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Lee Pace and Katherine Moennig Star in Guardians """"April 11th-May 25th""" BWW News Desk The Culture Project will present the New York premiere of Guardians, a play written by Peter Morris. Directed by Jason Moore (Avenue Q, Steel Magnolias), Guardians will features Katherine Moennig of Showtime�s hit series �The L Word� in her off-Broadway debut as the American girl and Golden Globe-nominated actor Lee Pace as the English boy. The show begins preview performances on Saturday, April 1, 2006 at 8pm. Opening Night is Tuesday, April 11, 2006 at 7:30pm at The Culture Project (45 Bleecker Street at Lafayette). This limited engagement will play through May 25, 2006."Winner of the Fringe First Award at the 2005 Edinburgh Fringe Festival, Guardians is a two-character monologue play - a fictional account inspired by prominent true scandals of the Iraq War: the Abu Ghraib/Lynndie England affair and the publication by the British paper The Daily Mail of fake torture photos, which led to the resignation of its editor. This twin scandal and the eerie collision of Britain and America raise troubling questions about torture and accountability in the U.S. Army and the responsibility of journalists during wartime. These monologues, which are searingly intelligent, empathetic, troubling, yet very funny, make Guardians a serious satire of Anglo-American relations and modern political morality," according to press notes. Playwright Peter Morris (The Age of Consent), an American who does most of his work in London says, �I wanted to treat these scandals in a dramatic context. Their obvious direct similarities reflect the larger issues they raise, primarily that of America: its role in the world, the low esteem in which the educated British public holds it and whether or not its actions are justifiable. I don�t intend to answer these questions, merely to pose them.� Tony Award-winner Richard Hoover is the set designer of the play. Moennig is best known for playing Shane in the Showtime series �The L Word.� She most recently appeared in the feature film Art School Confidential. Other film credits include The Shipping News, Love The Hard Way and Invitation to a Suicide. Her other television credits include �Young Americans,� �Law & Order� and the lead actress in the music video �Is Anybody Home� for the band Our Lady Peace. On stage, she has appeared in As You Like It, Comedy of Art, The Theory of Total Blame and Morning in the City at the Williamstown Theatre Festival. Pace was the star of the 2003 Sundance hit, �Soldier�s Girl� (Showtime). He received a Golden Globe nomination, an Independent Spirit Award nomination and a Gotham Award for Outstanding Breakthrough Performance for his work. Pace recently completed production on the Universal project The Good Shepherd. directed by Robert DeNiro. He stars opposite Matt Damon, Angelina Jolie, Alec Baldwin, and John Turturro. Other film credits include: The Fall, Infamous and The White Countess. His television credits include: �Wonderfalls� and �Law & Order: SVU.� Theatre credits include: The Credeaux Canvas, The Fourth Sister and Small Tragedy (nominated for a Lucille Lortel Award and winner of the Ensemble Obie Award). Guardians will play the following performance schedule at The Culture Project (45 Bleecker Street): Tuesday � Saturday at 8PM, Saturday & Sunday at 3PM. There will be a special Monday evening performance on April 10 only. Ticket prices are $46 and can be purchased at Ticketmaster (212.307.4100 or ticketmaster.com) or in person at The Culture Project Box Office (45 Bleecker St. at Lafayette). Student rush tickets are $21 and are available one hour before show time. Limit one ticket per valid student ID. For more information visit The Culture Project�s website (45bleecker.com).
Katherine Moennig Discusses Life, Love, Lust and Lesbians David Guarino - Qvegas Magazine She likes being called Kate. She has beautifully expressive eyes and a pouting mouth. Her figure is svelte, and she looks great in tight designer jeans. She's straight in real life, and on Showtime's signature lesbian drama, she plays a charmer who usually runs from the scene of anything that remotely resembles a serious romantic involvement Meet actress Katherine Moennig, the doe-eyed heartbreaker of L.A's classiest group of lesbians, the gals from The L Word. In her sensitive portrayal of the oft-desired Shane McCutcheon, Moennig has managed to nail the persona of a beautiful but tough relationship-phobic girl-of-your-dreams lesbian who suffers through more than her share of insecurities and emotional struggles as she tries to get ahead in a world that often seems determined to hold her back. Attracting more sexual partners and liaisons than