Let’s face it, poor old Jenny didn’t have much going for her from the start. After she broke the lovely Marina’s heart – and lied about cheating on her boyfriend, Tim – in Season One, she decided she’d become an author, and got all pretentious.

In Season Four we watched our troubled heroine wreak revenge on a literary critic by seducing her veterinarian girlfriend. Don’t get us started on the dog she adopted and had put down by the vet in question. Put simply, Schecter is no people-pleaser, and it’s precisely because of this that actress Mia Kirshner is drawn to her.

Kirshner positively laps up the challenge of playing the most hated lesbian character since Vinegar Tits on Prisoner: Cell Block H, and for that we salute her. But there’s more: when she’s not busy on the set in Vancouver, Mia is working on a book to raise awareness of misplaced peoples from the Far East, the profits from which she plans to donate to Amnesty International. When we asked her her favourite charity, in a heartbeat she told us it was Médecins Sans Frontièrs. So big up to Ms Mia: feminist, philanthropist and cover star.

Are you surprised by The L Word’s success and growth?
It’s a funny thing, the show. I guess it started out as a cult hit, and the gay female community watched it, and then over the years it’s become increasingly better-known. Suddenly I was being recognised in France because of The L Word, which had never happened before. This show seems to have a very long life.

So, you’re now a lesbian icon?
No, not Jenny. She’s not a lesbian icon. The character isn’t loved by the gay community at all, because of her duplicity and confusion.

There’s a quote that says it was your fantasy to kiss a woman on screen…
That I didn’t say, I’d never say that. Anyway, kissing a woman is the same as kissing a man when the camera’s running.
You had quite a salacious and brutal girl-on-girl scene in The Black Dahlia, which couldn’t have been easy to do.
As an actor you always have reservations about sexual content, because the last thing you want is for it to be exploitative or cheesy. We actually shot a lot more than what was shown. It was humiliating, and I began to throw up in the scene. It was awful, and very disturbing to shoot.

Were there any tears offset?
Yes and no. I would have cheated Elizabeth Short (the real-life person that character is based on) by not doing that part of it. I always wanted to push through her sadness. What woman who aspires to be an actress wants to be in pornography?

What’s your shooting schedule like on The L Word?
It takes about five months out of my year. And I have to go travelling after that. I went to Sri Lanka in 2007 for a month. Previously, I went to Mali for a month, so unfortunately that doesn’t leave a lot of time for much other work.

And how long is your contract?
Five years. Opportunities to work with film directors are few and far between, and I don’t need to work for work’s sake. I do well on the show financially, so I can wait. I think as an actress – how can I say this without sounding pretentious? – you hurt your development if you’re not going to work with people who are going to push you or make you better.
Of course, I’m definitely excited to do more films and other work… If you look at my résumé, there’s a dark period where I was doing a lot of films, but they meant nothing. I guess they were meant to be, but it didn’t make me a better actor or very happy.
When you start young in this business, unfortunately your mistakes are there always in your résumé. But it was a wonderful opportunity to learn what I didn’t want to do. There’s no point in working to work if you can afford financially not to, it’s just a dead end.
The work trailed off, I just stopped. I wanted to do more interesting material.



For how long did you stop?
Two years. The L Word, 24 and The Black Dahlia are the only things I’ve done in the last five years.

What did you live off?
The L Word. In the acting business it’s important to be smart with your money. Doing The Black Dahlia inspired me again to do more film, and do the job I was trained to do.

Were you excited at the move to LA?
I hated it. I lived in this apartment right across the street from the Four Seasons, reading scripts and going to auditions. It was horrible.

Ever have any strange auditions?
One or two. I remember one where it was a very emotional scene – my character’s mother had just died. I took it very seriously, and I thought I did a good job. I was proud of myself. Then I get this phone call from my agent, saying, ‘What was wrong with you at the audition? The director said it was too real,’ and I thought, ‘What is that? Too real?! Isn’t that what you aspire to do as an actor?’ And she said, ‘You can’t do that any more.’ I was also told, ‘Don’t talk. Nobody wants to hear if you’re smart or have something to say.’ I just thought, ‘Fuck this.’ I then began to drift back from the industry, which is why I haven’t worked that much.

So LA must have been pretty isolating.
It was so lonely. I had no friends, and I had come from this vibrant life I had in Toronto. I felt I couldn’t do it, so I went to school.

You went to the impressive McGill University, number one in Canada…
Yes, I did, and yes, it is – but it’s also very conservative.

How was your return to the US?
I tried to divide my time between Toronto and Los Angeles, and to spend as little time as possible there. I don’t like it there!

What parts were you aiming for second-time-around?
The second trip, there was Murder in the First, The Grass Harp – I learned a lot on The Grass Harp. That was with Jack Lemmon, Walter Matthau and Roddy McDowall (who I became friends with after that film).
I learned very valuable lessons watching these men who’d worked in the industry for years and had these phenomenal careers. They were always on time, extremely well prepared, and always professional and courteous. And they worked hard for their other actors. The same was true for Dustin Hoffman.
If you want a career in this business, it’s your job to be on time and to know your lines. And it’s your duty to be nice to everyone if you want to succeed.

