To celebrate The L Word’s 20th anniversary, we’re making our March 2020 interview with Kate Moennig available to read online
BY ROXY BOURDILLON, COVER PHOTOGRAPHY BY KHAREN HILL
Four hundred giddy gay women gather one chilly London evening for a screening of The L Word: Generation Q. Viewing parties for the original show were legendary, often descending into rowdy debauchery. As someone who devoured all six seasons covertly under the quilt in my teenage bedroom, this is the first time I’ve ever attended one. The crowd around me bubbles with anticipation. We’ve been waiting a decade for this. For the return of that most fabled of sapphically inclined shows. And then, 10 minutes into the first episode, the most celebrated lesbian TV character of all time appears onscreen. She has artfully tousled hair, a nonchalant swagger and the chiselled jawline of someone destined to be a dreamboat. Onlookers whoop and holler in appreciation. The familiar figure disembarks a private jet and casually makes sex-eyes at a coquettish flight attendant, who she proceeds to bang on a kitchen counter within a matter of seconds. It’s at that precise moment, mid-worktop-smash, that the audience collectively dissolves into one girly, swirly, swooning mess. We have just been Shaned.
Before there was Stella in Orange Is The New Black, Dallas in Below Her Mouth or Frankie in Lip Service, there was Shane – a character so universally irresistible that every woman she met seemed to spontaneously drop her knickers in a nanosecond. As viewers, we weren’t always sure whether we wanted to be her or be with her, or perhaps it was a mind-boggling amalgamation of the two. She inspired a generation of fuckboi Shane-anigans and questionable fashion trends, including skinny ties, smudgy soft-butch eyeliner and leather lace-up waistcoats worn with matching drawstring trousers. But her impact went far beyond eye candy and style inspo. Shane has become shorthand in our community. Even women who have never seen the series know who Shane is, what “Shane” means. To many, Shane didn’t just shape lesbian culture; Shane is lesbian culture. She is iconic, and not iconic in the flippant way the term is tossed about on social media nowadays. She’s not #iconic like the stack of pancakes you had for breakfast this morning. She is a legitimate, bonafide lesbian icon in a very real, very rare way. It is no exaggeration to say that Shane is one of the most influential, potent, powerful depictions of queer female sexuality there has ever been on TV. As I watch the audience melt a little more every moment she’s onscreen, I wonder, what exactly is it about Shane that makes her such a phenomenon?
A few weeks later I get my answer, from none other than the woman who plays her, Kate pinch-me-is-that-really-you-I’m-talking-to Moennig. “She’s very specific, and specificity is so important,” Kate smoulders from across the Atlantic. Even down the phone line, she exudes innate rock star charisma. It may be 8am in her LA home, but I suspect she has that just-woke-up gravel in her voice whatever time of day it is. “Self-possession is a very intoxicating trait. Shane has that and it’s authentic. To have a character so unapologetic of who she is, it’s refreshing to see.”
Through her singular performance as the unofficial lord of the lesbians, Kate showed us a different way we could exist in the world. As she points out, Shane is enviably at ease with herself. She’s known she was gay since her first crush in primary school. We learn in season one that her name was Tiffany Gardner: “She’s just sitting there in the sand playing hard to get… That girl took my sunshine meal toy, then she took my heart.” The only non-femme in a glossy ensemble of ultra-preened lipstick lezzies, Shane embodied the beauty of androgyny and made being visibly queer suddenly seem really quite cool after all.
But let’s find out a little more about the woman behind the legend. Born in Philadelphia, Kate was the only daughter of a Broadway showgirl and a violin-maker. “A tough little kid, a tomboy, I was pretty fearless. I certainly took more risks then than I do now.” Coming from a family of showbiz veterans, including her Emmy-winning aunt Blythe Danner and A-list cousin Gwyneth Paltrow, it’s no surprise that Kate decided to pursue acting at an early age. “It made the most sense to me. I figured I’d go for it and see what kind of ride I’d get, and if it didn’t work out, I’d figure out something else. But I’ve been pretty fortunate so far.” After graduating from New York’s prestigious American Academy Of Dramatic Arts, her breakthrough role was on Dawson’s Creek spin-off Young Americans. Then, at the tender age of 24, she was cast as Shane, a part that would change not only her life, but the lives of queer women around the world.
