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Cassidy Freeman on “Longmire” and what we didn’t see on “The Playboy Club”

If Cassidy Freeman looks familiar, it’s because you’ve seen her in several different kinds of shows, always playing memorable characters. Like Tess Mercer in Smallville, who constantly battled her dark side. Or the red-headed sultry vampire named Sage on The Vampire Diaries. But you might also recognize her from her brief stint on NBC’s canceled The Playboy Club, where Cassidy appeared all-too-briefly as Frances Dunhill, a woman-about-town who was using Nick Dalton as a beard to hide her homosexuality. Now Cassidy is part of the cast of A&E’s Longmire, which you may have started watching for its other major female star, Katee Sackhoff. Longmire, which has been a huge success in its first three weeks on air, is based on the Walt Longmire book series by Craig Johnson, which follows a police chief as he recovers from the death of his wife and faces re-election in his small Montana town. Cassidy plays Cady Longmire, Walt’s daughter who has come back to Montana from the East Coast to help her father move on with his life. (Sackhoff plays Vic, a deputy under Walt Longmire and one of his biggest supporters.)

Cassidy talked with us about her new character, what we missed from her lesbian character on The Playboy Club and her pick for the Hot 100.

AfterEllen.com: So congratulations on the success of Longmire. You must be pretty excited. Cassidy Freman: Thank you, yeah, very excited.

AE: Can you give us an overview of what we might expect to see from your character, Cady? CF: Absolutely. Cady is obviously Walt’s daughter. She’s like his humanity. She brings him back to his emotional self and she’s his heart and that father daughter relationship is really important and she’s kind of the only thing she has left now that his wife has passed away. You’re going to not only see Cady interacting with her dad privately but also in her own life in Wyoming. In the book she’s in Philadelphia but they wanted this character to be in Wyoming and be present. She’s a lawyer and she wants to go practice law but she doesn’t want to leave her dad. She worries about him and she wants him to grieve her mom and move on and he kind of won’t do that. It’s also think she’s a little scary to be away from the one person she has left in the world, in her family. It’s been beautiful because they love each other but they totally annoy each other sometimes. And she also has a romance on the show, which I won’t spoil but it’s pretty controversial and you’ll get to see the more serious side of the show with the crime drama aspect. AE: We have a big fan base on our site for Katee Sackhoff can you tell us if you two are going to have any scenes together coming up or tease anything? CF: We do have scenes together coming up. Not a whole lot, but some. And she’s great.

AE: What’s your relationship like with her on the show? Are Cady and Katee’s character Vic friendly? CF: I think they are friendly and totally respect each other but they don’t really know each other. I think that Vic thinks Cady Longmire is kind of a goodie goodie and is annoyed with her girl next door perfect daughterness and Cady is pretty quiet about the things that don’t make her perfect so she actually has more of a darker streak than Vic might not know about. It’s two strong women and they don’t necessarily have any beef with each other but at the same time they are kind of always eying each other like what are you up to.

AE: Which is interesting because you guys are pretty much the only major women on the show so I’m just wondering if there is anything that might happen in future episodes where you do maybe have more of a relationship or a friendship? CF: Yeah, I hope so. The creators of this show have quite a challenge to create not only crime drama aspects but also these complex characters in only 10 episodes and it’s really difficult. I think that crossing fingers that the show continues on that our relationship is going to be fleshed out more.

AE: What interested you in the part and in the show? Were you a fan of the books? CF: I had not read the books yet. My father had. The script came across my eyes when I was finishing Smallville. And you know, when you read things they kind of go in one eye and out the other if that makes sense and this one really stuck with me because it made me slow down while I was reading it. You read other scripts like the Charlie’s Angels and the fast scripts with fight and helicopters and stuff [Laughs] and you kind of get used to that pace. And then this script came and I read it and I had to actually slow down my reading to really feel what was going on and I thought that was really interesting. I thought it was really telling that this was going to be a different kind of show so I wanted to audition for it.

AE: I have to say that I was really sad The Playboy Club was cancelled because I really enjoyed that show and I wish we would have gotten to see more of your character. Was there anything that you had already filmed that you could tell us about that had happened between your character and Bunny Alice? CF: Yeah, absolutely. We actually filmed four whole episodes together. And only one of them aired. [Laughs] AE: I know! I was so sad! CF: Yeah, bummer. We had three more episodes and her relationship with Alice. We had those beautiful moments where they would flirt and there was this really great scene in the fourth episode that we filmed where I told her that if she wasn’t ready then that was ok. Trying to be really understanding because it was so difficult to have that kind of relationship in that time. And she said she was ready and it was a beautiful moment between the two of us where we both sort of signed on for this relationship. I was awaiting the next script and they were like “The show’s cancelled.” [Laughs] I was like “No! How can you cancel these awesome characters?” I thought that storyline was such an important thing to have on television and unfortunately they didn’t get to show it.

AE: Yeah, that was such a bummer because it was just the beginning of seeing you in that relationship and that would have been so cool to see. What drew you to The Playboy Club and that character that made you want to audition for it? CF: I actually originally auditioned for that reporter guest-star and when you audition for a guest-star they usually don’t give you the whole episode so I hadn’t even read the whole episode and I was like “Yeah, sure! The Playboy Club – that sounds awesome. Cool new show, shoots in Chicago — that’s where I’m from” and then auditioned for the reporter role and the casting director was like, “Actually, will you come back in and audition for a recurring socialite closed lesbian character and I was like, “Um, come again?” AE: [Laughs] CF: Socialite closeted lesbian? Are you kidding? I’m so there! What a cool f–king character to play.

