Blonde, innocent and from New Jersey, how could you not adore Piper Perabo?
Although she played Karen Sympathy in "The Adventures of Rocky and Bullwinkle," Perabo didn't really break into our collective celluloid hearts until she danced atop a bar in "Coyote Ugly." Now, in Lea Pool's lesbian boarding-school flick "Lost and Delirious," she will become your eternal poster girl.
Seldom has same-gender true love been so passionately portrayed. Piper plays Paulie Oster, a beautiful, tough, fencing, bird-loving young woman who falls in love with her roommate. The roomie responds in kind until anti-lesbian sentiments become too much for her.
Piper, who was born in Toms River, New Jersey, and was named after actress Piper Laurie, phoned us up to give us some insights on "Lost and Delirious."
PlanetOut: Did you take on this role to show everyone how different you could be from that bar-dancing songwriter in Coyote Ugly?
Piper Perabo: Well, usually when I finish one character, I'm looking for a role that's really different. Not necessarily to show everyone else, but in some sense
it's easier to get out of the skin of one snake if you're getting into a really different one. Then there's nothing left on you from the old snake.
PlanetOut: Did you have to do any lesbian researching for "Lost and Delirious"? Kyra Sedgwick, for example, went to lesbian bars when she played a lesbian in "What's Cooking?"
PP: I didn't do anything nearly as exciting or interesting as that. I started fencing about a month beforehand, and I sort of built Paulie's physicality based on her fencing -- where your weight placement is and how
you hold your body. Then Lea Pool, our director, chose two films that we sort of started talking about for tone. This movie "If," which is a '70s boarding-school movie, and Bergman's film "Persona." And so I began with those two films and fencing.
PlanetOut: Those are two difficult ones.
PP: For sure.
PlanetOut: Did you realize how hard it is for young lesbians to come out before you made this film? You know the suicide rate for gay teenagers is the highest of any group.
PP: I didn't know that. I can understand in some sense, having played the character, how unimaginably frustrating it is for people to tell you that you can't love who you love, because you ain't going to change it, and so they have to get out of your way. [Laughs.] There's no changing your mind about whom you love. That's part of the tough thing about being in love -- it's sort of undeniable.
PlanetOut: Did you have any trepidation about playing this character?
PP: No. Any trepidation I had didn't have to do with the fact that she was gay. The only thing that made me nervous about it was how she loved to the nth degree. Most people, at least in my experience, when they love someone sort of hold something back, somewhere hidden in themselves.
They keep some part of themselves that's just for themselves. It's sort of a protection measure so that if you are dumped, you still have some of yourself left. But Paulie gives all of herself away, and so to create a love like that and a person who would give themselves away was what I
thought was going to be difficult. I was little scared of such a challenge.
PlanetOut: Have you ever loved someone with that madness? I'm sure you've incited that type of love in a lot of people.
PP: [Laughs.] Well, I don't think I have ever loved like she has. It's pretty dangerous actually to give all of yourself away.
PlanetOut: Do you like it when your fans fantasize about you just as long as they keep their distance?
PP: I don't really think about it one way
or the other. I'm glad they like the movie and I'm glad they sort of identify with the character, and in some ways find the story honest and interesting, but ...
PlanetOut: But I think teenage girls especially are going to be moaning, "Oh, I wish I could find someone like Piper to love me!" You make such an extreme love appear so honest.
PP: Well, thanks. That's what I think we're all looking for -- an honest love wherever you can find it.
PlanetOut: Has your idea of what being a lesbian is changed because of making this film?
PP: That's a good question. I don't think so, actually. I think that you love who you love, and
there are people who you love that people aren't going to understand why, and that sort of doesn't really matter.
PlanetOut: But take my older sister, for instance. If I even mention the word lesbian to her, I see her cringe. You come from a family with an English professor in
it, so you may be more enlightened. But you can understand that that still happens in many parts of America.
PP: Sure. Well, love is confusing at all ages, but especially when you're 17. Holy Toledo! It's so confusing, and the last thing you need is others not understanding because you're trying to work it out for yourself. The last thing you want is one more chef in the kitchen trying
to tell you how you should feel and what you should do and whom you should love. ...
And so I feel that one of the important parts of the film is where Paulie and Mouse are in the dorm room, and Mouse says, "You know you're a lesbian. You're a girl in love with a girl." And Paulie says, "No, I'm Paulie in love with Torie." I think when you're that age, you're looking for answers and trying to figure out who you are, and it's important not only not to let people label you, but not to label yourself and take that easy choice. You have to continue to insist upon what you're sure of and continue to be OK with what you're not sure of and keep trying to figure it out.
I think that's an important message in the film. So hopefully it filters into those towns maybe where it's little harder to get that information.
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