Kate knew from the beginning that she was working with an extraordinary group of people. She describes the cast’s immediate synergy as “lightning in a bottle”. TV had never seen a series like The L Word and it had certainly never seen a character like Shane. The lesbian James Dean, she was a female incarnation of the perennially male, emotionally withholding heartthrob. “I always had a soft spot for Shane, because she’s a bit misunderstood. Her quest was always to find someone that accepted her for who she was. She’s a bit lonely, but her friends are her family, and I think a lot of people can relate to that.” The key to capturing her unique essence is working out what makes her tick and, after playing her for so many years, Kate knows the very bones of Shane. “She’s comfortable in her own skin. She is who she is and she’s not apologetic about it. Nor is she flaunting it in everyone’s face, because when people have that inherent confidence they don’t need to. That’s what made sense to me when I was investigating who she was. It was always going back to this quiet confidence.”
She tells me the greatest challenge of playing Shane is “trying to understand why she does the things she does”. “Why would she end this relationship? Why would she sabotage that? It comes down to the fact that I don’t think she believes, deep down, that she deserves these things. She has the Midas Touch and she’s able to get pretty much whatever she wants, but when she has it she thinks to herself either, ‘I don’t deserve this’ or ‘I don’t want this’.”
When The L Word ended in 2009, Kate’s career continued to flourish. Her first big post-Shane gig was on crime drama Ray Donovan, playing Lena – described by Showtime as “a no-nonsense lesbian who is both sexy and tough”. “That show was a very dark film noir, male-dominated world. It was such a culture shock, because of the different energy. A complete 180 from The L Word.” After seven seasons on Ray Donovan, last year she did a stint on acclaimed comedy, Grown-ish, as gay gender studies professor Paige. “You know, Grown-ish actually felt the closest to The L Word in terms of camaraderie. That show was very reminiscent.” But while Kate has played many brilliant, often queer, characters, there’s no role quite like Shane and no show quite like The L Word.
Since as early as 2012, Kate was discussing a potential comeback with costars Jennifer Beals (Bette) and Leisha Hailey (Alice), and The L Word’s creator Ilene Chaiken. “I really missed working with the girls. We always felt like the original show ended prematurely. We did have a lot more story to share, but since we only had six seasons, it got truncated.” It was initially unclear what form a new iteration might take, but the success of reboots like Will & Grace presented a possible framework. A political climate that was growing increasingly hostile towards marginalised people, and Trump’s devastating election victory in 2016, made the return of The L Word seem all the more urgent. As Jennifer writes so eloquently in an op-ed for The Hollywood Reporter, “We knew we had to do something… We were storytellers after all… Let the stories provide visibility and agency.”
Kate shared that piece on social media with the caption: “@jenniferbeals never fails to amaze me. This is beautiful”. Her love for her costars is effusive. “The sisterhood and the bond runs so deep,” she says emphatically. “Jennifer is one in a million and I adore her so much.” Kate and Leisha speak on the phone before 9am most mornings and hang out constantly. Back on set in the noughties, Mia Kirshner nicknamed them “pants”, because you’d never see one half of the pair without the other. In The L Word’s sequel, Shane and Alice’s lived-in, genuinely hilarious banter is a joy to behold. How similar is that onscreen rapport to their real-life bezzieship? “Leisha’s not as snarky as Alice, but yeah, Leisha and I have a very playful dynamic. So when we get to work together, we always look to
find things in the scene that aren’t there on the page and add more to it, because we have such a rich history.” Before Gen Q filming commenced, they attempted to rewatch vintage episodes. Kate chuckles, “It didn’t really pan out the way we hoped. We couldn’t bear watching ourselves. We were like, ‘Ok, I think we got the gist of it’.”
