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Interview with Jennifer Beals, Part 1: Book of Eli and The L Word Book

By B&TF (January 8, 2010)

B&TF: Hi, Jennifer.

JB: Oh hi, how are you?

B&TF: I’m doing good, how are you?

JB: I’m doing fine, thanks.

B&TF: Thank you for taking this time with me. I really appreciate it.

JB: Oh, sure. It’s my pleasure.

B&TF: You know, you have so many fans who continue following your career even after the L Word is over.

JB: Well, that’s nice.

B&TF: I just want to keep them all updated when possible on what you’re doing and on your future projects.

JB: Right, right.

B&TF: Well, everyone is really excited about your new movie coming out and the release of the L Word book but if you don’t mind I’d like to start with one word answers, sort of an ice breaker…for me because I’m really nervous.

JB: Oh, yeah. I’m so sure you’re so nervous, yeah, because you’re so shy (laughing).

B&TF: I am actually really shy. I get really nervous, especially on the phone. I don’t know why, maybe because I don’t see you.

JB: Right, it’s a different experience.

B&TF: So, one word answers.

JB: Okay.

B&TF: Favorite color?

JB: Hmm, I don’t have a favorite color. Well, if I have to choose then archaic kind of green…well no, forest green. But I don’t have the favorite color.

B&TF: You don’t?

JB: If I had to choose, like I’d live my life in the forest, then I’d be surrounded by a forest green.

B&TF: Great. Favorite comfort food?

JB: Hmm, I guess yams or oatmeal.

B&TF: Favorite curse word?

JB: No, I don’t have a favorite curse word.

B&TF: Okay, how about least favorite word, the one that you don’t like to hear often?

JB: Hate.

B&TF: Okay. And the last one, one word to describe yourself?

JB: Oh, there isn’t one.

B&TF: There isn’t, really?

JB: No, no. I couldn’t do that.

B&TF: Actually, you know, I read one of your interviews you did in 1997 and someone asked you to describe yourself in three words and you said: “secretive and I don’t want to tell the others.” It was interesting and I was going to ask you if you remember that?

JB: (laughing) I don’t really remember that but I believe it’s probably true, especially in 1997. No, I don’t have any word to describe myself and it’s not because I’m trying to be secretive, I just don’t have that kind of command of English language.

B&TF: Yeah, right.

JB: No, it’s true. I don’t have. I have no idea.

B&TF: Alright. Well, Book of Eli is coming out next week. Are you excited about this?

JB: I’m excited because I had so much fun doing the movie. It was such a great experience. And you know, to a certain degree you’re concerned because going from The L Word, which was so wonderful and you know, it’s all women and people are listening to each other, and there’s like a real process that goes on. And I know that I’m going to this very testosterone-driven set but it was just heaven. Well, first of all I loved the character. I loved Claudia. Second of all and most importantly, the directors were so great. The Hughes Brothers are so delicious, I would follow them anywhere.

You know, they are directing this super-action movie and yet, they are so bighearted and so sweet. We were in the middle of this rehearsal fury and Mila and I were there and Gary starts to beat me up and Mila, who plays my daughter, starts to get very upset. And Allen (Hughes) had to stop it at certain point because he was getting such a stomach ache. It was upsetting him so much. And we were all fine but it was just very, very upsetting for him because he’s so sensitive and sweet.

You know, at one point I was talking to him, “What’s your deal, where you from, what’s your family like.” And he said, “Well, you know I’ve seen The L Word a lot.” And I was thinking, ‘Yeah, he’s a guy, so of course he’d seen The L Word, maybe you’ve learned something.’ And he said, “You know, my mom’s a lesbian and she said she loves The L Word.” So, here’re these brothers, they are biracial twins that are raised by a lesbian mom, and I don’t remember where they were raised. And I was like, “Of course, you guys are different. Of course, you see the world in a different way. It’s not all super testosterone.

He was really interesting guy and just very encouraging and treated everybody with respect, no matter where you were on a call sheet. It didn’t matter what kind of size role the person had. He was always incredibly respectful and wanted to hear people’s opinions. It was great. It was really great experience.

B&TF: It’s great. And you’re actually just answered one of my questions because I was going to ask you how did it feel working on a male-dominated set after spending six years on The L Word?

