Lauren Lee Smith (7/04 Lie with Me)
Excerpt from Playback Online 7/19/04: Lauren Lee Smith | Pictures on Getty Images | Lie with Me
Stone finds beauty on Lie with Me
July 19, 2004 by Marise Strauss
Based on a sexually explicit novel by Tamara Faith Berger (Virgo’s fiancee), Lie with Me follows the adventures in love and sex of two alluring young people as seen through the eyes of Leila, played by Vancouver’s Lauren Lee Smith (The ‘L’ Word).
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The DOP says he did a variety of tests with lead actor Smith. ‘We picked colors that suited the movie and suited her, and came up with a cosmetic peach as well as a cyan and cyan-rose combination,’ Stone recalls.
Playback
Excerpt from Playback Magazine's 10 to Watch 7/4/05: Lauren Lee Smith
Lauren Lee Smith
Age: 25
Residence: Vancouver, Los Angeles
Agency: Kirk Talent Agencies
Buzz: Stars in the forthcoming sexually charged feature Lie with Me
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In the upcoming feature Lie with Me, Smith teams with director Clement Virgo in realizing a script written by Tamara Berger and Virgo that is sexually charged and raw. But she refutes rumors that the movie uses nudity gratuitously. "It's controversial, but it's also something everyone will understand," she notes. "It's about a woman who is not so comfortable with the emotional side of relationships, but is so good with the physical, sexual side. Taking the role wasn't about the 'naked chick' quality - it's about showing strong, sexual women."
© Playback
Excerpt from Variety 8/2/05: Lauren Lee Smith
Toronto on pins, ‘Needles’: Canuck film fest lines up slate
Tamsen Tillson August 2, 2005 | 10:00PM PT
The Visions program promises to be somewhat hot under the collar with the world premiere of Virgo’s latest, “Lie With Me,” based on the sexually explicit novel of the same title by his wife, Tamara Faith Berger, and starring Lauren Lee Smith.
© Variety
Excerpt from Now Toronto 9/1/05: Lauren Lee Smith
Sexing Canadian film: Clement Virgo bares all to reveal how he teamed up with his partner, Tamara Faith Berger, to adapt her erotic novel, lie with me
By WENDY BANKS
We're talking about Lie With Me, his nudity-filled film that premieres at the Toronto International Film Festival next week.
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After auditioning about 150 actresses in Toronto and L.A., Virgo received an audition tape from Lauren Lee Smith. "I'd worked with Lauren on The L Word and I liked her energy, but I didn't even think of her as the character," he says.
People were passing the book around on the set of the show, which was how she found out about it. "She sent me a tape, saying, 'I think I'm the character.' I watched it first, and then Tamara came home and I said, 'Look at this tape,' and she said, 'Yeah, this is the girl.'
"And once we found her, suddenly she was the character. We shaped the character around her, around her energy and her voice. It was a different thing from the book, because now she's embodied - she kind of makes it her own, which is exciting to see."
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(Saturday, September 10, 9:30 pm, Varsity 8; Monday, September 12, 11:30 am Paramount 2)
© Now Toronto
Excerpt from Lauren Lee Smith: North Shore News 9/25/05
Erotic Lie With Me eyes high art as an ideal
John Goodman
Lauren Lee Smith was absolutely terrified the first time she read through the script for Lie With Me. Clement Virgo's film presented an excellent opportunity for the young Vancouver actress. It was also a big gamble - for much of the time her character, Leila, is naked on screen. "I was a little bit concerned at first," admits Smith, 24. "I had never done any nudity before let alone a big love scene. Ultimately I think to be a really good actor you have to let all of your guards down and be raw and naked whether it's physically, emotionally, mentally or whatever. I hadn't had the opportunity to do that yet so I just knew that I had to get over my fears and insecurities."
Being a huge fan of the book the film is based on didn't hurt either. Virgo adapted Lie With Me from the novel of the same name written by his wife, Tamara Faith Berger. The story, saturated in sexual energy and straddling a blurred line between art and pornography, could only have been produced by someone intimately involved with the sex industry. Berger served several years in the trenches writing raunch for publications such as Sticky Buns, Buttime Stories and Bump & Grind. The woman knows her stuff.
