One page interview in the latest edition of LOTL Australia.





To millions of fans worldwide, Bad Girls bull dyke Pat
Kerrigan is a top dog whose bark is bad but whose bite
is lethal; taking HMP Larkhall by storm…bedding her
cellmate and murdering Buxton.
To me, she’s LB from school – a rare, radiant energy who
lights up the room while she wonders what the fuss is all
about. Could anything be sexier? Ladies, Lipsticks, Butch
Bikers, Bitches and Bois…meet the irrepressible Liz May
Brice.
She launches at me with her signature gusto not the least
bit dimmed by 12,000 miles of fibre-optics. “Oons!!! Hi!!!
You sound so Australian!” Did her March LOTL arrive?
“Yes! It’s right here…with a very saucy girl on the front!!!”
So…why Pat, a character Liz described on BBC Radio as,
“a knife-wielding, murdering, lesbian, lifer inmate”?
“My agent said it brought me to mind!” she laughs. “Pat’s
a hardened killer…but she’s fair with a strong moral code.
And there’s softness in her love affair with Sheena…”
Girl-on-girl chemistry required serious research for Liz. My
girlfriend Monika was in London at the time and I remind
Liz about them hitting dyke hot-spot, Candy Bar. Liz
recalled, “Oooooo, yes! Soooo much fun!!”
Is that acting’s appeal; new experiences? “Yes!… That’s
why I love it! And girls are so much better at cruising!
With blokes you can literally find yourself talking to a
dick!” She laughs. “Girls are sexier, more intelligent about
it somehow.”
Love-scenes can be awkward but Liz dived straight in (no
pun intended) pashing co-star Laura Rogers: “I thought, I
want to be convincing, I’m gonna really go for this…but
everyone on set’s thinking, ‘Ooooo…look at her…she’s
really going for it!” laughs Liz. “That British reserve kicks
in sometimes.“
Watching Pat and Sheena share kisses and a bed (Series
7, episodes 10 & 12) it doesn’t appear much reserve got
in the way, but sexual tension had to undercut every scene
for that to work.
“It’s not just doing good kissing…we had to want to rip
each other’s clothes off in every scene. It cannot look like
two actresses holding hands…and that’s the embarrassing
bit – all the looks... I just stuck it in mind: ‘she’s my dream
woman’, and whenever I saw her I got butterflies.” It
all sounds pretty convincing…Off-screen too? “Oooooh
no…Laura’s not my type.”
Someone who was though, is actress Amanda Donohoe,
(Wing Governor Stoke) famous for US television’s first
primetime lesbian kiss (as CJ Lamb in L.A.LAW, 1991):
“Sheena doesn’t come back in series 8. Pat’s heartbroken
and reverts to 100% hard nut. But I really missed having a
girlfriend! I wanted to get off with Amanda Donohoe! There
are sparks written in but no action. Pat would’ve been well
up for that though!”
Before Liz returns to set (on UK drama Whistleblower)
we talk career highs. So far they have been: “Bonding
with Helen Mirren (Coming Through) and Charlie Brooker
(Screenwipe) …but the best thing I’ve done (apart from
snog girls in prison!), is UK sitcom Peep Show.”
And how about the lows? “Breaking Dannielle Brent
(Natalie Buxton)’s nose two weeks in was mortifying! And
when Pat loses Sheena I had to hit one of the so-called
soft walls so many times my hand swelled up…back to
hospital! The director kept doing re-takes and I was like,
‘Soft walls my arse!’”
What about knocking back Kenneth Branagh’s Hamlet?
“Oh God! I was 21 and allowed my partner to make me
feel guilty for being okay with nude scenes – like there was
something wrong with me because I didn’t mind. After
we broke up I got naked in a rubbish film, Fortress II…
madness when I wouldn’t flash a boob for Shakespeare!
A valuable lesson: never let other people’s insecurities
control you!”
It’s hardly been a total loss on the film front: friend and
Resident Evil co-star Milla Jovovich was “gorgeous
enough” to ensure she enjoyed the film’s LA Premier…
despite a last minute tussle with some shaving cream
blinding Liz moments before the red carpet! “When I get
conceited I Google the photos...hideous! I look like I got
ready in five minutes… because I did!”
When Michelle Rodriguez invited her to The Fast And The
Furious London premiere, a friendly wave from the Blue
Crush tomboy ensured the paparazzi went wild for Liz.
But it’s her feisty portrayal of knockabout prison dyke Pat
Kerrigan that has Liz May Brice on every bad girl’s gaydar:
this top dog is definitely one chick worth watching.
Bad Girls is available on DVD from outvideo.com.au.
Series 8 will be available instore October.
OONAGH O’REILLY
INTERVIEWS LIZ MAY
BRICE, STAR OF THE UK
HIT DRAMA BAD GIRLS.
LIZ LINKS
badgirls.co.uk
official BBC site
lizmaybrice.org
resource of all things Liz
maintained by her #1 fan, Dean
badgirlsnet.co.uk
fan site
badgirlsthemusical.com
now showing in the UK
BAD GIRL!

Ah, the tragedy of S8! We were up for it too, Liz! I wonder why the writers didn't go there--it definitely seemed early like they would....

I also love the bit about really going for it in her kiss with Sheena, and then getting shy about it after. She was great in that first kiss--very assertive, which I think must be hard for straight women to do.