Ilene Chaiken

Sandri si no recuerdo mal, en el primer piloto que se grabo Kit era la dueña del Chart, era lesbiana y no tenía ningún tipo de parentesco con Bette.

Después cambiaron eso e hicieron a Kit heterosexual y hermanastra de Bette. Y a Alice la dueña del Chart.

Lo de Bette y Tina, puede que Ilene se refiera al hecho de que han grabado varios finales para la serie y en alguno no terminarán juntas. Por que como se sabe a Ilene le gusta marear a esta pareja con sus idas y venidas como hemos podido ver a lo largo de la serie.

Lo de Bette y Tina, puede que Ilene se refiera al hecho de que han grabado varios finales para la serie y en alguno no terminarán juntas. Por que como se sabe a Ilene le gusta marear a esta pareja con sus idas y venidas como hemos podido ver a lo largo de la serie.

si aprecias la vida chaiken no te atrevas a separarlas de nuevo!!!! ya te haz cag...en la 6ta como te ha dao tu real gana en tibette ... por lo que al menos espero un final semi decente porque decente ya a estas alturas no lo espero

TIBETTE 4ever

3ª ronda de preguntas a Ilene

Question: What was the writers’ thought process of having Max get pregnant?

Answer: The character of Max has always given us the opportunity to tell stories about the transgender community that are usually overlooked or ignored in the media. Moreover, we always strive to tell stories that are authentic, within the confines of an hour-long television show. Pregnancy while taking testosterone is something that really happens—and not just in the tabloids, as Max points out. Max’s pregnancy also allows us to explore another idea of family and parenting, just as we’re able to do with Bette, Tina and Angelica.

Question: What influenced the writers to bring Dylan back into Helena's life?

Answer: Helena has been put through the ringer the past three seasons, including several unhealthy and manipulative relationships. While Helena’s first tour with Dylan could probably be counted among those, there was also something very genuine about their relationshipthat clicked for Helena—whose privileged upbringing has afforded her many insincere associations. This isn’t to say that reuniting with Dylan will be easy for Helena…

Question: I am noticing lots of Planet and Hit Club scenes this season, like in S1. It’s great. Was it a conscious decision to do this to wrap [the series]?

Answer: We didn’t go into Season 6 with a mandate for more scenes at The Planet and Hit Club. However, big scenes with all of the characters together—processing their personal and professional entanglements—are certainly among our favorites. The friends are a family. They take care of and are loyal to each other like family, and it’s the big group scenes that really show off this dynamic.

Question: Alice seemed awfully invested in knowing about Shenny. Why was her reaction so inordinately strong?

Answer: I think this is just a case of Alice being Alice. We know she likes to poke her nose in other people’s business—and when those other people are her best friends, she can be extra curious. Alice is a gossip queen, but it comes from a good place—in this case, concern for the happiness of her friends.

gracias ks y kamaka, me gusta mucho todo esto de la chaiken

he encontrado alguna información de Ilene, algunas cosas son del 2004 o 2005.

http://www.tv.com/ilene-chaiken/person/192298/biography.html

Ilene (when asked about her favourite character on “The L Word”): I love all of the characters equally, and I say that as a parent - you know I have eight-and-a-half-year-old twin girls, so I know that I have to tread that line. But there are two characters on the show that I channel through personally - that is, my own personal issues are taken up by these two characters in different ways - and they are Jenny and Bette

Ilene (on Helen Shaver guest-starring on “The L Word”): I actually chose Helen Shaver because she's such a good actor, and certainly I knew her first from "Desert Hearts" - and that performance left a profound impression on me. But I've known her work and encountered her over the years, and I have to admit that I cast her because of her strength. I knew that she would just tear that character up.

Ilene: We've been so starved for representation - and yes, gay men have also been underrepresented, but it just doesn't begin to compare to the invisibility of lesbians in the world up until recently. I think the surge of responses has really been indicative of that.

Ilene: The summer I graduated I got a job as an assistant to a producer working on a film in London. It was a movie that nobody remembers, but it starred Burt Reynolds and Don Siegal directed it (Rough Cut, 1980) and then I went back to New York for a little while, and before the year was up I realized I had to move to L.A.

Ilene (on her similarity to Jenny on “The L Word”): Jenny, although not me, certainly reflects a little bit of my life experience. Jenny the writer who comes to L.A. and then discovers, or reckons with her sexual identity. I think that's a story that I relate to a lot

Ilene: My first job, my legitimate job, in Hollywood was as a trainee at Creative Artists (CAA).

