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Interview with Michelle Wolff – Mango Kiss Star

AfterEllen.com: How did you get started in film?

Michelle Wolff: I went to school in Santa Cruz, and then I moved to San Francisco and started doing stuff there–theater and a little bit of television. But I knew that if I wanted to do something more, I’d have to go to L.A. I ended up going to L.A. for three months, and booked my very first audition on Chicago Hope. Nobody ever books their first audition but somehow it happened. I went on a couple auditions after that and I didn’t get anything else, but then Chicago Hope became a recurring role.

After about three months, I moved back to San Francisco, because I wasn’t quite ready to leave there, and then when I was ready, I moved back to L.A. I realized I had to live there if I was serious about acting, and that’s when things actually started rolling. I think I had lived there for about three months when I booked Mango Kiss, and they flew me back to San Francisco! It was like a month of shooting, and they put me up in this hotel which is about three blocks from where I used to live. I was calling my friends, “Hey guys, I’m back. Come on over to my hotel room!”

AE: Tell us about Mango Kiss.

MW: We started the film about four years ago, but it took a long time for it to actually get out there, because the film that we initially shot was not the film you ended up seeing; it was originally told from a different point of view. The producers decided the story wasn’t working for them as it was originally done, so they went in and re-worked the whole film to be from the point of view of my character, Lou, which required shooting some additional scenes two years later.

AE: So how did you get yourself to look like you did two years earlier?

MW: I got a call asking “do you still have that blue sweatshirt?” because this is low, low budget and we used our own clothes, and I’m like (laughs), “are you kidding me?” I had to grow my hair out a little bit, because it was actually longer and I can still see that my hair wasn’t quite the same. They were little things like that. I can see the difference, but fortunately, I don’t think anybody else can.

AE: How did the audience react at film festival?

MW: Audiences reacted really well. Mango Kiss was a good film, a beautiful film, and it explored a territory that a lot of people didn’t really know about or were kind of afraid to look at, but it does it with humor, so I think that makes it a little more acceptable to people. People really enjoyed it. I enjoyed playing the leading role for a change. I have had maybe two or three roles in mainstream Hollywood that I thought were challenging to me, roles that were big enough or interesting enough. In all the other roles, I tended to get typecast very quickly.

AE: Why do you think that is?

MW: I think that in Hollywood, they have a hard time accepting different kinds of images for women. When I walk into the room, they are not going to see me as the love interest of Tom Cruise. They say that I would make a great cop. If you’re tall, strong, and you have a little bit of an androgynous edge, they are going to make you the paramedic, or the firefighter. They have a very hard time seeing outside the box.

I was blessed to book a show on the Discovery Channel called Crime Time where I played a woman who is actually real and in jail for killing her son. This was a role that mainstream Hollywood would almost never look at me for. They have a hard time seeing outside of the box

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.

AE: What lesbian movies do you think are good, besides Mango Kiss?

MW: Tipping the Velvet is probably one of my favorite lesbian movies of all time. Not just because the lesbian content is great, but because it’s just a really good movie. Some of the other lesbian films I think have been very important were Go Fish, Clair of the Moon, and Deserts Hearts. The Incredibly True Adventures of Two Girls in Love was a movie I thought was wonderful.

AE: Any TV shows you think have done a good job with lesbian characters?

MW: I liked the fact that All My Children had a lesbian character that was very likeable, and to have the first daytime lesbian kiss was huge. I’m not a big All My Children fan–I don’t have time to watch soaps–but they are putting that in the middle of America. It’s not Will and Grace, it’s a show where the base audience is housewives in middle America, and they see a really lovely gay lesbian character that has crushes on women and kisses her girlfriend. Did they go far enough? Not as far as they do with straight couples but they are going somewhere and I appreciate that.

AE: Do you run into many out lesbian actresses?

MW: No. When I’m on sets, it’s very rare that I will encounter an out lesbian actress. I meet lots of gay crew members–most of the lesbians on the crew are out, because they don’t care. They’re not going to not get a job because they’re gay. But I think actresses are still terrified, just as the men are, and that’s too bad. I think that when men do come out, it does hurt their career. People have a hard time seeing a man kissing Naomi Watts if they think he’s gay in real life.

