Exclusive Interview With Laurel At The L2 Convention (2006)

Interview By: Angela Knight

LHO:- Where did the storyline for season 3 come from and why is Tina’s viewpoint not really explained?

Laurel: - It comes from Ilene Chaiken, she’s the writer and I have no choice, it’s her show.  Tina’s viewpoint hardly gets explained at all.  I think when you have so many characters in such a large ensemble, there will be and have been things that have happened fast and unfortunately the time isn’t taken to understand characters viewpoint.  I loved those scenes with Alice when Tina finds out she is pregnant and how she shares that.  We see her partner is working a lot so she spending a lot of time with one of her friends and they discuss the details of what is happening.  As much as I love our show there are times when there are inconsistencies. 

It is really hard to tell these stories and keep all these characters juggled.  For me it’s hard to play and I just do the best I can with what I have and I try to ask as many questions as I can, “why is Tina doing this, can you explain it?”  Unfortunately for some characters their lives are just happening off screen and you’re looking through a window and catching up with the place that they are, but we may not have taken the time to get you there.  It would have been fantastic to go there with a few more scenes and find out, but that didn’t happen. 

It was a great storyline in that it was a really intense struggle as actor to play this self-loathing, because she really hated herself that she had feelings for men as it was so not part of her identity after 7 years in this partnership.  I think she still identifies as being a lesbian and that’s where some of the issues come from.  What happens to a bisexual woman who is in a partnership that ends up with men again and then what happens to her friendships?  I know a woman that happened to.  She lost a lot of friends when she went with men and when I talked to her about it I knew it was an important storyline, something important to bring up.  Ilene told me when we started that was going to happen and she knew a lot of women it had happened to, especially after they had children and she wanted to tell that story.  I wish there was more detail to that story but it is an ensemble and I don’t have a problem with it.  I enjoy my days off when I am not working and I really try and do the best I can when I go to work and I also celebrate other people’s performances.

I have to make those decisions then hopefully they will find their way in a subtle moment on screen the story adds up.  I really do like Ilene’s characters and I like the way she writes.  She writes broad characters and I just fine that more interesting to play as an actor.  It was a big challenge for me as I had a lot of chemistry with Jennifer Beals and I had a lot of chemistry with Rachel Shelley and it was interesting to try and have chemistry with these male actors.  In fact I don’t think I’ve done a love scene with a man since I got married, which was kind of interesting for me!  But I see what Tina picked Henry, I think it was easy.  What I found interesting was what Ilene said to me, she said when Tina is with Henry she’s a lot more controlling in the relationship, when she is with him she is much more a modern woman, job, kid whatever.  He gives her complete freedom, Bette doesn’t, so when she picks this man she finally gets to become the person she wanted to be.  She is not a traditional woman when she is with Henry, she is in a much more traditional role when she is with Bette.  There are a lot of reason why Ilene took that path, it doesn’t mean she is going to stay on that path, I don’t know what she is going to do.  Bette had much more overpowering controlling energy and my character was willing in that relationship but I think she needs to get out from under, but ultimately I think that’s when she falls out of love with her because she just felt squashed and she was betrayed. 

LHO:- It was interesting to see the role reversal between Bette and Tina in Season 3.

Laurel: - We do this awful thing in our society where we put all the attention on the person who is making the money, why don’t we put the attention on the person raising the child the person who is essentially creating this being and how they are going to be in the world.  It’s a terrible thing to do.  The power in a relationship should never go to the person who makes the most money.  True partnership is where everybody puts in, everybody does their thing.  You make choices about roles and who is comfortable with what, maybe a role switch.  I truly think it’s a lesson for everyone to learn, it’s a lesson I try to learn constantly.  My husband worked all the time when I got the show, far more than I did.  When I got the show he started to work less, and when I am doing the show he takes care of our daughter 100%.  When I am done on the show he goes to graduate school, he is getting his masters in architecture, and I take care of our child, and we switch roles every 6 months.  I have learned so much from that, I have learned how it’s not healthy to lord money over people, which is exactly what Bette and Tina did.  When Tina makes money she lords it over Bette and is controlling, I even found myself doing that and it’s just bullshit, you can’t do it to people, it’s not fair because in a partnership you’re both making the decisions, you’re making then together and someone is always giving up a little bit for the other person.  If you switch equally within a whole year for a couple of years, you learn what it is to be in  both positions and you learn about how you treat people.  With Bette and Tina this is one of the major lessons they have to learn.

LHO: - Is that something you have learned from Bette and Tina or have you always known that?

Laurel: - I had very little relationship experience because I got married a few days before we shot the pilot and prior to that I had been single for 7 years.  I was immature in a lot of ways.  Bette and Tina has taught me a lot about relationships and behaviour within my own marriage.  We were both mirroring each other in some ways. I think a lot of times I behaved like Bette, I’m not like Tina at all in so many ways.  When I could take a look at it as Tina, I would think that it wasn’t really fair what she was doing, then I would realise that what I was doing was not fair either.  Then sometimes it switches sides and to me that’s the beauty of what we do with our acting, to take something from our character or a situation that you can look at in your life and it can help you evolve as a person.  It helps you grow in some way.  Or if you do watch a television show and you do become connected to a character it can help you think about the perspective in your own relationship.

It was really hard to play Tina in 3rd season when she was like that and on her high horse because she was making the money and now she was being controlling.  She lived in a state of fear saying “should we spend the money on that?”  I have a friend who is a psychologist who always says to me, when people fight about money, it rarely is really about money.  Money is just currency, an energy that flows around the world, it’s always about something else.  Bette and Tina, while seemingly fighting about money, it never really was, they were never going to be homeless out on the street.  That’s the interesting thing, it’s not really what couples are fighting about it’s always other stuff, it’s always a cover for the deeper issues.  Ilene really touched on that, those women really fought about money a lot in season 3. 

LHO: - It sometimes seems that the storylines do not have a great deal of depth; do you think there are too many storylines running?

Laurel:- I don’t look for the perfect fleshed out detail of the character, I just se that she [Ilene] is trying to get as many issues in there that she can and that’s the goal and I am happy to be part of that, because what if there isn’t another season after this season, and what if there isn’t another show like this for 5 years?  I’m really glad that she brought Daniela’s character in, I was ultimately happy that she had Tina’s character go with a man because it really happens to people. I think she is just continuing to address as many issues as she can within this period, and it may only last for 5 years.  It’s hard to keep a series on air for more than 5 years unless you are as successful as “Friends”, and that’s a fluke! 

LHO:- It seems that many actors now want to appear on The L Word.

Laurel:- It is becoming more popular and we now have Cybil Shepard and Marlee Matlin who are fantastic.  We get great guests.  One thing I like about Ilene is that she casts some really talented actresses who are getting older and the parts are getting less.  When you watch them on The L Word you think “wow look at all the depth”.  To me as women just get better as they get older and I think it’s important to give these women these parts and to see these very talented actresses come in.  Anne Archer was terrific as Alice’s mom and Kelly as Ivan was a really interesting character.

LHO:- It would be good to see Ivan come back, is there anything on the horizon?

Laurel:- I think right now that character is not coming back, but never say never.  A lot of it is not about whether the character is good or not it’s about availability and people’s schedules.  We shoot the show in a certain timeframe and it’s hard for people to always be available as they are off doing other things.