Ilene: I wrote a...little kind of angry, girl action movie. It was a little before that was the thing, girl action movies, nobody was really doing it. It was a futuristic homage to The Seventh Samurai. And I came back from the Christmas vacation with a complete script, sat down in my office and waited to get fired, which happened very quickly. Got my script to an agent, got representation. Script was optioned, but never set up, and very quickly got a job writing a movie for Hollywood Pictures, and just never looked back.

Ilene (on her getting out of development and starting to write): I don't think that I was ever really suited for [development]. I'm glad that I did it because it gave me great skills and information, but it wasn't what I was meant to do. And I am very happy doing what I do (writing). This is what I was meant to do.

Ilene: Primarily I think of myself as a writer. I love producing my own work for television, but I always, no matter what I do, even if I direct, I will always think of myself first as a writer.

Ilene (on how being out affected her career): I was out for about a year and then I met my partner. Once we were together, I just never was in the closet. We went everywhere together. And sometimes it was a little awkward and uncomfortable, it was still the early 80's, but it wasn't like this whole political statement, it just was what we did.

Ilene (on her time with Aaron Spelling Television): Those five years were the most fallow time in Aaron Spelling's television history. We did a bunch of shows that didn't go anywhere. It was the era in which Stephen Bochco had just redefined television, and it was a hard moment for Aaron Spelling. Television was moving away from what he did. Now it's moved back. But just before I left, we did Twin Peaks. Well, no one really did Twin Peaks but David Lynch, but I was proud to have been involved in it. (and then she remembers)Well, actually, there was one show that I was involved with that I am actually proud of. One of the television series which I was involved with on ABC, had the first series regular lesbian character…

Ilene: Gail Strickland, who was cast to play [a lesbian on the show “Heartbeat”] decided to research her character by hanging out with me and my partner... I felt like a Guinea pig. Now, I'm telling my stories. It's different. I'm not being scrutinized from outside by somebody who treats us as a curiosity...not that Gail treated us in that way...but now I just feel privileged to be getting to tell my stores...and our stories, too, to some extent

Ilene: I had the idea, and it was just, it was almost a lark. I was struck by the notion that television was the perfect medium to tell lesbian stories because there are so many stories to tell. Because it's not good enough to have just one character who is a lesbian in someone else's story, or even just a single character show because it's time to talk about the fact that we are many. And, so an ensemble drama seemed to be the perfect medium. So, I just kind of brought it up. I had notes, I had stories I was cataloguing. I brought it up informally with a couple of Showtime executives, with whom I'd worked with a lot, two women. They were intrigued by it, they loved it, but we all knew that it was kind of a radical notion at that time. And I think we all knew instinctively that it wasn't time yet. But, I knew that time would most definitely come. I don't know if they knew. They were two straight women. But I think I just felt fairly secure in my convictions that there would be a time when we could put a lesbian show on television.

Ilene (on her work on “The L Word”): I love making it. Every facet of doing it from the writing the script to making the show. Editing, post production is a revelation to me. I've never done that. The writers don't usually get invited to stick around through all that. I had no idea how creative it was and also how one gets to tell the story yet again.

Ilene (on whether things change from what she writes to what ends up on screen on “The L Word”): It never changes because I change along with it. I am so integrally connected to whole process that I don't feel as if I started over here and somehow I wound up over here. I am on the ride with it.

She met her partner, Miggi Hood, at a party in Malibu

She based the character of Shane on “The L Word” on Warren Beatty from "Shampoo".

Miggi Hood has been her partner since 1984

She and Chuck Pfarrer were nominated for a Razzie Award in 1997, in the Worst Screenplay category for “Barb Wire”.

She was the associate producer for "Satisfaction".

Before the success of “The L Word” raised her profile, she had written the screenplays for "Barb Wire", "Dirty Pictures" and "Damaged Care".

She is the creator, writer and executive producer of the television series “The L Word”.

Otra entrevista de Ilene y Pam Grier del 4-enero-2006. (I)

Cuenta cosas como que Showtime decidía en su momento según las audiencias que consiguieran si seguía la serie una temporada más. Ahora ha dicho algo de eso respecto al spinoff o la película, dependerá de las audiencias. Que en ese momento tenían un montón de historias que contar. Que aparecía Daniela Sea como Moira-Max como personaje butch pero no como competencia de Shane sino de distinta forma. Hablaba de que la temporada 3 sería mas divertida que la 2. Hablan del personaje de Kit y que después de 35 años sigue siendo hot y Pam dice el porqué.
Hablan de que Elizabeth Ziff contribuyó más en esa 3ª temporada, y sobre el tema del cáncer que se iba a tratar. También le pregunta a Pam Grier sobre este tema ya que ella lo sufrió y sobrevivió pero una hermana suya no.

