Note to readers: this is another series of articles that I’m going to write once in awhile about The L Word cast members and what are they doing now. The articles will consist of short updates and interviews, when possible.

By B&TF

Part II: Projects and appearances

(If you missed Part I: Comic-Con, Twitter, and the Internet, check it out)

B&TF: How long it took to put the paint on your hands?

JG: We re-did it every day. The make-up artist was awesome. By the final day of the two weeks, we got it down to half an hour from the second I opened my hands to “done”.

B&TF: In addition to drugs you also played a very pregnant lady.

JG: Yes, very pregnant, that was odd (laughing). I ask myself, “Which one was more weird, the meth or the pregnancy” and I would have to go with the pregnancy (laughing).

B&TF: This is goes with my next question. When you prepare for a role like this how much homework do you do?

JG: I had to do a lot of homework. The show itself based off of a real guy who is the Real Cleaner. His name is Warren Boyd and I followed Warren around like a puppy for those two weeks. I was so obsessed with him.

B&TF: Is he involved with the show?

JG: Yes, very much so. He’s one of the producers and creators. He had to teach me how to strike up a crack pipe. And I was so scared that I would look bad and won’t do it right that I just kept saying, “Let’s do it again, let’s do it again.” Because I’m such a straight edge, I haven’t really smoked anything.

B&TF: Who helped you with being a pregnant lady?

JG: Alex Kondracke who just had her baby.

B&TF: Oh she did have her baby?

JG: Yes, she just had him. Unfortunately, what I was wearing wasn’t weighted, it was just foam and I had to naturally move and sit in a way as pregnant women do. Odd, very odd.

B&TF: So it was just this one episode?

JG: I did the season finale as well.

B&TF: Oh, so you will just show up as the same character…

JG: Don't wanna ruin anything…

B&TF: When is the season finale coming so I can tell the fans to watch?

JG: I don’t know in what episode they are in right now. I think they are showing episode four and they did total of 12 or 13 episodes.

B&TF: You know that week after you Mia Kirshner was on it as well.

JG: Yes, right! I haven’t see Mia’s episode yet.

B&TF: I missed it too but the fans can still watch it on AETV.com/thecleaner just like yours was online.

JG: Yes, it was the most harrowing two weeks of my life but maybe the most invigorating two weeks of work of my career so far.

B&TF: And you have some Indian blood in you so it wasn’t as weird as being a drug addict?

JG: I was much more worried about inhaling whatever they put in the crack pipe.

B&TF: I actually was always wondering what they use on the shows for drugs or alcohol because it has to look believable and realistic.

JG: They replace it with different things. Brown alcohols are mostly iced tea; they use non-alcoholic beer, or sparkling cider for champagne. They use lactose for meth.

B&TF: Interesting. By the way, when you said that you do research for the roles that you’re not really familiar with, what did you do to play a space trooper on Stargate Atlantis?

JG: Oh yeah, we went through gun training. We learned how to shoot P90 submachine guns.

B&TF: Were they real guns?

JG: Oh yeah, with fully loaded with blanks and this much fire were coming up front (she holds her hands about two feet apart) actually it was more like this (three feet apart). It will push you back if you’re not ready for it. One of the scenes I had to do, I was sitting like perched in the house on the second floor and I’m all set up (showing the way she was sitting). My character is a total badass and a smartass who kind of over it and just wants to kick some ass, it was a great character.

B&TF: Bad ones are the best to play.

JG: Yeah and it was a huge crane shoot in this massive area. There’s a lot riding on me getting this right and I had so much business to do. I had to chew a gum, I have to blow a bubble, I have to sit there, I have to wait for the fire to go off, make sure I had a cue and then shoot in this direction. I don’t know, some nonsense like that. It was so logistically crazy. By the way, note to anyone out there who’s trying to blow a bubble on cue – make sure you chew it long enough so the sugar gets out of it because if it’s Bubblicious it needs to be kind of stale gum to be able to get a perfect bubble.

B&TF: How many takes did that scene take?

