By BetteAndTinaForever
Disclaimer: I tried to write questions and answers as fast
as I could but of course I’m only a human. Everything I wrote
is not verbatim but the way I remembered it. I had to write so fast
that sometimes I couldn’t even understand my own handwriting
so I’m trying to do as best as I can here.
Now it’s Saturday. the Convention began a little later than
usual but there were not so many people that Starfury has in London,
Blackpool and other places, so there was time for everything.
The photoshoot was first and the fans had a choice to take pictures
with Kate, Leisha and Erin separately or all together or any other
variations. Some fans tried to make it fun and asked Erin to do
different poses, like sticking their tongues out, doing tango, pretending
to kiss her on the cheek, and one fan asked her to put her hands
around the throat and pretend that Erin was chocking her. Erin was
really happy to oblige and she had a lot of fun with that.
After the photoshoot we had the first few Q&A sessions. They
were done in the following order: Adrienne Wilkinson who played
Eve, Xena’s daughter on Xena, the Princess Warrior, and who
was an MC for the event was first and she was great, telling the
stories and answering questions, though she wasn’t even on
the show. I didn’t record anything from her Q&A because
it wasn’t TLW related but it was still a lot of fun. She did
tell us that if she was on The L Word, she would choose any cast
member to be with but she really loves Sarah Shahi and wouldn’t
mind to be with Carmen if she would stay on the show.
~~~~~~
Next was Erin Daniels by herself. When Erin appeared on the stage,
fans began yelling how happy they were to see her alive and well,
and asking if she could appear as a full-time ghost.
While everyone hurried and began taking pictures with the flash
because we could only do it for five minutes, Erin was getting comfortable
and began answering some questions. She got a lot of applause during
her answers and she was really funny and opened with her answers.
Q: Tell us about some of the projects you’ve been
doing.
A: Well, I’ve been doing a lot of things actually. I’ve
just been on Big Shots recently. I’ll be on another show in
January I think. I’m working on CSI: New York right now and
then I’ll be starring in a new show, hopefully.
Q: If your character was still on The L Word, what would
you want her storyline to be and would she be still with Alice?
A: If my character was still on The L Word, she would be teaching
tennis, to be honest with you. Actually, okay, if she hadn’t
die (Erin made a face and everyone laughed), if she actually come
through and survive the cancer (everyone began applauding and yelling
what they though of Ilene and Dana’s dying)…I understand
why they did what they did but at the same time has she survived,
she would be probably teaching tennis and she would become a spokesperson
for the breast cancer awareness and I would love to see her and
Alice to stay together and actually have a real solid and fun relationship.
Q: How the cancer storyline affected you personally and
how you prepared yourself?
A: Working on that storyline I thought I knew more about it than
I did, it really made me be aware of it, about reality of it and
how many people were affected by it. I’m sure everybody in
this room knows someone they work with or a family member…and
being aware of that made me realize how important it was. I made
a choice not to invite it into my life, so when we were shooting
and after that I was going home and having a bath, relaxing, and
trying to take care of myself. I wanted to make sure that it wouldn’t
affect me.
Q: Will Dana appears in season 5?
A: I can’t answer that, I don’t know. She comes back
from the dead and she dies again…surprise (she was joking,
of course). No, I’m actually not gonna be in season 5 (sounds
of disappointment was heard all over the room). I guess at this
point Dana moved on.
Q: What’s your favorite scene from any season?
A: My favorite scene…there’re so many…okay, have
you guys seen the food fight in jail in the first season? (Everybody
screamed: No, we only saw a few pictures, they never put anything
good on DVD’s, extras suck, etc…) Well, the food fight
was great, it was fun, too bad you guys didn’t see it…there
were so many great scenes, I love mission impossible scene from
1st season.
Q: What about the drunken Dana dance?
A: Oh, the Dana Dance…I was really nervous to do the dance,
I was afraid I would fall off the boat because that part was much
higher than the deck and it was really cold and I had to do it once
and get it right. At the end it was really fun, making it I was
a little terrified I was going to die, but you know, it’s
hard to pick one, to be honest with you. There were a lot of scenes
that were fun to film, some were just great to film, like Dana after
the surgery in season 3 when the whole cast was there in one room,
it was really fun to film…yep, it was fun.
Q: Can you tell us what happened with Julie Reno.
A: You know, nothing, it’s sitting on the shelf somewhere,
we filmed it and someone just thought it was too much like My Name
is Earl, but it was great.
Q: When they were spreading Dana’s ashes in that
beautiful river, does Alice still have some of the ashes?
A: I think you have to ask Leisha that.
Q: What was your personal reaction to Dana’s dying
and you were going to be off the show?
A: I was upset, hurt, I cried a lot. I didn’t understand why
but I knew it was important to writers and to creators of the show
(again, people began yelling that it wasn’t that important,
that they had the potential of a good story but blew it, etc…)
I think, it was potentially good story, but unfortunately the choice
you made as a writer is to make it quote-unquote real, you know,
people die from cancer…but they live too. If it were up to
me, I would love to show a storyline that gives you hope instead
of depression. There was nothing I could do about it, so I tried
to do as good job as I could, to make it honest and as visual as
possible, because I thought that if this is the storyline I had
to tell then I wanted it be as good as I could.
Q: What happened to the dancing flower that Alice bought
in season 3 when Dana was dying?
A: I don’t know where that is, it fell down.
