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Interview With Leisha Hailey and Kate Moennig

When AfterEllen.com recently visited the set of The L Word in Los Angeles to interview Leisha Hailey and Kate Moennig, it was a typically scorching October day. The cast and crew (many of them women, unlike on many film and television sets) observed as Moennig, Hailey, Laurel Holloman and Mia Kirshner rehearsed a short exterior scene in the tony neighborhood of West Hollywood before shooting.

I had met Kirshner earlier, on my ride to the set. And by “met” I mean that I tripped as I stepped into the van, nearly tumbling into her lap, prompting her to sweetly ask, “Are you OK?” Kirshner is even more distractingly beautiful in real life than on the show, so I even fumbled my “Yes, thank you” in response. My glamorous on-location interview was off to a great start.

Also joining us in the van were Daniela Sea and Holloman, whose friendly chitchat was a bit disconcerting to observe. It was as if I were in a parallel universe in which Max and Tina had gotten over themselves and just talked about the weather. Holloman was taller than I expected, lanky and casually elegant in her jeans and boots, and I remembered why I was an instant Tina fan the first season of the show.

After a quick jaunt to the suburbs to watch the shooting of the scene, I was hustled to a nearby backyard to interview Hailey and Moennig. Hailey patiently jotted some notes in a journal and Moennig enjoyed a popsicle while I struggled with a recalcitrant voice recorder. But once all systems were go, we sat near a leaf-strewn swimming pool as the real-life pals talked about the journey from Season 1 to Season 5, their favorite on-screen love affairs, the loss of Dana (Erin Daniels), and even dropped a few hints about what we can expect in the upcoming season. Along the way, we also discussed gray hairs, horror films and Sarah Shahi’s assets. AfterEllen.com: Both of your characters have changed so much over the course of the show. How do you feel about the way they’ve developed? Leisha Hailey: You get on other shows and I feel like you get trapped. You play a cop or you play something really one-note. People’s arcs aren’t really that huge unless you get on an amazing show like Six Feet Under. But our show allows us to explore all of these different parts of ourselves, which is rare.

I feel like Alice has been through so many different things that as an actor I’ve felt like I’ve been challenged, and it’s been amazing for me to play different ideas.

Kate Moennig: And it’s also nice because you’re also allowed to give out ideas as well, and they’re trusted, and I think that’s nice. It’s a collaboration of personalities and ideas that makes a character get stronger throughout the season. AE: Can you give me an example of an idea you’ve contributed that’s been incorporated into the show? KM: In the third season, Ilene [Chaiken] had that whole breakup at the wedding and whatnot, and it just seemed like such a horrible, detrimental thing to do to someone and yourself –

LH: I thought it was really sweet what you did to Carmen [laughs].

KM: Did you? So I didn’t really know what else she had in mind, and one day I thought maybe she should take care of something, to put something before herself for at least once in her life. And then the whole little kid brother thing comes into play. And she was really open to that. Ilene rolled with it. So yeah, it’s nice to see huge changes in who you’re playing because it’s kind of boring to play the same thing.

AE: Are you surprised by the directions in which your characters have been taken? LH: I’ve been surprised at times.

KM: No.

LH: You haven’t?

KM: A few things I’ve been surprised by, but not many. I was a little surprised that there was a full-on relationship with Carmen. I thought it would take a little longer to establish, and I was shocked that it all of the sudden happened.

LH: But that’s TV.

KM: But you have to look at it for what it is, and yeah, that is television. The timeline of The L Word goes pretty quick.

LH: Yeah, we always want to stretch the stories out.

KM: When our character meets someone –

LH: We really want to milk it. And they never do. It’s like “OK, you guys are moving in together. Now you guys are breaking up.”

KM: In three episodes you either sleep with a person, break up or get married.

LH: They have a lot of stories they want to tell, so get ’em in, get ’em out.

KM: There was also a huge revolving door of characters for awhile too, and there’s only so much you can throw into a space.

LH: When Dana and Alice broke up and I went crazy, I was surprised by that. I didn’t know that was coming –

KM: Oh, I knew it was happening. Ilene told me, “I really want to f— over Leisha, how can I do that?”

AE: Since you mentioned Dana, what did you two think of her being killed off, and the end of that relationship? LH: Well of course we – Kate and I – were best friends with her [Erin Daniels], and still are.

KM: We were devastated.

LH: Actually, when Erin called me I thought she was kidding. Because we had this joke about who’s getting fired at the end of every season. And then she said: “It happened. They’re killing me.”

KM: When she told me, I told her that I thought it sounded like such a great story point, and then [laughs] I kinda realized what it actually meant. I thought, that’s OK, you’ll get to do a great death scene.

LH: Yeah, but I get their point, I get what they were trying to say. Because if they had killed a character that people didn’t necessarily love, it wouldn’t have had as big of an impact. And that happens in life. You can be shocked by the people who terrible things happen to sometimes.

KM: On a personal level, because we shoot where we shoot and we only have each other, we hated it. We were so upset because that was our good friend.

