EXCLUSIVE | 'The L Word: Generation Q' star Leo Sheng on playing Micah and the importance of representation
This story may contain spoilers for season 1 of 'The L Word: Generation Q'
Actor Leo Sheng was pretty sure that he wouldn't bag the role of Micah for Showtime's 'The L Word: Generation Q'. "I didn't think I had a chance in hell," he tells MEA WorldWide over the phone in an exclusive chat. "It's ['The L Word: Generation Q'] is a major show and I had just one acting credit to my name."
And then, just as an act of courage, testing his luck, he sent out his audition tape. "And then I got a call back. "I then flew out to audition in person with Marja-Lewis Ryan and some of the producers and director," and it just worked out.
Leo Sheng plays the role of Micah Lee, a trans man, on the Showtime series. Continuing the legacy of its predecessor, 'The L Word: Generation Q' not only brings back Bette (Jennifer Beals), Alice (Leisha Hailey) and Shane (Katherine Moennig) in their original roles but also adds to its cast a whole new generation of the LGBTQ+ community from diverse backgrounds. Arienne Mandi stars as Dani Núñez, Rosanny Zayas as Sophie Suarez, the character of Sarah Finley is played by Jacqueline Toboni, Brian Michael Smith plays Pierce Williams, and Freddy Miyares essays the role of Jose Garcia.
Since the original series though, times have changed and conversations surrounding the LGBTQ+ community have changed drastically and this had first posed the question of just how relevant would the sequel be? Leo tells us that it is one of the first things that he discussed with Marja. "One of the first things that Marja and I talked about when I was cast was especially in regards to trans representation on television, where the conversations have kind of exploded in the fact that we are talking about them, and we're having trans people tell their own stories of their own experiences."
"For a lot of people who are watching this ['The L Word: Generation Q'], it may be either the first exposure to trans men or one of the few exposures they had to trans men. And what does that mean to people who are learning as the show goes and learning from our show," he elaborates. Add to that the fact that Micah is a Chinese American.
For Sheng, Micah as a character is very personal - he sees a lot of himself in Micah. "When I was cast, we went through a ton of like preliminary understanding the character - I wanted to understand what they [the makers] want, like what their hope was from Micah, what their plans were." The original plan to have Micah in the science field. But Sheng pushed for him to not be a scientist - one of the main reasons being that being one of the few Asian characters, he felt it was important to not show a science field.
But the intention has been clear - to create a show for a brand new generation: "So it was always, always, always about, as Marja says, 'it's about those little Leos or little Micahs or the little whoever is watching."
This is the first part of the interview with Sheng. Stay tuned for the second part.
'The L Word: Generation Q' airs on Sundays at 10/ 9c on Showtime.