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Katherine Heigl, Melora Hardin talk playing gay at TrevorLive

Last night I hit the TrevorLIVE red carpet to talk playing gay with Katherine Heigl (Jenny’s Wedding) and Melora Hardin (Transparent). The evening of song, speech, and glitter celebrated The Trevor Project’s sweet 16 and featured performances by Katharine McPhee, Jesse Tyler Ferguson, Alex Newell, Melora Hardin, Marc Shaiman, Darren Criss, Mia Pfirrman, Ty Herndon and Anita Cochran. Hosted by gay icon/OG manic pixie dream girl Jennifer Coolidge, the star-studded turnout for an organization devoted to preventing suicide among LGBTQ youth resonated just how mainstream and widely accepted our cause and community have become over the last few years.

When I arrived at the Hollywood Palladium last night the fans were already swarming TrevorLIVE’s red carpet to catch a selfie with their favorite stars. AfterEllen scored a prime spot on the red carpet between two delightful journo babes who joined me in shameless gossip, celeb wrangling, and a two hour game of, “I’d go straight/gay for her/him.” When you’re packed together like a linear military formation, it’s all about the company… and who your company can lure over for questions.

First to saunter my way is Melora Hardin, who currently plays Tammy the lesbian on Transparent. Tammy is a tall, blonde, androgynous glass of homo who rekindles a steamy romance with Sarah: daughter, wife, mother, and former LUG. If you haven’t seen Transparent, you might recognize Melora as Jan from The Office. Like Jan, Tammy is a protagonist’s love interest who seems to be too good to be true… Because she is.

Melora strolls the carpet calmly in a black velvet pantsuit and sparkling diamond accessories, blonde hair still cropped short in Tammy’s lesbian chic pixie.

AfterEllen: On Transparent, you play a character who at first seems to be the dream girl here to save Sarah from her unhappy hetero marriage, and then turns out to be an inconsiderate control freak lesbian from hell. Ever dated someone like that?

Melora Hardin: Haven’t we all dated people who seemed to be one thing when you first start dating them, and then they kind of lose their shit? I mean, yeah, definitely.

AfterEllen: Is your character going to be back on Transparent for Season 2?

Melora Hardin (coyly): So I hear! I don’t know. We’ll see.

AfterEllen: Why are you here tonight to support TrevorLIVE, do you consider yourself an ally?

Melora Hardin: Absolutely! I’m here to support more people feeling like they’re not alone, they’ve got a helping hand, they don’t need to hurt themselves or end their life. No one needs to feel terrible about themselves, you can go forward, there is a light at the end of the tunnel. That’s basic human rights! Also, I’m singing tonight. Adam Shankman is a good friend and when he asked me to perform at TrevorLIVE I said ‘of course’!

AfterEllen: What is your favorite part of Tammy & Sarah’s relationship on Transparent?

Melora Hardin: Tammy is very clear on what she wants. All the time. Tammy never wavers, she never waffles, she’s really clear. I find that refreshing because that’s not who I am. I’m always like [pointing in different directions], “Maybe this, maybe that, oh that looks nice, that’s sparkly.” Tammy’s clarity is refreshing, and I think she brings that to Sarah, who is very mercurial. Sarah is up in the clouds and doesn’t know who or what she is, and feels like she has to find that. Tammy is who she is, and I think she’s a rock for Sarah. But I don’t personally think Tammy is the lesbian from hell! I always get very possessive of my characters. People used to call Jan a bitch and I’d be like, “Jan isn’t a bitch!”

AfterEllen: Jan was amazing. I would marry Jan, and she could have tormented me until the end of time. What was it like filming such steamy lesbian sex scenes?

Melora Hardin: Great! Amy Landecker, who plays Sarah, is lovely and a great actress. We get along because we both take our jobs seriously. In order to make something come alive- whether it’s a sex scene or a scene where you’re in fits of laughter. You have to give yourself 100% to that. That’s what we both do, and that’s how we create such hot moments.

Next up is the big kahuna, Katherine Heigl. In person, many actors look smaller and more ordinary than their on screen presence would suggest. Katherine is not one of those actors. Towering over the teensy teeny bopper boys in a draped sheath of cobalt blue, Katherine’s glossy golden hair is pulled in an elegant updo.

Smiling softly and making surprisingly soulful eye contact, Katherine meticulously works her way down the red carpet, pausing to thoughtfully answer a question from every scrambling journalist. In contrast to the minuscule LA waif types scurrying about (myself included), everything about Heigl is a little larger than life, all round eyes and wide smile and pin up Amazonian physique skimmed elegantly by that chic cobalt gown.

Katherine plays a hard drinking, hard working government agent on the new political drama State of Affairs, but she also just wrapped Jenny’s Wedding, a film in which she played a lesbian whose impending gay nuptials rock her conservative family to the core.

AfterEllen: Could you tell us about your lesbian character and her journey in the upcoming film Jenny’s Wedding?

Katherine Heigl: Jenny is a young Midwestern woman living in Ohio. The story is actually loosely based on the director’s niece, who knew she was gay for years before coming out to her family and friends. When she felt she could no longer live without making the decision to come out to her family, it wasn’t easy, and it wasn’t embraced the way it might be in a different time or place. Jenny’s Wedding is a really beautiful story, wonderfully written from every perspective. From the parent’s perspective, they’d never really gone there, their minds were unaware of the possibility because it’s not like they have gay or lesbian friends. They have to educate themselves, to open their minds and consider possibilities they’d never even considered.

AfterEllen: Is your character and her family able to overcome those differences?

Katherine Heigl: In the end, Jenny’s parents realize that their daughter means so much more to them than the label or judgement society throws on to her. It’s beautiful.

AfterEllen: I know Jenny’s Wedding is looking for a distributor, do you know if the producers have found one yet or been able to set a release date?

Katherine Heigl: I’m not sure; I wasn’t a producer on Jenny’s Wedding, just the hired actor. I’m not sure where they’re at but I certainly hope so. It’s a beautiful film that I’m incredibly proud of.

AfterEllen: Over the years you’ve been a huge ally and supporter of The Trevor Project. Why is tonight important to you?

Katherine Heigl: I think this is the first Trevor Project event I’ve attended, so I’m really grateful to have been asked. I just think the work they’re doing is incredibly important, and I want to do anything I can to raise awareness so everyone out there knows that help is available. No matter what hardship or heartbreak young gay youth are going through, there are people who care and are here to listen.

AfterEllen: In our brief lifetimes, the gay community has made an immense amount of progress. As a mother, what kind of change would you like your children to grow up to see?

Katherine Heigl: I hope that, for them, this isn’t even a topic of conversation anymore. I don’t talk to my children about lesbians or gays or what that means; I show them through my friends, my lifestyle, and the people most important to me. It’s not something I feel like I need to discuss or explain. They’ll get it, because they’re around it all the time. My best friend in the whole wide world is T.R. Knight, and when I bring my kids around him and his husband Patrick, I don’t feel I need to explain why T.R. married a man. They can figure it out, and it won’t be unnatural or not normal to them. Kids don’t care! Kids only judge it because we tell them to. That’s on us.

With that statement and a soft smile, Katherine Heigl is ushered along and the red carpet empties into the Hollywood Palladium for TrevorLIVE to finally commence.

If you’d like to learn more about The Trevor Project, get involved, or view highlights from TrevorLIVE, check out their website. Here are some more glamorous pics from the event.    

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