Lie With Me rejects typical pornographic production techniques simply by narrating everything from a woman's point of view. Berger, who once wrote an academic paper called The Moral Pornographer, is savvy enough not to fall into the cliches of genre writing and raises her game to the level of Georges Bataille and other grandmasters of sin and skin esthetics. On purely literary terms the book could not be ignored and tapped an audience eager for something different. "I was working in Toronto and a girlfriend passed along the book to me," says Smith. "She had received it from her girlfriend and we all just adored the book. A couple of years later I was in Los Angeles and my agent sent me the script and I was like 'Oh my God, this is the book.' Not only that but Clement is directing it and I know him."
Smith appears regularly on "The L Word" series, produced locally for Showtime, and worked on one episode with Virgo as director. However when she made her audition tape for Lie With Me she had no idea what the outcome would be. The production team had been searching for their central character Leila for some time before Smith's tape arrived. Once Virgo saw the audition he called off the search and approached Smith to play opposite another rising young star, Eric Balfour, known for his work on "24," "Six Feet Under" and T"he O.C." From the outset Smith had complete confidence in Virgo as a director. "He's very clear in what he wants and he's good at giving direction to actors. I put my trust in him 100 per cent which I kind of had to do."
To prepare for her role Virgo recommended Smith study several films that could help shape her conceptual approach to Lie With Me. She got copies of Hedy Lamarr in Extase, Samantha Morton in Morvern Callar, Maria Schneider in Last Tango in Paris and several films starring Isabelle Huppert. "She's now my idol," says Smith. "After I saw Isabelle Huppert in The Piano Teacher I was hooked. To me she's one of the most beautifully striking women I've ever seen. She's so interesting to watch and she can do so much without doing a lot."
Note that all of the films Smith studied were made in Europe. Historically North American culture has had a thing about the representation of sexuality and gone to great lengths to avoid the subject all together. Like it or not Lie With Me aims to change that. Perhaps because of its aggressive nature the film is much lighter in tone than the novel it is based on. Virgo packages the story as a modern take on romance with sunny Toronto acting as a backdrop. The film's effervescence is in stark contrast to another film Virgo references in his work - In the Mood For Love - Wong Kar-Wai's brilliant tone poem to Hong Kong. Lie With Me represents another side of eros shot in Super 16 on the streets of Toronto in June 2004. "I think Clement did an amazing job of showcasing Toronto," says Smith. "I've certainly never seen Toronto in such a beautiful, sexy way."
Berger was around the set for the first week of the month-long shoot, according to Smith, but for the most part she stayed in the background and let Virgo realize his vision of her material. "We had about a week of rehearsals beforehand," says Smith. "But other than that there was nothing specific as far as preparation goes. I went to Toronto about a month before we started shooting and spent a month completely alone wandering around Toronto and getting a feel for the city. That's what I did to prepare - I shut everyone out for a month."
The film relies heavily on the chemistry between the two lead actors to succeed as a love story. "Once I'd read with Eric I knew it was going to be a breeze," says Smith. "It would have been an entirely different film without him. We really had to put our trust in each other and become very close, very quickly. He made that really easy and I felt really safe with him. About a week before shooting during the rehearsals Clement and Eric and I made a pact that we would make this as honest and real as possible within our boundaries and I think we did."
Virgo wanted a spontaneity between the actors even though their actions were heavily choreographed. For the most part they stuck to the script but there was also room for improvisation within the set scenes, says Smith. "We would block everything out precisely to the dot and then make sure everyone was comfortable with what we were going to do. From there it was really letting us react (to the situation) and we had freedom within that."
Shooting in Super 16 gave Virgo the flexibility to capture the interaction with a cin‚ma v‚rit‚ feel. There is nothing objective in his approach to the story and we are meant to experience it through the eyes of Leila. The film actually opens with the camera trained on one of her eyes and then pans out. "Pretty much all of the scenes are these odd close ups to keep the whole thing in her space, in her mind - seeing the world through her eyes."
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Lie With Me received its world premiere at the Toronto International Film Festival in September. "I was really nervous," says Smith. "I hadn't seen the film yet and I definitely thought that I would have to show up with my dukes up and be ready to defend myself. But women came up to me afterwards to say they wish this story had been told before. Women really identify with the character. It's not for the squeamish but for the most part we've been getting a really amazing reaction from people."