LH: We still do. We still say, “God I miss Erin!”

KM: We do. We say that every year since she left, we always say how much we miss her. She was an original. She’s Erin, she’s the one and only. That’s one of the greatest girls in the world.

AE: You’ve both played very different relationships – Tasha and Alice versus Dana and Alice, then Shane and Carmen versus Paige and Shane – did you have a favorite? LH: I don’t really have a favorite. Obviously I loved working with Erin so much, but I love working with Rose so much. I think of the characters, and I think that Alice and Dana were better together, and when I look at Tasha and Alice, it doesn’t really make sense to me a lot. So I look at it from that point of view. KM: [with sarcasm] I thought the Shane and Paige relationship really popped [laughs].

No, I mean I spent more time with Sarah and I got to know Sarah very, very well. And her and I worked really well together. And the Paige thing … I understand why Ilene would create that story line. I think it’s like one of those things that happens in your life that’s just a middle ground stopping point before you carry on to the things that are really important. I knew from the beginning –

LH: You guys weren’t gonna walk into the sunset together.

KM: Yeah, we were never gonna walk into the sunset, and I knew it. It was obvious. So I’d have to say Carmen, only because I got to know Sarah over two years and she was so much fun.

AE: You guys had a lot of chemistry. KM: It’s so funny because Sarah and I … we got along really well on set, but we never hung out off set. She was always doing her thing –

LH: Working out her butt [laughs].

KM: She was working out her butt or she was with her boyfriend. So when we came on set we just worked well, and I think it’s because we both liked to get through the day pretty quickly. We used to say, “Don’t f— up!” “No, you don’t f— up!” Because we both have flights to catch back to L.A. So let’s go!

AE: [to Hailey] You were saying that the Alice and Tasha relationship didn’t make as much sense to you. What do you mean by that? LH: Well, I think at the beginning the whole opposites attract idea was great because that does happen and it’s pretty fascinating. But then there’s a point where it can take a dark turn, and it’s like maybe our differences are getting in the way and it doesn’t work out so well.

So I still want Alice to find the perfect girl for her ever since Dana died. I’m looking for that. [to Kate] What do you think? Is there a chance this year?

KM: With you? We’ll see. I don’t know yet. I like the idea, but I’m not 100 percent sold on it.

AE: You say “the perfect girl.” In the first couple of seasons, Alice’s bisexuality was emphasized much more – LH: Is she bisexual? I didn’t remember that! [laughs]

AE: But now, you think she’s looking for a girl? LH: Yeah, I think so. But you know, it’s not up to me if they don’t wanna play the guy thing. I can’t help that. Maybe that perfect guy would be out there, you never know. I just kinda forgot about that. I’ve been trained to forget [laughs].

AE: Well, they had your character take that turn, then Tina – LH: Right, and Alice didn’t like watching that.

KM: What did Tina do?

LH: With Henry …

AE: And there’s still a huge contingency that want Tina back with Bette, no matter what. LH: Ya think?

KM: What do they call them? T Bette-ers?

LH: Ti-Bette-ers.

KM: And there’s ShEnny, for Shane and Jenny. I’m a big fan of ShEnny.

AE: They want those two characters to get together? KM: Yeah, from what I gather. Mia and I are like, “People seem to like our characters together.” And I like our character together.

LH: [messing with Kate’s hair] I just found a gray hair.

KM: There’s more of those where that one came from, trust me.

LH: I like those two together, they’re cute together. AE: The development of that friendship was very sweet. It humanized them both. KM: I think so, too. And it was one of the few times where a type of relationship really took its time to grow.

LH: I agree.

AE: What can you tell me about what’s coming up in the next season? LH: Well, I deal with Tasha’s Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell problem. I’m really like the supportive partner in that whole story line. Even though Alice doesn’t understand the military whatsoever, she wants to be there for Tasha. So I really go through that giant arc for her. There’s a lot of drama involved in it. It’s hard on the relationship. It’s really hard.

There’s also times where the whole closeted problem gets in the way. I kind of contradict myself … Alice says one thing and she does another.

AE: Which is interesting because her character has always been so defiantly out. LH: Exactly! And it puts her in a situation work-wise. It’s a really good story.

KM: I am back to my wild ways. I think they realized that the whole mother with a kid thing didn’t really pan out. So she’s back to her ways and then she meets a girl –

LH: You slut it up and then you meet a girl!

KM: Yeah, I meet a girl and she turns out to be straight, and there’s a whole straight thing and her psychosis in it. But Shane’s like Where’s Waldo this year. She’s popping up everywhere and she’s just out to have a good time –

LH: Between legs [laughs].

KM: There’s no depression this year. Finally, she’s come out from the grave and she’s back to herself again.

AE: Will we see any old flames resurface? KM: Sadly, no.

