SheWired Exclusive: Laurel Holloman Talks Life After the 'The L Word'

When Showtime’s groundbreaking lesbian series The L Word aired its final episode in March, Bette and Tina were on the verge of growing their family and moving to the East Coast. Now that a potential spinoff series has been nixed and a reality series — The Real L Word: Los Angeles — has been greenlighted, SheWired thought it was about time to sit down with one of the most beloved characters on the drama — Laurel Holloman — to talk about reality TV, what her next role is, what she would have happen for Bette and Tina as well as what show she’d most like to appear on next.

SheWired: What do you think about the new L Word reality series Ilene Chaiken is doing with Showtime?

Laurel Holloman: I think it’s great. Any way that they can keep everything going, I think if Ilene comes up with some great ideas to keep it going, honestly I think it’ll be refreshing to see a reality “L Word” instead of the glossed-over, high-heeled makeup one. Because every day I go to work and I hear things like, “All my friends in the community, we never wear shoes like this.” I fought to wear boots the whole first season. What I say is do the reality show and bring it on. I think it’s great the show is there and you have to embrace it by putting it out and hope it opens up doors. And if it opens the door for a reality show then it has served its purpose. It (The L Word) was groundbreaking; it was phenomenal. It was a gift to be on it. I feel really lucky.

SW: Do you miss the show since it wrapped?

LH: Yeah, I miss the girls. But there are a lot of girls that I keep in touch with. I talk to Erin Daniels and Rachel Shelley almost every day, they both just had children — Erin had a little boy and Rachel had a little girl — and I just talked to Jennifer (Beals) a couple weeks ago. It’s just like a family. I saw Kate Moennig a couple weeks ago. I just feel like we’ll all sort of run into each other in some capacity. Because some people are closer than others and we all sort of gravitate toward each other in some way. I’d like to see a movie to be honest. I hope that the reality show goes and I hope that there’s some sort of movie afterward.

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