También cuentan sobre la cantidad de fans por todo el mundo y el agradecimiento por la serie. Que aunque le costó poner en marcha el proyecto nunca renunció.

Hablan de Leisha de su buen humor siempre.

http://www.l-word.com/news/autograph_interview_1.php
By Pam Cole

ATLANTA, GA—Ilene CHAIKEN and Pam GRIER graciously signed autographs for around 300 fans at the Best Buy in Atlanta, Georgia on Jan. 4, 2006. After the event, CHAIKEN and GRIER retreated with Pam Cole to a back room (yes, a back room) for a brief interview.
PC: Thank you for your time today and for coming to Atlanta to do this event and the premiere.
We're happy to do both events. And thanks for all the support The L Word Fan Site has given us. I love your site! It's one of my favorites.
GRIER: Hey, I go to the site, too. I belong to the site.
PC: Were you surprised that there weren't more Emmy nominations for the cast in Season 2?
CHAIKEN: I wasn't surprised by it. I'd love to get an Emmy nomination. It would be great and gratifying. But first of all, you never expect it. It's a huge field and a lot of competition, and I think that although we've really broken through in a mainstream way, it's still "the lesbian show" and the Emmys are a pretty conservative organization and we are still stigmatized by being a lesbian show.
PC: What have you heard about a possible Season 4?
CHAIKEN: We won't know until we've been on the air for at least several episodes. The network isn't obliged to let us know for quite some time. You shoot a season, you finish it, you hope you did good work and that the audience comes back and loves it again, but you don't really know if there's going to be another season after that.
PC: But you're prepared to do a 4th season?
CHAIKEN: Definitely. We've done three and I'd like to think that we could do a couple more. It would be great. We have so many stories to tell and one of the reasons that I made this a large ensemble cast is that it's the first lesbian show and we have a lot of stories to tell. We have to go on making the point that we're not monolithic and that we have a lot of stories.
PC: Speaking of lots of stories, I'm thinking about Daniela Sea. She's coming on as the new butch character. Is she going to be in competition with Shane for that role?