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As Lie With Me gets set to open nationwide today Smith looks back on the film as a great experience. "It was a really quick shoot and the most crazy, wonderful time that I've ever had. Eric and Clement were amazing - we were so close during that time. We were all in our own little bubble. I remember a couple of days after shooting I slept for about two days and then when I finally woke up I was like, 'Oh my God, what just happened? Where did those four weeks go? Who Am I?' "
© North Shore News
Excerpt from The Vancouver Sun 10/1/05: Lauren Lee Smith
The Naked Truth: In Lie with Me, Lauren Lee Smith plays a promiscuous, emotionally inaccessible woman. The role went far beyond nudity, she says
Katherine Monk, Saturday, October 01, 2005
The ambient drone of not-yet-drunken bar patrons suddenly stumbles to a hush. Despite the stare of bleary eyes, almost everyone is focused on the tall, young, blond amazon sitting down at the table. Not only is she fresh blood in an otherwise anemic milieu, but Lauren Lee Smith is talking about sex -- lots of sex, different kinds of sex and sex with different kinds of people. All over the bar, men are fighting back spit-takes with each new detail. If they only knew Smith was talking about the character she plays in Clement Virgo's new film, Lie With Me, and not her real life, they might be a little less interested.
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Smith's more recent incarnation is as Leila, a young, promiscuous and emotionally inaccessible woman at the heart of Virgo's latest oeuvre. Leila does a lot, and most of it is in bed. "I'm naked for about half the movie," says Smith. "That wasn't a huge deal for me. I signed a nudity clause for "L Word," but they have yet to use it. In this movie, it went so far beyond nudity and that's why I wanted to do it.
"Let's face it, at some point in any actor's career, you have to get naked -- whether physically, emotionally or mentally. This movie offered me the chance to do all three at once."
As keen as she was to play the inaccessible party girl, Smith says she had to travel a long way to find the truth about her character. "I'm not at all like Leila. She was completely foreign to me as a character, which is why I wanted to play her so badly -- so I could go on that emotional voyage."
Smith says even though Leila is a sex kitten with a deep fear of commitment and caring, she felt empowered by the act of telling her story. "I think the problem is sex and female sexuality. We're still not used to having control over our own sexual appetite, our own needs. People are uncomfortable talking about sex in general. I mean, more parents are more comfortable showing their kids brutal violence like the stuff in "Sin City" than they are talking about, or showing sex. I think that's totally wrong."
"People find nudity uncomfortable, but maybe it's intimacy that's scary because we rarely see any representation of sex where it's not just people going through the motions -- but they are really there -- emotionally. That's the part that's really hard to get on screen, but Clement did such a great job allowing us to find that place."
In the movie, Smith hooks up with nice-guy and super stud, Eric Balfour. "First, let me say Eric is a pretty hot guy, so none of this was really unpleasant. But from a technical perspective, the sex scenes were all rehearsed so we could get the blocking down. Eric and I would discuss each scene and what we were going to do so we could be comfortable together and build a sense of intimacy that would come through."
The most important ingredient on set was safety. "Between Eric and Clement, I was in the safest environment I could imagine."
Smith says she's looking forward to what the future holds. She's been invited to L.A. for agent visits and auditions in the wake of Lie With Me's good buzz premiere at the Toronto International Film Festival, but for now, she's happy just being Lauren Lee Smith.
© Vancouver Sun
Excerpt from Variety 10/12/05: Lauren Lee Smith
Review: ‘Lie with Me’
October 12, 2005 | 05:34PM PT
Just to make sure auds have got the point about this couple’s emotional cluelessness, the script by Tamara Faith Berger, author of the novel the pic is based on, includes a thick layer of voiceover musings from Leila, asking such questions as “how do you have sex with someone you’re in love with?” Smith delivers such lines in a breathy contralto and is, like Balfour, sturdy and fearless.
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Just the right note of boho slutty is struck by Antoinette Messam’s costumes for Leila, but then again Smith could wear a garbage bag and look glamorous.
© Variety
Excerpt from Macleans.ca 11/18/05: Lauren Lee Smith
Newsmakers of the Week: IF SEX SELLS, LIE WITH ME SHOULD MAKE A FORTUNE
LAUREN LEE SMITH didn't need much of a wardrobe for her film debut, Lie With Me(in theatres Nov. 18). Her character Leila spends a lot of the movie naked and having remarkably realistic-looking big-screen sex -- often with David, played by Eric Balfour. "I don't plan on playing a girl addicted to sex again anytime soon," says Smith, 25, when asked if she's worried about being typecast. "That could sort of screw me."
