Girl On Girl: Sarah Shahi

The L Word’s Sarah Shahi gets lippy about Southern hospitality, the trials of cheerleading and blow job classes.

THINGS SEEM TO HAPPEN FAST FOR Sarah Shahi, one of the gorgeous gal stars of Showtime’s controversial Sapphic series The L Word.

It’s not just because the Iranian/Spanish actress is easy on the eyes and ears. Rather, it’s that the Texas-born belle is smart, intuitive, quick-witted and not averse to taking risks.

How else could a naive country singer majoring in English become not only a Dallas Cowboys Cheerleader, but its firstever rookie calendar cover girl?

How else could that same cheerleader – with the world on a string – take the word of crusty old film director Robert Altman, moving from Texas to Los Angeles just because he suggested that she’d be perfect for movies?

And how else could that same demure girl upstage comedy’s biggest grandstander, Will Ferrell, in Old School, by taking on an oral-sex scene that’s more memorable than anything Luke Wilson did in the same movie?

It’s because Shahi is as sharp as her features and is willing to be what she’s not. That’s risk. That’s also acting, and that’s probably why Shahi stands so far out as a second-year addition to a seasoned L Word cast, one that includes Jennifer Beals and Pam Grier. As “Carmen,” the bilingual, bisexual DJ and production assistant, Shahi eats the screen with an impassioned sexuality that’s raw yet relaxed – like an untamed tigress at rest.

I found the tigress in repose at her Los Angeles home.

I’ve been all over Texas, but where the hell is Euless?

SARAH SHAHI: I’m so happy I grew up there. It sounds corny, but there’s something about the South – the hospitality, the charm.

So is this about you being an oldfashioned type?

SS: Yes, actually. I realized early on that it was important to have those values – a morality and ethics that come with being Southern girl. The way you treat people – little things, the niceties like hellos, like courtesy. They mean something.

No one should ever confuse one’s real life with film life, but that’s truly at odds with the risqué, ribald nature of most of your characters so far. Is it hard getting people to understand the dichotomy?

SS: Not really. Because I don’t think I carry myself like … those roles. It’s just a simple matter of perception.

Though Texas-born, you’re half Iranian, half Spanish.

SS: I am – which did not make for happy bedfellows. Two very hot tempers is what my parents had. My dad, the Persian side, was very controlling; very old-school, very traditional, very strict. Works for some people. Not my mother. He was charming, no doubt. You can see why she took a chance. But my mom was – is – just totally, ultra, in touch with her body, very Spanish. Every night was a party with her growing up.

Very free and sensual?

SS: Yes. I remember when I was 10 years old and I got invited to this birthday party. She wouldn’t take me unless I put on a shorter pair of shorts. (Does Spanish accent): “You must show off your body!” I didn’t want to show off my body. I didn’t even really know what it meant. She would tell me over and over again: “Your boob is the same as your hand. There is no difference. Don’t be ashamed.” I was 10 [years old]. But I was ashamed, embarrassed even. I just wanted to have a soccer mom. My mom would bring cupcakes to school and have the guys in class salivating.

I wish I would have had your mom around to try to explain to girls, “Hey, your boob is the same as your hand; let’s shake.”

SS: Oh my God.

Did you always want to act? Was there ever a role-model for you?

SS: I did always want to act. And I always worshiped Katherine Hepburn. She’s everything – feminine, masculine, tender, vulnerable, tough, funny. She’s truly a life force as an actress and as a woman. She had personal values and integrity. She touched everybody who came in contact with her, had amazing range. Me even talking about her discredits her – that’s how talented she is to me. But growing up in Texas, you don’t really have a chance to do that, to be that, to even know how to do it. I actually thought for a while that I’d be the next Shania Twain; a real country singer. I’d go to the local opry house with the boyfriend I had at the time and we’d sing.

A real Sonny and Cher.

