Laura Harring on the Mulholland Drive Follow-Up: 'Please Don't Get Me in Trouble!'

You might have some new fans at your SAG conversation, thanks to your Gossip Girl arc.

You know, it's been wonderful. Not only shooting Gossip Girl with these talented young actors, but also the aftermath, with me running around New York City and all these people coming up and telling me how much they loved the show and how juicy the character was and how they couldn't believe that I was such a naughty mom. It was great. People want to know if I really am the mom, and what's up with "Evelyn" and "Elizabeth," because I had two names. It left a big mystery open.

What did they tell you about that character going in?

They really didn't tell me much. I remember that Stephanie Savage, who's the executive producer who writes all the shorelines, she and her team hadn't quite decided where she was going to go with the character. It was either going to go in one direction -- and she gave me a synopsis -- or another direction. Everyone on set was asking me [what would happen], and I didn't want to divulge very much. What I ended up seeing is that the two different storylines that they had been planning actually came together. They made a very interesting mix, a very complex dynamic and that was fun to play.

You must have been really excited to get those scripts every week, since you were never quite sure where your character was going.

Absolutely! I was anxious. Actually, it was a little bit of an adrenaline rush. I would get it and I would read it, and then there would be a revised copy, and my heart was always pounding over whether they had changed something or changed their mind or whatever. They did a couple times, but always for the better. I just love the way they rounded it out at the end. They played both sides of Elizabeth/Evelyn.

Can it be frustrating that so much of acting has to do with how, say, the director or editors or writers decide to shape your performance?

Definitely, there's a lot to do with how they edit it and how the director wants to play it. Of course, you have your spices and elements that you add to it, but I was playing a very powerful character after Gossip Girl [on Law and Order: Criminal Intent], and they didn't want to show the vulnerability of the character at all. Like, not a bit. Even though all people have vulnerabilities, I was only able to show it in a split second, in a smile and a twinkle of the eye. For the most part, they wanted to keep this character very dark. It's your job as an actor to fulfill the vision of the director and the writers.

Gossip Girl is about New York royalty, but you're from actual royalty. You were married to Count Carl-Eduard von Bismarck-Schönhausen, and you still retain the title of Countess. Did that background give you any insight into the Gossip Girl environment of wealth and power and great clothes?

[Laughs] Well, I was married when I was very young. I was in my early twenties. At that time, yes, I was always in designer dresses and always traveling. I lived in a castle and Bel Air and everything. Then, after I divorced -- amicably -- I just decided to focus on my art. I started doing theater, went to London, the Academy of Performing Arts, so I'm a little disconnected from that world. I dabble sometimes, when I go to the big, big charity events, and it's fun, but I'm just happiest when I create. I feel like that's what fulfills my soul, whether I'm creating poetry or I'm dancing tango or
acting or doing Commedia dell'arte. That's what fulfills me, and that's what I identify with most.

[Lead Photo Credit: Stephen Lovekin/Getty Images]

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