Caitlin Stasey: I Think Stoya is Pretty F*cking Awesome

Red Carpet Interviews from the GLAAD Awards: Tatiana Maslany, Caitlin Stasey, Sherri Saum, Teri Polo and more!

by Chloë

Saturday night I slapped on a little black romper and attended the 25th Annual GLAAD Media Awards, a star-studded ceremony filled with gay jokes from actual gay people who know how to properly tell a good gay joke. Freshly minted lesbian heartthrob Ellen Page presented the Stephen F. Kolzak Award to Laverne Cox but skipped the red carpet because she can. Before the ceremony commenced, I spent two exciting hours perched on the red carpet, interogatting celebs like Tatiana Maslany, Laverne Cox, Sherri Saum, Teri Polo, Ross Matthews, DJ Tracy Young, and Caitlin Stasey about girls who like girls.

Tatiana Maslany (Orphan Black) ambles forward elegantly, looking sleek in a black jumpsuit and subtle cat eye.  I catch her eye with my infinitely sloppier cat eye and refuse to let go until she answers all my pressing questions.

AE: Hi, I’m Chloe from AfterEllen—

Tatiana Maslany: How’s it going? We love you guys. You’re so good to us.

AE: Thank you! What can you tell me about the upcoming season of Orphan Black?

Tatiana Maslany: This season each of the clones is fractured in their own world, and we get to explore each of their specific worlds. The stakes are really quite high.

AE: What about Cosima and Delphine? Are they still on?

Tatiana Maslany: I think Cosima and Delphine have that amazing complexity to their relationship, which is total love for each other. Yet they’re also on opposite ends of the equation and sort of like Romeo and Juliet, from totally different worlds. The trust issues remain issues, and there remains tension between them, but ultimately they love each other.

AE: Does Cosima have any other female love interests? Does her eye wander at all?

Tatiana Maslany: Oooh, interesting. I think Cosima is so focused on her work and facing her mortality this season that we see more of her introverted nature.

AE: Every year we do the AfterEllen Hot 100. Who would your picks be?

Tatiana Maslany: Amy Poehler. I love her, she’s so self-deprecating and doesn’t take herself too seriously.

AE: There’s something very sexy about not taking yourself too seriously in Hollywood.

Alas, my time with Tatiana Maslany comes to a close. “Is she straight?” date Nikki asks quizzically, “She doesn’t seem straight.” Nikki is confused by what I’ve come to recognize as the “celebrity eye-frick.” Celebs are masterful at gazing warmly into any given journalists eyes and exuding comfortable intimacy. It’s one of their better qualities. A truly media savvy celeb can say, “You’re special, I like you, you should absolutely write many positive things about me” without a word. Journalists don’t mind the charming farce because celeb eye-fricks are terribly enjoyable.

 

Belle of the ball Laverne Cox pauses to talk, looking ultra-glamorous in a vibrant red gown. In person, Laverne isn’t just a glamazon, she’s a born orator; like everyone else at the party, I’m smitten. Laverne Cox has a unique gift for speaking out about the hard stuff without sounding preachy, and if she wasn’t such a gifted actress I’d suggest taking a stab at writing.

AE: How will your character, Sophia, evolve on Season 2 of Orange Is The New Black?

Laverne Cox: I can’t say too much, but there’s a moment Sophia has in Season 2. The only thing I can say about it is: vagina. Once you see it, it’ll make sense.

AE: That’s all AfterEllen needs to know. Who would you pick for the AfterEllen Hot 100 be?

Laverne Cox: I love Kerry Washington and I love Gina Torres from Suits. I live for her. Julianna Margulies is another woman I live for.

AE: Do you know Ellen Page? Are you excited for her to present you with your award?

Laverne Cox: I haven’t met Ellen Page, yet, in person. I’m so honored that she said “yes” to introducing me, and I was deeply honored when she mentioned me in her coming out speech. I’ve been a huge fan of Ellen Page for a long time, so this whole night is kind of unbelievable for me. I feel very special, and I believe that if all trans women of color got this kind of love, we could change the world.