CHAIKEN: I don't see it that way but that's certainly what a lot of people are saying. I'm always intrigued to see how people respond and what people come up with. I don't see Shane and Moira (or Kate and Daniela) as competitive. They're very, very different yet they both have a little butch edge, a little androgyny, but in totally different ways. It will be interesting to see whether people continue to compare them to one another.
PC: In Season 2, the show was a lot more dramatic than Season 1. What is the tone in Season 3 going to be like?
CHAIKEN: It's going to be funnier. It's more fun. It's still dramatic. It is a drama. But one of the things that we (that is, my writer colleagues and I) said to one another when we got together back at the beginning of the Season 3 to decide what to write, was that we really liked the show when it was funny. We like ourselves when we're funny, when we poke fun at ourselves and we went back towards that. Season 3 is a lot more like Season one, but better.
GRIER: It's better times 5!
PC: Kit has really changed since Season One. What's up for Kit in Season Three?
Kit had a problem with life but she has gotten better. She's found herself and she's having to deal with the truth that she found. One of the things about a twelve step program is that you have to accept the truth about yourself, the world, and everyone, and then what you can and cannot change
CHAIKEN: But Kit has a good time in Season 3.
GRIER: Ilene made sure of that! Kit has a damn good time in Season 3! But you can still see that she has found the strength that people told her she never had. Other people are seeing it. It started with Bette, her sister and that community (all the girls at the planet, and then Ivan and Benjamin…reinforcing her as they saw what she had to go through. They had this ageless support, sharing things that have not changed in a hundred years and never will. Truth is truth, life is life, lies are lies, and love is love. And she is responding to it in a very positive but tenuous way. Every day is a day of building confidence. She's totally found herself in Season 3.
PC: Pam, after 35 years in show business you're still this hot, sexy woman onscreen. What do you think about that?
Yeah, it's hot and exciting all the time! I didn't even have time for menopause. I had sex right through it, I didn't care! I was like, what menopause, what hot flashes? I thought it was just orgasms! And there are issues about that in the storylines in Season 3.
It's like Ilene said, there are so many voices, so many storylines to tell. We're getting there, we just can't do it all in every show. But we're trying and with the support of the audience and new audiences, understanding and feeling "yes, tell my story, hear my voice." That gives everyone more leverage and more respect that you don't have to fight for and there's a healing in a sense. There's a lot of families that will find that forgiveness for not having the love for their family member, their child, their brother, their sister. And Ilene has made sure that we're going to try and tell as many stories as possible.
PC: I read that Elizabeth Ziff is on the writing staff in Season 3. Is that true?
CHAIKEN: In Season 3, Elizabeth Ziff was again the music composer, and also a producer on my writing staff --and a very active producer. She wrote one script and she did some rewriting and made huge contributions to the stories.
GRIER: Huge.
CHAIKEN: And if indeed the third season is as good as we all think it is, she had a lot to do with it.
She has written quite a bit before. She wrote a play that she and her partners have been performing. Having worked with her for a season, I found her to be a storyteller of like mind. Which is really the key. I've worked with a lot of non-writers, or inexperienced writers on the L Word. I found that they've worked better for me than tried and true TV writers who come with so many fixed ideas about how to tell television stories. I've been much more successful working with playwrights, with novelists, and with just random baby writers who come with a fresh voice and they're just passionate about telling these stories. Elizabeth fell into that category to begin with but wound up being a real and active producer colleague.
GRIER: Ilene, when someone writes a song, they tell a story.
CHAIKEN: Exactly. Very much so.
GRIER: She's honed her skill that way. She had all the validation, all the credentials. And you knew exactly what she was saying and you could take it from there and give it the feeling. Because when you write songs, you're interpreting and you're having to tell stories that have comprehension, and I think she was very good at that. Very skilled at that, in order to do plays and musicals. That's coming with a lot of experience.
PC: Pam, one of the characters is rumored to have cancer in Season 3. I know that you are a cancer survivor. (GRIER was diagnosed with cancer in 1988 and given 18 months to live.) As a cancer survivor, how did that storyline affect you?
GRIER: I had a few meltdowns…even during our meetings.
CHAIKEN: It was pretty emotional telling some of these stories and that one in particular.
GRIER: Because many of us have experienced losing family and friends. In a way, it's bittersweet that we have not become desensitized to the issue by seeing so many stories on the health channels and the medical channels about people surviving. It was quite profound and moving. And to relive it all over again, there would be times when they almost picked me up off the floor. So I did have my moments, but I wasn't alone.
I think the audience will see and feel the same way as I did when I watched it.

Entrevista de Ilene Chaiken y Pam Grier 4-Enero-2006 (II)