Director Clement Virgo -- who adapted the film from the erotic novel written by his wife, Tamara Faith Berger -- straddles the fine line between art and porn. Smith says having a small crew on set made the intensely intimate moments easier: only Smith, Balfour, Virgo and a camera- and soundman were there when the most explicit scenes were shot. "The camera guy was literally in bed with us," says Smith. "It was sort of like a threesome."
© Macleans.ca
Excerpt from Eye Weekly 11/24/05: Lauren Lee Smith
LIE WITH ME * * *
JASON ANDERSON
Starring Lauren Lee Smith, Eric Balfour. Written by Clement Virgo, Tamara Faith Berger from Berger's novel. Directed by Clement Virgo. (R) 93 min. Opens Nov 25. Leila (Lauren Lee Smith) does her damnedest to hump her way to transcendence in Clement Virgo's headily sensuous depiction of T-dot hipster couplings. For a movie to include so much friction is hardly outré after 9 Songs and Anatomy of Hell, but Lie With Me breaks with the toxic nature of so much art-house smut by showing that Leila's road to wisdom is at least partially paved with good times. Virgo's film is at its best when it conveys her pleasure at both captivating men such as sensitive hunk David (Eric Balfour) and taking what she wants.
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Smith and Balfour's courage is equally commendable. And simply seeing a female character who doesn't get punished for flaunting sexual power is almost more thrilling than any scenes of horizontal action. Go see it with someone you want to undress.
© Eye Weekly
Excerpt from CBC.ca 11/25/05: Lauren Lee Smith
Skin Deep: Clement Virgo’s sexy Lie With Me is an emotional tease
By Andre Mayer November 25, 2005
While Balfour (best known as Claire’s nogoodnik boyfriend on Six Feet Under) displays a disarming vulnerability, it’s Smith who owns the film. The young actor, whose most high-profile work up until now was on the cult sci-fi series Mutant X, really gives herself over to this role. It’s not an easy one. Not only does she spend most of the film naked or in the process of getting undressed, but her character is utterly self-seeking. Leila is a sex addict who tries to keep physical desire separate from emotion. She falls for David, then retreats when he proves too complex and needy. She goes to clubs alone, submitting herself to the lusty depredations of strange men. The ensuing sex is occasionally satisfying, but more often undignified, if not utterly repulsive. As a sexual prowler, Smith’s performance is arresting; as a human being, it comes up short. When not engaged in rumpy-pumpy, Leila seems drugged, incapable of producing a full sentence or even standing up straight. The French have a way of making this sort of sexual ennui seem quirky; I’m reminded of the novels of Anaïs Nin or some of Catherine Deneuve’s more deadpan performances. That may have been the intent here, but Smith’s performance shows no evidence of humour or whimsy. This is where the film loses its credibility. While the sex is so doggedly realistic - I daresay real - everything that brackets it feels unnatural.
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Lie With Me opens Nov. 25 in Toronto and Vancouver.
© CBC
Lauren Lee Smith: Canoe Jam!Movies 11/25/05
Lee Smith attracted to truth in sex
By BRUCE KIRKLAND -- Toronto Sun
In her film debut, Lie With Me, Vancouver actress Lauren Lee Smith strips naked, and engages in the depiction of explicit sex acts. In one scene of Toronto sex drama, the 25-year-old Smith grabs Eric Balfour's erect penis, and in another scene, his face disappears between her thighs. "Let's talk about sex," Smith, 25, says in a recent interview during the Toronto film festival, where the no-holds-barred film made its premiere. "I had never had any desire to do a film where I take my clothes off and do explicit sex scenes," she tells the Sun. "In fact, I thought that that would never happen. There was no chance in hell."
Indeed, when her agent suggested the five-year TV veteran audition for the female lead, Smith thought her "insane." Then Smith read the Lie With Me script, co-written by Clement Virgo and Tamara Berger and based on Berger's novella. Smith had read and admired the book a year earlier, pleased with its raw, frank exploration of lust and love. "Once I read the script, it rang so truthful for me and, after speaking to Clement and Tamara and Eric and Damon (D'Oliveira, the producer), I heard their vision for the film and how they did want to make it very truthful and not just be your typical Hollywood love scene.
"So it was the opportunity to tell this beautiful story in a really truthful way, you know. Hopefully, people accept it. But I'm sure, for some people, it's not their cup of tea ..."
