A lesbian in South Dakota who is out to her friends to family is doing a lot more for the gay community.
A romantic comedy, a lesbian romantic comedy because we take ourselves too seriously. Now that we're starting to get more visibility, we need to lighten up.
Acting is something I love to do. I love to perform and I love the art, the craft of it.
After I dyed my hair, I started working within six months. It's a better fit.
Comedy is also just more fun to do, and it pays well, which enables you to do your own projects on the side or do theater in the summer, something that you really love to do.
Don't give up. Go to the gay film festivals, get involved in our community because they will start hiring us. People are starting to realize that if you have a gay film and you have an out actor in it, you are much more likely to get some attention for it.
Ensler 's an inspiration, changing the world through arts, and that's the ideal kind of project that you want to get to eventually.
Even within my own group of friends, we debate whether it is better to at least be on TV, even if it isn't always the most realistic representation.
Going back to Kissing Jessica Stein, she never said she was a lesbian, and then the other character was a lesbian and I thought it was a very honest representation of what happens to a lot of straight girls who just become attracted to another woman.
I always sort of had a flare for performing but it wasn't until I was 16 that I started doing theater, and then I latched on to it and thought 'this is what I should be doing, this is what I love to do.'
I am fairly cynical, but when it comes to this topic, I'm an optimist and I really think it's not as bad as we think it is - even with the election, even with all those things that happened, I think it's a lot better than we think it is.
I came out to my parents. My parents are divorced, and my dad basically said he knew when I was a teenager that I was gay.
I didn't want to do a soap opera anyway. So I did Days of Our Lives and then I had a little bit of a problem for a couple of years getting paying work, and did theater around town just to keep busy, and to keep the muscles working.
I don't expect early in my career to be able to do the kind of projects that I believe are politically valuable or important to the world, but I am hoping, like most actresses, to be able to make the sort of films that I want to make.
I don't think its such a big deal anymore, I really don't. It's really upsetting to me to see actresses who I know are gay - through friends that have dated them - act closeted in public. It's like, what are you doing? It's 2005 now.
I don't wear jewelry at all, tattoos are my decoration. It's a fun hobby that unfortunately I have to slow down on, because it takes two or three hours of makeup now to cover them when I play a role.
I feel like we haven't had enough women who have started off being out to know so there hasn't been a whole lot of us who started off being gay to see how our careers have or haven't taken off as a result.
I finally noticed that every network session I was in, I was the only blonde. Five or six times I said 'I need to change my hair color,' then finally I did it and boom - every casting director afterwards said it worked so much better.
I had two boyfriends, but it was very, you know, very like 'whatever,' and my brothers older friends always ask me out and I never wanted to go, and my dad also said he noticed the way I was with my girlfriends, so he always kind of wondered.
I hear 'angry lesbian' a lot and that is something that we need to change, which might be what some of the mainstream lesbian stuff is trying to do, but I think we could go a little farther with it.
I love comedy, that is what I really love to do. It's in front of an audience, and the rehearsal process is a lot like theater: four days you're rehearsing, and then on Friday you get up in front of an audience do it for the camera. It's a perfect marriage of theater and television.
I loved doing The Vagina Monologues, but I was doing it for weeks on end to sold-out audiences of four hundred people per night, and I'm thinking 'this is not reaching the kind of audience that ideally you'd want it to reach.'
I might want to get into directing someday, but I still love acting, and for now I would love to be involved with really good queer film makers and make quality lesbian films.
I moved to Los Angeles right after college, in early '97. I was very fortunate and landed a manager very quickly, but I didn't get my first job until '98.
I played a nurse on Days of Our Lives, and after a while I was up for a contract role, and my manager at the time said 'If you are getting to that point this quickly, then you obviously have potential and you don't want to get hooked into a soap opera.'
I really believe how you address it is going to determine how everyone else feels about it - if you make a big deal about it and are closeted, and you cause the paparazzi to chase you around and try to prove that you're gay, you're creating more of a stir.
I really liked Kissing Jessica Stein. Made by two straight girls, but what I liked about it is that Jessica never called herself a lesbian.
I tell them that I'm a lesbian but doesn't seem to matter to them - they see in the media is that we haven't met the right guy yet, or that we've been raped or abused by our daddies and we're just waiting for Mr. Right to come sweep us off our feet, and I'm really tired of seeing that.