There was the question about scene between Dana and Alice after
they finally made love and Erin joked about that was like 9 and
½ weeks and she said that it was fun to film and they laughed
a lot while filming it, they were trying to think of all the things
they could possibly do and it was fun. Another fun asked something
about the whole story being a dream, but I don’t remember
exact question and Erin said: yes, season 6 – Jenny’s
been on drugs for 3 years and made it all up.
Q: What is wrong with Jenny?
A: I don’t have a clue, I never tried to understand Jenny,
she’s a mystery.
Q: How much of the scenes between Dana and Alice were scripted
and how much of it was improvised?
A: It’s a good question…we improvised all the time,
especially the comedy stuff, at least half of it we improvised.
Leisha’s better at following the script than I am but we improvised
all the time.
Q: Jennifer Beals mentioned that you helped her sometimes
with some comedy scenes and also you said before that you wanted
to direct, have you done it?
A: First, Jennifer has a great sense of humor, very dry, she’s
funny, she just didn’t realize that she’s funny…and
I did some directing but you know it’s funny, I still love
the idea of it but I don’t know if want to do it. I watched
these directors and they work so hard and they there from the minute
we start until everything is wrapped up. We complain about working
12 hours a day but the directors have no time, they spend 16 hours
a day for months on a set.
Q: Are you in love?
A: I’m not in love with anyone in particular at this moment,
no but I love many things.
Q: There was a certain picture from season 3 of Dana dancing
with some girl that didn’t end up on the show, what was happening?
We didn’t get any extras so we didn’t get to see anything.
A: That scene was cut, shortly after the diagnose, Dana sort of
rebelled and she wants sex and flirting, to be a woman, to get a
reaction if she would show some boobs, to feel something, so she
goes to the wax party and picks a girl to do a seductive dance.
Lara sees them and she’s really pissed, then Dana goes home
and she wants to feel sexy, so the sex scene with Lara followed.
They kept the sex scene but the dance was cut off so it wasn’t
that clear why she was crying and acting a little strange but it
was result of the previous scene, not just a bad acting.
Q: What can you tell us about the road rage scene with
Alice in season 3?
A: Oh God, it was so much fun to film, it was crazy. We filmed on
the real street in LA, the street was cleared up for us, which was
hard to do, because it was in Hollywood and they blocked the whole
street and this is LA. Everything is so busy in LA all the time.
The cameras were placed in the car windows and we were actually
driving. It was scary but it was a lot of fun and then at the end
of the day we did some other stuff when they filmed close-ups of
our faces to show our reaction but we were not actually driving.
So, yeah…we were driving around LA, screaming at each other,
it was fun.
Q: What was your first impression of the cast when you
met them?
A: It’s such a good question…let me just say that all
my first impressions were so wrong. Kate intimidated the hell out
of me, I thought that she was too cool and she would never talk
to me, she’ll never be my friend. And now she’s my best
friend and I love her. Leisha I first met when she was auditioning
for Shane and I thought similarly that she was cool but actually
Leisha was on the same flight to Vancouver, we met on the plane.
I’m not the best flyer in the world, I got a little sick right
in front of Leisha and it was really embarrassed, and now we are
best friends too. Everybody were intimidated by Jennifer, they were,
like, who’s going to talk to her and I got nominated. And
of course, I was totally wrong, Jennifer couldn’t be cooler
and so down to earth, very nice. The beautiful thing about this
cast that everybody was really nice and you know, when you are actress
you don’t know how you gonna fit, but everybody was so down
to earth.
Q: We know that Leisha and Kate are really great friends
and awhile back I heard that the three of you were talking about
opening up a club together in Silver Lake, do you remember talking
about that?
A: We did, we talked about that few years back that we’ll
open up a club and think they still talk about that once in a while
to open up a club for…a girl club, for women…I don’t
know what happened to that but it’s a good idea, maybe they
should revisit that.
Q: Where are you all living in Vancouver during filming?
A: We all rented houses all over, downtown, different places…you
know I’m not gonna give away addresses…downtown, gastown,
Kits…we were all spread out and then each season the places
change. It’s a beautiful city.
Q: What do you do on your time off?
A: When we are not filming we like to eat, the sea food is incredible…we
hang out, go to the beach, go to movies, shopping, walking dogs.
Q: How are your dogs?
A: They are good, they are at camp today…the doggy camp.
Q: Was there any negative feedback on your sex scenes or
for playing a lesbian?
A: My friends and family are really great about it. I grew up in
Saint Louis, Missouri, which is Midwest and it’s pretty conservative.
When my best friend got married, her mom came out when she was in
college and it was really hard for her to deal with and the beautiful
thing is that her mom was there with her partner and then she thanked
me for doing what I was doing, being on The L Word and it made me
to understand how it is to be in the world that is not open-minded…so
anyway, my friends and my family a great about it, which is wonderful.
(Then there was silence and Erin asked: Is that it? Did I bore you
all?)
Q: Someone told us that you were writing a book, are you
writing a book?
A: Yes, I am writing a book. I’ve been working on it for a
while and it’s hard to describe…it’s about a woman
in her 40’s who is trying to find her place in the world when
some women of her age don’t look a certain way anymore and
it’s all about her finding her own voice and her confidence
by trying to find out who she is. I don’t have a title for
that yet, I have 15 titles, and I had talked to a publisher about
it, and my goal is to finish it by the end of next year, I guess
that would be the deadline. Okay, I think my time is up.
Leisha Hailey was next, so check out Part 2 of the Day 2 report,
coming soon.
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