AE: Yeah. CF: In the 1960s and especially in Chicago! I just loved that it was my home town, that I knew that city. I just thought the gay and lesbian movement in that time was so interesting to me and was such an important part of our history. I was really interested in The Playboy’s Club and Hugh Hefner and I know everyone has their options and I’ve watched various documentaries that paint him in various lights but without judging, it’s a part of our history in this country and people were just not ready for it. That’s OK though.

AE: Yeah. CF: I loved the idea and to play a character that controversial was super cool.

AE: Definitely. I was wondering too when you go to play a character like her opposed to Cady, do you consider her as a sexual being and do you consider what their desires are when you play them? CF: Yes, definitely. I mean look at the difference between Frances Dunhill and Cady Longmire. They are very different, they have very different energy. I think I start with voice and physicality. In The Playboy Club I had to think about the era. I had to think about how a woman would move back then, I had to think about how a lesbian would move back then, I had to think about it on so many different levels and once I have it in my body then everything seems to fall into place. There was this really great scene where I go into The Playboy Club and I’m sitting at the table and I’m looking at all these bunnies [Laughs] and their outfits and I remember thinking, “Frances would be so attracted to all these women but would have to hide that.”

AE: Yeah. CF: But yet she can kind of show it because it’s fantastical. So that was a really interesting scene to figure out what Frances would be paying attention to and sort of hiding her excitement at seeing these women in these costumes.

AE: Totally. That would have to be hard to be eyeing them but pretending not to be. CF: Yes she has a like where she say, “This place is really wild!”[Laughs]

AE: [Laughs] CF: And they were like “Oh, we can go somewhere else,” thinking that it was offending her and she’s like “Oh, no, oh, no, that’s cool.”

AE: Wonderful. I was also reading online that some people thought there were some lesbian undertones for your character on Smallville. I was wondering if you ever saw that or if you think people just like to read into subtext? CF: [Laughs] Yes, I think people do like to read into subtext. I also think that Tess Mercer was a really special character. I don’t think that she was a lesbian but I definitely think she could be that girl who would kiss another girl at a party.

AE: Yeah. CF: You know, to shock someone. I think she was really open and free in that way and just super-sexual. I mean, they set it up in this way where I had a lot of scenes with Erica and I’d be, like, fingering her French maid costume. AE: Right. CF:I’d be like “You get what this looks like, right? I mean, you’re not idiots.”

AE: [Laughs] Right, right.

CF: And they’d be like, “Yeah, no, no, no, it’s good.” I think they may have painted a few undertones but I don’t think that was really meant to be a storyline.

AE: Do you identify with any of your characters more than another one? CF: I have to identify with all of them or I can’t play them. I think Cady Longmire I definitely identify with and I think it’s easier because she’s the most natural character I’ve played to date. Depending on the character I might have to dig deep to find their normalism and humanism and the things that I can relate to. Like with The Vampire Diaries or with The Playboy Club – well, actually, The Playboy Club was actually pretty natura,l too. But Cady Longmire is pretty natural and I don’t have to dig that deep to find the things I relate to. I grew up in Montana half the time and I’m very connected to that part of the world and I love my dad. And I know what it’s like to want something bigger than you have so all those things made her super relatable to me. AE: Cool. I also saw that you attended the series finale party of The L Word. Were you a fan of the show? CF: I was a fan of that show. I loved that show, I thought it was a lot of fun. I actually got on the bandwagon late and then ended up watching a lot of it on dvd but I loved that show. I just thought it would be a really cool party to go to. AE: Definitely. And on our site every year our readers vote on the hottest 100 women and I was just wondering if there was someone you could nominate like a celebrity or woman you love would you say is the hottest woman. CF: A celebrity?

AE: Yes. CF: I’m like, “My mom!” No, I’m only kidding.

AE: [Laughs] CF: A hot celebrity – I’ve got to say i’ve always had it out for Maggie Gyllenhaal. I just think she’s sexy as hell. I think she’s different looking and I think she’s f–king awesome! [Laughs]

AE: Yeah! CF: I actually have a picture of her that I’ve had for about eight years that I pulled out of a magazine because I love the picture so much and I put it in my work folder. I have this sort of clear folder that has my headshots and resumes and audition work and whatever and her picture is on the back side of it facing out because I just think she’s so strong.

AE: She is. I’ve always loved her since Secretary. That was my favorite movie back in the day. I used to love her in that. CF: Yeah, that was a great movie.

AE: Anything you can tease about Longmire to keep people tuned in and watching? CF: There is a really big secret that is revealed at the end of the series and you don’t have to wait that long because there are only 10 episodes. So there is a big reveal at the end and you know, little personal reveals as we go along with my relationship and Katee Sackhoff’s – Vic’s – relationship and all that stuff so, definitely gets more personal as the show goes on.

Longmire airs Sunday nights at 10/9 central on A&E. You can watch episodes online at aetv.com.

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