When
talking to The L Word's Erin Daniels,
one thing becomes clear almost immediately: she's
really smart, as comfortable discussing French
Existentialism (she took a whole course on it in college), furniture
design (what she might do if she wasn't acting), or her favorite
books (anything by Milan Kundera, and all the Harry Potter books,
which she calls "candy for the brain") as she is talking
about what drives the insecurities of the closeted tennis player
she currently plays on Showtime's new lesbian ensemble drama.
Daniels
first got into acting when her mom (a clinical social worker) and
dad (an architect) enrolled her in acting classes as a child in
St. Louis, Missouri, and she began to pursue acting professionally
while an undergrad at Vassar, where she received a degree in architecture
and art history.
Daniels had a small but powerful role in last year's big-screen
thriller One Hour Photo, starring Robin Williams, but it's
her role as Dana on The
L Word that's really getting people's attention, as she
discusses in the following interview.
AfterEllen.com: How did you come to audition for The L Word?
Erin Daniels: I was actually in school again for
environmental design at the time, sort-of rethinking my career.
I was taking a break from acting because I was frustrated that all
the parts for women were so shallow--and whenever there was a part
for a thinking woman, the producers were always more interested
in big names and a lot of beauty.
Then
The L Word came along and I thought “OK, this is
something I could do.”
AE:
Did you immediately go for the part of Dana?
ED: No, actually, it was funny—I first read
for the part of Bette, then I read for the part of Alice, and then
one of the producers asked me to read for the part of Dana, and
it just sort of went from there.
AE:
What do you like about Dana? What do you find most challenging?
ED:
It’s such a joy to play Dana because she’s so complicated
and she’s still figuring out who she is; she’s struggling
with so many real issues and she doesn’t claim to have it
all figured out. She might pretend to, which is what a lot of people
do, but she’s still trying to figure out where she fits in.
That’s my favorite part about her, that she sticks her foot
in her mouth, she makes mistakes, she trips over her own words,
she’s not even close to perfect.
The
only thing I find challenging about Dana is when she has to deal
with really emotional situations, because I think you have to find
a certain amount of your own personality in the character you play.
So when she has really emotional events happen in her life, I go
through them with her, and it’s emotionally taxing. But it
feels great at the same time, because I want to do her as much justice
as I can.
Overall,
I’m really proud of my work on this show—I think Dana’s
a really honest character. She’s just lost, you know? It was
a challenge to blend the comedy and the drama, and that was one
of my goals.
AE:
How much of the character is in the writing and how much is your
spin on it?
ED: It’s funny, when I first read the script,
there wasn’t a whole lot of definition to Dana. But the beautiful
part was that we were able to sit down with Ilene [Chaiken] and
Rose [Troche] and Guin [Turner] and talk to them about ideas we
had; it was very collaborative, and a lot of times those ideas would
end up on the show.
It
was obvious to me from the beginning that Dana is defensive in a
very sarcastic way because she has something to hide. I think it’s
very honest when you see people’s flaws because everyone has
them. And for a woman who’s struggling so hard to fit in and
figure out who she is, who just wants so badly to be loved...I decided
to spin her that way, and in sort of a goofy way, because I think
most people are goofy…She tries so hard to be cool and it
just backfires, which (laughing) God knows I’ve done, so many
times.
AE:
Dana is really graceful and confident on the court, but awkward
and insecure off the court. How did you capture that so well?
ED: I approached it more from a psychological standpoint:
here’s a girl who grew up playing tennis, and she’s
really, really good at that. She’s capable of being herself
on the court because she knows she’s good at it, but off the
court, she has to suppress who she is.
When
she’s on the court, she can gauge where she is in the sports
strata: am I good? Am I acceptable? The more successful she is on
the court, the better she feels about herself, but the minute she
steps off the court, she has to struggle again. That’s a really
difficult way to live because it forces you to question your identity.
AE:
How did you prepare for playing the closeted part of Dana?
ED:
I did talk to a lot of people specifically about their experiences
being closeted--although it’s funny, a lot of my friends never
really were closeted—but I also know a lot of people
who really had to struggle with that.
But
I also believe it’s one of those human conditions, where you’re
hiding something that you want to be true to yourself about but
you can’t, so I sort of drew on my own experiences with that.
AE:
Did your friends give you any particular advice?
ED: Their advice was more emotional, around what
it’s like to be out to friends and not to family. I gave Dana
a backstory, which you may see bits and pieces of later on in the
series.
Dana’s
always been a lesbian, since the day she was born...
AE:
“SO gay” is how her friends describe her on the show...
ED: She is! She tried to fight it and she couldn’t,
she fell in love with the wrong person and when her parents found
it, it was messy. They’re in denial about the whole thing,
think it’s a phase and all that, very similar to the stories
I’ve heard.
There
will be episodes in the future that involve Dana’s family,
especially if we go to a second season. The pandora’s box
will definitely be opened.
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