By B&TF (November 7, 2010)

The show has been over in the US for more than a year, though in Europe fans are still watching the final season. Nobody, including the cast members, ever thought that the show would have such a tremendous impact on its fans and the whole LGBT community.

Sure, some stopped watching after Dana died; some were disappointed when their favorite characters or couple didn’t end up the way they wanted; and some moved on after the show was over and became obsessed with something else, like Rizzoli & Isles or Lip Service. But the die-hard fans are still here.

Credit to dorothysurrenders

I truly believe that The L Word was a groundbreaking series and had a great success for a cable show. Gay and straight fans watched it. Some people came out of the closet and their lives changed dramatically; others finally found the courage to live their lives openly.

So it’s no surprise that the show and the cast still have a huge following. The actresses may have moved on but they know they still have fans and they appreciate it. The questions about art were the main focus of my interview but the conversation easily moved on to The L Word because I’m one of those fans whose life was changed because of the show. And I will always be grateful for that.

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Laurel on L Conventions and The L Word:

B&TF: You just went to the Paris Convention and are also going to L8 next March in Brighton…

LH: For now I’m going, if I’m not shooting anything by then.

B&TF: Okay, let’s say you are going.

LH: Okay.

B&TF: What do you think about connecting with the fans this way, even after the show has been over for more than a year?

LH: Well, it’s not always over for people in Europe. It’s over for  people in the United States, but many people in Europe are still on the fourth or fifth season. I haven’t done London in a while, but Paris was fun. It’s a different crowd, it’s smaller. It’s fun when people are still caught up in it.

B&TF: Well, even here in the US people are still discussing it, fansites and forums are still thriving.

LH: Yes.

Credit to Showtime

B&TF: I know you talked about the finale a little bit at the Paris Convention but how did you feel when you were filming it?

LH: It just felt like the last episode of the sixth season of the television show.

Credit to Showtime

B&TF: Was it emotional, knowing it was the end?

LH: No, the dancing episode was emotional.

B&TF: Why dancing episode was emotional?

Credit to Showtime

LH: Because it was fun. I love Rose Troche, and Jennifer and I had fun. It was a really fun episode. Here’s the thing: when you’re on a good episode, and you go to a read-through and you read it and you know what’s going to happen and it feels good, that’s what that episode felt like. For some reason the last episode didn’t. It was about death and murder and could we have killed somebody. I don’t really think that any of those women could have killed anybody.

B&TF: I agree. Even if there are loose ends for a possible movie, it should have been uplifting and it wasn’t.

Credit to Showtime

LH: Yeah. I mean, that’s the reason I paint these days. It’s just the collaboration and people see it in different ways. I just want to be respectful of this person I’ve created on a great show, so I just did my job and I had a good time. I didn’t analyze it that much.

B&TF: How long did you and Jennifer rehearse the dance routine? They only showed pieces of it in the episode.

Credit to Showtime

LH: A couple of weekends. It’s all really short. That’s the beauty of the TV: if you mess up the dance, you just do it again. We had that dance down pretty well. We were doing really well. I think we had pretty disciplined personalities. And it was fun. We wanted it to be good. When it was Bette and Tina, we always wanted it to be good.

B&TF: Fans still talk about Bette and Tina’s chemistry. Even now, when new movies come out, especially when it’s about a lesbian couple, like “The Kids Are All Right” for example…

LH: I love those two actresses.

“The Kids Are All Right”

B&TF: Me too. The fans keep looking for the same chemistry they saw with Bette and Tina. What do you think makes Bette and Tina’s chemistry so unique?

LH: I don’t know that people do that. I can’t say anything because I’m part of it, so I don’t know how to comment on it. I don’t see the chemistry, I was just doing my job. I’m flattered but I don’t know.

B&TF: Well I think people were drawn to this couple because both Bette and Tina had flaws, but the chemistry between you and Jennifer was what made this couple so unique and fans stayed devoted to them until the end, even after Ilene put them through hell.

LH: Yeah (laughing).