JB: Well, it depends on the set and I’ve been on other male-dominated sets where it really felt like a male-dominated set and there’s real hierarchy and it doesn’t feel good at all. But having played Bette Porter, I’m not about to sit on the sideline and go, “Yeah, you can treat me that way,” because I won’t be treated that way. You know, Bette comes in handy quite often. My hope is that I don’t have to rely on her to come forward but every now and again she does and it’s very, very helpful, like I’m having my friend come and speak.

B&TF: Or like your alter ego…

JB: Yeah, but for the most part I had really good experiences since The L Word. I did Book of Eli. I did a film called The Night Before the Night Before Christmas, which was really sweet, and Lie to Me and I’m about to start another movie. So it has been a really good, interesting experience.

I don’t miss The L Word yet because I’ve been working on the book the whole time and I’ve been talking to the cast members all the time. I’m talking to Ilene all the time because what I did with the book was that everybody sort of took part in editing in a way. They got to choose which pictures they liked, which ones they didn’t like. The designers obviously had the say in what they thought worked for the book and what didn’t work. While I was showing the various cast members their pictures, and I only saw people that I could get hold of and sit down with, I would interview them and so the interviews are going to be part of the book, as well.

B&TF: Oh, that’s wonderful.

JB: Yeah, so that will be fun. You know, when you show a core cast member a picture of the very first rehearsal in Gastown (Vancouver) that supposed to be the Planet, you get that one experience and that one response and that’s usually talking about how they felt that day and everybody’s original relationship to each other and misperceptions that people had of one another. And that response is obviously very different than when you show somebody a picture of, you know, Mia’s last day shooting in the sixth season and that’s an opportunity to talk about what it felt like to end the show and what sixth season was like for that person and what it was like for all of us.

You guys get to see and get a glimpse of how we started out as separate individuals and how we became friends and how we became family and all that it entails because, you know, family doesn’t always get along. You all love each other madly but there are times invariably over six years that people are going to have disagreements. That’s delineated to some degree kind of book.

B&TF: Do you have a more definite date for the release?

JB: February first. I talked to the publisher today and I said, “Look, you’ve got to give me a date,” because the book is done, like the text is done, the photos are done, all that stuff is done. It’s just the matter of making sure that technically it will function on-line, that people can upload their pictures. There’s also going to be the possibility to have a dedication in the book, so let’s say that somebody wants to give it as a Valentine Day’s present, then they can put dedication.

B&TF: I think it’s great because remember I told you at GLAAD that I was planning to buy a few copies so I can give them as presents to friends.

JB: Oh, good. Yeah, please do, please do. That would be really great.

B&TF: Do you have any plans for promoting the book, like going on a tour, doing TV appearances?

JB: Well, how it came to pass, there was a publisher that had offered to publish the book conventionally, traditionally but the royalty was being so small because then, as a big company, they had to recoup their cost and that includes trucks and storage and all kinds of things so I called a friend of mine who’s with Kodak, who had presented the possibility doing a project years ago. I said, “You know, I’m thinking about doing this book and I remembered you said you wanted to do something together, what do you have in mind?” and he had proposed to me about doing it on-line and how then people be able to upload their images, which I thought was a really great idea because it’s so inclusive.

And really, I feel like there is a great deal of ownership of the show that belongs to the fans, the viewers and such, just as it belongs to Ilene or the cast or Showtime. I really do believe it’s the sort of a living thing that belongs to all of us, and as such I thought it would be really cool to have people, viewers be part of the book as well because it’s also their experience.

So he introduced me to this company called ColorCentric (www.colorcentriccorp.com) in New York and they are very, very experienced in on-line book publishing and so they’ve been great and they are just being very meticulous about wanting to make sure that everything goes smoothly and so they will be the ones to take care about everybody’s information and get the books out and all that.

B&TF: That’s great and of course we know that all proceeds are going to different charities…

JB: Yes, every single dime of profit will go to charity and you know, I have to say that Codebook Kodak and ColorCentric and the lab DigitalFusion (www.digitalfusion.net), they’ve all been incredibly generous about donating a lot of their time or Kodak’s based paper to the project and to try and bring the cost down.

B&TF: Do you know the price approximately?

JB: I’m not sure yet because they are going to get me a final price but the all promised me that they are working really hard to be as supportive as possible because it’s over 200 pages and on-line book like that would be $60 or something and I said, “There’s no way.”

B&TF: So you want it to be cheaper so more people could afford buying it?

JB: Yes, yes, so let’s see what we can do and what they will come up with and hopefully it will be a good number.