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Gracie Dzienny of “Chasing Life” talks Greer, Grenna and faking those tennis skills

Chasing Life, like many ABC Family shows, deals with plenty of hot-button topics like cancer, depression, abortion, and secret sisters who you sometimes accidentally falsely accuse of drugging your girlfriend. One of the great things about its resident lesbian character, Greer, is that she swats at stereotypes and teenage lesbian tropes with her tennis racquet, being an out and proud lesbian from long before we met her. I had the opportunity to chat with the eloquent and insightful Gracie Dzienny about playing Greer, and what’s in store for her and Brenna.

AfterEllen: Greer is a favorite of our readers’ for many reasons, but what’s your favorite thing about her?

Gracie Dzienny: Ooh, there’s so much! I love that Greer kind of exclusively wears pink. She seems to have outfits that are all one shade of pink, which is fun. But then, on a more serious note, I love Greer because I think she’s unlike any lesbian character I’ve seen on TV before. She’s so confident and she’s so open about her sexuality but then she also is really relatable because she struggles with speaking her opinion and telling her parents what she really wants, and I think that’s a thing I know I have trouble with sometimes.

AE: I definitely agree that’s she’s unlike other characters on TV. The fact that her storyline has never been about coming out, that of all the problems that she has, it’s the least of her worries.

GD: Yeah, no, exactly, that’s not her problem at all. She has a lot of other issues, but being confident in who she is is not one. She’s a girl who knows what she wants.

AE: On that note, I imagine you still have some younger fans from when you were on Supah Ninjas: Do you hear a lot of them relating to Greer as a teenager?

GD: They’ve all kind of mixed together, like my Twitter feed and stuff like that, but they’re all great. They’re all so passionate. I love the photo collages people make, and Instagram, and the hashtag Grenna. The whole thing is just so entertaining and fun to me. I never really thought about it when we’re shooting the show, because we shot the show almost a year ago, and now to see everyone liking it so much is so cool.

AE: What was your reaction when you found out about Greer’s big “secret”?

GD: I had a phone call with [showrunner/executive producer] Patrick Sean Smith and he called me to tell me about the storyline and I was so nervous and excited, because it is such a heavy and important topic, but I wanted to make sure I did it justice. But it was also so exciting because it was such a huge thing for Greer, and such a huge thing for both Greer and Brenna together, and I was really excited about it, but I just wanted to make sure I played it right and wasn’t too dramatic or too subtle about it, because it is such an important topic.

AE: Will we be learning more about her parents’ decision to put her on medication in the first place? Or will we focus on her struggle going forward?

GD: You definitely in tonight’s episode see a lot of Greer and her parents and their relationship on a different level than you’ve seen before. But I didn’t know much about her relationship with her parents, I kind of learned more about it as the viewers learn more about it. I had some ideas, but the script really made them concrete and I saw what actually is going on.

AE: Do you like exploring the darker side of Greer or do you miss the always bubbly, happy version of her?

GD: Oh, no, I love this, it’s so fun! One minute I’m screaming at someone, locking myself in the bathroom, and then I have purple hair which is so fun. It’s so unlike me, I’m more like Greer in Season 1A, where I’m very bubbly and happy all the time, so to get to play this darker side-it is scary, because I want to make sure it shows on camera and that it looks good, but it’s so much fun. They put the purple hair extensions in, and I asked if I could keep them for the weekend. [laughs] They were going to take them out on Friday and put them back in on Monday but I was like, “Why don’t I just keep them in? Because I would never do this myself.” It was so fun!

AE: It looked really great.

GD: It was really fun, I completely changed my style, the whole thing.

AE: I also like that Greer and Brenna’s problems similarly don’t have anything to do with them being two girls, and even their parents’ pushback. What can you tell me about what’s in store for them as they start to get closer again after having been apart?

GD: Well I think Greer and Brenna are definitely reconnecting, but more on a friend level. And this episode is really big for that, and you’ll see a lot about their relationship in this episode. It seemed like in Season 1A, Greer was a rock and a confidant for Brenna with everything that was happening with April, and now the roles have kind of reversed and Brenna is there for Greer with all of her issues with anxiety and depression and medication that she’s dealing with. So I think they have a really cool, interesting relationship, and you’ll see a lot about it tonight. Which is exciiiiiting!

AE: Will we see more of Ford trying to accept Greer as part of Brenna’s life?

GD: I think the episode where they were in the tattoo parlor, was that two weeks ago now? I think that was a big episode for Ford and Greer and their relationship. There was also a scene…I think it was cut out, but it was a while ago, and it was the three of us hanging out. And you definitely see more of the three of them being friends, which is so funny compared to where it started. Ford hated Greer SO much. She just really hated her. [laughs]

AE: To be fair, she hated pretty much everybody.

GD: She does kind of hate everyone. She has the funniest lines. I love her lines. There’s one line where she literally says, ‘I am really funny.’ It was great. And Dylan [Gelula] who plays her is really fun, too. When we’re on set, we’ll all hang out at lunch and it’s just really fun.

AE: Haley [Ramm] actually once told me that you sometimes show up to set with like a cake or something that you’ve baked. Do you enjoy baking and cooking?

GD: I am, I’m very into cupcakes! When I was on Supah Ninjas, I did this thing where every week I would bring cupcakes to set for the crew, so I still do it occasionally. I got kind of burned out after two years of making four dozen cupcakes every week, but I still occasionally will bake a batch of cupcakes. They really enjoy that.

AE: What has been one of your favorite scenes to shoot so far?

GD: I had a lot of fun in the tattoo parlor when we shot the slumber party scene with Kieran, Brenna and me. It was just like a really late night and we all were sitting around for a while and just hanging out, and we ate most of the pizza that was supposed to be in front of us so they kept having to put new pizza out. [laughs] It was almost like we were all hanging out and it was really fun and it was also a great scene because we got to work off of each other and kind of play around with it, and it was such an emotional scene, and it really was spilling a lot of big secrets. It was a good one.

AE: That’s one of my favorite scenes of show so far.

GD: I really love it, it’s a good one. I also-my least favorite scene was the tennis scene that we shot, it was my very first day on set. Because neither of us knew how to play tennis, and we were on set ’til like three in the morning trying to fake play tennis with no tennis balls. [laughs] It was my very first day and I was so nervous and then had to be a tennis pro on top of it! But it turned out good, it’s a scene that I look back and I laugh at, because it turned out pretty good.

AE: It was a really sweet introduction to Brenna and Greer.

GD: Yeah! That was my audition scene, so I didn’t know anything about my character at all at that point, all I knew was that scene. It’s been so cool to see the roller coaster she’s gone on.

AE: I would have never guessed you didn’t know how to play tennis if you guys had never told me.

GD: Oh we’re so bad! [laughs] There’s an episode coming up where they have us play another sport, too, and we’re so bad. The crew got the script and we were like, “Whyyyy, why did you put this in here?!” We’re not sporty! We’re not sporty. [laughs]

Tune into Chasing Life Mondays at 9/8 C on ABC Family, and tweet along with us using the hashtag #ChasingLesbians!

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