Rachel, The L Word, The Children ......and Other Things! (Part One)

Angela:
So, come on, tell us what happened with Season 5?

Rachel:
Season 5.  OK.

Angela:
Because you hinted there’s was a shock but …

Rachel:
Oh, it was, it was ……it was about this time last year and the show had been picked up for Season 5 and everyone was very happy about that and it’s weird because previous years I had always, like at the end of my first year on The L Word I didn’t know whether they were going to bring me back because I felt like my character had remained on the outside.  Now I was under contract and it was totally, always at Showtime’s discretion whether they bring you back or not.  It’s not at the actress’s discretion, it’s all at their discretion and I thought they could have easily not brought me back after my first year, so I was very like unsure whether it would happen, they picked me up.  At the end of my second year it was like again, “well I’m still slightly on the periphery of the main group, they could choose not to bring me back”, they brought me back.  So by the third year it was the first time I actually went (SIGH OF RELIEF) “well, if the show goes again”, and I’d been told, you know, “of course you are” by everyone and then just literally, out of the blue, it was the day that I was starting to book my accommodation in Canada, I got a phone call saying “hang on ‘cos”, from Ilene.  She couldn’t have been nicer about it, and she was very, she led me to believe that it wasn’t her choice and she didn’t want it to happen, this is what she told me and that was just the situation and she, you know, I don’t know because I’m not in the rooms where the conversations are held.

Angela:
So you’re contracted on these and think you’ve got the whole series?

Rachel:
You’re contracted yearly, you’re contracted to do something and it’s like five years or four years and basically they have an option on you every year and it’s their discretion as to whether they renew it, likewise with all the other characters.  Obviously everyone has different contracts but they are all similar.  You are either taken on to do a certain number of episodes in which case you are “a recurring” or your taken on to do all the episodes in which case you’re a “regular”.  Those contracts are hugely different, there are different perks, the involvement, the money etc.  So, to be a regular is a much bigger deal than even doing a whole series.  So, Ilene told me she did not want this to happen, it was out of her control.  I was told 6 episodes, the first 3 and the last 3 and as you know that didn’t happen, I did the first 3 and I only came back to do the last one.

Angela:
That must be very difficult to get something else in the meantime?

Rachel:
I was hard.  I didn’t really understand why and I began to think ok, that’s my time on L Word finishing and I didn’t want to tell anyone officially until it had gone out on air because it was the storyline and it wasn’t for me to say, and I didn’t have any animosity towards Ilene, she has only ever been very honest with me and truthful about the situation.  All the way through she has been very supportive and very generous with me in lots of other ways.

Angela:
There was a big outcry when you disappeared.

Rachel:
Well it was an odd thing to do to a character.  I had dinner with Ilene and she said she wanted to bring Helena back and bring back the more “old school” Helena taking on board everything that Helena has gone through which can’t help but have changed her from the season 2 Helena.  She is going to be slightly different but with that spark of old Helena.  Everyone liked the old Helena and it was good to see her go through the heartbreak she has had.  She has had a huge learning curve and that will instruct who she will be in season 6.

Angela:
Did you film “Under” in the hiatus between episodes?

Rachel:
No, I did “Under” just before Christmas.  I actually spent most of that summer in London, which I haven’t done for years.

Angela:
Tell us a bit about “Under”

Rachel:
It’s a pilot for A&E.  I played an American cop.  It was quite dark, such a difference from playing in the L Word which is an all female cast and predominantly female crew.  This was completely different, there were only 2 women in the cast and hardly any women in production or crew.  It was 3 weeks and shot in Vancouver.  There was me and the lead guy.  It hasn’t been picked up by A&E so my contract was officially up in March which worked out really nicely for me to come back and do L Word, but Fox are still holding on to it as a possibility further down the line.  Because of the writers’ strike earlier this year a lot of pilots did not get made that normally do get made and if “Under” did get commissioned it wouldn’t be until later in the year anyway.  It’s unlikely to be a network show anyway because it’s a bit too edgy and a bit to violent so it’s not a network kind of show.  I haven’t seen it but the people who have were really pleased with it.

Angela:
So, how does it work with a pilot?

Rachel:
Some never see the light of day, they just circulate within the industry.  Lots of people in the industry will watch them because it’s all about learning.  I’ve seen some pilots that have never aired and sometimes they get picked up later down the line, they get changed, they get re-cast. 

Angela:
What was it like playing an American?

Rachel:
It was great playing an American role.  I didn’t drop the accent for 3 weeks, the whole time I was there.  I even had dinner with Ilene doing and American accent.