You went to a uni every bit as good as Oxford and Cambridge – why on earth did you want to be an actress?
I always wanted to be an actress. No-one in my family does it, but it was an instinctive desire. Acting doesn’t fullfil everything for me, because ultimately you’re doing what somebody else says and you’re saying somebody else’s words.

What did you study in uni?
It was undeclared, but all the classes were in 19th-century Russian literature.

Can you speak Russian?
No – the course was in English – but I’ve spent a great deal of time there and I love the country. St Petersburg is one of the most beautiful cities in the world.

Do you spend a lot of time now in LA?
I’m not there a lot. I live in Paris now, and I’m in Vancouver for half the year.

Do you have a regular boyfriend?
You’re the first person to ask. No.

You’re a good-looking gal…
Thank you, but no, I don’t.

Ever dated an actor?
No. I think it’s probably better to date outside of the business. You can’t help who you fall in love with, but it’s not an industry conducive to stability.

Tell us about your life in Paris. Do you have a place there?
Yes, I bought a place. I’m renovating it now. It’s in the 18th arrondissement, right next to the vineyards.
I’d been dreaming about it for ten years. I always had this fantasy where I’d have this place where I could open these large double windows and overlook a park.
I found this beautiful little pied-à-terre, with a Moroccan bathroom and brass faucets… it’s very romantic.

Romantic, but you’re on your own. What a waste!
It’s not a waste. You should be comfortable whether you’re alone or with someone. You can have lovers – you don’t have to be in a long relationship.

When did you buy it?
In 2005, I went to Paris for my birthday, and I looked for a long time. I saw back-to-back-to-back places, of which this property was one.
I put an offer in immediately. It’s the first place I’ve brought – I couldn’t fathom buying in LA until I had a place in Paris.

So learning French has come in very useful, then?
It’s been very useful.

Have you been tempted to work in France too?
I’m bilingual, but I’d have to improve my French first. But my favourite actress is Isabelle Huppert. The Piano Teacher is the perfect performance to me. I aspire to be as good an actress as she is.



Do you like Jenny?
Jenny is mad, mischievous, duplicitous, complicated and maddening, and thankfully Burr Steers, Lisa Cholodenko and Tony Goldman are [treating it as if they’re] making miniature films. Jenny’s always changing – but it’s nice to do other things.

As time goes on, do you have more input into the character?
I don’t really want to. I’ve been working on a book, I Live Here, for the past five years, and it has taken a big part of my time. I co-produced it with Paul Shoebridge and Michael Simons, ex-Adbusters staffers [Adbusters is a Canadian magazine about globalisation and art].
I Live Here is published by Pantheon, and it’s about misplaced persons all over the world. I travelled extensively – to Burma, Thailand, Ingushetia (which borders Chechnya) and Mali – and I got people to write about their lives. I then got others to compile it into little anthologies, and it was then passed on to well-known comic and graphic artists, including Joe Sacco and Phoebe Gloeckner. So each place has its own graphic novel explaining the humanitarian situation there. My own writing is woven throughout. So, I guess you could say The L Word paid for the book.

It’s a great idea for a book. It’s out soon, isn’t it?
It’s for Amnesty International. Yes, it comes out soon (Ed: Oct 08). To be able to create a book from the ground up, and get a literary agent and finally a publisher, was a huge personal achievement.

Did you fund your own trips?
We didn’t have an advance. I haven’t done this book by myself. I took out a bank loan last year because two of my partners needed to leave their jobs to finish the book. The process of fundraising and explaining was humiliating and gruelling, so I was like, ‘I’m not doing this; I’ll just take out a bank loan.’

What’s your motivation for the book? It’s obviously not for monetary gain…
I love to write – and, generally, it comes from my worldview.
I’m from a family of refugees and immigrants. My father is a journalist and my sister is having her novel edited by Margaret Atwood, so it was definitely in my family.
I could have spent this money, or used it on something that [I felt] would be a better education than McGill. That’s been the most amazing part.

Where did your family come from?
My father’s family is Polish, but from the Holocaust, and my mother’s family were Bulgarian. They moved to Israel. Half of the family was lost to the Holocaust; that was another motivation for the book, because no-one in my family was able to record their history. There’s a complete lack of information about where we come from.
So, it felt very important to have these survivors write down what happened to them in their lives.

To document it?
I think so. But it wasn’t a vanity project. Many other people worked on this. There’s something disingenuous about actors – without naming names – who mention such work when they are promoting entertainment. To me, there’s something about it that cheapens the integrity of that work.
The book incorporates my journals and I helped put it together, but my partners Joe Sacco and Phoebe Gloeckner have been so instrumental in this project. Please don’t make it [come across] like ‘actress does this’.