I think they are a lot more accepting than we give them credit for. I think that we have to give them a little space, but realize that most people don't hate us.
I think we don't often have the money to do it, and the lesbians that do have the money, many of them don't want to see their money go to that.
I think we got to start coming out now, it's not such a big deal anymore. Yes, Middle America, whoever those people are, supposedly don't approve of it, but I disagree.
I want to make films that make a difference. I want to be out and hope that that will make things better for gay people and for myself. I hope one day I can start to make the kind of projects or be involved with kind of projects that can really make a difference.
I was actually a state speech champion, which got me a college scholarship, and then I studied theater in college and then came to L.A. right after.
I would like to see a movie where the girl gets the girl. A mainstream film.
I'm convinced it's because my thighs are too fat, so I spend the rest of the movie shoving donuts down my throat to prove to him that I don't care that he thinks I am fat, that I am fine with who I am. It's a nice change from the evil, dark characters that I've been playing.
I'm happy that we're getting more air time on television. I admire people who are taking a step forward and getting real lesbian characters on TV, and the same time, it seems like they are sometimes scared of being too real for the straight audiences to handle.
If I were casting a film, I would want to find someone who is naturally like that, which is again why it is my hope that more casting directors hire lesbians to play lesbian parts, because there is just an ease with it. It is something that I look for when I see lesbian roles.
If I weren't an actor, I would be covered. I have loved the way they look ever since I was a little girl. I see a girl with tattoos, and I'm like 'Wow!'
In a perfect world, I would love to have a sitcom, do film or television in the summer, save my money, start a production company and do the kind of films that I want to see done.
It irritates me that more queer film makers aren't using out actresses. Of course, casting directors need to hire the best person for the part, and I wouldn't say I couldn't play a straight role, because I certainly can. So it's complicated.
It wasn't a fun set to work on, because it was the last season and everyone just wanted out, but it was a fun experience.
It's constant projection, and you have to suck it up and go on to the next and realize it is not personal. I've been to networks six or seven times for serious regular roles on sitcoms and TV shows, and I'm always number two, the girl in second place.
It's nice to see that we're starting to be represented more in television and in film, but of course there isn't a lot out there, so we're going to be really critical of what there is. I'm pretty critical of it myself.
Later, I think they even told me that me explaining that I got this put them at ease, because they didn't know who they were going to cast in this role, and then I came in and they were like 'okay, she gets it.'
My mom had a little bit of a problem with it at first, and I think her biggest concern was the I wasn't going to have children or that I would never have a stable life. But I basically forced her to accept it, and eventually she did.
Never marry a man who hates his mother because he'll end up hating you.
Outside of being an actress, I feel like being out is the biggest way that gay people can change perception. There are people that give millions of dollars to gay organizations but are closeted to their own families.
She's a wonderful woman, and now my entire family knows and they are wonderful - my grandfather, everybody is very supportive.
So don't give up, and get involved in your community whether it is politically personally or as a performer who can make a big difference. Find people that believe in you, you can't do this without a support group.
So when I went into the audition, I sort of let them know in a very subtle way that I understood this role.
The angry lesbian stereotype is true - I'm one of them - but underneath that there is fun and frolic and we need to show that a little bit more now.
The good and bad part of starting to get roles is that people think this is the 'type' that you play.
Then I had a recurring role in the last season of Beverly Hills 90210.
There are a few women working their asses off to get it done, but in general, we just don't have the means.
There are just so many actresses, it often has nothing to do with talent, it has to do with who you know - it's luck and timing and the right role. It's hard sometimes going on audition after audition - I think I've been on 425 auditions and out of that many, I haven't had many big roles.
There are plenty of lesbians in Hollywood, but they're not out. And that's their choice, but I can't do that, it's too important to me.
There are some straight actresses who can pull it off really, really well and there are others where I'm just not buying it.
They're not going to cast an actress who has to play bubbly and innocent if they can hire an actress that is that. I wouldn't.
This is going to sound incredibly artsy and pompous but the truth is, I believe that film and television are the best way to reach a mass audience.
To get up and go to another audition and to start all over after that is really difficult.
We are in desperate need of a well-done romantic lesbian comedy.
We convinced him to hire me - sent him tapes, flew out there to audition, I mean I was relentless in getting the show because this was something I have to do.
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