Interview: The Ex List's Elizabeth Reaser
Writer Diane Ruggiero Talks About Vagina Toupées and Old Boyfriends
Jul 31, 2008
Actress Elizabeth Reaser is best known as the troubled Ava (patient with a new face) from Grey's Anatomy. Now she stars as Bella Bloom in this fall’s new, much-buzzed about CBS series The Ex List, in which a 30-something florist has to find the love of her life within a year or she’ll be single forever. She gets this terrible news during a psychic reading at her sister’s stagette. Montrealer Anne Nahabedian plays the psychic with comedic genius and a refreshing tartness. (The screener made us snort hysterically.)
Vagina toupées
Reaser and Executive Producer/Writer Diane Ruggiero spoke to Suite101 and other TV critics in Beverly Hills recently about the freshman show and, specifically about the pilot, in which a toupée for a vagina makes an appearance.
Question: The Ex List his show pushes the envelope in a number of ways. There's an inordinate amount of vaginal humor in the pilot.
Diane Ruggiero: I actually let my vagina write half of the script, so -- it's not my fault.
Q: It shows. It shows in the work.
Ruggiero: Yeah, there was --
Elizabeth Reaser: (turns to Ruggiero) Are you sure that's what they're talking about?
Q: I'm not complaining. I'm just thinking that somebody --
Reaser: What is the vaginal humour?
Q: I'm thinking the network probably was a little uncomfortable too.
Ruggiero: No. The network was cool. They were supportive, and they -- I don't think I did
anything -- like there's no -- I didn't, like – it didn't look like the Pope or anything. Like you
didn't see anything. You just talked about it.
Looking for a new love, baby
Q: Diane, I'm a little curious about the structure of the show. Is Bella going to burn through two or three guys an episode like she did in the pilot? Will there be arcs where she'll be with the same guy for two or three weeks? Also, how do you deal with the fact, once she finds the guy, it's "strike the sets"?
Ruggiero: Well, I think you don't let her find him too soon. Yeah, I think there will be multiple men in episodes. There will be some episodes where there's a guy that goes for more than one episode, guys that come back. I mean, it's just like -- if you look at like my -- I started looking at the Sunday -- the wedding section, you know, with the -- in the Sunday Times -- the New York Times. And I'm not even, like, saying this for my own purposes. They really -- there's so many of those stories that were like, "I hadn't seen him in 12 years, and I was walking my dog and there he was." I think that that's prevalent, and I think that that happens. So I think, for our purposes, there's always going to be different ways to bring in multiple people or there will be a -- you know, a dry couple acts while she's looking. But it's definitely -- it's not going to be just one after the other. It's not like an assembly line of men, like my personal life -- in which I have to go right now because they're waiting.
Grey's Anatomy
Q: Elizabeth, let me back up a little bit on Ava because that's certainly -- whenever I tell people
who is in it, I say, "Well, she was Ava in 'Grey's Anatomy,' and they brighten up right away because it's
just so familiar to people. When that role first came up, what did they present you as? How long a role did you think it was going to be? Could you see that that character was going to resonate and become so deep with viewers and so forth?
Reaser: I didn't know. They wouldn't tell me anything when I met for the role except that I would be disfigured, which was the only thing -- which was exciting -- and -- especially when nobody knows you as an actress and then you finally get to be on "Grey's Anatomy" and then you're disfigured. It actually was really an amazing role and turned out to be incredible.
Q: So you're making a big impact to the viewers, but chances are people -- when you're out on
the street, nobody's recognizing you anyway, even after your face has been fixed, because it's changed
so much during the show. You probably don't have that many people recognize you from that role; is that right?
Reaser: No, I do, actually.
Q: Yeah?
Reaser: Yeah, especially when I go home to Michigan or something like that. It depends on the
demographic.
Psychic connection
Q: Will we see the psychic every week?
Ruggiero: You're going to see a lot of the psychic, maybe not every episode. But we're going
to -- I love her. I think that the actress, Anna, is fantastic, and she -- I just -- I really would like to
see her as much as we possibly can. I don't think we'll see her in every episode, but we're going to see
her in as many as I can get away with.
