The Real L Word Creator Ilene Chaiken on Showtime's Gentrification and Filming Real Love Scenes

After chronicling the lives of LA lesbians in both of the L Word shows, I wonder, how are you treated within LA's lesbian community?

I don't know. [Laughs] I don't really think of it in that way. I do what I do, and I'm a television writer and producer. I tell stories, some people really like what I do, and some like it less. I don't feel like my life is determined by how I'm treated within the lesbian community for having done The L Word. I have my friends and family, and for the most part, they like what I do.

We both know that since there are so few representations of gays and lesbians on TV, the LGBT community really seizes on what it gets, and they can have some very vocal opinions about what you produce. Is that limiting to you, or do you try not to engage with it?

I do engage with it, and I think it's important to engage with it. Firstly, it's important to be aware of it, and at this moment of time in the culture and media, it's important to be responsive to it. That's a delicate balance, but it's not just for me as a gay person telling gay stories -- I happened to be at a conference this weekend and the producers of Lost were talking about their digital interactions with their fanbase, and a lot of the issues were the same. Tons and tons of people write in and tell you what they think about the stories you're telling, and how they wish you would tell this story or that story. You can't please everyone, and on the one hand, they want to be completely swept up in the stories you tell, and on the other hand, they want you to listen to every little directive they give you. I think part of our job is knowing how to incorporate that.

I can see how you'd incorporate that into a fictional narrative show, but how do you incorporate those suggestions into reality TV?

At this point, it's just the conversation -- we're responding to the the response, and not just me, but the women who took part in the show are all now having that experience of listening to what's said. I get to talk to people like you about the choices I made, but it becomes more meaningful if we continue doing the show and make more iterations of it in different cities. Then I get to make good on inclusiveness and everything else.

And of course, there's another very hot property out right now about LA lesbians, The Kids Are All Right. LA lesbians are definitely having their moment.

So we need to portray the lives of lesbians elsewhere. LA lesbians have now been more overrepresented than anyone else on the face of the earth, so we need to go to Atlanta now. [Laughs] Or at least New York.

You've been at Showtime for a long time, and the channel has evolved a lot. How different does it feel?

It feels evolutionary, not different, but evolved. I've always loved working at Showtime, and some of the same folks that were there when I first started doing The L Word are still there. There are some new people; as you probably know, Bob Greenblatt defined the network for the last seven years and made it a very big, hip network, and he's now moving on and being replaced by David Nevins. There will be a subtle change to the culture there, but it always has been a place run by smart people who have a lot of respect for the collaborative process. That's why I love working at Showtime.

Still, Showtime started as a place where there were tons of gay characters, and now, aside from your show, there are very few. A friend of mine said it's a little like gays gentrifying a neighborhood and making it hip for straights to come in. Do you think that's fair at all?

I think that there's something of truth to that, but to me, it goes to this premise I put forward a lot: Gays have always created culture and we're largely culture leaders, especially in popular culture and style and entertainment. Then, the mainstream straight audience co-opts and carries on with what we create. The change that I'm looking for is for us to simply continue be present and visible in that culture that we create.

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