By claricestarling

Day 2:

Sunday afternoon Oct. 31st : Q&As with Rachel Shelley and Laurel Holloman:

They both look radiant on stage!

To both actresses: What love scenes are the hardest for you to shoot? With a man or with a woman?

Laurel Holloman: Well, it might be easier with a woman, because you tend to help one another. You can tell the other actress to put her hand on a part of your body that you don’t feel too comfortable exposing, and she’d do the same because she knows what you’re talking about, and it’s easy to understand one another. You usually have the same “insecurities” about your body. That being said, I’m really lucky because I’ve had great male partners/co-actors, and they were always very sensitive, so I can’t really say that it’s been more difficult doing sex scenes with men.

Rachel Shelley: I prefer doing love scenes with women, actually, for the exact same reasons that Laurel mentioned, and also because there are no egos involved between women, whereas there usually are with men, and when you shoot a sex scene, you’re naked, exposed, you feel vulnerable, and you don’t want egos to be involved.

To both actresses: is it difficult to work as an actress, and to go to auditions and be a mom at the same time ?

Laurel Holloman: OK, this was a very, very long answer from Laurel. She basically gave an overview on her life in the last six months or so. She started with Gigantic and explained what the show was about (she compared Gigantic to Gossip Girl, except it is set in LA and has less sex), and moved to the summer she spent with her two daughters in Tribeca, painting. She explained how she thought it was important to include them in this creative project at such an early age. And that they would both draw and paint next to her in the studio, and that now her daughter Lola wants to “act” and she’s very excited about this play she’s going to be in (Beauty and the Beast, if my memory doesn’t fail me). She said that at first, she’d feel like a bad mom that she had to kinda drag her daughter on set with her (when shooting TLW in Vancouver), but she realized that she felt it was important to include her in this “creative process”. She then talked about her painting/ her art, and explained that she was originally supposed to paint for an exhibition in New York, but then they decided to put up a site http://www.laurelhollomanstudio.net/ and most painting were sold online, so she’s now working for another exhibition in L.A.

I’m sure I’m forgetting many things she said here, but I’ve just tried to sum everything up.

Rachel Shelley: Yes, it is difficult for me to be a mom and an actress at the same time. With an actor schedule, I would pretty much never see my daughter, I could never give her a bath or put her to bed, or go to the park with her, etc.  But I think I found my balance now with my writing (she writes articles for Diva magazine and she explains that she’s always loved writing). Writing allows me to be a mom. And I’m happy with my life as it is right now, writing and raising my daughter. I wouldn’t be able to do that if I were still acting. (Though, in her Q&As of day 3, you’ll see that professionally, Rachel plans on going to L.A. at the beginning of next year for the pilot season, even though she hates the thought that every single actor in the US will be fighting like a beast for “crumbs” then).

To Laurel: You now have approximately 11,000 followers on Twitter, what is your perception of communication through social networks such as Twitter ?

Laurel Holloman: I see Twitter as an incredible tool to get feedback (from fans) and share info. I started using Twitter to raise money for charities, but now I can get feedback on my painting, and it’s great, and I’m really grateful to the fans that really helped put the word out there for my work and my site (http://www.laurelhollomanstudio.net/), for even though now I can say that most paintings I’ve sold were purchased by art collectors, it’s mostly the fans that helped getting the word out there.

And now my studio is also on Facebook, and it’s fantastic, because with twitter, you can only post up to 160 characters, but with facebook, you can post much longer things, and give access to photo galleries and videos much more easily, and everyone can have a better overview of the whole thing.

Rachel Shelley: I’m not into social networks. My iPhone is already too much for me. I barely know how to use it.

To both actresses: Which character from the show would Rachel and Laurel date?

They look at each other and they say they would date each other (meaning Rachel would date Tina and Laurel would date Helena).

Laurel: I would date Helena ‘cause she’s rich (she laughs).

Rachel: I wouldn’t date Tina if she was that superficial (and she laughs as well).

Laurel laughs too: You know, it’s funny because when I talked with Ilene Chaiken about that famous pool scene between Tina & Helena in season 2, I asked her why Tina would have sex with Helena at that point (Tina was still depressed, she had just been betrayed by her partner of 8 years, she was having her baby alone). It didn’t make sense to her because she thought that, to Tina, sex had to be meaningful and Ilene simply answered: “because Helena is soooo beautiful!!”. And Laurel replied: “but I thought we had just established that Tina is not shallow!?!” and they discussed that scene and both came to the conclusion that Helena just made Tina feel beautiful, and she really needed that at that point (being several months pregnant, she didn’t feel too comfortable exposing her body, but Helena made her see she was beautiful).

Then both actresses go on saying how beautiful they think that pool scene is.

Laurel: I would date Helena, no matter how rich or poor she was.

Last “question” from the fans to Rachel:  Some time ago, at an event (Dinah Shore), you ended up “reconnecting” (kissing) with Dylan (Alexandra Hedison), could we see a reunion between Helena and Tina here?

(as you can imagine, fans went crazy here.)

Rachel (smiling): What happens at Dinah Shore stays at Dinah Shore…

Laurel: But who is Tina’s true love?

Fans: Beeeeeeette!

Laurel gesturing as she was saying: “So you see, it doesn’t make any sense…”

Rachel (in French): Mais où est Bette? (but where is Bette?)

Rachel: Pas ici (not here)

Rachel: Elle est une “cop” à Chicago. (she’s a cop in Chicago)

Then the audience went wild and was screaming. It was hilarious.

So, the hosts concluded that since both of their beloved (Dylan and Bette) were not there, a reunion was not possible. That’s how they used their only “Joker” card.

The actresses then stood up, they hugged each other, and they went to their photoshoots.

Then, that night, after the photoshoots and autograph sessions took place, all three actors attended the VIP dinner (7 lucky Gold pass holders, if you will, and 3 members of Ultim’Art Convention got to have dinner with their favorite stars at a fancy Parisian restaurant) but what happens at a VIP dinner, stays at the VIP dinner….;)

The only thing I can say is that, however exhausted they were, the guests were very nice and sweet to everyone, and there were discussions about all kinds of things, from other TV shows we love (Six Feet Under, Mad Men, Friends, Fawlty towers…) to poker nights at Camryn Manheim, and Peter Krause and his apple farm, from adoption agencies to indy movies we love, from inconsistencies in The L Word to Mia Kirshner’s fantastic acting skills, from cotton candy to what iPhone applications toddlers love, from next year’s pilot season to how difficult it is these days to find an acting job in the US… Really, all kinds of topics were touched.

Report from Day 3 is coming next.