Smith is astounded that audiences, and censors, are comfortable with movie violence but not with sex. "It's a very odd thing to me that violence is completely okay, and children go see Sin City, but you get a film like Lie With Me or Y Tu Mama Tambien and people freak out."
Some do freak when she grabs Balfour's penis in a medium-close shot that leaves nothing to the imagination. That scene is part of "the nitty gritty" of acting in this film, Smith says. "It's exhilarating. It's as scary as hell. It's very odd. It's very bizarre. Clement and Eric and I had several rehearsals and meetings where we sat down and came to the conclusion that we were going to dive into this and make it truthful and we were not going to lie -- within the boundaries that we had set up between the three of us."
She will not divulge those rules. "I can't because we made a pact. But the three of us figured out what we were comfortable with and then it was just the three of us going for it.
"Clement was very specific with the blocking (the choreography of each scene) but, after that, we were pretty free to go for it. And go for it we did!"
© Canoe Jam!TV
Excerpt from This Magazine's Film Club 11/25/05: Lauren Lee Smith
2. Opening: LIE WITH ME - Friday, November 25th
Vancouver - The Granville Toronto - Canada Square & The Carlton
http://www.liewithme.com
LIE WITH ME: Clement Virgo & Lauren Lee Smith Q&A
A Q&A about the film LIE WITH ME with director CLEMENT VIRGO and star LAUREN LEE SMITH. Both will answer YOUR questions throughout the day on Wednesday, November 30th. (Forum opens for questions Nov 29th, 5pm PST/8pm EST.) To post questions that will be answered online, guests must post their questions here: http://forum.firstweekendclub.ca/.
© This Magazine's Film Club
The Canadian Film Community 11/30/05 *Property of The Canadian Film Company
Lie With Me: Online Q&A with Actor Lauren Lee Smith and Director Clement Virgo
Q: Lauren, Congrats on what was on of the bravest, most honest, naked performances I've ever seen... Obviously, the chemistry between you and Eric was integral to making the film work. You certainly APPEARED to have chemistry... how much of that was genuine and how much was "performance"? What was your first meeting with him like?
A: first off thanks so much! when i first found out i was going to be reading with Eric i knew that it was pretty much gonna come down to the chemistry between us, and that is something that you don't really have to much control over, its pretty hard to fake. I think you can embellish it, as long as there is something there to begin with. Luckily with us, (well me anyway) i felt it right away. I think a big part of it too was Eric immediately put me at ease and made me feel very safe with him. Right off the bat we sat down, talked about the scenes we were doing, and how we could make them as honest and real as possible, and at the same time every step of the way making sure we were both comfortable with everything. So i guess to answer the question i would have to say that the chemistry was pretty damn genuine!!
Q: How do projects find (both of) you? Through agents? workshops? Chance meetings?
Lauren: What would be your dream project?
A: mostly through my agent and manager. there isnt really just ONE role i could pick, i would just like to never have to play the same character over, actually i would love to do a period piece, like cate blanchet in "elizabeth"....o.k i guess i can pick one!!
© The Canadian Film Community
Excerpt from Hour Community 12/15/05: Lauren Lee Smith
Lie With Me: Summer lovin’
by Dave Jaffer - December 15, 2005
Although incomplete, Virgo’s film is challenging and seductive, with Smith and Balfour playing the troubled couple convincingly enough to show how the rawness of their interactions is mitigated, albeit slightly, by the unfinished nature of their 20-something personalities.
© Hour Community
Excerpt from Victoria Film Festival 1/28/06: Lauren Lee Smith
Lie With Me
Saturday • Jan 28 • Capitol 6 • 4:15PM
Friday • Feb 3 • Capitol 6 • 6:45PM
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As a sexual prowler, Smith’s performance is arresting. Rarely has movie sex looked this good. The cinematography is marvelously gauzy and is in lock step with the films languorous tones. As her relationship with David grows shaky and she’s confronted with her own parents crumbling marriage, Leila begins to see her carefully constructed existence crumble, raising the question: is it her independence she prizes or is she genuinely afraid of her own emotions?
© Victoria Film Festival
Excerpt from Stylus Magazine 5/8/06: Lauren Lee Smith
Movie Review Lie with Me
Plaudits to Lauren Lee Smith and Eric Balfour for turning in bravely generous performances, considering that they spent a not-inconsiderable amount of time au naturel.
