By BetteAndTinaForever

We have many absolutely amazing photos of Michelle and Thea from the event. Check them all out!

Interview with Thea Gill (Queer as Folk, Dante's Cove)

Remember what we talked about at Matthew Shepard's Foundation? It's funny because I remember one of the first questions you asked me. Yes, I asked who was your favorite The L Word character and you said Bette…Jennifer Beals. Yeah…I said Jennifer Beals because I really like her. Pretty much 90% of the people I talk to give the same answer to that question, even if they are not involved with the show, which is amazing because there's so many other characters. And she has this very calming presence about her. I think she's a Buddhist actually. She's studied Buddhism. I know, she even studied Sanskrit at one time and there was one episode in season 3, I think, when they were talking about all the different terms for vagina and Bette said, "Yoni". It's a Sanskrit word and actually that was brought in by Jennifer Beals. She's very intellectual. She is very intelligent and again, like I said, she has this presence about her.

How many times did you meet?
Many times. We've known each other for a few years now, and every time I see her at an event she's always very pleasant. She always has such a nice smile on her face, and she never ever acts like she's in competition with you. She's very much an equal. I really like that about her. She's always very nice to me. I appreciate that kind of support between actresses because it can be quite, you know, bitter and competitive.

The last time we met we talked about Queer as Folk, so let's talk about Dante's Cove. I watched the first season on youtube, because where I live we don't have Here! Network. I don't think it's on Logo yet…
No, it's on Here!

You were not in season 1, so I watched a few clips from season 2 and 3 when your character was introduced and now you will be in season 4.
Right.

So tell us about your character.
I play Diana Childs and she's a witch. She's a bisexual witch (laughing) because she likes men and women.

Yes, I saw one clip when she was hitting on one of the main characters…
Yes, Nadine (Heimann)…I mean, Van. I confuse them all the time. Yes, we did quite a big love scene in the second season but it never made the cut.

How come?
I don't know why. I have no idea. I haven't even asked (laughing). In the third season my character is still a witch and still doesn't get any action! She's really only out to avenge her father and bring balance to Tresum but along the way she sort of gets swept up into the dark shadows, loses herself, and gets taken down to some place not too nice.

This was the end of season three, right?
At the end of season three, yeah.

Are you filming season four right now?
No, I have no idea when are we going to start filming again; probably in the spring time - April or May.

Where are you filming?
In Hawaii. It's beautiful there.

Now, this is a personal question that someone asked me before, and I didn't know the answer. You don't have to answer if you don't want but a friend of mine was asking me if you were straight in real life. After I watched Queer as Folk, I went to different websites devoted to the show and searched information about you and Michelle Clunie, but it has been a few years since then.
I think people are always wondering about my sexuality because I've been very open about how my first love was a woman.

The English teacher that you mentioned in your presentation tonight?
Yes, the English teacher. I know, I know, it's such a cliché!

Most of the time it's a gym teacher.
For some it's the gym teacher, for others it's the English teacher (laughing). I did think I wanted to spend the rest of my life with her. I was a typical teenager in love (laughing). I haven't had very many relationships in my life, but the few times I do fall in love, I fall hard and she was obviously one of those people. I often tried to reconnect, but it’s different now. It's life.

It reminds me The L Word when Alice was talking about love and she said that she falls in love with a person not the gender.
Yes, for me it's that way too. I love the person or I don't. It's the individual, male or female.

Does it start with the physical? Because when you first meet a person and don't talk to them you wouldn't know if you like them.
I've never been attracted to a person solely on a physical level.

So it basically means it takes you longer to get close to a person because you need to know their character and not their physicality?
Always. I mean, a lot of people are like that. I think a lot of actresses are like that too. Maybe because we're constantly trying to change our physicality in order to inhabit a character. I don't know. Cate Blanchett once said she couldn’t understand attraction based purely on the physical. I know that instant animal body attraction exists, but it’s never been that way for me.

You know, sometimes I feel like I’m judging all the pretty people, thinking that maybe they are too conceited or something.
It’s lovely to see a beautiful person. I'm all about truth and beauty, beauty and truth.

Interview with Michelle Clunie (Queer as Folk)

Before I was able to talk to Michelle Clunie, she was interviewed by someone else and she was talking about her role in a new movie. She just saw the final cut a week before Power Up, and she was really proud of her part. The story is beautiful and the role was different from anything she’s done. I’m not sure what movie she was talking about because there are two new movies with Michelle mentioned on imdb.com: Solar Flare and Leaving Barstow. I didn’t have a chance to talk a lot to Michelle because she was one of the presenters and had to go earlier to practice her presentation, but I was able to ask her a few questions. Well, Queer as Folk was the first show before The L Word, and I was also following the only lesbian couple on that show, so let’s say that Queer is Folk isn’t over, where do you think Mel and Lindsay’s story would go? Of course, they ended up together, moving to Canada…

Yes, they ended up moving together, but I have a feeling they would be moving back to the States. I was even thinking of moving to Canada at one time because of certain, you know, government issues that we have, but at the end of the day, I think, if you are an American you have to stay here and fight the good fight because only by doing that can you bring change. Sometimes you’re tempted to run away, but you really can’t do it. You’ve got to stay here and keep fighting and hope that Hillary will be elected to office (laughing).

Well, you know how the stories on a show are always evolving. It’s not like they have written all five seasons from the beginning. So, did you expect Lindsay and Mel to stay together?
I kind of did, actually, because I feel like they are the quintessential mythological lovers. Nothing’s ever perfect, but they are truly meant for each other and I think that love will conquer all and I think they are soulmates. And that doesn’t mean that things are perfect, it’s just seems like a beautiful story. I’m getting chills once again. I’ve been getting chills all night. It is a beautiful story to see things so up and down and come back around, but still they come back to each other and keep growing and it’s beautiful. There were times when I thought, ‘Oh, it’s a dead end, they are going to break up’, but I always knew that they were going to be together, and I always knew that the writers were going to keep them together.

Did you have an opportunity to tell the writers what you preferred or what do you wanted to happen?
No. I mean, from the beginning they had very specific ideas how they were going to do things.

Do you watch The L Word?
I’ve seen some of it, and I love it. I love it. I think it’s brilliant.

Do you have a favorite character or a couple?
I like the character of Shane. I just think that she’s wonderful, and I love that she’s slightly masculine and has her own things going on, and she’s very specific and I think that the actress, Katherine Moennig, does an amazing job. I think she’s wonderful.

Let’s say they invite you to be on The L Word. What character would you like to be involved with?
I kind of have a crush on Katherine Moennig, I have to say. I think she’s freaking hot.

So, you would like to be one of Shane’s girls.
I’ll be one of Shane’s bimbos any day (laughing).

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