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For Jennifer Beals’ fans still mourning Fox’s axing The Chicago Code it’s great news that the actress who starred on that show and played power lesbian extraordinaire Bette Porter on The L Word for six seasons was back on the small screen Monday with the beginning of her two-episode arc on Castle.
As TV Guide reported back when casting was announced in December, Beals would be playing Sophia Conrad, “a smart, commanding and sexy CIA operative.” As if Beals could play anything but smart and sexy?
The plot of the arc is that “Sophia joins Castle (Nathan Fillion) and Beckett (Stana Katic) in the search for a fellow CIA agent who has gone rogue and is now the key suspect in Castle and Beckett's murder case. But Beckett soon becomes distracted by the fact that Castle and Sophia have quite a complicated history,” according to TV Guide.
Prior to her episode airing Beals chatted with TV Guide about her character.
"One of the things I said to [creator Andrew W. Marlowe] is that I'm not interested in playing a scenario where two women are fighting over the same man,” Beals said. “Sophia can introduce lots of complications and lots of tension, but I wasn't interested in a catfight."
The Yale grad and accomplished photographer added, "Whatever feelings it brings up for Castle, that's his thing. But Sophia's trying to solve a case. She is trying to prevent the United States from going into World War III. She's not like, 'Can I rekindle my romance at this very moment?' There are bigger fish to fry."
A break-out star in the 80’s with Flashdance, Beals proved to be a bit of an indie film darling in the 90’s with roles in Mrs. Parker and the Vicious Circle, Four Rooms and The Anniversary Party before landing the role that endeared her to lesbian fans --pretty much--forever on The L Word.
Since The L Word’s finale in 2009 Beals has appeared in Fox’s Lie to Me and starred as a tough-as-nails police chief in the short-lived cop show The Chicago Code.
Here’s a glimpse of Beals in action:
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Tracy E. Gilchrist is the VP, Executive Producer of Entertainment for the Advocate Channel. A media veteran, she writes about the intersections of LGBTQ+ equality and pop culture. Previously, she was the editor-in-chief of The Advocate and the first feminism editor for the 55-year-old brand. In 2017, she launched the company's first podcast, The Advocates. She is an experienced broadcast interviewer, panel moderator, and public speaker who has delivered her talk, "Pandora's Box to Pose: Game-changing Visibility in Film and TV," at universities throughout the country.
Tracy E. Gilchrist is the VP, Executive Producer of Entertainment for the Advocate Channel. A media veteran, she writes about the intersections of LGBTQ+ equality and pop culture. Previously, she was the editor-in-chief of The Advocate and the first feminism editor for the 55-year-old brand. In 2017, she launched the company's first podcast, The Advocates. She is an experienced broadcast interviewer, panel moderator, and public speaker who has delivered her talk, "Pandora's Box to Pose: Game-changing Visibility in Film and TV," at universities throughout the country.
