
So despite Shane having hooked up with Tess’s girlfriend (such a Shane thing to do!), Tess stuck around, seeing her character develop into a key player who now appears in every single episode of season two. It’s a great thing when it happens for any actor, you know, but you just get there and then they start seeing the chemistry and the fans’ reactions, and you get to start doing a lot more - there’s just so much I love about Tess.” “And then Kate and I just really hit it off, and so I got more episodes during season one. “It was a smaller part and the role was actually a little different when I went in to audition,” Clayton said.

For classic L Word fans, Dana’s (named after the show’s most beloved dead group member) is the new Planet - the center of the action, from karaoke to cunnilingus. Originally cast as a recurring character for only a few episodes in season one, Tess spent most of her screen time helping Shane, a salon owner and hairdresser, transition to bar owner - someone seasoned in the service industry willing to show Shane the ropes of management and event production. It was thanks to Clayton’s chemistry with Moennig that her role was expanded. And while all three had active sex lives, Shane, in particular, supplied a lot of The L Word’s steamiest sex scenes as a hyperactive Casanova who appealed to women of all orientations. The new, younger cast had equal screen time but more work to do in order to endear themselves to fans. The fervor for the show rested largely on the three originals coming back for the sequel not only as stars but executive producers. Kate Moennig’s Shane is one of the originals to return for Generation Q alongside Beals’s Bette Porter and Leisha Hailey’s Alice. “I was a fan of the show, and now I’m on it, and I’m opposite Kate,” Clayton said giddily, like she’s still pinching herself.
#The l word generation q movie
She’s video-chatting with me from a Serbian hotel room between shoots of a top-secret movie project and tells me she watched all six seasons of the original L Word at least twice before being cast on the show. “We got to talk about what we were comfortable with and what we weren’t comfortable with, and I was like, ‘You can do whatever you want to me!’” Clayton said, and the way she laughs, I trust she’s quoting herself verbatim.Ĭlayton is dolled up and chic in a top of thick sheer stripes - white, pink, and purple - with tousled blonde hair and trademark Delevingne brows. “Like, trust me, if sexuality was a choice, I would not choose men,” she said with a laugh.Ĭlayton, a fan of the initial L Word, insisted she was up for anything. And Clayton, who is indeed too hot to be hetero, finds the messages sweet. This is not exactly a new concept, as mostly straight women have played the queer women roles on television (such as most of the original L Word cast, including Jennifer Beals). The original poster apologized for putting everyone through “so much distress in the community.” “She’s too hot to be straight!” commiserated another. “Did it hurt? Jamie Clayton saying the words ‘I’m straight’?” bemoaned one fan. “But, I think what you’re asking is who I sleep with, right? If so, the answer is no, I’m straight.” “Of course I do!” Clayton responded to a recent tweet. It’s no surprise, then, that viewers might project some specific fantasies upon Clayton and ask, quite candidly via Twitter, if Clayton likes women. On a show of hot messes, Tess is just plain hot.
#The l word generation q series
In a soaptastic series where most of the characters lead dramatic, self-involved lives, Tess stands out as grounded and unselfish, thanks in part to Clayton’s cool delivery. A leggy blonde jane-of-all-trades who doesn’t need a drink to have a good time, Tess is a sizzling scene-stealer with sex appeal and a sense of humor who, in her spare time, deals cards at secret stud-poker parties hosted by a Lena Waithe–esque character played by Lena Waithe. Though not a series regular, Tess has become a new fan favorite.


Like most of the show’s stunt casting, the iconic actress’s appearance was kept under wraps, with Arquette reprising her role from the original series, a bored, rich “straight” woman named Cherie Jaffe whose love affair with androgynous heartbreaker Shane (Kate Moennig) ended so badly, the latter shed actual tears for the first time in her fuckboy existence.īut ten years later, when Cherie popped in the L Word’s reboot Generation Q, it wasn’t Shane she was going down on in the bar’s back room - it was Tess, the hottest new member of the new generation played by Jamie Clayton.

Just a few weeks ago, L Word fans at watch parties lost their minds seeing Rosanna Arquette make a surprise midseason cameo at Shane’s bar.