SARAH SHAHI: Trying to make a career singing country seemed more realistic growing up in Texas, something more plausible than acting. That’s how I got to cheerleading. I had heard the Dallas Cowboys Cheerleaders had a singing group – the Show Group – who toured with the USO. I never wanted to be a cheerleader, really. I didn’t like cheerleading in high school. They were the ones who didn’t get sent home for wearing short skirts.

Did being on the cover of the Dallas Cowboys Cheerleaders calendar so early on make your life difficult? Because it totally did for us.

SS: My mom was really proud that I was a calendar girl, but overall it made life hard because I was a rookie. And rookies had never made the cover of the calendar before me. There was resentment.

During your cheerleading tenure, did you ever date any of the players?

SS: No. It’s not allowed for the girls to really even hang with the players. I wouldn’t put it past other girls, but I never did it.

Is that type of guy – the beefy dude – your type? Or do you like them lean and intellectual? Say the latter. Say the latter!

SS: (laughs) I think from the looks of the men I’ve dated, I’ve been with both kinds. I like talented, intelligent men – and they have to be funny. If all three things are there, I don’t care what they look like – though having all their teeth would be good.

Moving ahead, when you moved to Hollywood and started acting, you landed a few primo TV gigs pretty quickly. There was, for instance, Dawson’s Creek.

SS: And I was on [Saturday-morning high-school dramedy] City Guys first, as a cheerleader. But that was my second audition in two months, and it got me my first $3,000.

Surprise, surprise! Did that make you worry you that you’d already been typecast?

SARAH SHAHI: No, because I was too naive to worry. I hadn’t been exposed to anything other than Texan hospitality. Never saw homeless people. Never saw drugs. Nothing outside of middle-class suburbia – my karate class, my piano lessons. Being naive worked for me. Heck, we were even nice to people we hated.

Oh, trust me, that’s very Los Angeles. Do you think that naivete made it easier to take on a role like the one you did in Old School, where you had to mime a blow job?

SS: Pretty much. It’s just a thing that people do in life. There are such things as blow job classes and, doggone it, people take them. Same thing with The L Word. I kiss and have sex scenes with other women on screen and have to be in love with women while working. That’s what it means to me to be an actress.

Did you monitor blow job classes? Did you have an old hag teaching them like Real Sex always manages to portray?

SS: I did. Totally. It was awkward but informative. And yes, the teacher was older … but with tons of confidence. She was so cool – she made it into a biological act between two humans, based purely on pleasure.

So who is Carmen, your character on The L Word, to you? What made you want to pursue this role?

SS: I’ve been looking for my shot – that call from Steven Soderberg or Spielberg. I wanted to do great parts. The L Word was an audition like any other, at first. Then I remembered seeing billboards for its first season – all those girls – and wondering how it is I never got an audition. I knew I could’ve made the most of it. So by the time I got to the casting directors, I nailed it.

Now the important stuff. What do you do in preparation for a love scene? Do you prepare differently when it’s with a woman?

SS: The honest truth is that, unless you’re doing a love scene with your real-life partner, any scene like this is uncomfortable. No matter how closed the set is and how choreographed it is, it’s awkward. But I had no fear about it. You’re acting – a pair of lips is a pair of lips. I’m kissing somebody I don’t know. So you have a great time. Besides, I can’t say that I haven’t had my own experiences – personal experiences – with women in the past.

What a coincidence – that seamlessly brings us to my next question ...

SS: I’m just going to leave it at that.

Aw, shucks. Alright then – despite the loosening up of the media, are you surprised that, in 2005, people still find lesbian sex and gay sex – sex in general, for that matter – to be taboo?

SARAH SHAHI: Absolutely. What The L Word has done is create something where there is nothing. We have white TV, black TV ... I know there’s supposed to be a gay network somewhere, but there still feels as if there’s discrimination. People still hide. It’s a society full of hypocrites. Scout leaders still molest little boys. We remain static in terms of showing we’ve grown, showing the pride of a particular people. Hopefully, in our own small way, The L Word sheds some light