Katherine: My best friend growing up really put the bug in my ear about acting. We created this one hour-and-a-half improv play when we were 10 or 11 and performed it at the library. We just played off each other so well and had the best time doing it and the funniest part was, we wound up having packed houses, other people loved it too. So I thought, maybe I can graduate from the library and actually do this for a living. I couldn't imagine anything else that I would enjoy more.
(On her favorite feature) Katherine: I like my hands. Nice long fingers. Strong. They serve me well.
Katherine: What I find very attractive, what I find sexual, are people who are unapologetic for who they are and comfortable with themselves. And I think with those two things sexual energy does come out because you're not hovering or censoring yourself, you're just being who you are. And being who you are is a very attractive quality in a person.
Katherine: I think my comparison with Shane would be a loner. I always got the impression that she wasn't scared to be alone. She enjoys it. I can relate to that.
Katherine: I went to an all-girls pre school where everyone went off to Harvard or Yale, and I had zero interest in doing so. I think they thought I was on drugs. There was a neighboring all-boys school, so we'd get together and do dumb things. It was your typical Catholic-American upbringing.
Katherine's favourite food is sushi.
Kate's fashion hero is the French designer Hedi Slimane.
Two directors that Kate would love to get the chance to work with are Ang Lee and David Fincher.
A few movies that Kate thinks are "damn near perfect" are Midnight Express, The Texas Chainsaw Massacre (remake), and Cool Hand Luke.
Kate doesn't consider herself to be famous, nor does she believe her life has changed very much because of this so-called 'fame'.
Kate and her L Word co-stars like to imitate people and prank each other to pass the long hours on set. One time Kate, Leisha (Hailey), and Mia (Kirshner) rearranged Ilene Chaiken and Rose Lam's offices as a joke while they were filming The L Word.
Kate felt that her most rewarding role was when she played Cheryl Avery on Law and Order: SVU because of how well written her character was.
Kate's dream role would be to portray Patti Smith in a script about Patti's life.
Besides modelling and acting, Kate worked at a pizza joint and a grocery store when she was a teenager for a very brief period (her job at the grocery store only lasted 1 day).
If acting wasn't her profession, Katherine would like to attempt designing. On the other hand, one job she would never want to have would be a car salesman.
Kate has two dogs named Floyd and Captain that are terrier mixes.
Kate was the spokesperson in a Showtime commercial for the Red Cross in support of hurricane Katrina relief funding.
Kate shares a very similar style with her alter ego Shane and picks out a lot of the wardrobe that she's seen wearing on The L Word.
Kate was in a commercial for Fleet bank in 2002 that promoted the bank's speedy service.
In five words Kate describes herself as clean, forgiving, cranky, impatient, and shy.
Kate loves reading and her favorite author is the late Augusten Burroughs.
Kate's favorite actresses are Patricia Clarkson, Lili Taylor, Martha Plimpton, and Frances McDormand.
Off the small screen, Kate thinks of her L Word co-stars as family. Kate: I look at them as my sisters.
When asked about the motives of her character in the recent play The Guardians, Kate replied, "It's all about power. And how desperate people do desperate things. The message is so clear: that power can be completely misplaced, and, because of that, a lot of things go wrong. I fell in love with this character: she doesn't play the victim and she's unapologetic."
Ironically, the character that Kate played as a child in the Winnie the Pooh play was the "semi-drag" Christopher Robin.
Katherine was the lead actress in the Our Lady Peace music video for the song "Is Anybody Home?"
Katherine admits that she was a tomboy when she was growing up.
Katherine says that if she hadn't gone into acting, she would either have studied marine biology or applied to the FBI.
Katherine half-jokes, "The clothes are comfortable... but on a deeper level, I learned that the competition between boys and girls isn't as strong as between women."
Katherine says, "I think I am just as masculine as I am feminine. A nice balance, and it's wonderful learning to explore that side of yourself and see that part of your sexuality that you don't always see."
Some of Kate's favorite TV shows include Six Feet Under, The Cosby Show, The Wonder Years, 90210, Intervention, and, although she's embarrassed to admit it, Laguna Beach.
Katherine says, "I grew up in Philly, went to a prep school for some reason, and then moved to New York when I was 18 to study."
On playing a lesbian character, Katherine says, "I don't look at it as having a positive or negative impact. I see it as a chance to explore another part of myself and to learn something that's beyond positive. Everything is a stepping stone and that's how I see this. And if it is a risk and a little scary, then that's all the more reason to do it. Right now I'm focusing on giving this character a voice, and if I do that, I can't see that as being a negative thing. And just because I'm playing this role doesn't mean I can't do something else. That's the beauty of being an actor."
On her character (Shane) on The L Word, Katherine says, "I certainly think there are similarities between myself and Shane. There has to be. In every role you play you have to start with you, since you're the root. I can relate to a lot of what she is going through in the inside. And in the ways that I differ from her, I find that I learn more about myself."
On her The L Word character, Katherine says, "Instead of her sleeping around, I’d like to see her in a relationship that grows and see what happens."
On her youth, Katherine says, "I was a tomboy growing up. All my friends were guys, and I'd get mad in the summer when they would take their shirts off but I couldn't."
Kate has often been compared to Meg Ryan.
Katherine sports four tattoos on her body: a violin on her lower back which she got after her father died, a bird on her left arm, the letter "K" on her wrist, and her life number on her finger.
Katherine auditioned for the leading role of an FTM (Female to Male) youth in Boys Don't Cry, but the role ended up going to Hilary Swank.
Katherine is trained in fencing.
You can share a link to this page with your friend!