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Interview With Thea Gill

If you haven’t had the pleasure of experiencing the hot mess on here! Networks that is Dante’s Cove, then you’re missing actor Thea Gill in her most recent lesbian role: the mysterious, magic-addicted, maniacal Diana Childs.

Until recently, Gill was best known to gay audiences for her role as Lindsay, one half of the only lesbian couple on Showtime’s Queer as Folk. After Queer as Folk’s fifth and final season, Gill immediately traded in her snow boots for beach sandals and joined the clothing-optional, camptastic boys and girls on Dante’s Cove.

Gill was the recipient of the 2003 National Leadership Award from the National Gay and Lesbian Task Force and the 2006 Spotlight Award from PFLAG of Washington, D.C. She also happens to be a jazz singer and a MySpace avoider. She didn’t sing for us, but she did admit that it’s time to give in and get her own MySpace page.

AfterEllen.com: Congratulations on another season of Dante’s Cove. Thea Gill: Thank you! I just did a marathon [and] watched all the episodes the other night. I was fascinated by how Diana spiraled into hell. When we were [shooting] it, I was suffering a lot playing her.

AE: Dante’s Cove characters are over-the-top crazy. Or naked. Or both. Diana spiraling into hell makes perfect sense. TG: It turned out to be quite hilarious.

AE: I can’t wait to see that. Is Diana a lesbian, a bisexual, or does she not label herself? TG: She’s very attracted to both men and women, but she’s kind of addicted to her mission in Tresum [the magical force in Dante’s Cove], her life as a witch, and putting balance into [the cove]. In the third season, she doesn’t have much time for fooling around. She’s always striving for forces being equalized. Unfortunately, she doesn’t quite achieve that.

AE: You say she’s addicted to Tresum? TG: She has to be. That’s her one calling in her everlasting life.

AE: So no magic sexy time for Diana? TG: You get a little whisper here or there of who she likes and who she has the hots for, but you don’t really see any heavy, hot action.

I think maybe people are tired of seeing that with me. I’m starting to get too old for that kind of stuff. [laughs] I used to be young and fresh on Queer as Folk and now I’m shriveling up.

AE: There are many people out there who would disagree. Besides, QAF took place in Pittsburgh, but Dante’s Cove residents live on a tropical island and run around, nipples to the wind. Sex is never far from their minds. TG: [laughs] Yeah, there’s a different climate. In Tennessee Williams’ plays, the heat always plays a big character. The weather is so important to the environment of the story. Definitely the environment, the weather and the location of Dante’s Cove add to the magic and the mystery.

AE: Here are some mysteries I hope you can help us with. Your character, Diana, and Grace [Tracy Scoggins] are unmarried sisters, right? So why is Diana’s last name Childs and Grace’s last name is Neville? TG: Yes, that’s a very good question.

AE: And why does Grace have a British accent and Diana sounds American? TG: Oh, another very good question! [laughs] I think there might be a reason – in being disowned by [her] mother, [Diana] took on another identity, one of being the child of [her] father.

AE: You just made that up. TG: [laughs] And the accent? Well, uh, they’re witches, so they speak in tongues.

AE: Come on. TG: You’ll see a little bit of an accent come about with Diana in the later episodes. You’ll be wondering why she suddenly adopts an accent.

AE: I wonder about a lot of things with this show. TG: It’s the whole history of the rivaling sisters.

AE: So, your story arc gets even more exciting? TG: You should see the fifth episode. I’m tearing my frigging hair apart. I tear patches to tatters. You know, it’s painful. [laughs] It’s painful! AE: You and Tracy are fun to watch together. Tracy doesn’t really have an accent, does she? TG: No.

AE: I guess if I didn’t want that bubble burst, I shouldn’t have asked. Is there anything spoilerish about this season you can tell us? TG: Grace and Diana have sex.

AE: What? TG: [laughs] I’m just kidding.

AE: With Dante’s Cove you never know. TG: [laughs] Well, that’s right. No, I’m sorry. I won’t spoil anything for you for this season.

AE: Yeah, thanks. So, you also just finished shooting Mulligans, a film written by your Dante’s Cove co-star, Charlie David. What was that like? TG: In Mulligans, I get to play a straight woman, the mom.

AE: That’s a change for you. You’re a married, straight actor, but you’ve spent many years as a professional lesbian. TG: You think? [laughs] No, no.

AE: Playing a lesbian or a bisexual is old hat by now. TG: I guess I’m used to it now. I’m [more] curious, as an actress, what my next love scene will be. What will that be like? If I ever get one again.

That role that I played in Charlie’s film, the mother – oh my Lord, it was huge. I ultimately came out of the experience a stronger, deeper actress, because I had to go to places in that piece that I haven’t had to go to before.

I hope my work was OK, I really do, because I tried to break boundaries for myself, tear down some shutters, open the windows, and let the light or the night shine through.