she has the time or desire for, the sexually obsessive Shane fields her way through life in the L.A. fast lane, all the while maintaining a humanity and innate honesty that makes her character as elusive and complex as it is familiar and sympathetic. Life in Shane's ever-evolving world can seem quite overwhelming to the viewer at times, but for the 28 year-old who has made the character a household word, it is all in a day's work. In fact, Moennig has played a gender-bending character several times before landing the plum role on The L Word. As recently as 1999, the Philadelphia-born Moennig landed the role of Jacqueline Pratt, aka Jake Pratt on the WB series, The Young Americans. Though the show didn't last beyond 8 episodes, the experience proved to be fertile ground for Moennig's future endeavors. Moennig soon landed small roles in the films The Shipping News and Peter Sehr's Love The Hard Way, and she made an unforgettable appearance as a male to female transsexual on NBC's runaway hit Law and Order. Moennig was also cast in Loren Marsh's comedic tour de force, Invitation to a suicide. The daughter of renowned violin maker William Moennig, Katherine's mother was a broadway dancer. Interestingly enough, Moennig has talent peppered throughout her family tree, as she is the niece of award winning actress Blythe Danner and the cousin of Gwyneth Paltrow. To know Moennig is to like her, as I soon discovered when I recently caught up with the multi-talented and affable actress to talk about her exciting role on The L Word, which is beginning its third groundbreaking season on Showtime. David Guarino: I must tell you upfront that I think you're doing a marvelous job of capturing the on-going struggles of Shane M. on The L Word. I mean, Shane breaks a lot of hearts, but she also has a vulnerable, centered side to her that I think you have beautifully captured. Katherine Moennig: Thank you! Oh, that's nice to hear. She's fun to play in that way; I like that character for exactly just what you said. Shane's not overly dramatic. She's really more of a subtle person. David Guarino: Tell me Kate, what has it been like working with the likes of Jennifer Beals, Pam Grier and the rest of the talented ensemble that make up the ladies of The L Word? Katherine Moennig: It's kind of a dream-come-true, actually, because we all just kind of make up this puzzle perfectly. And we're all extremely different from one another, but we just get along so well that when I'm working with those girls I just feel like I'm working with my close, dear friends. I trust them immensely, and we just know each other so well that we're like family. David Guarino: What aspect(s) of Shane's character do you have the hardest time relating to and why? Katherine Moennig: Her infidelity. And not her closed emotional space, but her reasoning for the infidelity. There are a few things that I usually really have to wrap my head around to figure out why she's doing it without judging her. And sometimes it's not that easy because it's vastly different from who I am. But I think the main thing is her reasoning for not being in a relationship and not staying true... not so much in the first season, but I think that when we were doing the second season last year, I just couldn't for the life of me figure out why she didn't want to be with that character Carmen. Because Shane just kept sabotaging it and pushing herself farther and farther away, and I would just sit there and think - why would this person be doing this? David Guarino: Going along with that thought, Kate, do you envision this character of Shane as someone who has the capacity to cultivate a serious love relationship and maintain it? Katherine Moennig: Yes, I think everyone does, to a certain extent. It's just a matter of what road you're going to go down to really find it... I think she [Shane] does (have the capacity to love). I think she does at the end of the day, I just think it's going to take a lot for her to get to that place of just being a vulnerable person. She was very closed off in regards to intimacy, and I think she put up a lot of walls, but I believe those walls could be broken down, and she could really feel. When that happens, I don't know. That's my take on it. David Guarino: Is there any substance, to your mind, to the oft-heard argument that The L Word showcases a strictly fantasy lesbian community and lifestyle? That is to say, on the show the characters are all very svelte, very well-dressed, very successful. Katherine Moennig: Do I agree with that? Yeah, of course there's some truth to that. Absolutely. But I don't think it's the end-all, be-all. You know, this is a TV show. That can't be forgotten, and also it's the first one. So if anything I think the show is