Hollywood has a stereotype of what the gay women looks like. It’s not the cute little tight-body blonde, it’s not that super-feminine thing, even though there are plenty of feminine lesbians out there who are working actresses, too. It’s almost like, if they were to come out, they would be seen differently, because people have an idea of what a lesbian looks like. I think that is one of the things that needs to get shattered first, this idea of the stereotypical lesbian. We don’t look the same, we just don’t.

AE: What would help get more actresses to come out?

MW: I think if there are more really good lesbian films out there, more actresses would be willing to come out and do those roles. People are afraid that if they come out, they are only going to be able to get lesbian roles–and there are just not many good ones out there. That might be part of it. If we bring up the level of lesbian films, we will tend to get more actresses who are willing to do the parts. There are plenty of actresses that people talk about and rumor about who still play only straight roles. It might tip the scale where they finally go. The whole thing with Portia–everybody knew Portia was gay. Everyone in the gay community did. She was at the bars; we knew who her girlfriend was, and all of that. It took her dating Ellen for people to go, “Oh she’s a lesbian.”

AE: She’s an example of somebody who counters stereotype and it is still working. We’ll see what happens now.

MW: So far, she’s doing great. She can play that high femme, and I think that people won’t have a big issue with it. I think the more that happens, the better it will be. If there are better roles, people will be a little less likely to say, “I’m going to be stuck with crappy roles if I make this career choice.” It just doesn’t need to be like that. For me it is the only way, it’s the only way I want to be, it’s the only way I am going to be because if I were in the closet and I ended up being a big star, I guarantee you someone would out me real quick. (laughs)

AE: (laughs) Too many ex-girlfriends?

MW: I don’t know about ex-girlfriends, but how would I hide? Not only that, but the first films I did were lesbian roles. I had people say to me, “Are you sure you want to do that?” when I took those roles, but I’m like, “It’s work. If you want to stereotype me, go ahead and stereotype me. At least I’m working.” From that I’ll go on to other roles, and I’ll be able to expand and broaden my horizons as an actor. But if you want to put me in this role and I think it’s a good role, even if it’s lesbian or butch or whatever it is, I’m going to do it if I like it. I’m not going to worry about how it is going to affect everybody else. I’m not that big. I am not worried about hurting my career in that way.

AE: What has been your favorite role so far ?

MW: I think Lou was my favorite so far, but part of that because it was so in depth and so lovely. Playing Julie Ray in Crime Time was also a huge challenge for me, and one of those roles that stretched me, which I loved. I loved playing a straight character; it’s rare that I get to do it. A lot of my Hollywood roles are very formulaic and not much fun, because I can do it with my eyes closed. I do it for the paycheck and the residuals. Some of it I will put in my reel, but my reel is full of that stuff. I don’t need that stuff, I need the other stuff.

I like the fact that one of my favorite roles is a straight woman with a kid. It speaks to the fact that it’s about the role–it’s not about anything else but the work. I’ve done a lot of different shorts that I have always had fun with. I only pick the shorts where there is something interesting, like my friend Michelle Paradise’s short film The Ten Rules.

AE: Do you prefer comedy over drama?

MW: No, I prefer drama. It’s just a little bit needier. As an actor I like going into that a little bit more. Although comedy is really fun, and I like doing it.

AE: Is comedy easier for you?

MW: No. Comedy is all about the timing and if you don’t have that timing, it falls flat. I think comedy is a little bit more challenging for me, just because it is not my natural place to go. There are certain people who are just funny people all the time–it’s like they are performing all the time–but that’s not my nature. I’m a little darker, and more guarded. Playing Julie was wonderful because I got to go into a very dark place and show it rather than putting those walls up.

AE: What do you have in the pipeline now?

MW: I have roles in two different features in the works. One of them is very, very dark and the other is a comedy. I did an episode of Without a Trace recently, and I’ve done some commercials. All of that stuff comes in-between, though–the big stuff for me is the lesbian work. I would love to do more with here!, because they have original programming.

AE: Any advice for aspiring actresses?

MW: This is a tough business so if you don’t absolutely love it, if it isn’t a passion, get the hell out, because it will drive you crazy. It’s hard going to audition after audition. It’s hard when you’re not booking, it’s great when you are. Your emotions are up and down. It’s a really, really hard business and I know if I ever stop loving it, that’ss when I’m going to be done. But I still love it.

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