B&TF: So what do you think is the phenomenon of TiBette?

Credit to Showtime

LH: I think it’s because they represent what people want. People want everlasting love. People want partnership. People don’t want to be alone. Bottom line – we die alone but no one wants to die alone. You want to have love in your life and you want to have deep, deep, deep intimacy. You want to have a deep relationship. People don’t want to go through life alone. Bette and Tina represent that. They also represent evolvement, change, and forgiveness. If you have a long-term relationship you have to have all these things. You have to forgive, you have to forget, you can’t hold grudges. You have to grow up a little bit, you have to change.

B&TF: You have to work on your relationship.

LH: Yes, you have to work on your relationship. It doesn’t matter if you’re gay, straight, or bi. It won’t work unless you work on it. You have to want to do the work and I think they both wanted it. Jennifer said something that I agree with. “Those two women had to earn it.” They really had to earn it.

B&TF: Do you think by the end of season six they earned it?

Credit to Showtime

LH: Yes, they did. Here’s the thing. The scene where Bette flirts a little bit and Tina feels a little insecure. I thought that scene was really telling, where Bette said, “You have to trust me, that I know what to do with it.” And then you see that she’s evolved into somebody who doesn’t have to cheat. She can funnel that energy into the marriage. That’s what saves the marriage. You can have all these external things. You could go out and flirt with someone else and put that energy into the marriage. You could also choose to cheat, and you’ll destroy a really good marriage. Or you can take that energy and funnel it into the chemistry with your relationship and vice versa.

It’s hard to be monogamous, so you both have to do it a little bit. You also can’t be a person who’s always needy. You have to grow into trusting the person and you have to kind of go away, thinking, “Maybe I don’t need this type of energy or tension, but I’m still uncomfortable in this.” It’s kind of a little bit of that.

Bottom line – Bette’s gonna get old, her hair’s gonna turn gray, and so is Tina. Eventually they are going to be together in sickness and in health, so the everlasting need for attention and all of that is going to fade away. That’s going to fade away when someone’s lying in the hospital bed. All the things that make us flashy, these external things don’t matter.

Credit to Showtime

If you look at The L Word, there are a lot of external, superficial things that makes these women so glamorous, but look at Dana. She was going through chemo, lying in the hospital bed and there was Alice right there completely with her. That’s it. I think it’s the strength of character. If those two people have the strength of character, they’ll stay together. That’s partnership. That’s the real deal.

Credit to Showtime

I think you get a sense of that in season six, that they’re going to go a long way. They had to grow up, both of them. It wouldn’t work otherwise. You couldn’t get Tina stronger and keep Bette the same. Bette had to become more vulnerable. The fact that Tina gets a job in New York and Bette moves to New York with her, that was huge. That was what was happening at the end – Bette was giving up something to go with Tina, where it was always the other way around. This is how you grow, this is how you evolve. I thought that they were very connected in the adoption, too.

From episode 604

B&TF: Do you know why the adoption storyline didn’t end happily?

LH: I think they will eventually adopt this child, but adoptions are kind of unpredictable, and I thought that was very realistic. Maybe in the L Word movie they will end up getting their baby, I don’t know. But I think what you’ve got from that is that they are still trying to have a bigger family.

B&TF: By the way, the movie. You mentioned during Paris Convention that the movie is still a possibility, all the cast would love to do it, and it would probably be shot in New York. Is there something going on that you know about or is it just speculation?

LH: Ilene said that she was going to write the movie, but I don’t know. Even if she writes it, it doesn’t mean that it’ll get made. It’s a really tough climate to get a film made right now. It takes a lot of backing and a lot of financing. I tried to stay open-minded, but it takes a lot getting movie made, get all the cast members together. It’s pretty complicated. I think everybody would be open to it if the script was good. If the script wasn’t good I don’t think anyone would want to do it.

B&TF: Except for Mia, because her character is dead.

Credit to Showtime

LH: You never know. Anything can happen.

Check Part 3 here