PC: Thank you for sharing that with us.
GRIER: You don't get over it. It's like a death. I'm very lucky. My sister died of cancer. I have a lot of gratitude for life today.
PC: On to less serious questions…Ilene, lesbians from all over the world (Vietnam, Colombia, Australia, France) adore the show and identify with the characters. How do you explain that?
CHAIKEN: That's been really thrilling for us. We've been so unrepresented for so very long.
GRIER: Since day 1, Ilene? Since, time?
CHAIKEN: Yeah.
GRIER: I really think Ilene, and I applaud her, and not to be overdoing it (I'm sure she gets tired of hearing it) but it's very difficult for one person to go out there and get rejected and say, tell my story like she did.
CHAIKEN: But it was time. It was time to tell our stories and I was lucky to be the one who got to do it. And it was going to happen. I just walked out there in the right moment with the right idea and into a receptive atmosphere. We're taking part in a huge cultural change. We wouldn't be here if the culture weren't changing, and then it becomes interactive.
GRIER: She never gave up.
PC: What is your most favorite, influential, life-altering book of all time?
CHAIKEN: (laughing) That Ann Carson book that Jenny and Marina talked about in that scene. Not really, but it's a great book.
I couldn't possibly answer that question. There are so many profoundly affecting books in the course of a lifetime. I'd have to go back to the last book I read which was "The Handmaid's Tale," but that would just be last month.
GRIER: Mine was "Red Pony." I'm a John Steinbeck fan. I grew up around animals and people hurt me at an early age so I refused to communicate with them, and animals were my sanctuary and my sanctity. I thought, my God, if I could write like that! I will be pitching Ilene some of my story ideas and my screenplay soon.
CHAIKEN: I certainly hope so.
GRIER: I'm hoping Ilene will accept me as one of the writer's on the show for one of the episodes.
PC: The birth and death stories in The L Word have eerily coincided with real-life. First Laurel Holloman gets pregnant and then Ossie Davis dies after filming his death onscreen. What do you think about that?
CHAIKEN: At the end of Season 2, too many people came up to me and said 'what you write, happens.' And at the beginning of Season 3, when I had my meetings with all of the actors, a couple of girls said 'Please don't let anything bad happen to me this year.' I'm not going to take that on. I don't think that I have any kind of prescient power to predict things. We had a couple of really intense coincidences and that's how I'm going to look at it. I will tell you that there were a few more in Season 3, but I'm not even going to say what they were.
PC: Indications are that Dana and Alice are splitting up.
CHAIKEN: Alas…
GRIER: They were so precious.
PC: And they were such a great comedy team. Why break up such a great comedy team?
CHAIKEN: (Laughing) You know, it's just what happens in life. I didn't do it. It just happened. They're a great comedy team and they did some great comedy together even as they're breaking up and I'm confident that we'll find much more humor. Certainly Leisha carries it through to the very end.
GRIER: Leisha's funny, period. She will brighten your day. I loved their timing together. It was just charming.
CHAIKEN: They did lovely stuff together. And I think the truth of the matter is that, that can only sustain for so long and it was great while it lasted. Now it's time to move on and evolve them both into different relationships and encounters and experiences.
GRIER: But it creates great drama, don't you think Ilene, where someone is so loving and then all of a sudden, the reality of the world sets in and things that we get involved in don't always work out?
CHAIKEN: But I'm building towards a long-lasting lesbian relationship.
GRIER: Does anybody get back together? That broke up? That might get back together before the season ends?
CHAIKEN: You never know.
GRIER: I really like the show. I'm really curious about where the characters are going. I watched several episodes of Season one the other night and I was impressed all over again….the camera movements and the lighting. There was this camera move on Bette as Jennifer, where the way they have her lit, everything is still and you can see and feel her emotions. Too often many directors don't hold the camera long enough or calm everything around the character so you can see them react, deeply without words. And there's one thing I learned in my acting is where you have to convey emotion and communicate as if you are blind and have no senses, and that was the stillness. You have to be still and there were some moments I saw the other night. I got to see some really good acting, and I'm disgusted by the fact that our actresses on the show are not nominated for Golden Globes or Emmys and, there I've said it. I've said it! Brilliant, brilliant, brilliant…the scene in the car with Tina and Bette? Even my momma said, every time when we entered the competition, "I don't understand it?" I really feel that the actors on the show are stellar.
CHAIKEN: I think you are, too.
PC: I totally agree. I was with you. I could not believe they were not nominated.
GRIER: They will be eventually. But I don't think any of them do the work to be nominated. They do the work because they want to do a great job. I really think they're more concerned with just doing the work.
PC: Did you have a favorite scene in the L Word that you were in?
GRIER: One!? I don't have one. I have several. I absolutely have several.
CHAIKEN: You have some coming up in this third season. There are some great scenes with Kit in the third season.
GRIER: Oh yeah, the third season has quite a few really, really good ones. In Season 2, where I was sitting at the table with Bette and I called her a "pootie chasing dog." That was a good one.
I wanted Kit not to be stereotypical. She has come from a place where her clothes are from the thrift shop or Tarjay, and she has the weight, the puffiness. She's representing the women who think they're not being represented on The L Word, you know like, "Where's the heavy women? Everyone's so thin." But that's not the issue, it's about the spirit, it's about the people. The heart and soul and fighting just to be seen, not invisible. Kit's been invisible for so long and now, here's this woman who's not going to go for the glamour, she's just going to go for being broadly accepted. She's gotta go to AA and then she meets Ivan and he sees her. That was one of the moments, when Ivan rejects her, its really heartbreaking. Because she really wanted Ivan to love her and for she to love Ivan. Kit was accepting this person who was born a woman but who considers himself a man.
CHAIKEN: I think Kit misses Ivan. I think that Ivan was a really good man and had many of the things that Kit looks for in a man.
GRIER: He helps Kit a lot, not just monetarily with the Planet, but emotionally, and he helps Kit see the qualities that she really needed.
CHAIKEN: We're really, really excited about the work we did in Season 3, and really looking forward to putting it out there. We feel liked we consolidated all our strengths and moved forward.
GRIER: And Ilene's got more. I hope to see The L Word and its meaning in Season 4, 5, and 6 and 7.
CHAIKEN: (laughing) I hope to be doing The L Word as Bette becomes a grandmother.

aki aai una entrevista kon ilene
si masai o alguna d sus adoradoras la kiere traducir k la traduzka jo no

http://www.thedailybeast.com/blogs-and-stories/2009-03-05/last-of-the-red-hot-lesbians/

pues yo la traduciría, si tengo un rato lo hago.