AE: You recently moved from your native Canada to Los Angeles. TG: I thought it was time I became more introduced to the industry here in Los Angeles. When I was in Canada I was just an actress going for the auditions, doing my best as an actor and then [leaving].

Here there’s more of a star system, and the emphasis [is] on image and persona. I’ve been struggling with that a little bit because I’ve always prided myself in just being me.

I’ve been told to watch my behavior. So the wild aspects of Thea, or the restless parts of me, have to be tamed a little bit. And the nice, conservative, sweet girl parts of me have to be heightened.

AE: Maybe you can still be wild, restless Thea, just not until people get to know you. I saw you at the Point Foundation awards dinner. Events like that allow you to introduce yourself to the local community, no? TG: You know, I’m hoping that that’s true because when I was in Canada on Vancouver Island, it felt like “out of sight, out of mind.” Now I’m meeting new people every day – very creative people – and ideas are flourishing. It’s good.

AE: That’s exciting. TG: One’s attitude makes a big difference, and how one’s frame of mind is. I feel I don’t know where my home is right now. I have a beautiful little coach house here but, you know, I feel like a bit of a wanderer. I feel a little nomadic right now.

My husband is back home in Canada and he has his job at the university, and here I am on my own, without the structure of the job or the series. So I’m living an independent life for a change. And with that comes experimentation, and figuring out how to be independent and responsible, and how to behave.

AE: Behaving can be tough. TG: I lost a little bit of my faith in people. But then, when I had the lowest faith in people, I bumped into Wallace Shawn at [a] screening and immediately my whole faith in humanity was restored.

AE: I made eye contact with him on a street in Manhattan. That was cool. TG: I think he’s fantastic. I had sat beside him at Lincoln Center, to watch Tom Stoppard’s The Coast of Utopia. It was just by accident that I sat beside him, and I was very well-behaved with him at that point. We got into a conversation and he was so sweet and so very gracious.

And so a year goes by. Halloween this year, I see him at his premiere [for] Southland Tales. You know what? He remembered me. I couldn’t even remember the play because I was so stunned to be seeing him again. He remembered me, he remembered the play. He remembered that we had a couple of mutual friends.

Then, of course, as I proceeded to get a picture with him, my friends told me, “Thea, you should really watch out for being a fan.” You know what? I don’t know about that. I’m glad I was honest about how I felt. I was genuine with my feelings. And yes, maybe I’m not supposed to act like a fan here in Hollywood. But f— it, you know?

When you bump into someone who you adore, worship and idolize – someone who gives you a sense of faith in the world and something that is progressive and positive, and gives you a good feeling about life, and about what you’re doing, and that there’s hope for the future – when you meet someone who does that to you, you can’t help but be a bloody fan.

AE: But how do you really feel about Wallace Shawn? TG: [laughs] I have had people come up to me and be excited to see me, so I respect what being a fan is about. I respect worship and respect. I respect respect. I love it when someone shows me their affection for my work, and I am grateful for it. It’s important to let people know when we like something of theirs. AE: Are you homesick for Canada? Do you miss poutine? What is that anyway? TG: Oh, that’s so funny. I was at a dinner and met a food writer. She told me there’s one Canadian restaurant in Los Angeles. So I said, “What does this restaurant serve? I’m curious: What are the Canadian dishes?” And she said one is poutine, and I didn’t realize that was particularly a Canadian thing, but it is. It’s like french fries and gravy.

AE: Poutine sounds classy. In New Jersey, it’s just called fries and gravy. TG: [laughs] Yeah, it’s french fries and gravy, but it’s not a regular delicacy here.

AE: We should go out for poutine some day. TG: We should go out for some poutine.

AE: That sounds dirty, but I really just mean fries and gravy. TG: [laughs]

AE: So, what are you planning to do while the writers are on strike? TG: Well, I’m going to get [a] MySpace [page]. I’ve been denying and rejecting MySpace for so long, but I’m realizing that it is a good marketing tool. So, I’m getting a MySpace [page].

AE: Well, look, you held out as long as you could. TG: Yeah, yeah. I know, but you can’t really do it for much longer, though. Everyone needs a MySpace. There’s a Thea Gill fans MySpace, but I don’t have my own official MySpace.

AE: I have an idea for you for after the writers’ strike. I see you playing one of those deeply damaged female teachers who has an affair with her underage male student. TG: Oh, that would be good. Yeah, that would be a good role for me.

AE: Plus, for some reason, those teachers are always blond. TG: I could start with my hair up in a bun, like the librarian look, and slowly let it all fall down. Unbutton my blouse and …

AE: Exactly. TG: Yeah. And then the boy – or the girl – pants in ecstasy over me, in need of me. But yeah, I’d love to [do] that.

AE: Sounds like you could tear that role up. TG: Anything off-center is up my alley.

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