By BetteAndTinaForever

Day 2

Saturday began as usual. We got up for a complimentary breakfast and once again I was thinking how weird it is that British people eat beans for breakfast! The orange juice was great.

The photoshoots were scheduled first but I only had one that morning, with Rachel Shelley.

I had been planning that since Friday night was the first convention night, all my friends would have arrived and it would have meant No Sleep! So... I scheduled all my photoshoots for Sunday morning so I could look fresh and at least remotely photogenic. It turned out that I had almost seven hours of sleep Friday night and only two Saturday night, so all my pictures are unbearable to look at.

Anyway, I went in line to have my picture taken with Rachel and when it was my turn, she asked how I was doing. I started talking while the photographer was taking the picture and he didn’t like how it turned out. He called me back and I happily obliged because it gave me a few more precious minutes in the company of Rachel.

I struck the pose and then my hair fell in my face. I blew it off and the following dialog ensued:

B&TF: Stupid hair (blowing it off with the corner of my mouth).
Photographer (laughing and waiting for me to fix it)
Rachel: I felt that.
B&TF: Sorry, did I spit on you?
Rachel: No, but I felt the hair.
B&TF: I washed it this morning.

Rachel began laughing and the guy took our picture right at this moment. I guess he was satisfied with it this time and I left, dreading the results. When I picked it up later, I was surprised how great it turned out. Rachel was smiling but I could totally see the difference between her smiling just for the photos in some other pictures and laughing with me in this picture. It was amazing; even her eyes looked different. Needless to say, I chose that picture to get autographed by Rachel later.

After I was done, my friends and I went to the main hall to get our seats for the Q&A session. According to the schedule, Guin Turner was supposed to go first but due to “jet lag”, she was indisposed. At least, this is what we were told. I went to find out about my interview with Rachel Shelley and spent some time talking to other press people who were also waiting for their interviews.

Because of limited time I was only able to interview Anne Ramsay and Lauren Lee Smith that day during Rachel’s Q&A session. I really enjoyed talking to them and I hope you found those interviews informative and entertaining. I didn’t know everything they were asked during the Q&A sessions, so I just asked questions I prepared in the short time that I had, after I found out that I could interview them.

In between waiting and getting interviews, I had a chance to catch some parts of the Q&A with Anne and Lauren, so here’s a short account of things I remember.

Q&A with Lauren Lee Smith and Anne Ramsay

A lot of the questions that day were directed at Lauren and pretty much by the same girl, who apparently is a huge Lauren fan but Anne was participating in the conversation as well. They had a really good dialog going with each other and with the audience.

Lauren was talking a lot about her first movie, Lie With me. Since there are several sex scenes and a lot of nudity, Lauren was asked if her family watched it. She said that she would never do anything that her family would be ashamed of but her brothers and her mother chose not to see it.

Lauren has a special relationship with her grandmother, however, and she gave her that movie to watch. Her grandma loved it and was really proud of Lauren’s role. Lauren’s grandma is over 90 and a really great lady. One time she told Lauren that she always regretted not getting a tattoo. Lauren said that it’s never too late and they both went to get one. Lauren has 7 tattoos herself.

Lauren always wanted to be an actress but when she was younger, her family traveled a lot and things were never stable enough for her to pursue acting, though she was always involved in theater. When she turned 18, they were in the US and she was able to do some modeling and acting. But because she was a Canadian citizen, she had to go back to Vancouver and that is where she actually started.

One of her favorite episodes to film was in season 1, where she was explaining to Dana how she cut her finger. This was the scene that was used for her audition and she had to do it for different people. The last time it was with Erin and it was a very fun audition to do.

Lauren was asked who was a better kisser, Erin or Leisha. It’s funny that people keep asking questions like that knowing that the actresses would never say that one was better than the other. At L2 someone asked Laurel Holloman if Jennifer or Rachel was a better kisser. It was asked right in front of Rachel. Of course, Laurel was very diplomatic and said that they are both different and both good.

Lauren was the same way. She couldn’t, of course, say that one was better so she also said that even though she had more kissing scenes with Erin, both Leisha and Erin are good kissers. When they were filming the scene with Lara and Alice kissing for the first time after Dana had died, the director was telling them to make it more raw and passionate but they were both crying and it was hard to show passion with snot running down their faces.

Lauren was also asked if it was realistic for Lara and Alice to hook up and she replied that sometimes people get together through mourning because they don’t know who else they can turn to. At first, both Leisha and Lauren said that they couldn’t do it to Dana but after thinking and talking about it, they decided that it made sense. Unfortunately, that relationship didn’t go anywhere and Lauren didn’t know what happened to her character because she was supposed to come back in season 4 and it was a big surprise when she was told at the convention that Lara had gone to San Francisco without much explanation. Lauren also added that if she was asked to come back for season 6, she would do it in a heart beat.

Someone said The L Word brought the lesbian lifestyle into mainstream television and asked what other lifestyles or subjects would be interesting to show. Anne mentioned the show Big Love which dealt with polygamy and said that she hopes there will be more shows about gay and lesbians after TLW is over. Lauren said that in general networks are getting more open-minded about certain issues, especially networks like HBO and Showtime.

Neither Lauren nor Anne watched season 5 so they couldn’t say anything about it. Lauren said that season 3 was her favorite season for selfish reasons. She felt that Lara was given the most exposure as a character and she had a lot of good material to work with.

Lauren talked some about her show Mutant-X that she did before The L Word. The expectations for Mutant-X were great. They started with wonderful ideas and a good budget but then it was cut in half. The viewer ship was going down. Lauren didn’t think it was the greatest show in the world, she did 44 episodes but with the show’s decline she was asked to wear less and less clothing because she was told it would attract more viewers. Lauren realized it was time to get out and she was able to get out of her contract without difficulty.

Lauren goes to the gym but her personal trainer is really tough and likes to yell at her. Anne said that she developed self-discipline and she runs every day. She loves running and it’s cheap, compared to hiring a personal trainer.

Both Lauren and Anne were asked if they could invite any person currently living or not to dinner, who would it be. Neither one could come up with an answer. The attendee mentioned Madonna and Anne told a story how Madonna kissed her. They were filming League of Their Own in some small town and they went to a party at a gay bar; the only one in town. As they were leaving, Madonna grabbed her and kissed her, just to see Anne’s reaction.

Lauren was asked about food and cooking a lot and she said she can only make toast and instant noodles. She also said her mother is a wonderful cook and she always brings her food and stocks her fridge; so Lauren never really learned to cook.

Lauren mentioned also that she would love to do some silly comedy because all she has done so far is pretty dramatic.

Every convention I attend, some fan invariably asks a question about what kind of fruit the guests would be and why. Wait, it was probably the same fan…anyway, it’s always interesting to hear the answers. After long deliberation and laughter, Lauren said that she would be a pineapple because it’s yummy.

The guests were also asked what would they change about their bodies and why. Lauren said that she’s always had a butt complex, that she has too much booty and Anne told her to show what she meant. It was really funny. Anne pretended to be scared that Lauren would beat her up after the Q&A but Lauren just stood up and showed her butt. After a lot of laugher and admiring whistles from the audience, Lauren finally admitted that there’s nothing wrong with her behind.

Anne said that she wouldn’t really change anything about her body but sometimes she thinks her torso is too long.

There were more questions on Saturday but I left to wait for my interview with Rachel and missed the rest. I also missed Rachel’s Q&A completely that day because I was doing interviews with Anne and Lauren. I did go to Rachel’s Q&A on Sunday, however and the account of that is coming next.