Former That 70s Show star Laura Prepon has traded in her Topher Grace-loving counterpart to play a lesbian in Jenji Kohan’s new show Orange Is The New Black.
And while the tall actress has completely inhabited her new character, fans and the LGBT community have completely embraced her:
“Dude, lesbians love me. I’m tall, I have a deep voice, I’m like, ‘Hello, catnip!’ Now that this show’s out I’m curious what happens from here because whenever I go out lesbians try to, y’know, ‘turn me.’”
What’s more, it seems Laura’s often mistaken for a lesbian herself:
”One of my really good friends in L.A. manages one of the biggest gay bars in L.A. and I’m usually there with all of my girls and immediately everyone thinks we’re lesbians because we don’t act like normal girls do — meaning that I grew up with guys and the reason I hang out with these girls is because they’re not girly girls. We go out with no make-up and our hair in a pony-tail just rocking it out like ‘Who cares?’ So when I’m hanging out at this place there’s been a couple of instances where I’ve had to say to girls ‘You’re awesome, but I’m straight.’ And they never believe me! But whatever, we’re all just looking for love so who cares?”
As for playing a homosexual woman on TV and its social stigma, she said:
”I’m a supporter of the gay and lesbian community. I have friends who are lesbian, I have friends who are gay. It’s all about the character. Yes there are a lot of lesbians on this show. Besides the L Word there aren’t lesbians portrayed like this on television. For me, I’ve never played a lesbian before and I think it’s awesome. As a learning experience playing this love for someone on camera and having it be a women was very interesting because I’m straight and I’ve only done it with men on camera… There is a big gay and lesbian community out there and it’s good to have more relationships on television that they can relate to and I’m glad we could be a part of that.”
Beautifully put. This show is totes groundbreaking, and we think it’s more than great that Laura is a part of it!
[Image via Lionsgate.]