She was nervous about slipping back into Shane’s Converse, but having two of her closest pals by her side definitely helped. The first scene she filmed was just the OGs. “It was very surreal to be sitting there looking at each other, thinking to ourselves, ‘Alright, well 10 years later we’re picking up where we left off’. The anticipation had built up so much that you think you won’t be able to find it. But then when it comes down to actually doing it, you’re sitting among two people that you know so well that are suddenly back in their characters. It was like riding a bike. It was just scary to think of getting back on that bike.”
In the new season, Bette’s running for mayor, Alice has her own talk show and baby Angelica is in high school. Uncle Shane, as Angie calls her, is now obscenely wadded due to her international chain of hair salons, which presumably specialise in the mid-length shag. “She’s incredibly wealthy suddenly. She has this incredible house and you’re just wondering, ‘Where the hell did all this money come from?’ It’s completely outlandish, but who knows what could happen?
Maybe she loses all of her money.” There’s plenty of scope for future plot development as Gen Q has already been commissioned for a second season. Along with Jennifer, Leisha and Ilene, Kate is an executive producer, meaning she has input on Shane’s storylines. “You’re not in charge of writing it. It’s more about steering the ship of your character in the right direction. You have a host of new writers and they have watched the show, but they don’t know your character like you do.”
Although there was some criticism levelled at the original, mainly for its representation of bi women, trans men and people of colour, there’s no denying that when it burst on to screens back in 2004, The L Word was truly groundbreaking. It paved the way for the plethora of queer characters we enjoy today. Last year’s annual GLAAD Where We Are On TV report confirmed a record high for LGBTQI representation, with 10.2% of broadcast primetime characters identifying as something other than cis and straight. Even more excitingly, for the first time the majority of them were women. So you could be forgiven for asking, how necessary is it to have The L Word return now the telly landscape is so much more rainbow hued? Kate is thoughtful in her response. “It’s incredibly important and it helps move the needle forward. The great thing is that there are so many other programmes that have LGBTQI characters and those shows, I believe, are doing quite well. You have POSE and Vida and others, and it’s wonderful. And then we get to be a part of that conversation. That’s the thing about TV. You get sucked into characters and storylines that you maybe don’t know much about and then you can relate to them. That’s the beauty of it.”
Another of the glorious things about television, and The L Word in particular, is all those juicy sex scenes. In the original run, Shane clocked up more onscreen hook-ups than any other character. Let’s take a moment to reminisce, shall we? There was the strap-on pool sex with Hollywood housewife Cherie Jaffe, the ill-fated threesome with Dawn Denbo and Her Lover Cindi, that time she screwed not one, not two, but three members of the same bridal party and who could forget when she got it on with Alice’s mum, Lenore (Sharmen was hot and everything, but personally I ship Shenore). According to The Chart, by season four Shane had slept with 963 different women. Imagine how high that number must be now. And how does Kate feel about it all? “Sex is a part of life and if there’s a solid reason for having that scene and it’s propelling the story and the character forward, absolutely. Because it can say a lot without saying anything.”
The L Word’s steamy scenes were always gripping, but Gen Q’s seem, to me at least, even more nuanced. Kate explains that the actors now work with an intimacy coordinator. “That’s a new practice that got put in place a few years ago. They’re the negotiator, essentially. Their job is to have the actors’ best interests at heart in these potentially compromising scenarios. We didn’t have that back in the day, but mercifully on the original show it was an incredibly safe environment where no one ever felt taken advantage of. We were always looking out for each other. We were our own intimacy coordinators.”