AE: As a trans woman of color, do you feel embraced by the lesbian and gay community.

Laverne Cox: I’ve been feeling a lot of love personally. I know that sometimes my lesbian and gay brothers have had difficulty with trans folk and trans identity, but I’m feeling a lot of love. I think that whenever someone has a problem with someone else, it’s about things that we’re not comfortable with in ourselves. I know for so many gay men there’s issues because a lot of people assume that gay men want to be women. Then gay men are like, “I don’t want to be a woman,” and they feel like trans people sort of make that more difficult for them. But that’s certainly not the case, and I think it’s about everyone loving and accepting ourselves more, so we can not project our own insecurities on each other. 

Caitlin Stasey (Kenna on Reign, Claire on Please, Like Me) sashays prettily into my designated red carpet sliver. Nikki and Caitlin worked on All Cheerleaders Die together and greet each other enthusiastically. Caitlin admires Nikki’s freshly shortened lesbian hair cut.

AE: You play opposite a gay character in Please, Like Me and have played gay characters before. Is playing a gay role any different than playing a straight role?

Caitlin Stasey: Playing a gay character really isn’t anything to me. I have a fluid sexuality and feel like everyone’s on a scale. 

AE: So do you consider yourself pansexual?

Caitlin Stasey: Yeah! It’s not a big deal to me. I don’t really discern a difference between attraction for men or women. 

AE: What’s your type?

Caitlin Stasey: I love all women, but I’ve got to say Christina Hendricks. That kind of figure! There’s just so much wonderment. 

AE: So would Christina Hendricks be your pick for AfterEllen’s Hot 100?

Caitlin Stasey: Actually, I think Robin Wright Penn. She’s a classy lady. Her and Stoya. I think Stoya is pretty fucking awesome.

A glowing, massively pregnant Sherri Saum stops to talk with her onscreen The Fosters wife, Terri Polo.

AE: Who would your AfterEllen Hot 100 picks be?

Sherri Saum: I’ve always had a little thing for Angie Harmon. She’s just like the most flawless human. In fact I don’t think she’s human.

Teri Polo: Sherri Saum. Sherri’s the hottest chick around.

Freshly appointed GLAAD CEO and President Sarah Kate Ellis stops by looking powerful in pink and accompanied by her wife, Kristen Henderson of Antigone Rising.

AE: You took over glad in January 2014. What are your top goals for GLAAD in the next year?

Sarah Kate Ellis: For me, it’s about educating, advocating, and protecting, so we’ve built a strategy around that. As we look into 2014, what we’re looking at is a deeper sports initiative. We just partnered with You Can Play, and we’re going to be working with all the major leagues across the board on that. I think that our transgender work really needs to be amped up, and we’ve been amping it up, and I think having Laverne honored tonight is an indication of that.

AE: As a gay women, I’ve noticed gay men seem to have more of a voice and higher visibility than gay women. How do we even out male and female voices in the gay community?

Sarah Kate Ellis: Women have to show up. I think that’s a really big part. I think we get distracted in our lives, and forget that we’re needed in the fight, because it seems like other people might be handling that. I think you need to show up for things, and you need to voice your opinion. People want to hear women’s opinions, and women in boardrooms, women in businesses across America are instrumental in the future.

AE: Every year we have AfterEllen’s Hot 100. Who would your pick be? 

Ellis turns to ask her wife’s opinion and her wife is like “Youuuu” and we all say “awww.” This particular exchange will be repeated several times throughout the night with various lesbians.

Sarah Kate Ellis: I’d say Ellen Page. She’s a hot thing right now.

Kristen Henderson: I’m all about Kerry Washington right now. Or maybe who I really like is Olivia Pope. I like Kerry, but I love Olivia Pope.

While Ellis moves on to speak with another outlet, Kristen Henderson and I talk about what’s new for Antigone Rising.