paving the way for other shows down the line. And if that's the case, then other shows will have more opportunity to show a whole array of women. Our show happens to be like this, and you can love it or hate it but it is what it is. And it's hard to please everyone; it's just trying to do the best job you can. So I've heard this (evaluation) before, but I don't give a second thought because The L Word is just one show. David Guarino: Do Rose Troche and Ilene Chaiken encourage communication and feedback with all of you in the cast? Katherine Moennig: Yeah. I think that's probably one of the biggest perks about this show is the amount of communication that we can have with them because they've really trusted all of us with the roles they've created, and they've really let us add things to the character and take things out that we believe weren't true to them... we're just given lot of trust with the characters we play... all of the cast. We're always given the opportunity to speak to Ilene or whoever the director is for that episode and flush out any issues that we have. And it's really nice because it really is collaboration. David Guarino: That thought ties in to another question, Kate. Do you ever have any trepidation about doing the lesbian sexual scenes that are written for your character, Shane? And how do you prepare for that kind of interaction with another actor? Katherine Moennig: You know, I don't have a problem with it. But I will say it's not easy nor fun to be doing a love scene with someone who would be considered an extra whom you've just met 5 minutes before shooting. If you've watched the show you know that Shane's slept with a lot of people. And you've seen a lot of those scenes with random girls; that's not very easy. In terms of the content, if there's a good reason behind it, I have no problem doing it. There have been very few times when I've felt that... or any really, that I've felt were gratuitous. So that's the only reason why I would have a problem (doing a scene). But I haven't had that issue on the show; there's seems to have been a purpose for all of them (the sexual scenes). A love scene, regardless of who you're doing it with, is an uncomfortable experience. It's not natural; it's very technical, and it's the farthest thing from sexy you could ever imagine. So I just kind of let go of a part of myself and just do it. I forget that there's a camera in my face and a director looking at the scene in another room and lighting and sound... I just have to shut all of it out and make this experience as comfortable as I can. David Guarino: I remember when I was on the set of Queer as Folk, several of the actors on that series had talked about the difficulties of doing intimate scenes with someone they barely knew; it sounded like it would be very difficult. Katherine Moennig: Well, it's getting over the fact that I'm going to be naked again, with someone else again... yeah, for me it really is different. All the other girls were pretty lucky from the start, they were with that one partner and got to know their co-star very well. With me, the first season it was someone new each week. Until Sherry Jaffe (played by Rosanna Arquette) rolled around, then it became a little more consistent. David Guarino: Is there any kind of a scene that you absolutely would not do, Kate? Katherine Moennig: A scene that I would not do? I don't know, it's a hard question. I don't think I'd do full frontal again. Unless it was for a really good reason. Because I think that's harder than doing a love scene. David Guarino: What would you say has been your most challenging role to date? Katherine Moennig: (Kate laughs) Well, I really haven't done that much! I played a male to female transsexual on Law and order a few years back. David Guarino: Really? How was that? Katherine Moennig: Intense. But highly rewarding at the same time. It was just something where everyday at work I just had to be on my game to do it. And it was exhausting because it was so emotional and everything was at such a high stake, but I would say that probably that was the most rewarding. As an actor and as a person it was just such a rewarding experience. It was such a great character, the way they had written her, which allowed me to really dig my teeth into the role. David Guarino: What's the best part of filming in Vancouver and what's the worst part? Katherine Moennig: The best part is just getting out of L.A for a while. I mean, I'm not an L.A hater, I really love Los Angeles. The worst part is leaving L.A; not being at home. Vancouver is such a beautiful, clean city, where you're allowed to do so many things you just can't do in L.A, even as simple as bike riding. I've actually never heard a bad thing said about Vancouver; it's