© Stylus Magazine
Excerpt from Bergen International Film Festival 10/06: Lauren Lee Smith
Bergen International Film Festival
October 18th-25th, 2006 Lie with Me Canada, 2006 Nordic premiere
Programs Cinema Extraordinaire At the Edge of Sexuality
Viewings: Thursday 19. of October at 21:00 in MB3 Tuesday 24. of October at 21:15 in MB1
See trailer www.liewithme.com
© BIFF
Actra Toronto Winter 2006: Lauren Lee Smith
The Skinny on Skin: the naked truth on sex scenes.
DH: So when you have to do a sexual scene with nudity, how do you prepare for it?
LL: Really the only thing that I did was build trust with Clement and Eric. And then rehearsing it over and over and over; getting the blocking down and making sure that we were comfortable within our boundaries. So that, when it comes to the day and the moment, you just sort of let it go and conquer your fears. Let all your insecurities and anxieties go away. I think that can only happen if you trust the person you’re working with.
DH: Do you find yourself thinking of technical things and the choreography, when you’re in the midst of it?
LL: Not so much. We spent about a week really going through the blocking so it was ingrained in our heads. When it came down to it, it was like, “Okay, well we know that. It’s the emotional part of it now.”
DH: Was this your first experience doing nudity on film?
LL: Yes, absolutely it was.
DH: So describe your feeling about that.
LL: Most of my anxieties were about a month before the film started. I thought that I would never do nudity. And then I finally let it go. About a month before filming I thought, “I’ve committed to do this, I really want to do this. It scares the shit out of me.” As an actor, you kind of have to get naked, not necessarily physically, but mentally and emotionally. Once I came to peace with that it was fine. And it was actually, the very first day, sort of freeing.
DH: Describe some of the sex scenes in the film that you had to do.
LL: In the film there’s not a whole lot of dialogue. The sex scenes had to convince the audience of what Leila and David were going through, in their heads and emotionally. So each sex scene was treated like it was a dialogue driven scene without the dialogue. It was very intense. It’s very easy to go through the motions of having sex, but it’s a lot harder to portray making love emotionally to someone on screen.
DH: What would be your advice to a young actress who has to do a sex scene in a film? What would you tell her?
LL: Don’t do it - unless you absolutely know that you can, that you want to, and that you completely trust the people that you’re working with. And then just let it go. Don’t think about your guts or your stomach, or whatever you don’t like about your body, just get over all the insecurities.
© Actra Toronto
Excerpt from Vancouver Sun 6/21/07: Lauren Lee Smith
Sexy roles just come her way: B.C.-born Lauren Lee Smith plays seductive TV 'weather girl' in latest movie
Michael D. Reid, Published: Thursday, June 21, 2007
It's not everyday a middle-aged movie writer gets to talk about steamy sex with a hottie half his age -- so a recent coffee date with Lauren Lee Smith went down as one for the books. Smith, 26, had sex on the brain as she sipped tea in a Victoria cafe on a breezy, sunny afternoon. It was only because she was reminiscing about Lie With Me (2005). And who could forget how Toronto filmmaker Clement Virgo's raw tale of sexual obsession aroused controversy because of its full-frontal nudity and graphic sex? Lauren Lee Smith is in Victoria shooting scenes for Carl Bessai's drama Normal. The statuesque Vancouver actress -- in real life fresh-faced, girlish and so wholesome she makes Mandy Moore seem like Paris Hilton -- scorched up screens as Leila, an emotionally vacant nymphet who uses sex as a form of empowerment. "That was a turning point for me personally and career-wise," recalled Smith, who raised a few eyebrows when she accepted the risque role.
© Vancouver Sun
Excerpt from The L Word.com 3/08: Lauren Lee Smith
Lauren Lee Smith at L4
By BetteAndTinaForever
B&TF: You’ve been in movies and in TV shows. Who’s been your favorite character to play and why?
LLS: That’s a very difficult question. I would have to say the film I did - Lie with Me - the character Leila. I don’t know if that was necessarily my favorite character to play but it was definitely to this date, the most challenging role that I’ve ever had to take on.
B&TF: Is this the one where there are a lot of sex scenes. I think I saw it on Showtime. I remember seeing your name so I watched it. I liked it. But you said it was challenging, why?
