Movies

Out actress Vanessa Dunn on her band Vag Halen and new queer movie role

Vanessa Dunn is a very recognizable face and voice in Toronto’s queer scene, but After Ellen readers everywhere might remember her from B.J. Fletcher: Private Eye. Now with her latest role in Portrait of a Serial Monogamist, she’ll be catching the attention of even more queer women.

We recently chatted with Vanessa ahead of her trip to LA for the premiere of the movie. Besides the filmmaking experience, we spoke about the days of B.J. Fletcher, disenchantment with the acting industry, her band Vag Halen, and the community work she does with LGBTQ seniors.

AfterEllen.com: Right off the bat, I have to mention that a lot of our readers will recognize you as Jenna from the web series B.J. Fletcher: Private Eye. What are some of your fondest memories about that series?

Vanessa Dunn: Really just working with the team: Regan [Latimer], Lindy [Zucker], and Dana [Puddicombe]. It was such a fun experience. It never felt like work. You know, it is, but it’s not. We’re all still friends. It was just a really fun experience to do with friends. I think some time has gone by and I really realize how strong the writing was. I realize that now. I think at the time because it was so independent and web series were kind of a new thing, for me especially, but at that time it sort of felt fresh and new. And so things were done very quickly. Obviously, because we were on such a low budget. But when I look back at the episodes, I realize how clever the writing was and how funny it was. And just how representative of, especially Regan and Lindy, it was. Their type of humor. So it was just a blast.

AE: Besides being busy with acting, you’re also the lead singer of Vag Halen, an all-female band I’ve seen described as a “feminist, queer, cock rock cover band.” Can you tell us what that’s all about?

VD: We’re all queer and all feminists, and we’re all women. We sort of just take what is generally the canon of rock music, which is attributed to white, cis straight men, and we sort of turn it on its head.

We’re really a live band. It’s a real live experience. And it’s super queer, it’s super punk, and it’s super metal. And yeah, it just really took off. It was sort of started as just kind of an art project with my wife and I, and we brought some friends on. It just continues to grow and get more interesting.

AE: Before starting your band, you didn’t even really have a background in singing. So what brought about the need for this creative outlet?

VD: Performance. I think the acting industry is so narrow in terms of how they view you and how you’re represented. I was starting to get a bit disenchanted with the acting industry. And so I just have always been involved in theater and more performance art, and my wife was a musician, so this just seemed like a real opportunity to do something fun and different and bring a sort of performance element. And I didn’t really think about the singing too much. I thought, “Well, it’ll just come. I’ll work on that element and it’ll just come.” And it kind of did. I mean it was a lot of hard work, but that is sort of the genre which I can get away with. You know I have a real rock voice. I don’t have like a pretty singing voice. Even my speaking voice is low. I didn’t really have that feminine quality, so it just went perfectly with this sort of genre. I think that I just brought the performance element in. And just really quickly it just all fell into place. It was political. It was me up there, but it was also sort of a persona.

AE: And you do have a persona, right? Vee Stunn?

VD: Yeah.

AE: Is she like the queer, feminist rock version of BeyoncĂ©’s Sasha Fierce?

VD: It’s funny. I did a workshop for the Girls Rock Camp and we talked about the difference between person and persona. And this seven-year-old was like, “I don’t get it. Why can’t you just be your persona everyday?” And I said, “That’s a really fucking great question.” Why can’t women be their personas everyday? And the answer’s what it always is, which is society doesn’t allow for it without us feeling like being in danger that we’re speaking too much, or how we dress is going to invite certain violent interactions or just any sort of interaction. So you know, that’s the persona. The persona is exactly like Sasha Fierce—just a different side of yourself. It feels the stage, when you create it, is an incredibly safe space. Or as safe as any space can feel for a woman. A queer woman.

But it’s also a lot of fun. You don’t have to force me to party. So I get to party with everyone up on stage. Maybe Vee Stunn is an excuse to party on stage as opposed to on the floor.

AE: Back to acting and opportunities that actually did speak to you: how’d you get involved with Portrait of a Serial Monogamist? You had previously known several of the women involved with the film, correct?

VD: Yeah, I knew them from the scene. I think Coco, Carolyn Taylor, sort of recommended that Christina [Zeidler] bring me out for the role of Lolli. So I went in for an audition. And I think, I don’t know, I mean you’d have to speak to them, but I think my understanding is that they knew pretty quickly that I was going to be Lolli. So they started bringing in lead characters, auditioning with me, to see who could sort of woo me in certain scenes. I didn’t know that at the time, but yeah, I think I got the part pretty quickly.

AE: So you just had like a line of women coming in and trying to pick you up?

VD: Yeah, no, for real. That’s actually what happened. I had no idea. They brought me back I think for call-back and there were just, exactly, these lines—a line of women coming in. And it was a kissing scene, so it was a real hard day of work.

AE: That never happens to me, by the way.

VD: Yeah, you’re in the wrong industry, hun.