just like a perfect city. But the worse part is just being away from home, you know, a good chunk out of the year. It gets a little wearing after a while. Our life becomes the show because we're in such a closed environment, and all we have is each other. David Guarino: Do you think that there are any real values that will stand the test of time that viewers, gay and straight, will realize from watching The L Word? Katherine Moennig: It (the show) just seems to be giving the community a stronger visibility. At the end of the day, I think the show helps in giving the gay community a voice in the sense that what is portrayed is not so uncommon. Because it is TV and the show is on every week, so anyone who isn't fully aware gets (a chance) to experience it. It's giving the community a bigger voice, a voice that's not deemed unacceptable. David Guarino: It's also about validation, wouldn't you say? Katherine Moennig: Yeah. Validation is a good word. Exactly. And after all this time, I mean, come on! (Kate laughs) We're still kind of in the dark ages considering our political state, and that's even more of a reason that I'm happy that this show is on at this time, because we seem to be regressing in every other way... so even if the show pushes it a fraction in the opposite direction, it's at least something. David Guarino: Kate, do you think that we will see gay/lesbian marriage become a commonplace thing in our lifetime? Katherine Moennig: Do I think or do I hope? I would hope so because, my God, the people who make these decisions don't seem to realize that people are just people; everyone is exactly the same at the end of the day. No one should disagree on the good of loving another person; it's a universal feeling. Aren't you lucky if you have that in your life? And to take that opportunity away from someone just because of whom he or she chooses to be with is absolutely beyond me. Politics are so fucked these days; I would hope that within the next 20 years... but I honestly don't know. I hope to God that once all of this current craziness is over and someone new gets elected, we're not so censored in regards to everything, and we actually become a democracy again... then there will be hope for gay marriage.
-----What Were Obsessed With This Week ---- - New York Post (online edition) Hot List - By Raakhee Mirchandani and Maxine Shen April 02, 2006 - What we're obsessed with this week 1 Moenning and groaning Pouty-lipped Katherine Moennig (Gwynnie P's cousin) takes a break from the fiery lesbianism of "The L Word" to star off-Broadway in "Guardians," a serious satire inspired by Lynndie England's antics at Abu Ghraib prison. In previews at the Culture Project. 2 Sultry songbird Hot on the heels of her new album, "Fox Confessor Brings the Flood," alt-twang babe Neko Case brings her gorgeous, soulful vocals to Webster Hall on Thursday and Friday. 3 Devoted dorks The blogosphere is buzzing with excitement after last week's episode of "Lost," in which Locke discovered a heavily coded map in the mysterious hatch. A superfan posted a screengrab on the Web, and TV geeks everywhere have united to unlock the secrets at http://cmeister2.uwcs-.co.uk/hatch.jpg. 4 Giggity giggity board game You bought the DVDs, T-shirts, action figures and inflatable chairs. Now with the new "Family Guy" Monopoly set, you can also buy Petoria, pater familias Peter Griffin's sovereign nation. We love the "What the Deuce?" chance cards and pewter character tokens. 5 The great outdoors Lace up your boots. New York Post copy editor Skip Card offers a scenic way to get back into your skinny jeans with "Take a Hike: New York City" - a guide to 75 hiking trails within two hours of Manhattan. 6 Eye candy Napolean Perdis' "Peep Show" features Madames Fantasia and Crystal performing in elaborate lash-curling routines. Don't expect to catch glimpses of naughty bits, though - the spring collection of mascaras is only masquerading as a pornographic DVD box set. 7 Record breaking The illegitimate child of "Jackass" and the "Guinness Book of World Records," MTV's new stunt show "Call to Greatness" premieres tomorrow at 10:30 p.m. See idiots hilariously break dubious "records," such as most self-kicks to the head and the furthest distance a marshmallow can be blown out of a nostril and into someone else's mouth. 8 Independent thinkers This year's Gen Art Film Festival, starting Wednesday, includes "Neverwas," starring Brittany Murphy and Aaron Eckhart (below) and "F--k," a documentary about the history of the F-word, featuring celebrity swearers such as Bill Maher, Kevin Smith and Alanis Morrisette. For screenings, see genart.org. 9 Hating on hipsters Lazy scenesters who won't clap or dance at shows make Long Island's Nightmare of You sick. Cribbing from the Cure and the Smiths, with a singer that looks and sounds a bit like Green Day's Billie Joe Armstrong, they play Irving Plaza on Tuesday, where the jaded will be mocked from the stage. 10 Happy healthyheadphones Keep your buds crud- and tangle-free with Tunewear's totally cute, spiky rubber Tetran cable winder. Bonus: It pulls triple duty as a foot massager and stress toy.
