While Carly Pope’s pet bull dog attempts to jump into her lap, the actress fields questions from her Vancouver home about playing a lesbian character in FX’s Dirt, shooting to stardom with the WB’s ‘90s hit Popular, and her latest role as a radical feminist in POWER UP’s Itty Bitty Titty Committee.
You grew up in Vancouver, right?
Born and raised. I finished doing Dirt in December and then I came up here to be with my boyfriend, friends, and family, and chill out for a bit.
Dirt’s renewed for a second season on FX. Any spoilers for the fans?
I would love to divulge the filthy gossip about the show, but the character was just a guest star for a few episodes, which turned into six, which was incredible, but I don’t know if I’m going to be heading back or not. I’ll keep you posted.
You played a lesbian named Garbo who was a drug dealer…
Yes, I played the requisite young Hollywood drug dealer of choice, and one of my clients is one of the starlets of the show, who I keep around for a double purpose: hooked on the drugs and hopefully hooked on me.
You seem to pick a lot of “outsider” roles.
I play a bit of a strategic game with choosing roles that might be educational, insightful, or inspiring. I try and find characters that represent what I would like to see on TV, being a little bit more open-minded, less stereotypical.
Your first major role was as Sam on WB’s Popular—a show which offered social critique while being very funny. Itty Bitty is similar, except more outwardly political, and your character in the film, Shulamith, is certainly political. How would you compare your own politics to those of your Itty Bitty character?
Shuli’s a radical feminist, for certain! She believes that the oppression that women face has profound roots in a biased gender system. She has a socialist approach to things. In terms of her sexual preference, she’s a girl of no definition and would prefer to keep it that way. There’s a point in the film when the girls comment on the fact that she’s interested in this chick and she’s like—you guys are such closed-minded bitches. She’s coming from this socialist, no definition approach, which on that level, I agree with. In terms of my politics, I’m not quite as dogmatic as Shuli. I wouldn’t think that pregnancy would be barbaric, for instance, which she might take from her namesake. She’s self-imposed the name Shuli to emulate Shulamith Firestone from the ‘70s, this way-radical feminist. I’m easy going. If I feel passionate about something, I will most certainly state my opinion, but for the most part, I hang back and can typically see the arguments from both sides. It was challenging to get into this mindset of somebody so intense and strong willed. As part of my process of trying to get into that space, I made a list of daily convictions — simple things, like “No Caffeine Today”—to teach myself to believe in something and stick with it.
Have you ever engaged in radical actions off-screen?
I worked for a sexual health organization up here in Vancouver for a few years. It’s a pro choice organization, so we definitely got into some political arenas because of how many pro life organizations are there trying to shut it down. Primarily we had workshops and things like that that I worked at.
But you were never screaming at rallies quite like Shulamith…
I didn’t have a megaphone and I wasn’t shoving anyone, so I never got quite as heated, but I did get into debates about pro life vs. pro choice.
It seems like you’ve consistently chosen roles in gay or gay friendly material. Is that a conscious choice?
I think for me, again, it’s where I agree with Shuli, in that I don’t see it as a black and white thing. It’s not that I choose gay friendly roles or I don’t choose gay friendly roles, it’s more like I look at it for the role and for the message of the project and choose from there. I really liked the message in Itty Bitty that was saying: “I’m not defining myself, so why are you defining me?”
Let’s get beyond labels.
Yeah, beyond this really binary kind of thing. I liked that aspect of Shuli. She was like, fuck that, we don’t need to go there, that’s not the point.
Your love scene with Daniela Sea in Itty Bitty is pretty hot. And with Shuli’s love interest, Calvin, Itty Bitty shows that gender ranges as well as sexuality.
That’s right. We also have a transgender character in Aggie, who’s a part of the CIA. Itty Bitty in general is breaking typical biases we see in the media. I’m taking a “Psychology of Women” class right now and in this chapter we’re doing, we’re talking all about gender bias, stereotypes, prejudice, discrimination and everything else. In the media, certain people disappear from what’s depicted, whether it’s ethnic invisibility, whether it’s because of sexual preference, whether it’s female invisibility. I think that Itty Bitty does a really good job of showcasing different types of people. With Melonie Diaz playing the title role, you have a Puerto Rican heroine. I don’t know what the statistics are, but there aren’t many Latina leads. When all of your leads are women, it’s practically unheard of. People may be scared of the term “feminist” and have this image that pops into their head. Then you look at the definition of feminist—it’s a belief system in which women and their experiences and their ideas are regarded and valued.
