Lez Keep It Real

I just play one on TV.

I’m always a tad bit critical when I watch a movie or a television show featuring a lesbian character played by a straight actress. It’s not as easy to do as you may think. Some actresses just can’t quite pull it off.

Take Heather Graham for instance. In the movie Gray Matters, she played a lesbian who falls in love with her brother’s girlfriend. Great concept. Believable plot even. Horrible lesbian. Sure, Heather’s easy on the eyes. But a lesbian she is not. Not even on screen. She was so awkward and out of sync with her character, I felt uncomfortable watching her.

The whole point of acting is to be something you’re not. You’re playing a role. A character. You have to make the people watching you believe you are that character. You have to become that role.

The entire time that I was watching Gray Matters, I didn’t believe for a second that Heather Graham was a lesbian.

The fact is that there are only a few straight actresses out there who can really pull off a lesbian role, so much so that I’m often left questioning their sexuality off screen.

They mesmerize. Tantalize. And somehow manage to waltz their way on to my top five.

I’ve made a little list and yes, I’ve checked it twice. I give you the best five straight actresses who played lesbian so well they made me wish (beg, really) that they weren’t just acting.

#5 Nicole Ari Parker

Movie or TV Show:
The Incredibly True Adventures of Two Girls in Love
Role: Evey
Why she was so believable: Acting as a young and popular teen falling in love with school rebel and tomboy, Randi (who is played by Lauren Holloman from the L Word believe it or not), Nicole pulls off the confusion, excitement and intensity of a lesbian teen experiencing her first sexual encounter with another woman for the first time.

#4 Laura Dern

Movie or TV Show: Ellen
Role: Susan, a lesbian who coaxes Ellen DeGeneres out of the closet.
Why she was so believable:
Laura played this role so well that people actually thought she was a lesbian in real life. In fact, she did not work for more than a year following the episode because of it. To this day, she does not regret her decision to appear on the show.

#3 Lynn Chen

Movie or TV Show: Saving Face
Role: Vivian
Why she was so believable:
This is one of my favorite lesbian-themed movies of all time. Everything in it works - the plot, the acting, the themes, the ending … everything. And Lynn Chen’s performance helped to make it work. She is gorgeous on screen and portrays such a confident and self-assured lesbian that I was really surprised to find out she was actually straight. Many lesbians strive to be as accepting and sure of themselves as Vivian (the character in the movie).

#2 Piper Perabo

Movie or TV Show: Lost & Delirious
Role: Pauline “Paulie” Oster
Why she was so believable:
Most of you know her as the bar dancing hottie from Coyote Ugly. But I got “lost” in her back when she first appeared in Lost & Delirious, a movie that explored homophobia, gender issues, forbidden love and sexual identity. Piper played a gender confused student at an all girls boarding school who falls in love with her roommate. Sounds intense, doesn’t it? In a movie like this, Piper needed to be intense. I fully believe that the movie wouldn’t have been as effective in getting its themes across with out her. Piper was so good in fact, that she was cast in another lesbian role in the comedy, Imagine Me & You.

#1 Jennifer Beals & Lauren Holloman

Movie or TV Show: The L Word
Role: Bette Porter & Tina Kennard
Why they are so believable:
The entire premise of the L Word began with Bette & Tina, the seemingly “perfect” lesbian couple who had been together for seven years. So the characters of Bette and Tina had to be believable. Enter Jennifer and Lauren. Lauren has played gay before, and quite convincingly. Only before she played a tomboy. This time around she plays a femme. Either way, she’s darn good at it. I was shocked - shocked - to find out she was straight. Jennifer disappeared for a little while before reemerging into the spotlight when the L Word premiered. She plays such an incredibly intelligent, confident and sexy lesbian that I sometimes think, how would Bette handle this, when difficult situations arise. Jennifer and Lauren are so believable that the sex scenes between the two of them make me weak in the knees. Need I say more?

jennifer beals, lynn chen, saving face, the l word, lost and delirious, piper perabo, imagine me and you, gray matters, laura dern, the ellen degeneres show, the incredibly true adventures of two girls in love, nicole parker, lauran holloman, heather graham