Androgynous Actress Kate Moennig Is �Alt.Gwyn,� Paltrow's Cousin By Rebecca Traister of the New York Observer October 9, 2000 Twenty-two-year-old Kate Moennig was extolling the talents of her aunt and fellow thespian, Blythe Danner, over an iced chai at Caf� Orlin on a recent Friday morning. "She�s such a wonderful actress," she said solemnly, before her brow wrinkled with a distant memory from high school civics class. The teacher had screened The Great Santini, and Ms. Moennig couldn�t take her eyes off the elegant blonde who played Robert Duvall�s wife. "I�m like �Damn, that woman looks so familiar to me!�" Ms. Moennig remembered excitedly. "And I came home that day and I was talking to my mom, and my mom was like, �Blythe is in that.� And it was like, �Oh yeah, that�s who she is!� So I went in the next day and was like, �That�s my aunt!�" Her classmates were unimpressed. Had her civics class screening taken place just a few years later, Ms. Moennig�s classmates would have given her a little more satisfaction. For, if Ms. Danner is her father�s sister, then that surely means that Gwyneth Paltrow is � her � cousin. And there are a lot of people on this earth who would love to know what the star of Shakespeare in Love�the blessed First Lady of Miramax, for chrissakes�is really like. Ms. Moennig could probably tell them a thing or two. They even performed on the same stage at the Williams-town Theater Festival, where Ms. Moennig had a small non-speaking role in Ms. Paltrow�s stage debut, As You Like It. But when the subject of Ms. Paltrow arose, a wary look crossed Ms. Moennig�s eyes and her facial muscles seemed to freeze up. She folded arms and leaned away from the table. "Are you close?" she was asked. "She�s my cousin!" Ms. Moennig replied quickly. But as anyone who has a Gwyneth somewhere in the family�or a cousin Dilbert who made it into Congress�knows history, the world and, yes, show business are rich with familial tensions. Maybe Eric Roberts doesn�t flinch every time someone mentions his sister Julia�s name; maybe Jonathan Bush can take it; maybe Nicolas Cage and Sofia Coppola are calm around each other. But remember Queen Elizabeth I and Mary Queen of Scots. Ms. Moennig didn�t express that kind of familial tension. She said that she had last spent time with her cousin in Pasadena, Calif., at a "really nice cousin bonding" dinner with Ms. Paltrow�s screenwriter brother Jake, and another actress cousin, Hillary. Even after Duets, Ms. Paltrow�s name continues to represent some frustratingly high standards in the worlds of Hollywood and fashion: Photographers, writers and film directors have nattered on about her regal cheekbones, world-class slouch, reedy frame and life choices (Brad! Ben?), to the point where you think that one more luminous cover shot and the big-boned gals of the world are going to take up torches and chase Ms. Paltrow through the Hollywood Hills. Ms. acknowledged that she sometimes fears "cruel things from the public" in terms of comparisons between her and her more famous cousin, but she also said that "there really is no comparison at all. [Our] work and lifestyles are completely different." Ms. Moennig's friends in Williamstown thought so. They even came up with a nickname that celebrates the differences. They christened her: Alt.Gwyn. Upon hearing the Alt.Gwyn handle, Ms. Moennig�s face relaxed and brightened, and she uncrossed her arms. "Yeah, totally," she said. "We�re totally different people. We look very different, too. I think that people would be able to point out the differences a lot more easily than they�d be able to point out the similarities." Then she added: "I like that people don�t actually make the comparison. And I want no one judging me solely on the fact that I am her cousin. There is a fear, yeah. It could be a blow to your head, but again, it is none of my business." Anyone who caught Ms. Moennig on the WB Network summer series Young Americans would understand what her friends were getting at. In the series, Ms. Moennig played Jake Pratt, a young woman who disguised herself as a boy to attend the tony (and fictional) Rawley Academy, the setting for the nubile drama. Yes, Ms. Paltrow bound her breasts to imitate a man in Shakespeare in Love, but Ms. Moennig�s role was more in the Boys Don�t Cry mold. She looked more masculine than Ms. Paltrow�s Shakespeare