The L Word Ladies – Up-close and Personal: Mia Kirshner

By B&TF

WARNING: contains minor spoilers for season 4

They captured your attention on the TV screen. They made you laugh, they made you cry and, occasionally, they made you scream at your TV. But whatever emotions the ladies of The L Word evoked in you, they are the ones who keep you coming back every Sunday night when the show airs on Showtime and inspire you to travel all over the world to attend different fan and signing events.

My latest travel adventure brought me up-close and personal with five amazing and delightful women that one way or another evoked some strongest and often unexpected emotions in me. It made me realize that the cast members love The L Word as much as we do and because of that I, personally, would like for this show to go on forever, even if sometimes I don’t like where some storylines are going.

This show still remains one of the kind and all of the cast members are very special to their fans. So, without further ado let me introduce the ladies of The L Word whom I recently met, talked to and learn a lot from. They are: charming and hilarious Leisha Hailey, gorgeous and adorable Laurel Holloman, shy and mischievous Mia Kirshner, lovely and big-hearted Kate Moennig, and beautiful and talented Guinevere Turner.

Mia studied Russian literature. Her mother is Bulgarian, and she herself was born in Canada. She’s a huge comic book fan, and travel is her passion. Mia seems more interested in other people’s stories than talking about herself, and she likes to talk to her fans on individual basis to hear their life stories. She is actually writing a book about her travels and the stories that people told her. That book will be coming out soon and, according to Mia, it is the most meaningful thing she had done in her life.

Many fans were persuaded to believe that Mia goes on some Internet websites and writes there under the name “Jenny from the block”; however, this is not true. She does read sometimes what the fans say about Jenny, and a lot of the times Mia thinks that their comments are just mean, but if she would post on any website under any name, she would be more classy.

Mia is the best prankster on the set, especially when she is bored and restless. One of Mia’s favorite pranks is the “Kissing game.” Sometimes there’s a lot of waiting time during shoots, and Mia would sneak behind another cast member during shoots and give them a kiss and knock them on the floor, which would make some of the new directors confused and uncomfortable.

The cast members laugh a lot during the filming, and Mia is the one who always gets in trouble for starting it even though some times it’s not her fault at all. The main problem for the cast is when they can’t stop laughing. Someone starts laughing and the director might get upset and asks them to stop, but the cast only starts laughing even harder. Whenever Mia shoots her scenes with Kate Moennig, they always make funny comments, whispering to each other during the scenes so quietly that it’s isn’t recorded on film.

It is true that the original cast members (Leisha, Erin, Kate, Mia, Jennifer and Laurel) are like a family. Not only do they have fun with each other on and off set, they are also very supportive of each other. Mia, for example, was very protective of Laurel Holloman during her pregnancy in season 2.

At the same time, when Mia had problems with her short hair and the cast members were having a promo shoot for Season 2 where they all were posing naked, Mia was very upset because she had a very bad wig and she had no make-up for the promo poster. Mia said that she kept crying about cutting her hair and wiping tears. She was positioned next to Pam Grier and Laurel Holloman, and they both held Mia’s hand during the entire photo shoot to comfort her. Mia admitted later that she does have hair issues and doesn’t like her hair to be short.

If Mia would chose to be with a woman, she would most like for her to havea a sense of humor. It would also be important that the woman would be hot, brave, and accepting of her sexuality, and not a game player.

It is flattering for Mia when fans recognize her on the streets, but she doesn’t like when they confuse her with Jenny because she is nothing like her. So when it happens, she would just continues walking. At the same time, Mia appreciates fans who always ask if they can touch her or give her hugs because she doesn’t like to be treated like machinery or a prop.

Mia has a dog and often she and Kate Moennig, who also has a dog, walk them together and share their dog’s problems.

Mia believes that an actor’s personal life is nobody’s business. People just assume that if you’re out in public that they automatically have to know everything about you.

Mia recently finished filming “Black Dahlia,” and she really loved working on that film and is really proud to participate in a storyline about someone who was so brutally murdered. As far as her next projects, she would like to do a fairytale.

Jenny Schecter

Jenny may be the most complicated and fascinating character on The L Word. She might not have as many followers as some other characters, but Jenny remains one of the pivotal characters on the show, mostly due to Mia Kirshner’s absolutely brilliant acting.

But what does Mia herself thinks about the character she’s been playing for four years now? Mia likes that Jenny is strong and has passion and some good qualities to take on the world, but she definitely needs some therapy to deal with all the issues. Part of it has to do with all the carnival sequences that Mia didn’t understand herself. She mentioned that she had no idea why she was jumping and pretending to be a clown while Shane was a lion tamer. But Mia pointed out that it was excruciating to show Jenny’s pain, and it was interesting way of showing her thoughts and memories.

Mia identifies Jenny as gay but also thinks that she needs to get through this transitional phase and to deal with her issues. Jenny is the only child from a strong Orthodox family and has a lot of issues, but Mia is pretty sure that Jenny will get through all that.

Jenny in Season 4

Interestingly enough, there was not much information about Jenny’s storyline in Season 4 apart from what some of us already knew from the few promos and auditions sites.

Apparently, Jenny won’t be involved with any of the new characters that will be introduced in Season 4, and as far as we know, her French girlfriend Claude is still there, at least in the beginning of the season. Mia was surprised that some fans actually called Claude a “French Jenny” and said that she doesn’t see her that way. Also, Jenny will be wilder and crazier in Season 4, but at the same time she will finally find success with one of her books that will be turned into a film.

Tina, who is still working for the movie studio, will work together with Jenny on her scripts. They will have a lot of scenes together, and they will drive each other crazy, mainly because Jenny won’t understand why Tina went back to men. Jenny is a newbie in the lesbian world, and she perhaps will take it more personally than the others that Tina is, in essence, making the reverse journey.