able to relate to the nudity aspect of the show?

I think they're going to be jolted and realize that they're not in Kansas anymore. [The characters'] relations to their bodies and sexuality and sexual identity -- to prostitution, to food, to slavery -- it's completely foreign to our current way of life. It totally blows your mind, because you relate to the people who are in this alien society.

Did you do any research on gladiators?

No! It's not my job.

The show got picked up for a second season. What was it like when you heard that?

Oh, it's wonderful. Starz has got some cojones, man. They got behind us, boots and all. There's posters everywhere, and they put trailers before "Avatar" and before "Sherlock Holmes" -- really big movies -- and I'm really, really thrilled and grateful, and we want to do them proud to rebrand that station. They deserve it.

You've done a lot of roles that are set in the future. What's it like to play one that's set in the past?

No difference. Human beings have always, I suspect, felt just the same.

Andy Whitfield

I heard you had to show up to the set a full month before shooting began so that you could get in shape for the part. What was that like?

It was pretty brutal. We had to work out for four hours a day, five days a week. Like, swordfighting, learning how to fall, martial arts, gymnastics, weights -- we were put through the ringer. We came from nothing, and we had a month to get ready to be naked and fight each other.

Were these your first nude scenes?

Um, I'd done stuff before, but not to this level. I kind of like it, though. You get used to it. In between takes, people are like, "You want to wear a robe?" And you're like, "No." And they're like, "Put on the robe. We're in the lunch queue here." You kind of get liberated by it after a while.

Were there any nudity mishaps on set?

Not really. I felt bad for the crew. They had no choice but to be there and witness whatever was presented, and it was a little weird for them, I think. But we were fine.

This is a big breakthrough role for you. Has this opened new doors for your career?

Well, this hasn't come out yet, so I guess we'll see. But Starz loves it -- they think it's the greatest thing by far that they've ever had to do with -- so I'm going back to start filming again in a few months. I'm having a rest right now. Nine and a half months of training like an athlete and carrying a show was a lot of work for me. I'm hanging out with my children right now.

Was it a surprise that the show was picked up for another season so soon?

No. The vibe before we wrapped the first season -- you could just see it in the producers' faces. They knew they had something very special. It's not often that everything falls into place, and I think in this case it did. We'd had the quiet word that it might, and so it was just good confirmation. And to go back to the set knowing that we've got a great show means that we're going to start on a whole different level.