JG: Too many, too many (laughing). And again, the things that you think you’re going to worry about are not what you should be worried about. It’s not the gun, it’s the bubble gum (laughing). How come I didn’t go through bubble gum training? That's what I really should’ve gone through.

B&TF: Exactly…well, let’s talking about your ACME appearance. Tell me a little about ACME, how did you end up hosting it and how was it?

JG: It was a blast! ACME on www.acmecomedy.com is a sketch comedy troupe, school and theatre. They’ve been around for 20 years. Every Saturday night they have a sketch show, much like Saturday Night Live, in a theatre in Hollywood. Now they stream it live on ACMEComedy.tv on Saturdays at 8pm.

B&TF: It’s at the same time when they actually having the show.

JG: Yeah, absolutely… all live. It was crazy that I was doing this show (laughing). I have a comedian friend, watching online. I would go back stage to do a quick change, text him about how the show was going, then I go back on stage, do something crazy, go back, change, text. He was like, “That was effin’ funny…that one just made me laugh really hard” and so I thought, “Okay, if he thinks it’s funny then we’re good.”

B&TF: So they just emailed you and asked you?

JG: They have a celebrity host every week for the Saturday night show. And they knew that I did comedy stuff as well. I was very happy to do it.

B&TF: When you said you’ve done comedy did you mean like stand-up comedy?

JG: No, not stand-up, that frightens the hell out of me, but I’ve done sketch. I work with a group, called OPMComedy, whenever I can, which hasn’t be a lot lately, sadly.

B&TF: Are you going to appear again on ACME?

JG: Maybe!

B&TF: Is there some kind of archive for people who missed watching the show live?

JG: Yep! It's all on YouTube. Search “Acme” and my name. It's the 6/13/09 show. It was wild. Very high energy. (Check out part of Janina’s appearance on ACME with a little tribute to The L Word.
B&TF: And it’s actually a real theater where people can go and watch?

JG: Yep!

B&TF: Since we’re talking about being funny, I honestly think that you are one of the funniest persons I’ve interviewed…

JG: Wow! Thanks, though I’m a little low energy today…not enough caffeine.

B&TF: Not enough?

JG: Just one cup ain’t enough, so I’m not bringing the funny today, sorry (laughing).

B&TF: I think you’re doing just fine. I personally think that humor will save the world but when I try to be funny, not everyone gets it because my humor is Russian.

JG: (laughing) You tell a joke and people like, “Whaaa?…That was entirely too Eastern-European for me”? And you like, “I just handed you comedy gold!” (laughing). How sad.

B&TF: Yeah, exactly (laughing). Do you consider yourself a funny person? Does it come naturally to you?

JG: I don’t really think I’m funny. But people laugh at me, so…

B&TF: Maybe you’re just a happy person.

JG: Maybe! I feel a lot. Period. I laugh a lot (laughing). I just invest a lot in the things around me. I’m just an emotional being. I’m color-sensitive and sound-sensitive.

B&TF: Like a Stendhal syndrome…

JG: Yes! I have major internal reactions to everything around me. It's quite taxing, really (laughing).

B&TF: Kind of like watching a sad movie and crying all the way through.

JG: There are movies that I will not watch because I can not emotionally take it, which is sad but true. It’s too much.

B&TF: Do you like comedy or drama better?

JG: In Chicago I was a theater kid and most of the material was more dramatic. When I came here, I took all these meetings with different casting directors and they were like, “You’re funny, you should do multi-camera comedy”. As if that was my little niche that I was going to fit in. And I’ve never even considered where I fit. I just like playing characters, that’s it.

B&TF: So when your agent sends you to auditions and when you look at the scripts they sent, how do you choose the roles?

JG: It’s all about the character. I get this question a lot if I want to do television or film…I don’t care. It could be on the cell phone, as long as the character is full-bodied and exciting to me.

B&TF: So, nothing flat or two dimensional?

JG: If I’ve seen it, or done it before then I’m not gonna be that interested.

B&TF: Do you consider the storyline as well?

JG: Absolutely, absolutely. I mean, the storyline is obviously part of the character development. Character’s first for me.

(Stay tuned for part III as Janina talks about being on The L Word and her first ever L Convention).