Anyone But Me Interview

There's a new sexy lesbian drama out, but don't turn on your TV to find it. Head over to AnyoneButMeSeries.com and watch as teen lesbian couple Vivian and Aster navigate their way through high school and the ups and downs that come from being in a long distance relationship.

Sixteen year old Vivian (Rachael Hip Flores) has to leave New York City and move to the suburbs. She leaves behind an accepting group of friends and her girlfriend Aster (Nicole Pacent). Vivian struggles with the issues associated with long distance relationship, coming out to a whole new group of friends and family and fitting in in a new school.

Producer/writers Susan Miller and Tina Cesa Ward wanted to create a show about teenagers that everyone can relate to. Susan and Tina took a few moments to talk to me just before the second season of Anyone But Me was to be aired.

Lesbian Life: How did the idea for Anyone But Me come about?

SUSAN: Tina gave birth to the idea. Now we're co-parenting. She was looking for a writing, producing partner for the work she'd begun on Anyone But Me. I was investigating new ways of working, and I was hungry to give voice to themes that matter. It was good timing. It's really hard now to remember the first days. It's as if it's always existed and been part of our lives. I love the fact that we're writing about young people and their struggles in relationships as well as how to be in the larger world. The great thing is that our show touches everyone, no matter what age.

Was it originally written for the web or for TV

TINA: Anyone But Me was always intended for the web. The web is a great new medium to explore and it's been exciting learning and adjusting to it.
SUSAN: There's so much more control over content in a web series, and, as we've come to discover, it gives us a tremendously important and immediate connection to our fans.

Who has your audience been? How have they found you?

SUSAN: Well, first we went looking for them. Getting the word out, targeting certain groups, calling on friends, like Kate Clinton, whom we knew had the ear of the masses. We wrote emails and followed every path. Then the whole thing started to build, with great reviews and blogger endorsements. Our audience comes from around the world. And though we have really found a home with the niche gay crowd, we're reaching out to a larger population. The show features an ethnically diverse cast, which reflects the diversity of our characters.
TINA: Our audience is primarily women. But the age range is pretty staggering which is wonderful, from teens to people in their fifties. That's the great thing about the internet, if you can get yourself mentioned by the right person the word starts to travel fast. We've been lucky to have some pretty big mentions and a lot of these sites continue to support us.

Your two main characters are lesbian teens who at first are out and okay, but later some issues come up around coming out to new friends. How did you research for these characters?

TINA: One of the big issues we wanted to tackle with the show is the idea that any gay/lesbian/bi person doesn't just face coming out once in their life they do it over and over again throughout their entire lives. Sometimes it's not hard to come out, but it's never easy. There's always anxiety about it. I think it's an issue everyone can relate to and so is what it's like to be a teen. We were all teenagers at some point. Sure there are issues that differ from generation to generation but there are really big issues emotionally that are the same.

SUSAN: When I write, I find a connection to a lot of experiences I haven't actually had. But, the struggle and condition of being young - that's mine, too. It's everyone's. I never dealt with coming out as a teenager. Still I've gone through enough change in my life to know it in a deep sense. Each stage of change whatever it is and whenever it occurs can be exhilarating and terrifying. We don't want to make our show a polemic. It's about individuals. And we want to be true to each character's unique way of coming to terms with identity.

You come from writing for TV and movies. How is it different to write for the web?

TINA: Length is obviously key. Our scenes are pretty short, so you have to get to the meat of the scene as soon as possible because you don't have much time. There are a lot of things with the characters and story we would like to tackle but with eight minutes you don't have the time to talk about everything you may want to. You have to be very confident in how you're exploring a storyline, take your time with it so you don't cheapen it, but hurry up about it at the same time.

Susan, you've worked for The L Word, how is working a show like this different than The L Word?

SUSAN: Well, for one thing our writers' room is much smaller! We don't have the backing or resources or distribution of a network. But the same energy and focus and drive exist for both. We put as much work into our eight-minute episodes. I loved working on The L Word because it was revolutionary, in theory at any rate. We definitely broke ground. In the same way, through a different medium, Anyone But Me is pioneering. The other important distinction is that I wasn't running or creating The L Word.

Have you gotten any flack for portraying teenage sexuality in the series?

TINA: We haven't gotten any flack directly, other than the stray comment here and there condemning homosexuals. But it would be silly to think discrimination isn't happening because we don't hear about directly. We're a very diverse show, with lesbian leads, run by two women. Chances are pretty good someone doesn't feel good about us. On the flip side, the love and support for the show has been incredible. More so than I think we could have imagined when we started this adventure.