Leisha Hailey US Actress		Articles/Text Add info
Leisha is the only out cast member of "The L Word", although Kelly Lynch, without giving any names, has stated that several of the other actresses are either lesbian or bisexual. She said in the interview for 'Curve Magazine' that "half of the cast is gay, another third of them are bisexual, and another couple of them maybe are confused about who they are." The Advocate, Feruary 2004: (excerpt from article) "L is for Leisha" As ambassadors to Lesbianville go, it's hard to imagine a better choice than Leisha Hailey. We first fell in love with her pixieish charm when she was one half of the pop-rock duo the Murmurs, West Coast favorites with three albums to their credit. In the late 1990s we saw her on the arm of lesbian sex symbol k.d. lang. (The couple ended their relationship three years ago after nearly five years.) In 1997 Hailey made her own splash as an actor, playing an out and proud rocker in the popular indie All Over Me. And wait a minute, wasn't that Leisha Hailey looking so cute and so gay in that long-running series of Yoplait yogurt commercials? Yep. And all that was before Hailey became the one out lesbian cast member on "The L Word", Showtime's super new drama about the lives and loves of a mostly queer gaggle of Los Angeles women that premiered in January to the kind of national buzz TV is just not supposed to get anymore. Hailey is brimming over with excitement. "The L Word is one of the top five things I'm most proud of in my life. I feel so honored to be a part of this movement," says the 32-year-old actress over tea and cookies in a Melrose Avenue café in Los Angeles. "I feel like I'm a part of something really big, something that can help millions of people understand what it's like to be gay, curious, bisexual, transgendered." Given that Hailey is the only out lesbian in the show's principal cast, it's ironic that her character, Alice Pieszecki, a spunky journalist who's always ready with a well-timed quip about such subjects as "nipple confidence" and the debauchery of Dinah Shore weekend, is the show's one avowed bisexual. It's a calling Hailey takes seriously. "I want to represent bisexuals as well as I want the straight girls on the show to represent lesbians," says the actress, who read up on bisexuality before shooting began. "I've really come to learn that bisexuality is a true, legitimate sexual orientation. It's not about crossing over from straight to gay, which is an idea that Alice has to argue a lot with her friends. They all want her to stay in their camp, but Alice is looking for love, and she literally doesn't care if it ends up being with a man or a woman. I think that's beautiful." .................. One of director Rose Troche's favorite memories of shooting involves an on-set powwow with a certain straight actress who was about to simulate oral sex on her scene partner. "She said, 'Rose, I don't mean to act like I know nothing about this, but could you just tell me, like, how you want my head to move?" I said, "Just don't give me guys-in-a-porn-video-licking-from-side-to-side kind of movement," and then I looked up and all the male crew members had this look on their faces like 'Oh, my God. I'm not supposed to do it like that?' .................... Leisha Hailey's offscreen lesbian tendencies kicked in right around the same time as her thespian ones, when she left Nebraska at 17 to study acting at the American Academy of Dramatic Arts in New York City. "Soon to follow was my whole evolution," she explains. "I had fantastic boyfriends in high school whom I loved very much, but I started tapping into my true sexuality in my later years in high school-basically falling in love with my best friend-but I wasn't sure what it all meant." Hailey eventually graduated from the academy, but by then she'd already hooked up with fellow acting student Heather Grody to form the alternative band the Murmurs. Her music career took precedence as the pair recorded and performed together for the next 12 years. Hailey was open about her sexuality from the get-go. "I feel like being out of the closet has done nothing but reward me in my life," she maintains, adding that she never felt pressure from the music industry to be anything other than who she was. "I feel like if you're comfortable with it yourself, then the way you're perceived in the world is very open."