Kristen Henderson: We just released a new EP a couple weeks ago called Whiskey and Wine, and we’re actually in the planning phases of starting our own music festival. That’s in the really early phases, but we’re hoping to pull it off by the end of this year.

AE: What’s your vision for the music festival? How will it be different from other festivals?

Kristen Henderson: Instead of every other music festival where they have maybe one or two slots for female bands, we’re thinking we’ve got a couple slots for our guy friends but it’s largely a women’s music festival. It’s going to be near our home on Long Island.

DJ Tracy Young, a lesbian artist who is spinning at the GLAAD Awards After Party, saunters through next. Young has remixed songs for pop superstars like Madonna, Pink, Britney Spears, and Cher, spun for The Emmys and Sundance, and even DJ’d at Madonna and Guy Ritchie’s wedding. I recognized her as the lesbian who briefly flipped the delightfully tacky yet absurd Kim Zolciak of Real Housewives ATL.

AE: Every year we do the AfterEllen Hot 100. Who would your picks be?

Tracy Young: You could go with the obvious like Angelina Jolie but I think Ellen Page is pretty hot. Charlize Theron is pretty hot. Madonna is hot. Cher is hot. I think all women are hot, but my most recent celebrity crush is Ellen Page.

AE: You’re a bit notorious for dating a straight woman. Do you consider yourself a flipper?

Tracy Young: Yeah I tend to do that. I don’t look at a girl and say “damn she’s hot”—although obviously that is a factor—but I need somewhat a connection. I can be considered a flipper because I like to have good conversation and a bottle of wine and things kind of happen from there. But I like a mental connection. I like smart, intelligent, thought-provoking people.

AE: Do you have any projects coming up?

Tracy Young: I’m working on a show that’s in development about what I do in my life: remixing and original productions. Then I’m always in the studio remixing, and just finished Kylie Minogue, Katy Perry, and Cher ‘cause I’m dropping names. I keep busy.

GLAAD Awards Host and E! resident gay funny man Ross Matthews of Chelsea Lately and Hello Ross skips through.

AE: Who are your favorite lesbian comedians?

Ross Matthews: Rosie O’Donnell, who I just love love love. Fortune Feimster is of course a great friend of mine… The LGBT comics sort of stick together. We have each other’s back.

AE: Are you planning to have a lot of LGBT comics on your new show, Hello Ross?

Ross Matthews: Absolutely! So far we’ve had Lance Bass, Shangela, Alec Mapa, and we’re planning much more. In fact we had a straight comic on this week and I even said on air “it’s so weird having a straight guy here.”

AE: Right? It’s like what do you talk about, sports?

Ross Matthews: He did talk about sports!

AE: Of course he did. Moving on, every year we do our AfterEllen Hot 100. Who would your picks be?

Ross Matthews: Well a hot lady to me is like The Barefoot Contessa. She reminds me of my mom and she cooks. Nothing gets me going like that!

Alex Newell, an out African American actor who played transgender character “Unique” on Glee,  stops by looking fly. Alex’s makeup is way better than mine.

AE: Who would your AfterEllen Hot 100 picks be?

Alex Newell: I am the biggest Sofia Vergara fan, tied with Beyonce.

AE: Playing a transgender character on Glee was groundbreaking. What was the feedback like?

Alex Newell: Positive, always positive. I don’t listen to any sort of backlash because I’m doing something that actual people go through. I’m representing something that actual people have problems with. If you have a problem with that, that’s your problem.

AE: Have you had a lot of younger fans reach out?

Alex Newell: Always! It’s amazing how many people under the age of 18, even under the age of 14, who are so happy to see something so positive that reminds them of themselves.

Check out the full list of Outfest Media Award winners here, and be sure to check out the speeches by Ellen Page, Laverne Cox, Lupita Nyong’o, Naomi Campbell, and The Fosters producer Jennifer Lopez. What do you think of the awards? Tweet us @afterellen and @howtrite.