LLS: It was just a point in my life and a point in my career where I had to cross so many boundaries and so many hurdles. It was one of those moments when I thought, if I can conquer this, if I can get through this, then I think it will open me up to emotionally a lot more. And it did, it really did. I think I grew tremendously as an actor after that, at least I felt I did.
B&TF: When did you do the movie?
LLS: 2004.
B&TF: So it was before The L Word?
LLS: No, it was in between. It was during the second season.
© BetteAndTinaForever
Excerpt from Claire McBuffy at L4 3/08: Lauren Lee Smith
Lauren Lee Smith and Anne Ramsey Q&A: Part 1.
Me: Lie with me, very brave role, excellent film. Did you have any reservations about taking the role?
Lauren: Absolutely. Umm, definitely it’s not like I um jump at the chance of getting naked and having crazy ass sex scenes. Umm…*Laughs* Uh, but when I first read the script I I hadn’t really been given the opportunity first of all. It was my first film I did. Uh, um, it was an opportunity to break out of everything up until that point, and um, I don’t know I just, I thought it was a really beautiful love story, in a way. Umm, and in my opinion that’s what it is, a modern day love story, and you know um, modern day we have sex. So…that was just part of it. *Laughs*
Me: It’s a fantastic film I’ve tried to get people to watch it
Lauren: Oh that’s wonderful…I’m trying to get people to watch it as well unfortunately
Anne: *Laughs*
Lauren: *Laughs* Unfortunately it was just a very small Canadian independent film
Me: It’s kinda hard to explain without making sound like something it’s not
Lauren: Exactly, I’ve found the same problem actually, but yeah, I…I, thank you
Anne: Can you rent it?
Lauren: Uhh, you know I don’t think so. I know in Canada you can. In the states I think you have to order it, and it’s a big ordeal.
Anne: Oh, I see.
Me: Yeah it’s out on DVD I know that.
Lauren: Yeah. *Nods*
Me: I think it’s out here (England) now.
Lauren: Oh is it?
Me: I got mine from America. But I believe it’s out here now.
Anne: Oh
Me: I think it got to the cinema over here. Umm…
Lauren: I, I think it did for a very short period of time. *Laughs*
Me: It’s fantastic film.
Lauren: Well thank you very much. I’m very proud of it.
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Attendee: Lauren, Lie with me, amazing movie like Claire said.
Lauren: Oh thank you.
Attendee: What was granma thinking about it?
Lauren: What was Granma thinking about it?
Attendee: You know, can she watch you?
Lauren: You know that’s so funny because ummm, a lot of people have asked me like, Oh my god would you let your parents see that?! Or your brothers? Or whatever. And the answer is always, of course. I would never do anything I would be ashamed for my family to see. Umm, however my brothers chose not to see it. Umm, *laughs*, but I was always very open with them. And told them exactly what they would be seeing if they did.
My grandma is kind of funny, because my mum came with me to the premiere in Toronto. And during filming I was telling… my grandma and I are very close,…and I was telling her all about it. And she’d heard bits and pieces, and sort of understands there’s a lot of nudity in the film, and uh, my mum wouldn’t let her watch it. *laughs* My mum was like, yeah, I don’t know…she’s you know… At the time she was like 94. She’s like, I don’t think so. So I actually snuck it to my Granma. Umm…
Anne: Awww, that’s cute.
Lauren: Yeah. Uh, my Granma and I have our own secret little relationship going on. So…And she, she loved the film. She was very proud of it as well.
Attendee: Cause I lend DVD’s to my Granma
Lauren: Yeah…
Attendee: And I gave her that movie.
Lauren: You did! *laughs*
Attendee: She turned it off after 5 minutes.
Lauren: I, I can understand that. I can understand that definitely. Yep.
© Claire McBuffy
Excerpt from National Post 9/10/10: Lauren Lee Smith
‘I look for roles where I get to scream a lot’: A Night for Dying Tigers’ Lauren Lee Smith blows off steam at work
Ben Kaplan September 10, 2010 - 9:00 am
Smith might be familiar to festivalgoers as her first film here was the controversial 2005 picture Lie with Me. That movie, directed by Clement Virgo and written by his wife, Tamara Berger, featured full nudity and intercourse, and cast Smith as a woman very much curious about sex. “I wanted that role so badly, it was the first film I did, and I thought if I could do this, expose myself physically, emotionally and mentally, it will clear the way for a lot of other things,” she says. “It was a gratifying experience, and, as an actress, it made me more open and daring.”
© National Post