“Yes I’m back, in the full season.” Rachel Shelley seems as happy to tell me that as I am to hear it.
From the moment we meet in a quiet bar in central London the burning question on my mind is whether or not she’s back full-time for the L Word’s final episodes. Having disappeared for the bulk of the fifth series, appearing in just a handful of episodes, Helena Peabody made a splashy return in the season finale, bailing Kit (Pam Grier) out of a sticky business situation with the She-Bar girls. Relieved that her presence is assured, I ask what happened to cause the absence. “I think they [the writers] realised that what most people wanted to see was the old cast. At one point in season four and five there were so many extra characters, I think they wanted to come back to the original characters and focus on their relationships.”
It’s only a few minutes into our conversation and I’m finding it quite distracting just how much Shelley initially appears to be like her L Word alter ego. Her immaculately coiffed brunette locks are suitably long and flowing. Her complexion is flawless, minimally made up, but just as beautiful in person as on screen. As she talks I note that the cut glass accent is also present and correct. There’s just one thing throwing me off, she’s dressed in what look suspiciously like sweat pants. Admittedly they’re expensively cut and stylish, but still, trust fund brat Helena Peabody would never be seen dead in public wearing something so casual. During our conversation over the next hour, I occasionally glance down at the trackies, seeing them as a kind of symbolic passport into the woman behind the character. It seems to help me mentally separate Helena, someone I feel like I’ve gotten to know quite intimately over the past few years, from the very real actress sipping cranberry juice a few feet away from me.
I suggest that it seems a little unfair that characters like Helena and Max got sidelined as they were introduced and well established before the deluge of new faces in season four. Rachel’s response is philosophical. “It’s hard to wind up everyone’s story. [This season] they have focussed on the original cast plus myself. Max [Daniela Sea] does three or four episodes. People like Cybill Shepherd come in and do one or two, so does Jodie [Marlee Maitlin]. They come in to wind up their storylines. At the very end of show it’s mainly seven or eight of us, the very core crew.” Warming to the subject she reveals more details. “You’ve got to be on the sofa before the credits start. If you don’t see the scene before the credits of the first episode then the whole season won’t make sense. The last series is like a mini-series, it’s eight episodes. The central story is that Jenny has been killed, and it jumps back in time and tells the story of the events that led up to her death. We joked that it’s a bit like lesbian Cluedo. Was it Bette in the bedroom with a candlestick? Whether they are capable I don’t know, but everyone has have a reason to kill Jenny Schecter.”
I’m keen to find out what’s coming up for Helena, apart from being a murder suspect. “Helena’s made good with Mummy, she has her money back. She’s come back a bit tougher, she’s lived through prison. It’s all very dark and mysterious what she did when she went off with Dusty, her cell mate.” It may remain mysterious to some viewers, but Shelley has definite ideas about what happened. “I had this back story that she went off to this island and it was a bit of a drunken, brawly, messy time. Dusty’s quite a hands on physical person and Helena realises that that’s not who she is, but she comes back a bit tougher. It’s all business, no attachments, that’s Helena’s new motto. She goes into business partnership with Kit and take over the old She-Bar, turns it into another club.”
That sounds a lot like the old Helena, the Dynasty-style bitch we saw debut in the second season. “There’s still a certain amount of barriers, but she’s realised how important her group of friends are, she’s more open to them and more protective of them as well. Then an old flame comes back, Dylan. That’s a huge deal, Helena’s still quite angry about it because this woman ruined her life for a good few years. It’s quite combustible and quite aggressive and its the nearest Helena gets to actually getting into a fight with someone.”
There have been rumours swirling about an L Word spin-off featuring Alice (Leisha Haley). Called The Farm, it’s reportedly set in a prison. Digging for inside information, I wonder if the end of the L Word segues into it? “Yes, it’s not quite so direct, but it does lead to it. They haven’t even done a pilot, they made a 20 minute presentation in November. Leisha said it went really well, but I don’t know when they make they make the decision about making a full season. She’s definitely the best person to carry that from the L Word.” I wonder if there could possibly be a part for Helena, but she is unsure. “I have no idea what they’re planning with it, if they asked me to do an episode or two I’d love to do that, but because it’s set in prison I don’t know which way it’s going to go. I think all of us would be quite happy to go and do a little bit.”