AE: No Cherie Jaffe? KM: I wish, but no. That was my favorite relationship actually, because I think Rosanna [Arquette] is a lot of fun to work with. She’s a free spirit, and she’ll go wherever she needs to go to make the scene work. And I thought that their relationship was so f—ed up that it made it so much fun to play because it was so dysfunctional. It could go in any direction. I never get any enjoyment out of those sweet, domestic …

AE: The ’50s fantasy sequence? KM: Oh my God, right! I mean that was fun to shoot, but to do that would just drive me crazy.

LH: I have to clarify something. That whole closeted thing, it’s not Alice being closeted, it’s about someone else.

KM: I never know what to say, what’s spoiling and what isn’t.

AE: How far in advance do you know what’s going to happen with your characters? KM: We know the first six episodes, because they pan out the first six.

LH: And then you have a basic idea of what’s going to happen. But a lot of times it can change.

KM: They want to see how the dynamics between the actors are and how the relationships work, and if it pops they’ll keep going with it. But if an original idea doesn’t work between two characters, then they’ll chop it out –

LH: Not always.

KM: Well, they have. They’ve kind of dwindled certain story lines down that were originally going to be more prominent.

LH: But they’ve kept ones that don’t work, too.

KM: Well, yeah, mistakes have been made. But for the most part they’re pretty clear on the first six and then they just build from there. So the last six are kind of a free-for-all; you never really know what’s going to happen.

LH: It’s interesting. It keeps it fresh for us, too.

KM: And it also allows us to come in with our own ideas.

LH: To say I really like where this is going, I’m having a lot of fun and I really like this person.

AE: Was there a particular story line or character that got beefed up because it was working so well for one of you? LH: I think Tasha and Alice did.

KM: I think Carmen and Shane did also. I never knew how long Carmen was going to stick around for, but because people responded to it so well, they just kinda went for it.

LH: But it also can be an idea that they love, that has nothing to do with us.

AE: It’s interesting that they’re going to do this thing again with another straight love interest for Shane – KM: But she’s different though. This straight girl isn’t the stereotypical straight girl. What I like about how they’ve written this character and the actor who’s playing it is that she’s very dry and sarcastic and witty, and she doesn’t give it up right away and she’s tough. She’s a strong character.

LH: She’s different.

KM: Yeah, she’s different. I think they kinda connect on a sarcastic level at first because this girl is so witty, and that’s always so attractive.

LH: And it reminds you a lot of Alice, who you’re really attracted to.

KM: Because you know that in Season 19, Alice and Shane get together. AE: Do you know if there will be a Season 6 yet? LH: No, but Showtime’s never gone beyond five seasons.

KM: No, but they haven’t announced that it hasn’t been renewed yet, either.

AE: You don’t often see characters that are butch or androgynous portrayed as sexy or desirable. [to Kate] Do you get a lot of feedback from your fans, particularly with your character, about butch being hot for a change? KM:I don’t think of Shane as being butch.

AE: Or androgynous? KM:I never related to her as being butch, ever. If they looked at her as being butch because she slept with a lot of women, then OK. But I never thought of her that way.

AE: So if you see her as androgynous, do you see someone like Tasha as being more of a butch character, then? KM: Yeah, I think so. I never thought Shane was a butch. Actually, I don’t like it when she’s called that. I just think it’s such an obvious stereotype to throw her into and it’s not true at all. But androgynous, yeah.

This show is all about fashion. This is part of the complaint and part of the love for the show. The show is very fashion forward, and all of the characters look fabulous. Even if the character doesn’t have a job, they look fabulous. They’re still wearing an expensive dress or expensive jacket or shoes – which you never see because they never shoot below the waist, so you would never guess about the shoes.

So the show is fashion forward, and that’s what makes it so exciting is that it took all of these stereotypes that people had out of the box and expanded them. That’s why I think that not only the gay community – but I hear this from other communities too – they think it’s so fun because we’re not playing a stereotype. And I think it has a lot to do with style and the aesthetic they’re going for with how we all dress, and more so as each season goes on. I think it’s all based on fashion.

AE: [to Hailey] Do you know when Uh Huh Her’s full-length CD will be coming out? LH: Well, I know that we’re going to be writing it over the winter, and we’re shopping for a record deal as well.

AE: And your tour starts soon too? LH: Yes, the dates are on our MySpace page.

AE: I love what I’ve heard, it reminds me of old Cocteau Twins. LH: That’s what everybody says! And guess what? I didn’t even know who they were, either.

AE: [to Moennig] Can you tell me a little about your new film, Remorse? KM: It’s being shot in Philly, which is where I’m from, so I’m excited to do it. It’s one of those psychological thrillers, and I always secretly had a thing for those kinds of films, so I’m happy to –

LH: Kate makes me watch horror flicks all the time. It’s all she wants to do.

KM: So I get to be scared and run around in a dark house, and maybe possibly scream.

LH: I could do that with you. I mean, just in life [laughs].

AE: Well, thank you both for taking the time to talk to us. LH and KM: Thank you!

Keep up on our latest L Word interviews, news, episode recaps, and forum topics on our L Word hub page.

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