Interview with Michelle Wolff

AE: The casting directors are looking for someone more conventionally feminine?
MW: Absolutely, and they can't see me doing that. Even though, once this director let me go there, he said that it was exactly what he was looking for. As an actor, I can let that feminine side out, I can change my clothes, my hair, my makeup, my approach to a part, and all of a sudden be much softer and feminine. It doesn't matter that that isn't really me, because I am an actor and I can do that. But when you go into Hollywood, they have a very tough time seeing you any other way but the way that they want to see you.

MW: Has it ever been an obstacle to you that you are out in your career?
AE: I don't think because I have never, not been out. I don't know, maybe. Maybe there was somebody who said, "Ooo we don't want to cast her because she is gay." It has been a little bit uncomfortable sometimes, when I've had a girlfriend on-set, but I don't feel like it has ever held me back.

I do look a little bit more like a lesbian then some of the other actors in Hollywood who are lesbians. I don't have an issue with that, that's how I look, that's who I am, and that is actually my strength rather than my weakness, I think. It's important for me to stay with my strength; it would be very easy to try and stay more mainstream, try and be more feminine, grow my hair long, not work out quite as much. There are all these things I can do but my point is why? There is a ton of people doing that. I am still going to be a step below that because that is really not my essence, so why not go with my essence. If the big parts and the great roles end up being lesbian, great, because I want to push lesbian films, I want there to be good lesbian films out there, to be great lesbian characters.

AE: So if you were to do only lesbian films your whole career...
MW: My fan base is in the lesbian community, and I'm totally fine with that. I want to do more stuff in that community because I think there is not a lot out there, and there is a void that needs to be filled. Lesbians desperately want good movies, they're willing to pay for them, so why can't we make them? I don't get it. There are very few full length, feature lesbian films out there. They're just not being made. Part of it is you can make a so-so movie, and even a really bad movie, and if it's a lesbian film, you will get at least some positive reception.

I think we all grew up watching TV wishing some of these characters were lesbians, that one of the Charlie’s Angels was a lesbian. (laughs) We wanted Sabrina to be gay. We wanted Cagney and Lacey to be gay, we wanted it so bad--why can't we have those strong, hot roles and they just happen to be gay? That would be wonderful. The fact that I'm out and that those are the parts that people tend to see me in, I say "wonderful."

AE: One of the complaints I've heard is that there is such an old boys network in Hollywood that the lesbians really need to create something like that themselves.
MW: I wish there was more of that among lesbians, because it would help. But I've found there to be much more of that with gay men, then with gay women. I don't know why with men and women it's so different. I think women have a much harder time supporting each other then men do. I would like to see more networks like that. I know there are a lot of organizations now that are forming for women in Hollywood, trying to create those networks, but there absolutely has to be more.