co-star Joseph Fiennes, let alone her cousin. Sitting in Caf� Orlin, Ms. Moennig still looked rather androgynous with her dark, punk Peppermint Patty hairdo, Nike flip-flops and an original Rolling Stones concert tour T-shirt that she bought for $8 in Baltimore. She has full red lips that easily crack into a deep, V-shaped smile, and her long thin arms move erratically as she speaks. Like Ms. Paltrow, Ms. Moennig is a tall drink of water, with high cheekbones, her Aunt Blythe�s eyes and "the best slouch in the business," according to her friends. Although the WB did not renew Young Americans, MTV is sniffing around the show, which remains the subject of countless online chats. And Ms. Moennig�s character, Jake Pratt, enjoyed the distinction of tying for the fewest number of votes on the "Who Would You Kill On Young Americans?" Web site. While she awaits news of the series� fate, Ms. Moennig will be playing, in her words, a "punky chick who plays the bass" in the independent film Thank You, Goodnight, which will shoot in Los Angeles. She�ll also hear soon about a part in Robert DeNiro�s new film, City by the Sea, and is thinking seriously about what turn her burgeoning film career will next take if the strikes shut down Hollywood next year. At 22, she is seven years older than the character she played on TV. But at the caf� table on an East Eighth Street sidewalk, with wet hair and a tensile body posture, she seemed impossibly young. Her voice was deep and throaty like a truck driver�s, but she peppered her speech with the catch-phrases of a Valley Girl who had summered in London: "Brilliant!" "Totally!" "Classic!" and "Awesome!" she said. Recounting the moment she learned that she had nabbed the Young Americans role, she said: "Dude, I was pumped!" She also referred to several male friends as "really cool cats." The next minute, she was speculating authoritatively that if Young Americans got resuscitated, "it would build a stronger visibility line where I�d be available to be optioned for other projects." Ms. Moennig�s portrayal of the gender-confused Jake Pratt was not her first stab at an androgynous character. She said that she originally tried out for the role of Brandon Teena in Boys Don�t Cry, the part for which actress Hilary Swank took home an Oscar earlier this year. "It was weird," she said, "because I totally transformed myself as a guy, and I remember signing out and seeing Hilary�s name right above mine and I was like, �Oh, she was in the Karate Kid Part 3.� (Actually, Ms. Swank starred in the fourth installment, The Next Karate Kid.) I�m not mad that she got [Boys]," Ms. Moennig added. "I mean, she rocked." Ms. Moennig�s butch looks and initial role choices have insured that she won�t be compared to her more girlie-girl cousin. But, she asserted, "I would not want to play a girl who masquerades as a boy for the rest of my life." There�s an important difference between gender-crossing roles and androgyny as a look. "If you�re androgynous, that�s what you look like." Although she is straight and is currently seeing a Los Angeles actor "who knows what he wants," Ms. Moennig recalled a number of instances when, because of her appearance, she was "probably" hit on by women, who either mistook her for a boy or for a lesbian. One story making the rounds of Williamstown was that Lea DeLaria, the vivacious, openly gay comic, had taken a shine to Ms. Moennig and pursued her enthusiastically while the two co-starred in As You Like It. "She did, a bit," Ms. Moennig said carefully, quickly adding: "I like her a lot � she�s really talented. And she�s nuts, man!" If Ms. Moennig takes misconceptions about gender or sexuality in stride, it may have to do with some of her earliest acting experiences. "I knew that I�d probably be cast as an androgynous character, but I never knew what kind," she said. Nicknamed "Scout" by her mother after literature�s most famous tomboy, Ms. Moennig�s first acting gig was at 10, in a children�s theater production of Winnie the Pooh. She played Christopher Robin. Ms. Moennig grew up in Tony Rittenhouse Square in Philadelphia. Her father is a violin-maker, her mother a retired Broadway dancer who was in Funny Girl, the film Thoroughly Modern Millie and a string of what she later told her daughter were flops. She attended a Catholic elementary school and then Notre Dame Academy, a private all-girls prep school which she calls a "clique factory." Ms. Moennig had some early career confusion. "I wanted to be a violin-maker like my dad, and then I wanted to be a doorman in my building," she said. Even when she�d found acting, she briefly considered other options. "I thought if this never works out, maybe I�ll study to be in the F.B.I., or I�ll be a marine biologist or something." But