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Meet the actresses playing network TV’s new lesbian couple on “Rosewood”

Fox’s new hour-long drama Rosewood follows Morris Chestnut as Dr. Beaumont Rosewood Jr., a private pathologist working in Miami, Florida. Like other medical specialists on TV before him, he’s got that something special-that way to see something different in a body or a case that helps to solve it, just in the nick of time (or the end of the episode). But what’s special about Rosewood is that the leading man’s team of major players includes his lesbian sister, Pippy (played by Gabrielle Dennis), and her fiancee, Tara Milly Izikoff or TMI, as she’s often called (Anna Konkle).

Pippy and TMI are Rosewood’s right-hand women; intelligent co-workers who are in love and have the support of their co-worker/Pippy’s big bro. Their mom (Lorraine Toussaint) is equally as supportive, which means the Rosewood family is a modern family we don’t often see on network TV.

While the show is mostly focused on Rosewood and his partnership with new Miami PD member (and surely eventual love interest) Detective Annalise Villa (Jaina Lee Ortiz), Pippy and TMI are part of the main cast and will have a part in every episode, including a storyline that details TMI’s family and their resistance to her relationship.

We talked with Gabrielle and Anna at TCA about their characters and why they are both so thrilled to be a part of a diverse show.

AfterEllen.com: How did you come to the show?

Gabrielle Dennis: When I first got a one-hour drama script, I’m like, “Medical drama, okay whatever. But the fact that my character gets to have fun and there’s all these light moments in the script, that made her exciting. And not once in the script did they reference them being lesbians. It never had to paint this picture or force anything on the audience or anything gratuitous. We’re just living, and that was my favorite part. I told [executive producer] Todd [Harthan], one of my favorite parts of the writing is you guys aren’t forcing that down our throats as, like, trying to make it a thing. We just happen to be smart women who work and this is who we are-we are in love. Our love is the first and foremost important thing about our storyline. I can’t wait to see what the pictures are painted of what happens when we go to get married and all the challenges we are going to face. Hopefully in a real way touch on some of those issues that are prevalent in our community. That, to me, spoke to the compassion our writers have, and because our writing staff is so diverse from gay, straight, male, female, Latina, black, white-it’s a rainbow writing room. I feel like every voice will be represented, is what we’re hoping, and so far they’ve done a good job of that, so that’s what makes me most excited because not being a lesbian in real life there’s that fear of taking on a role and not being able to represent it well, and to do a disservice, but I feel like because these are likable characters-these are likable people. They’re fun, they’re smart–and they are in love. That’s what I’m excited to see how that storyline grows and to really learn more about each other as individuals but also why we love each other the way we do, and why we fight the way we do, and why we make up the way we do, and all of that stuff.

Anna Konkle: I don’t usually go out for dramas. I think both of our backgrounds are more comedy. So I was like “Okay, I don’t know why I’m being sent an hour drama.” It doesn’t usually happen. Then it was sort of introduced that these women are smart, truthful in how they are-which lends itself to comedy, I always think. And it was exciting to play a smart woman in a loving relationship that also had its humanity and quirks. That’s my favorite stuff to do, is relationship-the woes and the high points and all of that of relationships. There’s the science and the cold cases, but when we finally got in a room together and did a chemistry read, to feel like an old couple, an old married couple who is bickering but out of love.

AE: What was the chemistry read like?

GD: When we went in that room, when I tell you, let’s just say it was different but it sums it all up when we end our audition singing “Drunk in Love” by Beyonce. We improvised a whole performance like we were in there, kicking it. What I love is our issues are relatable in a sense that, one of the very first things you’ll notice in the pilot I say, “my–my wedding” she corrects me and says “OUR wedding.” It’s like, okay, so who’s the selfish one here kind of a thing. Everyone’s had those moments. I feel like there’s those moments where couples will watch and say “You’re more Pippy. You’re more TMI” Oh my gosh, we live that, and that’s what we want people to experience, because our next big thing is moving in with each other. And that whole dynamic, whether you’ve been in a long-term relationship or a short-term relationship, moving in together is a huge, huge step and that comes with its own array of colors of fun and drama and all of that. But what I like is its relatable, everyone knows someone whose gone through that if they haven’t gone through it themselves at least once. I think it helps paint this picture of familiarity so people that have issues with the LGBT community, this will help get them a little step closer. It’s kind of neutralizing. It’s like “Oh, that’s right; they’re lesbians-but they’re people first.”

AE: Anna, I know your character’s parents aren’t so thrilled about the relationship.

AK: My side of the family is not comfortable with the relationship. I haven’t spoken to them in a couple years and me myself am familiar with-everyone has difficulty in feeling not accepted for certain reasons with friends or family or whatever, so I’m really excited the show is going there and I keep being washed with the feeling of wow, what a privilege to be playing a character in a community that’s been marginalized in mainstream media for so long.” The fact that we get to try our hand-it’s meaningful to me.

