The two convention "virgins", Clementine Ford and Kate French, started the guest talk by answering to what their favorite L Word scene was. They both said the oil wrestling scene in Season 5.
Clementine was asked to talk about her coming out story. She stated that she was never really in and was fortunate for not having to go through the difficulties that Chely Wright, the first lesbian country singer who came out last year, faced. She agreed there is still gay discrimination in the US. Middle America is still discriminating but NY and LA are more accepting.
Clementine seemed to be the most reserved one out of all guests, avoiding questions that were too personal, like whether or not she was single. She did answer though the questions related to The L Word as honestly as she could.
In terms of what they both had in common with their characters, Kate said she is more mature than Niki Stevens, who was young and dumb. Clementine is more like Molly than not like her.
The most difficult scene Kate had to shoot in The L Word was when Niki was begging Jenny to hire her. For Clementine it was when Molly and Shane have sex and Phyllis (played by her real life mother, Cybill Shepherd) walks in on them. It was difficult to expose herself like that.
Kate spoke a bit about her work on Girltrash; however, more details on this will be included in the Day 3 summary.
Laurel Holloman and Janina Gavankar
This was the best mix of the day and the only guest talk for Janina Gavankar. As previously mentioned, Janina didn't come empty handed to Brighton. She designed a set of 300 hand screenprinted "Sparkle Tooth" T-shirts which she brought along at the convention. Fans got for free "Sparkle Tooth" stickers with specific instructions from Janina herself to stick them wherever they want, take a photo of them and post them on Janina's Facebook fan page.
Janina brought along an email from her mother with a few messages to some specific fans. Three years ago in Blackpool, when Janina did a fantastic job as an auctioneer, her mother joined her and had a blast.
The two actors who portrayed Tina Kennard and Papi complemented each other so well. Never thought I would see Laurel Holloman imitate Papi, which was the best impression ever of an L Word character. Janina said she couldn't possibly top that, but when she thought of Tina she could only imagine her not so secret online chat with DaddyOfTwo.
They spoke then about their favorite episodes. As Laurel said on many other occasions, the dance episode from season six was not only her but the entire cast's favorite. It was also the moment when they all realized the show is almost over. Janina's favorite episode was the Basketball one, which was delicious and hilarious in the same time.
Laurel mentioned also her work in The Incredibly True Adventure of Two Girls in Love, a film which was done in 21 days. It was her first major role and she felt blessed to have the chance and play an out schoolgirl in a lesbian interracial relationship. She got to work back then with Lisa Cholodenko, the director of The Kids Are Alright.
When Laurel was asked what her definition of happiness would be, she simply answered, "True intimacy - with your partner, your children and your family." Laurel and Janina also discussed the following:
- Favorite L Word character: Laurel – Joyce Wischnia, Janina – Peggy Peabody. Janina was also drawn by Dana's mother storyline.
- Favorite character actors: Laurel – Meryl Streep, Janina – Stanley Tucci.
- Dream role to play: Laurel – everything that Jodie Foster had done, like in The Brave One, basically strong women. She would also like to do comedy. Janina – likes all genres but wants to do musicals.
- Favorite music: Laurel – Damian Rice, Coldplay, Radiohead, Ray LaMontagne. Janina – Jay Sean and Jessie J.
Asked about where Bette and Tina would be in 10 years time, Laurel said they would be balanced, they would have adopted and have a second child with, hopefully, no more cheating, no more men and no more drama.
Regarding their future projects, Janina will definitely do more music, but for now she plays a shape shifter in True Blood. Laurel, who is currently on an art European tour, has already three exhibition offers. Her acting career is on hold for the next 12 months.
Towards the end of the Q&A someone brought up Laurel's accepting the Bravo A-list Award for The L Word Sexiest TV Moment (the elevator scene). Laurel pointed out there was nothing gratuitous about the sex scenes, they were done with a purpose, even though some of them were difficult to watch like the one between Bette and Tina at the end of season one (betrayal, power struggle and sex).
Lauren Lee Smith and Erin Daniels
They were both asked about an actor they would make a movie with. Lauren said Cate Blanchett or Tilda Swinton. Erin said, "The two Kates," in other words, Cate Blanchett and Kate Winslet.
Erin was asked to talk about the way her character was written in the third season of The L Word. Although she said there were no frictions on the set and she didn't see it coming, there was a shade of bitterness in her voice. But at the end of the day it was about the character and the show.
She never watched the next three seasons because she would have felt like watching friends at a party where she was not invited.
Then Lauren spoke a bit about her latest two projects Good Dog and The Listener. The latter, where she plays Sgt. McCluskey, airs in the UK this week. She then plans to take some time off to rejuvenate.
Erin, with her well known sense of humor, said she have to keep up health insurance so she'll keep working. She has now two movies in post-production, The Sitter and Portland.
Check out next the summary of Day 3 of the convention.
Anca Dumitru - A Romanian native, Anca has been living and working in different European countries for a long time. With over 16 years of corporate life ...
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