then she realized that she�d rather "play those two things in a film." And so, after graduating, Ms. Moennig headed for an acting conservatory at the American Academy of Dramatic Arts. Though Ms. Moennig�s starving-artist days were mercifully brief, her life is not that different from the other impossibly young, ambitious women who populate Soho. She has brunch with her best friend every Sunday, although she said she was preparing for a seven-day cleanse�no meat, no dairy, no wheat, no smoking, no caffeine. ("It makes your lymph nodes stronger.") She then lit up a cigarette and explained that she frequents bars like the Stone Crow, Tapestry and 2A. She "adores" Caf� Orlin. And she�s a clotheshorse, who favors Katayone Adeli and Style Lab, although, she noted, "vintage shopping always rocks, too." She dismissed the club scene and said that she feels jaded about city life. "I�ve seen it and done it all in New York, and it�s kind of lame," she explained, then thought better of what she had just said: "Not lame, just not me." She then weighed in on a recent New York Times Magazine piece on young Hollywood ("Teenseltown"). She remembered one of the aspiring actresses bragging about getting a part in Coyote Ugly, another telling her roommate that if she lost weight she�d get more parts. "You are so pompous! Get over yourself," she said of the actors. "I hope you have good solid work to prove this pompousness, because if you don�t, you�re even more wack than you appear to be on paper. Uuuugggh." She took a drag on her cigarette. But surely Kate Moennig understands the pressures of being young in Hollywood. Perhaps she understands them better than most, contending as she does with a hefty familial gold standard of success. "If I let it pressure me, it would be horrible. But why do that?" Ms. Moennig said of her extended family. "You may be a famous actress, but you�re also my cousin. You�re also my aunt." It wasn�t business. It was just family. This column ran on page 1 in the 10/9/2000 edition of The New York Observer. No copyright infringement is intended by anything on this site. I do not own anything having to do with Young Americans or their characters. They are the sole property of Sony and Columbia TriStar Television
WB Interview with Kate Moennig From www.thewb.com July 2000 From the stage to the screen, Katherine Moennig has the rampant enthusiasm and contagious smile that can knock you right off your feet. TheWB: Are you anything like Jake? Katherine Moennig: Yeah, I guess so, I think everything you play has something of yourself in it. I don't know if I'd have the courage to do what she did... TheWB: Your character has a "dirty little secret", does it make your job harder? KM: I learned that what makes it difficult is playing two exact opposites at the same time, but other than that its so much fun. TheWB: You worked in theater for a while. Besides the obvious, what are the main differences between theater and Television? KM: In television you can do a lot of takes, so if you don't get the moment right you can try again. In theater you get one shot, if you don't get it the first time that's it. TheWB: How did you like working behind the scenes in the theater? KM: It's a pain in the ass actually, its really hard work. Doing stuff behind the stage is the hard part, acting is the easy part. I have a lot of respect for everyone that works behind the scenes on the show. TheWB: What's a normal day on the set like? KM: Wake up at 5:30 or 6:00am, go to the set, get dressed and wait around for three hours for everything to get started, then it's a lot of hard work. TheWB: Is it anything like the way you pictured it? KM: Yeah, it actually is. I love working on film, I haven't done a lot and it's fascinating. TheWB: Where do you want to go from here? KM: I'd like to see how the show goes, and if goes well do another 13. Eventually I'd like it to lead to film work. TheWB: Growing up, did your parents steer you towards the arts, or did you get there on your own? KM: They didn't push me to anything but when I made that decision they were really supportive. TheWB: What would you be doing if you weren't acting? KM: Realistically, if I wasn't acting I'd probably just be finishing college. I'd probably be graduating from some state school I hated and not really know what I was going to do. TheWB: What would you have majored in? KM: I think I would have majored in Marine Biology or I'd want to study to go into the FBI. TheWB: What is the one thing that you can't live without? KM: My friends and family. No copyright infringement is intended by anything on this site. I do not own anything having to do with Young Americans or their characters. They are the sole property of Sony and Columbia TriStar Television