#THE L WORD GENERATION Q MOVIE#
Jacqueline Toboni, this is our third project together - I cast her in a play, I cast her in a movie - so I've known her for years.
#THE L WORD GENERATION Q TV#
What’s been really fun about working on a TV show is getting to know someone more and more and more and being able to use that to find some deeper stories and deeper narratives. Because then I can kind of get it a little closer, just trying to dial them in together like character and person. Getting to know people is the best way for me to write for them. Although honestly, if I call them and was like, “What do you think of this?” they'll answer my phone call. I don't really have access to the rest of the cast until we're shooting. The three original cast members are also executive producers, so I have access to them, a different way than I have access to the cast. Do you ever go to the original cast asking for character development tips? It gives you that feeling of like that rom-com feeling, but you’re living in this little fantasy this protection of like love and high drama. And that was all I wanted to do is just keep clicking it into reality while maintaining this same old piece of fantasy where the soapiness is the fantasy. And then also the fact that you think the show is grounded is very funny to me because you don't know how not grounded it has been in the past. And what it did for the story was it actually helped bring the cast together because I couldn't really look out for conflict, I had to be in here. We really had to stay in our lane trying to protect everybody. The ways in which it changed the show, though, is that like, well, we couldn't really have like, guest stars coming in and out in the same way. Our audience needs to hold these people in this place that's like a little bit of a fantasy. Nobody wants to see Jennifer Beals in a face mask.” You know what I mean? Nobody is trying to see that. That's not what this show is like.” I just thought that like the existence of this deadly disease in this world, it sucks bro, I was like, “No, these people don't have a deadly disease, they can't have it. When we're coming into this season, and the network was like, “Are you going to do COVID?” I was like, “I can't do that. There's that piece of it that I'm so happy to hold on to actually, because that's what makes the show feel like a fantasy.
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It's never going to be this fun, it's never going to be like this dramatic. It's such a good soapy feeling to feel, it's really empathic, but sort of with a wink that like this is never going to happen to you. To me, it was based off of this one feeling I was chasing which is like that feeling before you fall in love, you like inhale - I was just chasing that feeling. I want people to feel that feeling the whole season. If Pose exists, what sort of niche am I filling? And I think that I was still asking myself that question in season one and in season two, I felt like I actually now I know what I'm supposed to be doing here, which is just telling real stories about love. So, I was really trying to figure out what the need is now. There are queer people in sports now, it's different. I mean, you couldn't even get married, so much has changed. What is the difference between eight years ago and now? The truth is so much is different. And when I took over the show, I was very aware that I was bringing it into the year 2021. And then, you know, after her there was Soloway and there is a commercial viability space for these stories, everyone kind of kept proving that for me. I'm always careful to say that I never thought that I would have Ilene’s literal job, but the idea that I would have her job in a different space like that, that did help. Which wasn't the case before, you know? It's crazy to think that but it's true.
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And then I wouldn't be like a poor, independent filmmaker my whole life, there's a space for me in this commercial world. I felt like I was given permission to write what I actually know, and it was going to be OK.
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It was like beyond like seeing myself on television, it was like knowing that Ilene Chaiken made a show about her friends and something really clicked for me. I sort of like came out to the original, and it changed my life in a lot of ways. I grew up watching the original and I was 18 when the show first came out. How did you pivot between what's going on in reality, like with this pandemic and everything in between and also keep your show so grounded with the characters, and not being heavily influenced by the chaos that is going on in the world?
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Sadie Dean: There's this raw authenticity with these characters and their lives and how they function, and to a certain degree can be relatable.