‘90210’: Jessica Lowndes on Ade’s sexuality, ‘I don’t think that she’s a traitor’

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We’ve been hearing about Adrianna’s lesbian tryst on “90210” since Season 2 premiered. The character’s girl-on-girl story line finally debuted after the show’s recent hiatus. Watching Ade explore her sexuality has been an interesting ride for viewers, but we’re not the ones portraying the gay relationship on television.

“Yeah, it’s definitely nerve-racking,” acknowledges Jessica Lowndes, who plays Ade on the CW show. “I think it’s the same with everything my character has gone through. I have no personal experience with it, be it the drug addiction, the pregnancy and now the questioning her sexuality. But I think it’s definitely important.”

Lowndes’ first lesbian kiss was a brave step for the show, which hasn’t had a major gay story line yet. Although it was important to her, Lowndes says that kissing Rumer Willis, who plays Gia, didn’t necessarily come naturally.

“We got a laugh between takes,” says Lowndes. “Yeah, the first one was like, OK [squeals], let’s not think about it. But, at the end of the day, you’re telling a story and you can’t get in your head over it. You got to just do the work and I think the scene comes out really great. I’m very proud of it.”

The manner in which the show has rolled out Lowndes’ lesbian story line has been startlingly mature, with allusions to Alfred Kinsey’s spectrum of sexuality and fairly high-minded ideas about gender-blindness.
“I think it’s definitely very advanced,” explains Lowndes, 21. “But there has been a response from people who have come up to me who have been affected by it. This is truly going on in high school and people are confused and I love that we’re showing somebody like my character, who is confused.”

She adds, “And then you have Gia, who was born that way and has known her whole life that she is attracted to women. She’s still very tentative and not truly comfortable in it. She’s almost embarrassed at some points by it. I think it’s truly important in the next few episodes to show it’s OK to have those feelings and to feel that way.”

Yet, in a plot such as this one, the show always runs the risk of depicting Adrianna’s fluid sexuality or possible return to a heterosexual relationship as actually enforcing the idea that sexuality is a choice.

“I don’t believe that,” she adamantly states. “[Adrianna is] truly connected with Gia at this time in her life. She is attracted to men, as well. That has been her life up to this point and I don’t think that she’s a traitor by any means or is just doing it for drama. She likes this girl and she happens to be a different gender than she usually dates. But, then you see Gia, who is attracted to women and that’s the way she is. You see two different sides.”

In this week’s episode, Adrianna shows her apparent certainty by making a very public declaration of her sexuality.

“I think she’s somebody who always goes big, because she’s very dramatic,” explains Lowndes. “I think announcing it to the school that she was pregnant was a prime example of that. She’s somebody who goes through a lot of stuff, and drama seems to follow her everywhere and she’s essentially addicted to the highs and the lows. And with this, if this is the way she feels, she’s going to announce it. She’s not going to be scared to be who she is. And I think that’s admirable.”

That doesn’t mean Ade is done with the boy drama, though. Navid will be entering the picture again, and it might cause some rifts for the characters they’re dating.
“[Ade and Navid] definitely have a very close bond and are very much still connected,” the Vancouver, Canada, native says. “But on the flip side, when they were together it wasn’t working out, so I think that’s always going to be there, as well. There’s definitely going to be a conversation to be had and their significant others are bound to get jealous just because they are so connected. I think that causes a lot of insecurity in their new partners’ lives. Lots of insecurities.”

— Jethro Nededog (follow me on Twitter @TheRealJethro)

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