I’m curious if Shelley misses her co-stars, especially being based in London, a continent away from them. “I do miss the girls, but we only finished filming at the end October last year. The ones that I’m closest to, we’re in touch anyway. There was a convention before Xmas in Blackpool. Jennifer [Beals] and Laurel [Holloman] came over and I hung out with them. Jennifer stayed at mine and I saw Laurel and her family so I still see them. I think come the summer, we’ll all be very aware that we’re not doing the L Word.”
Following her stint as a part-time north American during the filming of the show, Shelley is keen to work in her home country. “I’d love to do some British TV, but that’s not in my hands, I wish it were.” She does feel that her time in the US has changed the perception of her as an actress. “Before I did the L Word, I’d get cast as very vulnerable characters with wide eyes, and something awful would happen, like they’d be heartbroken or killed. Then I went to the States with Lagaan [Oscar nominated Bollywood film]. As soon as I started getting cast in the States it was as much sharper, tougher characters, people who are a bit devious or who use their sexual prowess to control a man, the kind of roles I’ve never been cast in before.” Relaying the story she is clearly proud of this breakthrough but she also seems slightly uncertain as to why it happened. “There was a big casting director in London who once said to me ‘You’ll never get cast as the baddie, ever.’ Then literally three weeks later I got cast in L Word and I was like, ‘Actually, they think I can do it!’ I don’t know if it was just the accent.”
The L Word has been a hit Stateside yet here it has had little impact outside of a core lesbian fanbase. Shelley is concerned that her profile in the UK is still very low. We talk about how the show seemed to get a bit lost in the schedules of Living TV. “When I joined it hadn’t yet been sold to a British channel, I was hoping it would go to Channel Four. I thought that would be the perfect place for it, but I’m told that Living just outbid Channel Four. They really bid high for it and then kind of buried it, which was very disappointing for me.” She explains that in the US the show is a bigger crossover success and also much better promoted. “Every year there would be massive billboards all over LA when the season starts, they’re still up now, while the season is going. If you have someone’s face on a billboard on Sunset Boulevard where everyone drives past at least once a week, even if you don’t watch it, you know the show. Over here, they’ve done nothing to advertise it.”
Shelley claims a strong connection to the lesbian community, having been such a high profile part of its popular culture for five years. “By doing the L Word, I’ve got to know so many gay women and I feel much more of a connection with them. I feel a really strong friendship with Alexandra Hedison who played Dylan, and I’m much more on a level with her than some of the women in LA who were straight. It’s interesting how easily I fitted into that group and not be gay. I don’t know if it comes from having brothers. I’m not that groomed luscious woman that Helena is, I’m much more casual and relaxed so I think I probably fit into that gay corner better. I can play the other role but I don’t fit that stereotype.”
When I remark that she seems very cool about being a sex-symbol for lady-loving ladies, her reply is typically blasé. “Oh yeah, why wouldn’t I be?” She mentions that she’s now a celebrity columnist for DIVA magazine. “My column is called ‘The Insider’. Which is interesting because I’m trying to be an insider!” she laughs. “Every issue has a theme, and I take that theme and weave in my own stories, and any inside info about the girls on the show. The first theme was good news and the second is sex.”
Time’s running short and I’m still hungry for L-gossip. Is she happy with how Helena’s story ends? “Yes and no. I spoke to Ilene [Chaiken, L Word’s co-creator and writer] and tried to persuade her to bring Dylan back. I felt there was a strong emotional connection, and that it should be finalised in some way, which it is. The connection with Dylan was always very strong and then she completely shafted her and I don’t think they were ever going to get over that. But the end of the whole show is very open-ended.”
I ask what her ideal ending for Helena would be and Shelley thinks carefully before answering. “I’d have liked to see her a bit happier than she ends up being, I think everyone wants the characters to be happy at the end. Over the five seasons Helena has had nothing but heartache, she hasn’t been lucky in love, I’d have liked to see her have someone that was a bit nice, even if it was just a hint of it.” She gets a bit tentative, unwilling to spoil anything, but giving us something to watch out for in the upcoming weeks. “I suppose they do give her a glimmer that something may happen, but it all depends on the editing so if they don’t focus on it, no one will get it.”