The L Word Ladies – Up-close and Personal: Laurel Holloman

By B&TF

(WARNING: contains minor spoilers for season 4)

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All Tina’s friends didn’t take it well that Tina went back to being straight, but Jenny took the whole situation the hardest because she’s a newbie in the lesbian community. Jenny went through the same journey but in reverse. Tina was there through all of it, but now she’s back with men, and Jenny just can’t understand it. Tina and Jenny will drive each other crazy over this situation.

Laurel said that Tina still strongly identifies herself as a lesbian, but she was tired of fighting with Bette. She wanted something simple and boring. and in the end. she will be ultimately bored. Laurel added that she and Jennifer went to Ilene and told her that they want their characters to stop fighting because they are better playing “in-love” parts. The fighting scenes were really hard for them to play because they had to do it and be professional about it.

There are only about 2 weeks between the end of Season 3-- when Bette takes Angelica at the ski resort--and Season 4. Laurel said that Tina considered Bette taking Angelica as a kidnapping, and it will take Tina awhile to be able to trust Bette again, but eventually she will.

In a sense, Laurel and Tina have a lot in common. For example, if Laurel would look for a woman she would look for intelligent, loyal to friends, woman she could trust and ultimately supportive. Oh, and lips…sounded to me like all the things Tina was looking in a partner.

When Laurel began filming The L Word, she didn’t know anyone personally, except Leisha, so pretty much all the cast had met on the Pilot. Laurel went to the concert of Leisha’s band “Gush” and when she learned that Leisha and she will be on the same show, Laurel said, “Wow, I’ll be on the same show with a rock star.”

The whole cast was instantly bonding. In the beginning it was all spontaneous, like some of the girls would go together for dinner and those who didn’t go because they were filming would think, “Oh, they didn’t invite me, does it mean they don’t like me?” One time it happened to Jennifer Beals who was filming late while the rest went to dinner and Jennifer came to Laurel after and asked, “Did you guys have dinner already?” And she was a little sad when Laurel said that they went to dinner when Jennifer was still filming some of her scenes.

But they all knew that it was nothing against them because all the ladies became like one big family, at least the original cast members. Laurel even said that most of the times it reminds her of being back to her girlhood because often they spend their time together on a set, during breaks and they constantly laugh during filming.

Now there are too many new people on the show and Laurel agrees with that. She said that they are all nice to work with, but their stories are taking too much time and the original cast members miss their scenes with each other a lot, especially the fun that they used to have at the Planet. Laurel suggested the fans write to Ilene Chaiken about what they want to see.

The repeated explanation was would have been wearing, so by the time she was asked yet again, she didn't correct the couple who assumed Angelica was adopted. The repetition also helps Tina to realize that Angelica looks like Bette and this situation will happen to her again.

Another backstory situation that Laurel explained was that Bette and Tina did spend the money that Bette got from CAC, but ultimately they weren’t really fighting about money. Ilene wanted to show in partnerships, especially ones where they were raising children together, where one or both persons get that sense of panic that they will run out of money, because all of a sudden they are responsible for another human being. In the last 7 years Tina didn’t feel in control of the money because Bette was making more. Coupled with the fact that Bette cheated on her resulted in her anger coming out in a really dysfunctional way.

Laurel also said that Ilene wanted to show that in relationship sometimes things can get nasty when people fight about who brings more money in. They had to work it out to support their child, but Bette and Tina didn’t do it very well. Laurel’s friend, who is a physiologist, said that when the couple fights about money, it’s not really about money. They can have tons of it and still not be happy if there’s no communication or love or support.

Someone in Bette and Tina's relationship had to behave poorly as a result of the problems of the prior seven years, and that became Tina. Laurel and Jennifer really had a hard time with those scenes, but when they got into it, it really started to flow. What they realized that this couple just went into this really dark place where instead of celebrating Angelica they began fighting, mostly about money because they didn’t really work on what happened to them before.

Also she will be a powerful executive for the movie studio and will be involved in making some movie with Jenny. There will be an appearance by Annabella Sciorra as a director and she will be at odds with Tina, but Laurel implied that something might happen between them at the end. Also, Tina will have a huge fight at the end. Will it be with Sciorra’s character? Jenny? Bette?

To date, Tina is the only one of the original characters that doesn’t have a backstory. When they began filming Season 1, Laurel had a conversation about Tina’s family with Ilene and Rose Troche. Tina had a liberal mother and a father who had never been really involved in her life. She came out in college, and Bette was her second girlfriend. It was eventually decided that Tina was only with guys before and Bette’s was Tina’s first girlfriend.

Though no one knows, maybe in Season 5 we will finally get to see Tina’s family. Laurel didn’t want to give away anything, though, because the backstory could change again, resulting in a mother who is conservative republican from Kansas.