He encontrado esta entrevista con Rose Troche que también tiene mucho que ver en esta serie. Es un audio de Enero de 2006. Creo que explica un montón de cosas de la temporada que iba a empezar por entonces, sería la 3ª.

http://www.mefeedia.com/entry/959100/

En esta entrevista en Advocate el 16-Enero-2009 dice Ilene que no se arrepiente de nada excepto de haber matado a Dana. Habla sobre el final de esta temporada, el spinoff de Leisha Hailey, y una rumoreada pelicula Lword, todo sin revelar nada.

http://www.advocate.com/exclusive_detail_ektid70435.asp

Ilene Chaiken Has No Regrets -- Except Killing Dana
Ilene Chaiken talks about The L Word's final season, the hush-hush Leisha Hailey spin-off, and a rumored L Word movie -- all without revealing a thing.

Dice:

“Yes, but remember, I never saw The L Word as purely lesbian-themed,” she points out. “I saw it as a show about lesbians for everyone. Personally, I’m interested in telling stories. Telling lesbian-themed stories, yes, but not exclusively. I’m interested in making mainstream entertainment.

“If I could do it all again, that’s the one and only thing I’d do differently,” says Chaiken of killing off the L Word’s Dana character, a move that resulted in a minor revolt among the show’s fans. “I think if maybe I had known how people would react to that and how long the anger and despair would last, I might have reconsidered it ...

Que ella nunca vio LWord como un tema unicamente de lesbianas. Que ella lo veía como una serie sobre lesbianas para todo el mundo. Que personalmente está interesada en contar historias. Contar historias de lesbianas, pero no exclusivamente. Y que está interesada en hacer entretenimiento más general.

'Si pudiera hacerlo todo otra vez, eso sería la unica cosas que haría diferente', dice Chaiken de matar a Dana, un cambio debido a las reacciones de las fans de la serie. 'Creo que si pudiera haber sabido como la gente reaccionaría a eso y cuanto tiempo la rabia y desesperación duraría, lo habría reconsiderado...'

Entrevista a Ilene Chaiken

Fuente: washblade.com

An interview with Ilene Chaiken 'L Word' creator dishes on the show after its final episode

By AMY CAVANAUGH, Washington Blade | Mar 9, 12:20 PM "The L Word," a television show about the lives and loves of a group of lesbians in Los Angeles, ended its six-season run on Showtime last night. Ilene Chaiken, the creator, writer and executive producer of the show, chatted with the Blade this morning about how the show got started, the finale and what die-hard fans may be able to look forward to in the future.


Washington Blade: Where did you get the idea for the show?

Ilene Chaiken: It came from my wanting to tell some of my stories for a change, stories that came from my looking around at my life and my friends and people I knew. Our stories were unrepresented in popular culture and I think they're good stories that deserve to be told.

Washington Blade: How did you get Showtime to approve it at the beginning?

IC: They didn't approve it at the beginning. I had been working for Showtime on other projects, and had written a movie for Showtime that had some gay themes. It was about the work of Robert Mapplethorpe, the photographer… Showtime didn't shy away from our stories and our issues in the way that other mainstream broadcasters did.

I brought it to the executives at the vice president level … back in 2000 and they said that this just isn't going to happen here. A prime time, nighttime drama about the lives of lesbians — no, I just don't think we can sell that to the guy in the corner office. So I went away, and I wasn't surprised but was testing the waters.

I decided to leave it be, and a year later Showtime picked up an English television show called "Queer as Folk." They bought the format and remade it as an American show, and it was a success for them. So I went back and said, “You've got the boys, what about the girls?” They said, “Yes, you're right, we should do your show.”

Blade: How much, if any, backlash was there at the beginning?

IC: There wasn't political backlash and the right wing backlash we were used to seeing didn't happen. My theory was that this was premium cable and not on their radar, so they didn't notice. The backlash I got at the beginning was from lesbians, who said that it didn't represent their lives, and that the lesbians on “The L Word” were too pretty, too glamorous, too affluent, and that it wasn't telling the story of their lives.

