The L Word Ladies – Up-close and Personal: Kate Moennig

By B&TF

WARNING: contains minor spoilers for season 4

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Another thing that makes the show so special to them is that the original cast (Mia, Leisha, Jennifer, Laurel, and Erin when she was still part of the cast) is very tight and close because they know each other for almost 5 years, and for them, it feels like working with the family. All the ladies have fun and, as Kate put it, “It’s like you have to dress up and play with your friends and get paid for that.”

Part of the fun for the cast is filming with the other characters. As Kate mentioned, sometimes when she films her scenes with Mia Kirshner, they make funny comments and find themselves whispering to each other during the scenes. In the end, the cast always ends up laughing, getting Mia in trouble the most because she has a reputation of the serial prankster.

Because the original cast is so close, sometimes it is hard for them to work with many new characters. The new season of The L Word will introduce several new characters, which will make about 15 characters to date on the show. Kate feels like no one is special anymore because there’re so many people.

Interestingly enough, the actresses love it when the show is more light and funny than dramatic, mainly because they have so much fun making it. They have so many fun moments and jokes off camera that would make great extras for any DVD. Kate mentioned it herself that she and the other cast members would love to see all the deleted scenes and bloopers on extras because without it, the cost of DVDs isn’t worth it.

Being a cable show, The L Word has the privilege to work without much censoring. The sex scenes do attract more viewers, but Kate pointed out that they are included in the show because there’re always reasons behind them. Some people would be upset if there were no sex scenes, but they still have to serve a purpose for a storyline. Another interesting fact about the sex scenes is that they are very technical, and it doesn’t do anything to the actresses because filming the sex scene is not really that sexy at all due to the cameras and people around.

Kate loves her character, Shane McCutcheon, but if she would have a choice to play someone else on the show for a change it would be Jenny. Why? So Kate can understand what is wrong with that character.

But as everyone would agree, including audience and Kate’s cast mates, it’s enough to just look at her once to know that Kate is perfect to play Shane.

But in spite of her preference of Cherie, Kate didn’t like Shane’s infidelity and she doesn’t understand how she could cheat on Carmen because it was terribly unkind. Kate mentioned that she wants Carmen back because it would be an interesting relationship to develop. The added bonus to Shane/Carmen relationship is the fact that Kate and Sarah got along and they both like to work fast.

If she could, Kate would change some things about season 3. For example, she would like to change the way Shane left Carmen at the altar. Kate would have liked more time to develop the decision by Shane to leave Carmen. Having Shane’s father arrive earlier in the season could have helped the viewers understand why she left Carmen in such a horrible way. Kate would love to show the internal process of Shane’s decisions.

For many viewers, the third season of The L Word was very dramatic and in some ways disappointing. Kate mentioned that in many ways the cast members’ reaction to season 3 was almost the same, disappointment and confusion.

Kate said, “We even came up with the explanations scenes about everything that happened and called it OC: Off camera. Everything that was unexplained happened behind the camera. Unfortunately, we can only change minor details about our characters; ultimately it’s Ilene’s show. We don’t know how long the show will go on. The success was shocking, and the new writers are excited to tell the stories. But with so many characters the stories are not developing, and we are allowed only so much leeway. However, we can draw the line when something is totally wrong with our characters because we’ve been playing them for so long, and after 4 years we know so much about our characters.”

Ilene Chaiken stated in a recent interview that she feels Season 4 is their best season so far. I’m excited to see any new developments with all the original characters that we all grew to love.