Sexy actress Katherine Moennig takes romantic angst to new heights as fast-lane lesbian vixen Shane McCutcheon on Showtime's woman-on-woman drama The L Word.
Moennig has beautifully expressive eyes and a pouting mouth. Her figure is svelte, and she looks great in tight designer jeans. She's straight in real life, but on Showtime's signature lesbian drama, she plays a charmer who runs from the scene of anything that remotely resembles a serious romantic involvement.
Life in Shane's ever-evolving world can seem quite overwhelming at times, but for the 28-year-old Moennig, it's all in a day's work. In fact, Moennig has played a gender-bending character several times before landing the plum role on The L Word. In 1999, the Philadelphia-born Moennig landed the role of Jacqueline Pratt, aka Jake on the WB series The Young Americans. Though the show didn't last beyond eight episodes, the experience proved to be fertile ground for Moennig's future endeavors.
She soon landed small roles in the films The Shipping News and Love the Hard Way, and she made an unforgettable appearance as a male-to-female transsexual on NBC's hit Law and Order . Moennig was also cast in Loren Marsh's comedic tour-de-force Invitation to a Suicide.
The daughter of renowned violinmaker William Moennig, Katherine's mother was a Broadway dancer. She has talent peppered throughout her family tree, as she is the niece of award-winning actress Blythe Danner and the cousin of actress Gwyneth Paltrow.
David Guarino: What has it been like working with Jennifer Beals, Pam Grier and the rest of the talented ensemble that makes up the ladies of The L Word?
Katherine Moennig: It's kind of a dream come true, actually, because we all make up this puzzle so perfectly. We're all extremely different from one another, but we get along so well that when I'm working with those girls I feel like I'm working with my close, dear friends. I trust them immensely, and we know each other so well that we're like a family.
Everyone's been expecting to hear dramatic stories about what things are like backstage, working with eight actors. That couldn't be farther from the truth; we got along so well from the get-go, and all of the friendships have grown so much over these four years we've been doing this show. It's kind of, like, this big love fest up there [in Vancouver, BC, where The L Word is filmed.]
What aspect of Shane's character do you have the hardest time relating to?
Her infidelity. Not her closed emotional space, but her reasoning for infidelity. There are a few things that I usually have to wrap my head around to figure out why she's doing it without judging her. Sometimes it's not easy, because it's vastly different from who I am. I just couldn't for the life of me figure out why she didn't want to be with that character Carmen. Shane just kept sabotaging it and pushing herself farther away, and I would just sit there and think, why would she be doing this?
Do you envision Shane as someone who has the capacity to cultivate a serious love relationship and maintain it?
Yes, I think everyone does, to a certain extent. It's just a matter of what road you're going to go down to find it. I just think it's going to take a lot for Shane to get to that place of just being a vulnerable person. She put up a lot of walls, but I believe those walls could be broken down, and she could really feel. That's my take on it.
Is there anything to the argument that The L Word showcases a strictly fantasy lesbian community and lifestyle? On the show, the characters are all very svelte, very well-dressed, very successful.
Do I agree with that? Yeah, of course there's some truth to that. But I don't think it's the end-all, be-all. You know, this is a TV show. If anything, I think the show is paving the way for other shows down the line. Other shows will have more opportunity to show a whole array of women. Our show happens to be like this, and you can love it or hate it, but it is what it is.
Do you ever have any trepidation about doing Shane's lesbian sexual scenes? How do you prepare for that kind of interaction with another actor?
I don't have a problem with it. But I will say it's not easy or fun to be doing a love scene with someone who would be considered an extra, whom you've just met five minutes before shooting. If you've watched the show, you know that Shane's slept with a lot of people. And you've seen a lot of those scenes with random girls; that's not very easy. In terms of the content, if there's a good reason behind it, I have no problem doing it. There have been very few times that I've felt were gratuitous.
A love scene, regardless of who you're doing it with, is an uncomfortable experience. It's not natural, it's very technical, and it's the farthest thing from sexy you could ever imagine. So I just kind of let go of a part of myself, and just do it. I forget that there's a camera in my face and a director looking at the scene in another room, and lighting and sound. I just have to shut all of it out, and make the experience as comfortable as I can.
All the other girls were pretty lucky from the start, they were with one partner, and got to know their co-star very well. With me, the first season it was someone new each week. Until Sherry Jaffe [played by Rosanna Arquette] rolled around, then it became a little bit more consistent.