AE: Clearly. The amazing audition process aside, what about the character of Lolli piqued your interest?

VD: It was interesting because I think Lolli, I would say, she was probably a couple of years younger than my age when I played her. She just really reminded me—she’s sort of similar to a time that I was in my life when I was in between relationships where I was sort of reluctant to get into anything, because I just got out of something. It’s a very freeing time. You just want to be free.

Lolli’s all right. She’s doing the DJing thing. She’s trying to figure out her voice. It’s an important time. It’s sort of a right of passage, I feel like, that time. Where you’re going right into your thirties. You’re kind of trying to figure out your voice and what you’re into. It seems like she sort of lets all these labels fall to the side and she’s just into what she’s into. Which is very now. I think when I first came out you really had to have a label on who you were and how you identified. And the kids now, it doesn’t seem to be as much like that. And there was a little bit of that with Lolli. That she just sort of was like, “I’m Lolli. Hi! And that’s how I identify. Sexually and everything else.”

AE: So it seems like you’re a woman of two loves: acting and music. But if you had to pick between the best acting role in the world or the best music gig, which would it be?

VD: Acting. Always. I mean I love music, and I’ve gotten so much from it, but I do think that there’s more acting involved in my music than there is music involved in my acting. Acting was my first love. It was what I’ve always wanted to do.

AE: Aside from all that, you also volunteer with LGBTQ seniors in Toronto, right? What’s that entail?

VD: Well I’m a community worker, so I do a lot of stuff with community development and empowerment and all that. So the area that I very quickly early on in my career attached myself to was elders. Often what we find with seniors and elders is that there’s already a visibility problem within the larger community and especially within the LGBTQ community. Because some are out and some are not. I just really felt like that as a community we really need to start advocating for our elders and acknowledging everything they’ve been through. Obviously the movements that they’ve been a part of, but even just their lived experience, their lived history, their voices. They’re still here. And they’re still contributing. And it really hurts my heart to think that there’s queer elders that are having issues of social isolation and just sort of disappearing because our LGBTQ community is so focused on youth and the contributions of young people. All that’s well and good, but I just saw a real sort of space there that needed to be filled. So I’ve sort of focused on doing a lot of intergenerational programming. So getting youth and elders talking to each other. I do events. I do fundraisers for the Senior Pride Network. I’m on the board of that.

AE: How does acting and singing fit into your schedule as a community worker?

VD: It’s hard for me to focus on one thing, so the more busier I am, the more focused I am. And to be honest, I wasn’t a lover of the industry. The acting industry. So I really had to start choosing how I’m going to still be a part of something that I absolutely love. But the industries never know what to do with me. They really—I think when you’re an out woman, and you’re outspoken, it’s a problem.

AE: What’s that look like for you? Because when I base it off of Portrait of a Serial Monogamist and even your work on B.J. Fletcher, it seems like it’s more you aligning yourself with people who maybe do think along similar lines, or people who are out and in the industry and making projects happen. Is that kind of how you’re handling things?

VD: Yeah. I mean it’s a choice, but it’s also that’s what gets offered to me. The projects, they’re not intimidated to have someone on board that’s in Vag Halen, or that seems like a pretty strong personality. Those are the projects that were not intimidated by that and actually just wanted to create something really interesting. And yeah, queer. And unapologetically queer. Which I love. I mean I don’t always need to play someone that identifies the same as I do, but those are, to be honest, the projects that are the most interesting and the people a part of them are the most interesting. For a lack of a better word—I hate when people use this word—but they’re brave. They’re really putting stories out there that are very hard to make. These films are hard and these television shows are hard to make because people want clichĂ©d characters out there. With Portrait, they wanted to do—they didn’t want to do a story that had a suicide in it and that had a dark sort of subtext to it, which, as we know, is alive and well in all of our queer communities and is depicted often on film. Which is important, but it’s also important to do, as Christina said, Annie Hall or Love Actually for the queers. It’s as important.

AE: What are you working on now? Are there any new projects on the horizon you can tell us about?

VD: I’m working on a project for HATCH, which is a performance festival at Harbourfront. I’m working with my good friend Liz Peterson. We’ve done some performance art together, so we’re doing an interpretation of “The Maids” by Genet. So we’re working on that. And I’m doing some writing. Trying to see if I can get something off the ground.

AE: Like TV writing? Movies?

VD: Yeah, like short film kind of thing. And then just Vag shows. Just like planning our next batches of shows.

You can keep up with Vanessa and Vag Halen by visiting the band’s website. Portrait of a Serial Monogamist begins its theater run in Los Angeles at the Arena Cinema on Jan. 29 and in Toronto on Feb. 12 at the Carlton Cinema. Wolfe Video is releasing the movie on DVD and VOD on Feb. 9.

Lesbian Apparel and Accessories Gay All Day sweatshirt -- AE exclusive

Related Articles

Leave a Reply

Back to top button