When Showtime’s groundbreaking lesbian series The L Word aired its final episode in March, Bette and Tina were on the verge of growing their family and moving to the East Coast. Now that a potential spinoff series has been nixed and a reality series — The Real L Word: Los Angeles — has been greenlighted, SheWired thought it was about time to sit down with one of the most beloved characters on the drama — Laurel Holloman — to talk about reality TV, what her next role is, what she would have happen for Bette and Tina as well as what show she’d most like to appear on next.
SheWired: What do you think about the new L Word reality series Ilene Chaiken is doing with Showtime?
Laurel Holloman: I think it’s great. Any way that they can keep everything going, I think if Ilene comes up with some great ideas to keep it going, honestly I think it’ll be refreshing to see a reality “L Word” instead of the glossed-over, high-heeled makeup one. Because every day I go to work and I hear things like, “All my friends in the community, we never wear shoes like this.” I fought to wear boots the whole first season. What I say is do the reality show and bring it on. I think it’s great the show is there and you have to embrace it by putting it out and hope it opens up doors. And if it opens the door for a reality show then it has served its purpose. It (The L Word) was groundbreaking; it was phenomenal. It was a gift to be on it. I feel really lucky.
SW: Do you miss the show since it wrapped?
LH: Yeah, I miss the girls. But there are a lot of girls that I keep in touch with. I talk to Erin Daniels and Rachel Shelley almost every day, they both just had children — Erin had a little boy and Rachel had a little girl — and I just talked to Jennifer (Beals) a couple weeks ago. It’s just like a family. I saw Kate Moennig a couple weeks ago. I just feel like we’ll all sort of run into each other in some capacity. Because some people are closer than others and we all sort of gravitate toward each other in some way. I’d like to see a movie to be honest. I hope that the reality show goes and I hope that there’s some sort of movie afterward.
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SW: What are you working on right now?
LH: I just did an episode of Castle for ABC and I want to guest-spot on what ever is there and what character fits, but it’s hard for a series regular. I really want it to be the right thing. I realize now that you can go with a show and it can literally grow for six years and you want it to be the right thing. I feel like I was given this wonderful gift so I want the next thing I do to be special. But in this economy, it’s a really hard time to try to navigate what to do next. I also have a 5-year-old daughter and an 18-month-old daughter, so I have to figure out how to juggle it.
SW: Jennifer is doing Lie to Me and Kate is doing Three Rivers …
LH: I just actually read for a Three Rivers spot, but I didn’t get it. I was excited because I thought, “This would be so cool to be with Kate but in a different scenario.” It was the first time I realized that it’s very possible that all of us can end up in a different situation together and the sad thing is that you get out there and you realize that it’s still a very male-dominated industry and it’s still really frustration. I really take a lot of pleasure in seeing a lot of the directors that we worked with (on The L Word) that are still working. I just ran into Jamie Babbit and I’m really tight with Angela Robinson and Alex (Kondracke) and I actually share a nanny with Angela and Alex. I realize that there will probably be other things for everybody. You have to let The L Word die down a little bit and then slowly navigate what ever comes next. I’ll be really interested in the reality show though.
SW: Ilene had the spinoff — The Farm — with Leisha Hailey at Showtime but they passed on it. Do you know what happened there?
LH: I don’t know a lot about it. I just know there were a lot of talented actresses on it — I think Melissa Leo, who is one of my favorite actresses ever, Laurie Metcalf is really good and Framke Janssen did something and Leisha was always to me the sun that we all revolved around. I just don’t know if it was fully realized and it’s a hard climate to try and sell a spinoff in because there are so many great shows that aren’t going to get picked up at all. I think it was really great that Ilene got that caliber of actresses to come work on her spinoff. I think that was a really good group of actresses.
SW: Did Ilene approach you at all about the spinoff?
LH: Honestly, not me or Jennifer. I think if you were to do a spinoff with Tina, you have to spinoff with Bette. I just don’t think they know what to do with Tina and Bette. That’s the movie! That’s not a TV show, that’s a movie!
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SW: If you were going to write the movie of the story of Tina and Bette, what would happen?
LH: Awwww. They have another baby. Or adopt. I’ve adopted a child, so I’m a really big fan of adoption. I’d like to see them do that. There’s this beautiful thing that happened at the end (of the series) where they both were fully realized, where Bette became more relaxed and less controlling and Tina became more assertive and you see this really beautiful balance and you see that you can be in a partnership for a long period of time and still love each other and love the changes. I think they had to have the changes and the forgiveness; there were lots of things for Tina to forgive Bette, and Bette had to forgive Tina for being an asshole, too. That’s growth. That’s love through partnership. When I talk about the show, I really start to miss it.
SW: Now, without The L Word, there’s so little representation of gays and lesbians on TV. Why do you think that is?
LH: Well, part of it is, you get into the thing where you get into the thinking of are we doing this because it’s trendy or are we doing this because it’s representative of what people want to see right now, and I think it’s representative of what people want to see. I think there’s a lot of great television writers out there right now — and I’m going to say this because I’ve worked with a lot of them — and they’re trying to write more great TV, but what the problem is is that there’s so much reality television programming that it’s turning everything into like The Hills. I’m sorry, but it’s not deserving. If there’s an L Word reality show, I feel like there’s an audience for it because we proved that there’s an audience. It doesn’t have to be in my mind a genre show. It has to just be a show about what’s going on in the world right now. I mean my daughter goes to kindergarten right now and her best friend has two moms and her other best friend is African-American. I mean, this is the school my daughter goes to. This is the world we live in right now, so why is it so marginalized right now? That’s what I have trouble with. I don’t want to get too much on a soapbox, but I wonder if the conversation that you and I are having right now — will somebody be having it in 20 years or will it just be like this is what entertainment is, this is what people want to watch; that we get to watch on TV reflections of ourselves.
SW: Would you ever be interested in writing?
LH: I just got an hour lecture on how I should start writing. I have a lot of writers around me, a lot of my friends are writers, my brother is a writer — he’s a novelist — and I still come from an independent film background. I mean, before The L Word that was really the bulk of what I did, so I’d like to think that I’d like to be involved with writing movies. But to be really honest with you, the climate that I see right now, I feel pretty cynical about the ability to get something produced right now. Right now I& rsquo;m just trying to find really good characters on TV so I can pave my way in that area.
SW: If you were going to pick any show on TV to have a regular character on, what show would you pick and why?
LH: I would love to be part of Mad Men. True Blood. I think Alan Ball is really creative. I’m also Southern and I was on Angel (for eight episodes) so I would appreciate the vampire thing. And when you watch it, everybody knows he’s writing about so much more. It’s just a beautiful show. I know Sam Trammell, we were friends in New York doing theater together and I just feel like that’s just a wonderful show. I turned it on and was just like, “Yeah, this is what needs to be out there.” I like the message that it sends. So True Blood. Or In Treatment … I also think Weeds is a great show.
Find more great interviews and other entertainment posts from Lesley here!