While Shane’s had no shortage of bedfellows, there was, of course, one romantic pairing in particular that captured the hearts of legions of viewers. Fans were hooked right from Shane and Carmen’s very first encounter. You know the scene I’m talking about. They’re in a recording studio, Shane caresses Carmen’s lower back tattoo and, as they get busy getting jiggy, an EZ Girl remix keeps stuttering, “k-k-k-kissing, f-f-f-fucking”. YouTube, which launched the same year Sarah Shahi joined the cast, was flooded with homemade supercuts of their best, and filthiest, moments. But, alas, in season three a million queer hearts simultaneously shattered when Shane did the unthinkable and jilted Carmen at the altar. That was 14 years ago and people are still not over it. Kate is still regularly asked whether Carmen will ever make a comeback. “That’s been a constant from the day Sarah left to now.” Why does she think so many audience members want Sharmen to be endgame? “Because Sarah Shahi is a force to be reckoned with. It’s kind of like forbidden fruit in a way. You want it, but you know you can’t have it. Also, I think the relationship ended quite suddenly, so that threw everyone for a loop.” Did their sizzling chemistry come naturally? “Absolutely. We just hit it off instantly. It’s a bit incestuous to say, but she’s like my sister.” Fans will be chuffed to hear that Kate is very up for a reunion. “Oh yeah, I would love Sarah to return. I mean, Sarah’s a busy girl, but even just an episode would be so rewarding and would give closure to something that people have been waiting for for so long. It would help Shane, as well, to gain closure.”
Watching the revival, I’m eager to meet Shane’s latest love interest. Who on earth could match up to Carmen’s magnetism? Enter pop goddess and the only woman to successfully entice Shane all the way up the aisle, Quiara, played by the super-talented and genetically blessed Lex Scott Davis. “Lex worked really hard in finding that quiet strength that would have someone like Shane commit. She comes off incredibly strong, incredibly poised and incredibly grounded.”
Whoever she’s involved with, Shane is always an engaging character, but she’s also so much more than that. She sparked an epiphany in countless women, encouraging us to acknowledge our own identities and embrace our true desires. And, as it turns out, Shane had a similar effect on the person playing her. During a recent interview on RuPaul’s What’s The Tee? podcast, Kate reveals how The L Word helped her discover her own sexuality. “I went to Catholic school for 13 years, so I wasn’t really in an environment to explore that, especially in the 80s and 90s… Back then, that shit did not exist. I didn’t think about it so much in high school and, oddly enough, when I got The L Word, that’s when my wheels started turning.” I ask why the series was such a lightbulb moment for her. “Well, I worked on a show for six years with a group of women, Ilene Chaiken being at the helm of it, and people like Rose Troche and Guinevere Turner and all these incredible writers and actors. It was a female-driven show and the majority of them were very comfortable in who they were, and so I was able to be in that energy field. It was so exciting and so eye-opening to be around.”
In 2017, Kate married Brazilian musician and film director Ana Rezende in an intimate ceremony with 15 guests. Had Ana seen The L Word before they met at a party “a good long while” ago? “She wasn’t some big fan of the show, but she had certainly watched it. That show seemed to have impacted a lot of people, which is so rewarding to hear.” And what does her wife think of her being back in her most famous role? “Oh, she’s so proud that she sees all the work we’ve put in finally come to fruition.”
Throughout our conversation, Kate maintains her Shanelike demeanour. She is charming, gracious and one of the most chilled-out people I’ve ever spoken to. She’s at her most animated when talking about her beloved costars. Like Shane, Kate has endless affection for her closest friends. She is also completely devoted to animals. Her Instagram feed consists almost entirely of snaps of her pets, and even the odd video clip accompanied by a comically jaunty musical soundtrack. The link in her bio takes you not to a fawning celebrity profile, but directly to the donation page of an animal rescue centre.
I have one last question before I let Kate get back to her life, her wife and her adorable furry friends: what has being on The L Word taught her? She pauses for a moment, then lands on, “Friendship. The show’s taught me about friendship”. The L Word was never just about insanely hot sex scenes or who was cheat- ing on who. It was about the revolutionary power, comfort and validation that comes from seeing queer female friends together onscreen. And, for many of us
– particularly we closeted, watching-under-the-duvet souls – those characters were the first gay friends we found. They gave us a sense of belonging, made us laugh when we felt despair and convinced us that we were neither shameful nor alone. And for all her romantic missteps, Shane was a loyal, loving friend, just as Kate is to Leisha and Jennifer. As Kate herself puts it so perfectly, “Love comes in many forms and friendship is one of them. Your chosen family is just as powerful, if not more powerful, than anything in the world.”
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