By Lya Carrera
EDGE Entertainment Contributor
Published Web site: EDGE
Online Version Published Date: March 28, 2006
Online Version Printed Date: April 4, 2006

Ageless, Daniela Sea of Showtime’s The L Word lives life without regrets.

“There are a lot things that I want to do, but I don’t spend time regretting,” she said. “I just figure out how I can do them.”

And it is this self-determination that allowed Sea to pursue acting and land the groundbreaking role of the transgender character, Moira/Max, on The L.

She said, “I decided to pursue acting [because] I realized that I loved and missed it so much; it was what I wanted to do. I had no agent, so I went to the library, got a book on I-movie, and made myself a reel.

“I sent [the reel] to an old friend, who I knew was writing for the show,” she added. “[Then,] I got a call at work asking if I could be in L.A. to audition. Three days later, I got the job and went to Vancouver, [British Columbia] to begin shooting.”

Sea is making history portraying for the first time on television a FTM (female to male) character. The character basically transforms her female body into a male one by injecting herself with hormones; and considering surgery to remove her breasts.

“I know a lot of people who have chosen to transition, so I think it is significant for it to be shown on television,” she said. “I think it’s great that the show took the risk and really pushed it to tell this story.”

Her character

Sea thinks she is similar to her character in that she is also a tomboy.

“I realized that I was different when I was seven and wearing my brother’s clothes,” she said. “I always thought I was a boy and it wasn’t until puberty that I realized that I was a girl.”

But there are some differences. Unlike her character, Sea does not want to undergo the physical changes nor does she feel limited in her sexual orientation.

“I’m a women centered person,” she said. I’m an artist and activist, but a feminist first of all. I think it is hard to fit into these boxes and in one way I would say I’m bisexual because anything is possible. When I think about it culturally, the only relationships I had most of my adult life, other than Daniel, were with women.

“I fell in love with Daniel when I was 16 years old and we moved to the Bay Area [San Francisco, Calif.],” she added. “I was deeply in love with him. He was the first person I came out to when I first had these feelings for women and I wanted to explore them. He was very supportive, and we are still friends.”

Relationships

Currently, Sea is involved with Bitch, who was part of the lesbian duo, Bitch & Animal. Their music style was diverse: two of their albums were released under Ani DeFranco’s label, Righteous Babe; and another, Eternally Hard, was produced by Ani DiFranco and Wayne “Dutchboy” Schrengohst.

“I went back to the Bay Area [San Francisco, Calif.] to see old friends and was on my way back to Europe when I fell in love with my girlfriend, Bitch. She imported me back to her home of Brooklyn, N.Y. We’ve been together for four years.”

“I tend to put more of my energy toward women,” she added. “Most of my best friends are guys, but they have to be conscious and trying to learn more. I have a standard with anyone in my life. [The person needs to be] willing to change, grow, be politically aware, have an inquiring mind, and an open heart.”

And it is a standard that does not limit her relationships.

“I have friends of different ages, ethnic backgrounds, sexual orientations, and gender,” she said. “A lot of them are teachers. We are all trying to a make a difference in the world and make it a better place in whatever way is our calling.”

Her philosophy may be attributed to some of her role models, such as Rosa Parks, Martin Luther King, Jr., Nelson Mandela, her girlfriend, and of course, her mom.

“I think my family looks [at life] through a political and artistic lens,” she said.

She explained that her family - her mother, her biological father, her biological father’s partner (though they’re not together now), her stepfather, her brother, and her stepsister - shaped her life.

“I was born in L.A to hippie [parents] - a fourth generation Southern Californian. I grew up in Malibu, [Calif.] and Hawaii. My dad came out as gay when I was three [and my parents divorced].”

“It was painful to have my parents get divorced, but it was for the best because it was the truth,” she continued. “He set the example [for my coming out process later on and taught me] to be self-determined and to listen to [my] heart. [In general,] I think my parents raised me as an empowered person. It’s not like now where a kid’s life is scheduled every moment. I could be free to make some choices for myself at such a young age.”

Experiences

Sea states the family moved to Hawaii after her mother remarried. By age six, she learned to surf from her stepdad, and she got involved competitively.

“I mostly won the Malibu, [Calif.] longboard championships, which was significant to me. It was intergenerational, so I was surfing with all these old legends. It was fun.”

“My stepdad was proud of me and it was never pushed as a competition. In fact, at a certain point, I didn’t want to do it any more. For me, it was a commune with nature, my friends, and family, [so competing] felt like an antitheses of that although I really loved watching the competitions.”

She recalls that at 12 years old, she was working at a biker bar, and at 16 years old, she moved to San Francisco, [Calif.], where she joined the punk artist community, Gilman Street Project. Since she had already taken her GED, she later enrolled at the local community college and studied improvisation and theater arts though she decided not to continue.

“I felt like there was no place for me in theater or in film as a tomboy, I dreamed of joining the circus. I was talking with my brother who lived in Europe about it and decided to move there to create a traveling circus with him and some other friends from Poland and Holland.”

“This was a new chapter in my life. I felt I had arrived to the distant lands I had always dreamed about. I spent years with this tribe as a traveling family, doing circus and music performances on the streets and in theaters. We cooked over fires and traveled by foot or train. We collected wild herbs and edibles, and lived off of the earth.”

Sea recalls hitchiking in Turkey, building a hut in Southern Greece, herding goats in Italy, and living six months as a man in India. She learned and changed a lot as a resutt of her interactions with the people she met in her travels.

Her beliefs

Along with her family and worldly experiences shaping her, so did her environment, in particular, the ocean.

“I grew up with this deep connection with nature,” she said. “Moving to Hawaii and growing up with the ocean was a big deal for me. I learned so much about this other perspective of the world.”

“I think the aloha spirit is real and having the connection with nature is a primary thing for the culture. I think it definitely changed me.”

And this connection with nature also helped shape her spiritual beliefs.

“I guess spirituality for me happens when I most connect to my spiritual self without the wrappings of the other things that are layered on from growing up. Nature reminds me that we are all connected and we are all one although we are all individuals.”

Though, there are some days when Sea needs to be reminded about her spiritual connection.

“I think I can be pretty hard myself. Every time I make a piece of art, I doubt myself. Or, when I come off a day of shooting, I may ask myself, ‘Why did I do this or that?’”

Her ambition

Despite these doubts, Sea finds the motivation within herself.

“I always had this drive. It’s a drive that’s not just about me. It’s not about individual survival, but more like a vision of what’s possible and trying to find [it in order to] manifest it in someway.”

And it is drive that has helped her not only become an actor, performer, and world traveler, but a poet - she published a book of poetry, Open Road, and a musician - she plays many musical instruments, such as the guitar, the penny whistle, the accordion and the keyboards. She also played the guitar in a band called the G’rups sometime ago.

Upcoming plans

As for the future. Sea will continue with both acting and music. She will be on the fourth season of The L Word, and she has two films coming out. Due this spring, John Cameron Mitchell (of Hedwig and the Angry Inch) directs Shortbus, which explores relationships in New York City via gender, politics and real sex. Followed next year by The Itty Bitty Titty Committee, a romantic comedy directed by Jamie Babbit of But I’m a Cheerleader.

On the music front, she and girlfriend, Bitch, have their own band called The Exciting Conclusion which is also the umbrella name for all of their future collaborations together, including film and writing projects. They plan to have an album out this summer.

Despite all these accomplishments. Sea measures success differently.

“In the end the only thing you really leave behind is the way you make people feel. I would want to be remembered as someone who is genuine, loving, and revolutionary in trying to change the world [into] a better [place].”