GD: They’re not portrayed as caricatures. In a relationship, you should feel like that’s your best friend. At the end of the day, we hope that’s what we portray on camera, that love shines through. That’s really what I think the through-line of our whole storyline is going to be about, everything that’s involved with being in love with someone. There’s ups, there’s downs, there’s peaks, there’s valleys, but at the end of the day, what is the real foundation of that relationship?

AK: And it’s a strong through-line in the show, which is really cool.

AE: What can you tell us about any romantic or sexual scenes you two have?

AK: I came in on the first day with the writers and said “Okay, when do we hook up?” And they literally were like “We haven’t gotten there yet.” I was like, “Yeah right!” But as I was reading the scripts, because I’m thinking mainstream media, what’s going to happen? Right now it’s just been like, to me, it speaks to the kinds of relationships I see on television that have lasted a long time where there’s love and kisses but nothing romantic or sexual. So far, right now they’re in a lab scenario, they’re around family all the time-you haven’t seen us in our life privately on the show.

GD: I’m not a huge fan of sex scenes on television shows, period. Only because a lot of times they feel forced, for me as an audience member-and I’m talking hetero or homosexual. But if it doesn’t feel forced, and it’s that thing that’s organic, as is everything else in our relationship-obviously as actresses we’re down to do that if it’ll help for the audience to really feel like okay, it’s true and or it’s organic. Maybe it’s because I’m very modest and conservative. I don’t like stuff to be too racy. I like the relationship stuff and the dynamics of all of that, and I like humor. So for me, it’s nothing I need in the show, but if it happens, I hope it happens in an organic way.

AK: Or in a way that strengthens the relationship and what the show’s conveying and it’s not gratuitous.

GD: And it doesn’t feel like it takes away from what we already build up to that point, like “Oh, they just did that for a little T&A action” or ratings hikes. Because I never want it to be that we’re using the lesbian aspect of the characters or their storyline to do something other than telling a story.

AK: It’s nice to not feel lost or marketed in those roles. Right now, it doesn’t feel that at all. I was like “Get ready, Anna!” So my defense mechanism was make jokes about it, but literally the writers were like “What are you talking about? We’re beyond that.”

GD: It’s a nod to the writers that they’re doing that. They’re not like “Let’s sexualize these women! Come on, I can’t wait! When does that scene happen?” There’s none of that.

AE: Can you share a moment on set that was a lot of fun to shoot?

GD: Totally, our karaoke moment: “Lady Marmalade.” For me! They’re supposed to introduce some background to Pippy’s character where in the pilot there’s a nod to where Lorraine’s character, in the pilot says about a victim, “She’s supposed to be at Julliard, like someone else I know.” So there’s kind of a brush of a hint that Pippy’s path and career was supposed to be way different. There was a turn and a twist in her life that ended up being in the family business her following after her brother and also protecting her brother while being there. But having that conversation with Todd, where he said “Would you be comfortable introducing singing into the show?” I was like, “Yeah! How about we just met at karaoke?” And so that’s going to be our thing. SO that’s a karaoke moment on the show that was super fun.

AK: That was really fun. And then we also worked on the same episode with Tim Busfield was so lovely, directing, and was really encouraging improv, which is really nice on a drama, and he let us go for two minutes after the script had ended. We had a lot of fun.

AE: The show is a drama but it’s really quite funny.

GD: You forget you’re filming a drama. When I’m at a table read-I forget how funny the show is. There’s a lot of laughing at the table read. Obviously it’s not knee-slapping on set, that kind of humor. But it’s all grounded in truth, and that’s what makes comedy. And I think what’s great is we’re in real life situations because the show is centered around death, and we still have to live life around what we do for a living; solving things and answering questions about the deceased, and why Rosewood really values life the way he does. There’s a good levity and balance between serious subject matter, which the show is about-crime and death-but being valuing the life you have now, enjoying the life that you have now and just living in real moments and sometimes life is freaking funny.

AE: Gabrielle, I love that your mother and brother are both so supportive of you and your relationship in the show. So often we see stories on shows where people of color face scrutiny and homophobia within their own families.

GD: I hope it foreshadows where the outlook is going in that community, of it not being that deep. I feel like it’s very old-school kind of dynamic, and it’s definitely very grounded in the church, where that comes from. But I did not grow up in that environment, as far as like with that dynamic of human err–I’m very open and exciting and have it in my family. I’m surrounded in it in my life so for me, I never could understand that dynamic. I can’t think of another show where-we just breezed right through it. There’s never a, “Wait, mom, are you going to accept this?” If anything, she loves TMI more than me some days! I think it’s such a beautiful thing because it shows growth. It shows opportunities for growth in a community that looks at it, typically, narrow-minded. I feel like anything goes mainstream, people start to open their minds to. These characters aren’t trying to be the stereotype of everything you’ve ever seen lesbians be from their situations to the way they dress to the way they talk to what their interests are in life. They are so man jokes about lesbian women, things we could be wearing, things we could be saying or doing.

Rosewood premieres tonight at 8/7c on Fox.

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