Angela:
Your accent has actually changed since you have been on the L Word

Rachel:
Do you think so?

Angela:
It’s become very transatlantic, less clipped.

Rachel:
The phraseology has changed I guess that happens when you are surrounded by Americans.  It’s more effort to keep it.

Angela:
Do you get recognised more now?

Rachel:
Still not much in Britain, no.  Even the free curries have stopped, I had one last night at our local curry house.  I think I go in there too often!  I get more recognised in LA, but I think that’s because I am much more exposed over there, I’m much more recognisable.  When I am in London, I was saying the other day, I walk around so wrapped up from the cold you only see my eyes, I don’t know how people who know me recognise me!

Angela:
So, the film…..?

Rachel:
It’s called “The Day” (now called “The Children”) and it’s a horror, however it’s not gratuitous horror and that’s the only reason I did it and the director Tom Shankland is really good, he’s been BAFTA nominated for his shorts and he’s done some really good television.  He was great because for the first part of the movie there is no horror.  It’s all about 2 families, the mother’s are both sisters and they come together just after Christmas to have family time and there are some tensions and slight dysfunctions within the family group.  There are all these things that you think might be the source of the horror and then something just goes off in another direction and it’s really horrible!  It’s really quite gross and I spend half the film either in shock or hysterically crying and freaking out.

We spent the first 2 weeks shooting exteriors and because it’s set at Christmas time we had snow.  It was set in a house, the family home and they put snow effects everywhere and we were all bundled up.  We had those beautiful blue skies, it looks amazing visually, it’s really crisp.  It’s beautifully shot, they wanted the feel of domestic bliss that turns into domestic hell.

Angela:
Who was the camera man?

Rachel:
It was a woman.  Her name was Nanu Segal, she has just done a film called “Shrooms” and she worked together with Tom and she was great, a lovely woman.  Visually it’s going to look very beautiful and very classic and then we get to the horror scenes they do have hand held to build up the panic and frenzy.  Sometimes I don’t want to know because sometimes if I am too concerned and I do something for the camera rather than the character and things can get confusing.

Angela:
Is production something you might like to go into in the future?

Rachel:
No, I have no real interest in producing or directing.

Angela:
What about writing?

Rachel:
I’d like to do more writing.  If I was ever to get involved in production, in direction, it would be in radio, that’s my real interest.

Angela:
Do you have ideas for stories?

Rachel:
Oh yes I have gazillions of them! But with so many writers…...  Last year on my hiatus in the summer I spent a fair bit of time doing some writing but recently I haven’t really had much time as I’ve been working.

Angela:
Is it very different working in the US compared to the UK?

Rachel:
Not really. The thing that is the real difference is the amount of money a production has.  The film I just did was pretty low budget, all the money is on the screen which in the long run is better for everyone.  Compared to the L Word, which is all about keeping everyone happy.  You’re working on it for 4 to 5 months they want you to be happy otherwise nobody works well if your set up isn’t good.  We have amazing lunches, the trailers are beautiful, it’s all a sense of pampering and everyone feels good about coming into work. 

I couldn’t do that short 6 week film feeling for 5 months.  It depends on what the project is, for 5 weeks I can sit in a dodgy trailer or a field and the weather is bad, it’s instant coffee, no snacks.  But not 5 months.

Angela:
In a long series you have time to build up relationships is it hard having to constantly gel with new groups of people on short projects?

Rachel:
It depends.  Most actors do that a lot.  I used to model so would do that on a daily basis where I would walk in on a group of people and maybe work with them for 2 days.  You have to work out who everyone is, how everyone functions and how to talk to all different sorts of people.  But weirdly on the film I just did, the actor who plays my husband, Jeremy Sheffield, you may not know his name but he used to be in “Holby City”, he and I have done maybe 3 commercials together.  You know the one for vitamins where we are running towards each other, it’s him!  He was also in Natalie Imbruglia’s video, the one where he just sits there and she walks around him <Rachel then sings a bit of it> remember that one?  He’s a very good looking guy and we have been cast together for the fourth time, the first time we were in our 20’s, now we’re much older, and we were joking that next time we might be cast as grandparents together, or getting divorced! 

So, sometimes you do work with people you know because it is such a small industry.  You always have people in common, I even worked with the gaffer previously, in fact the gaffer ’s son told me that he had visited the set of “Photographing Fairies” when he was a kid.  I looked at him and said “how old are you?” and when he said “18” I thought “oh my God!” It would be hard if you can’t get used to moving on, meeting new people.

Part Two