Kyra Sedgwick Kisses and Tells
by Brandon Judell
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Kevin Bacon's spouse is doing everything but living under his shadow.
Born in New York, Kyra Sedgwick, 35, a cousin of the infamous Andy
Warhol
star Edie Sedgwick, made her acting debut on the soap Another World in
1982.
Soon after she caught everyone's attention as Tom Cruise's
sweetheart in
Born on the Fourth of July. Since then, Kyra has entranced us as Julia
Roberts's wise-cracking sister in
Something to Talk About; as
John Travolta's love interest in
Phenomenon, which earned the pair an
MTV Movie Awards nomination for Best Kiss; and as the title character in
the heartfelt
Miss Rose White, garnering herself a Golden Globe nomination.
Now Kyra goes kosher lesbian in Gurinder Chadha's joyous film about the
perils and joys of Thanksgiving,
What's Cooking? To find out her recipe
for
making a full-blooded Sapphic character, PopcornQ sat down with the
actress
recently in a New York hotel.
PlanetOut: Had you ever played a lesbian before?
Kyra Sedgwick: I had my own TV series [Talk to Me] for a couple of days, and in one
of
the episodes my character is dabbling in the possibility. She's having
difficulties as a single heterosexual, and she kind of gets a pass from
Paulina Porizkova and kind of runs that train for a little while. I have
a
nice kissing scene with her. So I enjoy kissing women, and I'd be happy
to do
it again.
PlanetOut: What was it like playing a Jewish lesbian with Julianna Margulies as
your
lover? You apparently had no hesitation about taking the part. Was
kissing
Julianna different than kissing Kevin?
KS: [I've] got to tell you, it wasn't 100% the same because I felt so
strongly ...
Julianna and I felt so strongly that we wanted to make it very accessible
for
people. We didn't want to make it look like it wasn't normal. Like we
hadn't
done it thousands of times before and we hadn't been in bed together
thousands of times before. So
it had that pressure on it, of trying to make it even more real. But it's
thrilling and exciting to kiss a woman. Julianna Margulies in particular.
There's some thread to it that made it different. I think you sort of
think
to yourself, "Oh, it's okay for me to enjoy this because it's not a man,"
especially knowing inside that I'm married.
PlanetOut: Since you're so well known as half of a popular heterosexual couple,
were
you wondering if people would look at the screen and think, "Oh, there's
a
straight girl playing gay"?
KS: You mean being believable. You know, I can't worry about that as an
actress. I've always taken on really different roles, and I'll continue
to do
so. If people have a problem with that, I have no control over that. I
can
only be as believable and as good an actress as I can possibly be so that
they can let that go. I think I'm lucky in the sense that I don't have
that
kind of stardom that makes it difficult for people to swallow me in
different
settings.
PlanetOut: Richard Gere, when he was doing Bent on Broadway, actually went to gay
bars
to do research. Did you?
KS: Yes, Julianna and I went to a few gay bars together.
PlanetOut: Did any women drop dead in their tracks and scream, "Thank God! Thank
God,
you two are gay!"
KS: No! I swear to God it was really amazing. The women in these bars are
so
inclusive. They were very welcoming. They didn't even ask us why we were
there. There's this sense of camaraderie at these bars. There's no
stalking
going on. There's no sort of challenge of stalking your prey that just
permeates a heterosexual bar. It was this very comfortable setting with
women
being nice to women, and women celebrating being women and being
lesbians.
They didn't ask us anything. Nobody said, "What the hell are you doing
here?"
No one said, "Thank God! You're gay." No one asked us about our sexual
orientation. I'm telling you, some woman asked me out to dinner. It was
lovely. I had a great time. We were hoping for some scandal about it, and
nothing came of it. It was really frustrating for both of us.
PlanetOut: So no rumors were started?
KS: No, we weren't even mentioned in the Post or the News. It was
upsetting.
PlanetOut: Ellen didn't call you the next day?
KS: No.
PlanetOut: Are you surprised how often your husband takes his clothes off and
how
glad everybody is that he does?
KS: [Laughs.] I don't think that's something I ever think about. Whenever
people ask me about that, my pat answer is: "Well, it's not a big thing."
PlanetOut: Which is a lie in this case.
KS: Well, I may know differently but I'm not saying.
PlanetOut: Did you and Julianna become good friends during the filming?
KS: Yeah, we clicked right away. I think we would be great friends if we
lived
in the same area. Actually, now she's moving to New York so it may be
very
possible. You know, it's hard to be friends. So often you get sort of
close in
this very intense way very quickly when you're acting with someone. Then
afterwards having to get together in a different setting, you almost have
to go
backwards, and it feels strange. It's a struggle to become close with
people
that you've worked with, but I think that sometimes it can be worthwhile.
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