So, you’re in school right now?
I’m involved with a program that was originally born out of the idea of going into Human Sexuality. That’s what I was thinking when I was working for the organization here. I ended up getting into a certificate program in counseling women. I was taking my first women’s studies class when I was cast in Itty Bitty, which was a really interesting manifest. There’s liberal, cultural, and radical feminism going on in the film. It’s really about the idea of reclaiming the public arena for women…
And using performance and art to express feminist statements…
Yes, I think it’s a positive spin on using artistic mediums for visibility or education. On MTV or in advertisements, there are these other messages being constantly shoved forward in terms of what women’s roles are. Art forms are a way to portray images of people and get them seen. I think that Jamie’s done an incredible job at mixing message with fun.
You had worked with director Jamie Babbit before, right, on Popular?
I hadn’t seen Jamie for a number of years and was excited to collaborate with her again, because I think that Jamie’s an incredibly intelligent filmmaker, very conscious in what she puts out in the public’s eyes. She’s also got that sense of purpose and mischief and empowerment. I was eighteen when we started doing Popular. [Jamie] was really young too, in directing and in producing Popular and then in becoming a mother and still working and still working her ass off. She’s a real role model.
How would you compare the Shulamith character from Itty Bitty to Garbo on Dirt?
Garbo’s name is coming from the infamous [Greta Garbo], who’s very discrete, questionably gay, and sort of in the shadows. I modeled Garbo after a cat—that demeanor—there was a little bit more mystery. With Shuli, I just made Shuli in your face all the time, no holds barred. There are no apologies for Shuli.
Back to Daniela briefly. Had you worked with her before?
No, I never had, and she’s just so delightful and keen to be a part of projects she feels are important. She’s got a strong sense of self and a real spiritual side too, which I think is what grounds us all in a business fairly devoid of it.
It’s got to be strange to become a star overnight. What did you do with the popularity of Popular—especially with being a teenager and being suddenly cast into the limelight?
I, to be quite honest, freaked out. I rebelled against my environment. I was coming fresh out of high school, had just started university and was eager to be studious and academic, and then I get cast in this WB teen angst show in Hollywood. I moved down there. So I was all of the sudden a part of this world that I knew nothing about in this career that I didn’t know I wanted to have. I started getting really wary about the people that I was hanging out with and what they wanted from me, because I felt that everybody wanted something. I think it was about growing from a teenager into a young adult and trying to learn how to mitigate the fact that I wasn’t able to do it all on my own. My parents know it best that I’m a pretty obstinate girl. It was really hard for me to understand how to cross that threshold where people were telling me: this is where you need to go now, this is what you have to say, this is how you have to look.
Submitting to someone else’s ideas when you’re still discovering your own ideas of yourself…
It was really tough on me. That being said, I loved the show and felt very safe within the walls of the studio. It was the stuff outside of those walls that was hard for me to handle. When the second season finished, I took off and went travelling for awhile, partially by myself and partially with friends , and it allowed me to meditate on what I wanted, who I felt I was, and get back to basics. Taking the reins and getting some perspective on it, I began to understand what the parameters were and what my boundaries and barriers were, and how I can maintain them, while appeasing the system, so to speak. That made me feel more confident in stepping back into the scene.
You’re hilarious in Itty Bitty, by the way. The over-the-topness was what worked about your character. I also love her glasses.
Jamie requested them, because Shulamith Firestone wore very similar glasses. I tried them on and I was like, yes! We were questioning if people couldn’t get past them, but then again, that was the point. So what if someone’s obscuring their face, if someone’s not wearing makeup, or not wearing a bra, you get over those typical or stereotypical ideas of what a woman should look like on screen.
Are you working on any other projects right now?
I’m going to do a short film with my friend here in Vancouver that she wrote and is directing. There are also a lot of weddings this summer. I’ve got to stay in town to be there for my friends.

It’s good to stay balanced like that.
That’s important for me. Work is one of those things that if I put too much focus on it or pressure on myself for it, I’m neither enjoying it nor really amassing any of it because it’s negative energy. The more level I can be, the more useful I can be to the craft. It’s all about offering something and offering yourself to something.

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