My response was that this was a TV show, firstly, and … most television is glamorized … My secondary response was that we're just getting started telling the stories about people I know, and that the representation is not far off from reality. It's slightly elevated, but here in L.A. I know a group of women who are quite like the characters portrayed on the show. If the show is a success, if you enjoy it over the course of time, we'll get to represent a lot more women, and indeed that's the case. We've broadened the scope of representation over the six years on the air.

Blade: What were some of the issues and topics you wanted to address? Did you meet them all?

IC: There were not issues and topics that I wanted to address. I just wanted to tell good stories and tell the stories of our lives, make them entertaining and tell them with depth and detail. If there were issues we talked about on the show, they were the issues of our lives and the issues that touched our lives.

Blade: Season six seemed to be modeled on "Sunset Boulevard" and season five on "All About Eve." What was the reason for this?

IC: I've read that [it was modeled on “Sunset Boulevard”] and it never occurred to me. “Sunset Boulevard” is probably in my blood, and as an avid student of cinema history, I'm sure that it was in me.

But there are other stories I've told on “The L Word,” like “All About Eve,” which we did boldly and unashamedly. Love me or hate me, that's what we took on. But I never said let's do “Sunset Boulevard,” and it never occurred to me that Jenny is found in a swimming pool. It just happened, and I guess my point is that this story grew organically out of the character's stories that we had been telling these six years. It wasn't just another riff on an old, great Hollywood convention.

Blade: Why did you leave so many unresolved plotlines — Jenny's death, the situation with Max's baby, Helena and Dylan's relationship?

IC: Those are not unresolved plotlines. I was not interested in wrapping up the show neatly and tidily. I wanted to end with a sense that life goes on. It would have been much more false to have resolved everything, to conveniently have Max have his baby before the series ended. This is just a day in the life, and life goes on. Who knows if we'll revisit [these characters] in fiction or reinvent them on TV or in a movie, hopefully we will. I simply thought that the appropriate thing to do was to tell a story that had some satisfying conclusions and said many of the things we wanted to say, but not [where the stories were ended].

Blade: Do you have any regrets with various plotlines over the seasons?

IC: I don't believe in that. Sure there are things that we could have done better. Some stories were successful and some less successful, but you don't get any do-overs. I just stand by the stories we told, and the most important thing I can say is that we did our very best. We were always trying to do our best and tell good stories to be true to the characters and entertain the audience.

Blade: A spin-off series is in the works. Can you talk about that?

IC: Alice is the character from “The L Word” who takes us into the spin-off and her participation qualifies it as a spin-off. It's called “The Farm,” and the status is that we made a pilot for Showtime and delivered it to them. They are going through the process that networks go through in deciding what to air. We're waiting to hear if they'll put it up. Alice is the only series regular from “The L Word,” and I hope that if the series goes forward that some of the other “L Word” stars will make guest appearances.


No hay muchas novedades en esta entrevista. Ilene habla sobre como nació la idea de TLW en el 2000, y cuando la presentó a los ejecutivos de Showtime, cadena en la que colaboraba,se la echaron atrás. Y no fue hasta que "Queer as folk" se estrenó y tuvo gran éxito, que se pudo retomar el proyecto.

También dice que las peores críticas le llegaron al principio de las propias lesbianas, que consideraban que las lesbianas de TLW eran demasiado guapas y encantadoras. Y ella contestó que era una serie de televisión, y que la mayor parte de las series sus protagonistas eran glamurosos. Y además que ella contaba historias que conocía, y que la mayor parte no estaban tan lejos de la realidad.

Le critica el periodista que la temporada 6 tuviera como modelo "Sunset boulevard" y la 5 "All About Eve". Ilene dice que había oido que la 6 estaba inspirada en Sunset boulevard pero que no es así. Aunque lleva Sunset Boulevard en la sangre y probablemente algo la haya influenciado. Esto lo dicen sobre todo por el planteamiento de la temporada alrededor de la aparición del cadáver de Jenny en la piscina.

¿Por qué ha dejado tantas tramas sin resolver, como la muerte de Jenny, el embarazo de Max o la relación de Dylan y Helena? Ilene dice que no son historias sin resolver, que no estaba interesada en acabar la serie resolviéndolo todo y ordenadamente, que habría resultado todo más falso, y que ella quería darle el sentido de que la vida continúa. Y quien sabe si se volverán a retomar esos personajes para la televisión, o para una película.

Ilene dice que han intentado hacerlo lo mejor posible, y que hay historias que han salido mejor que otras.

Y en cuanto al spin-off, aún no se sabe nada. Presentaron el piloto y Showtime tiene que decidir si se emite o no. Alice es el único personaje del elenco de TLW que aparecerá regularmente en la nueva serie, aunque si la serie sigue adelante, esporádicamente podrían aparecer algunos de los otros personajes.

gracias julia por la entrevista y la traducción.

Como había puesto julia en otro post el día 20 de Marzo habrá un evento al que asistirá Ilene Chaiken, a ver que dice ahora que ha terminado la serie y parece que hay muchas opiniones diversas. Habla de que habrá una cándida e intima conversación con Ilene y por solo entre 10 y 25 dolares (un poco más barato que la última fiesta).


http://broadwayworld.com/article/Ilene_Chaiken_Creator_of_the_LWord_Visits_Brava_to_Celebrate_Womens_History_Month_20090311

Ilene Chaiken, Creator of the "L-Word," Visits Brava to Celebrate Women's History Month

Brava continues its celebration of Women's History Month with an exceptional month of programming. After closing Penny Arcade's infamous sex and censorship show, Bitch! Dyke! Faghag! Whore!, Brava is opening Machinal this week, directed by Evren Odcikin and written by Sophie Treadwell, one of the most prominent women playwrights of the 20th century. Then on March 20th, Brava will be hosting "An Evening with Ilene Chaiken," producer and creator of the L-Word, one of the most popular television shows about women.

Machinal
Written by Sophie Treadwell
Directed by Evren Odcikin
March 11 - 22 , 2009 at 8pm
Tickets $10-$25

On March 11, Machinal will open to continue Brava's 2nd Stage "Shout Out Loud" Series. Machinal, written in 1928 by early 20th Century playwright and journalist Sophie Treadwell, was inspired by the real life case of convicted and executed murderess Ruth Snyder. A story of isolation, Machinal introduces us to Helen, a woman whose entire life has been dictated by the people and machines around her. She follows the rituals that society expects of a woman and subsequently marries her boss. As Helen begins to discover her own desires and needs, the story takes a turn to the unthinkable. Machinal is considered one of the highpoints of expressionist theatre in American theater history. Sophie Treadwell is considered one of America's most prominent women playwrights of the first half of the twentieth century.

A Brava Benefit
An Evening with...Ilene Chaiken
Friday, March 20, 2009, 8pm
Tickets $25-$50

The creator of one of the most popular television shows about women, Ilene Chaiken creator of The L Word, joins Brava's Artistic Director, Raelle Myrick-Hodges, for an intimate and candid conversation about being an female artist and the pressures and delights of being an artist at the forefront of the 'contemporary' lesbian community. Come, ask questions and have a laugh with a wonderful creator, writer, and director. "I just want to tell great stories that people are really moved by...The challenge is to show the universality of our lives and to show things they have never seen." -Ilene Chaiken. The show portrays a group of lesbian women living fully "out of the closet" lives, and the friends and family members that either support or loathe them. All proceeds benefit BRAVA.

5 Reasons why you should come see to Brava this month:
It is Women's History Month and Brava is celebrating!
The work is going to be amazing! You will enjoy yourself!

Brava hires 95% of their actors, designers and crew from San Francisco. (most theaters in SF don't do this) Support the local actors!

Under the direction of our new Artistic Director, Machinal continues the extraordinary "Shout Out Loud" season unlike Brava has ever seen.

There has been no better time then now to support the arts. The arts aren't getting bailed out like the corporations and banks and they are SUFFERING because of this economy. We need your support!
All are welcome! Tickets for all these events are available on our website at www.brava.org.

Aquí viene un artículo del día 16-3-2009.
En él se dice que aunque el piloto de la nueva serie de Leisha Hailey está hecho tiene que ser Showtime quien lo saque, y que no lo ve fácil.

http://www.nationalledger.com/artman/publish/article_272625350.shtml

More on "The L Word" Spinoff Hopes With Leisha Hailey from Ilene Chaiken

By Marilyn Beck and Stacy Jenel Smith Mar 16, 2009

"The L Word" creator Ilene Chaiken has put her Showtime series to rest after six seasons, and she's already looking toward new ventures. "We did a pilot for a spin-off, and we're hopeful that Showtime will put it on the air," Chaiken tells us. The pilot stars the openly gay "L Word" star Leisha Hailey. However, Chaiken admits it's not easy getting gay-themed shows on the air.

"I think it's still an uphill battle. I think there's a case in point now [with "The L Word"], and people can see that you can tell a story about gay people on television in pop culture entertainment and people will come, but it's still really hard to get our stories told."