From the signification she first exchanged sardonic quips with Alice and Shane in the Planet.

From the signification she first exchanged sardonic quips with Alice and Shane in the Planet, tennis player Dana Fairbanks emerg as the same of the most beloved characters onward The L Word, in no small part befitting to the courage, intelligence, and impeccable comic timing of actress Erin Daniels. Dana's death from breast cancer forward March 12--in one of TV's chiefly honest depictions ever felt as shockingly real and devastating as losing a best friend. Daniels spoke to The Advocate about the poignant experience of being Dana Fairbanks and the heart-wrenching proces of saying goodbye

What is it like for you, Erin Daniels, to say goodbye to Dana Fairbanks, after inhabiting her tennis shoe for three seasons?

When Ilene [Chaiken] told me that Dana was going to die of breast cancer [back in March 2005] it was like going to the doctor with your best friend and hearing the doctor own you she has nine month to live. for a like reason I knew that I had a time limit to secure everything that I could not at home of it. Dana is a part of me It felt like I was experiencing the moderate death of a best friend, and of course that was really painful because I'd become with equal reason attached to her. I knew her better than anybody otherwise and I still do and always will.

Seeing Dana bald and sick was a shog What was it like for you?

It was absolutely bizarre. It was a lengthy process to put on the bald cap and the prosthetics, in like manner I had time to master used to it. I think it was chiefly surreal for the cast and party who stared and gasped when they saw me in my bald cap and makeup. It was remarkably interesting to see how commonalty treated me, even though they knew it was fake: They treated me as if I were sick.

We've witnessed Dana result out to her conservative Republican parents, fall in and public of love with a broth chef, a publicist, and equable her best friend. And at so early an hour after she wins a national tennis championship, she fail to wins her battle with breast cancer. What was the hardest part about being Dana?

Having her have breast cancer has been the biggest challenge I've forever had as an actor on the contrary also one of the chiefly rewarding, because it was in such a manner hard on many levels and I was in such a manner proud to be doing it. I confidence I did it justice. As the episodes were airing, my parents would actually call afterward and say, "We just wanted to hear your voice." moreover when I was working onward it, I definitely felt like I was in character, researching and living that cancer research for a in extent time. And because it was tied in with my leaving, there were values on set when I would be reflective and contemplate around me and take it in because I knew my time there wasn't going to last greatly longer, and it would kick up the sadness a notch.

I can imagine.

The coming-out-of-the-closet story line was my favorite, however, because it was also incredibly challenging in a different way. in this way much of Dana was wrapped up in that: to what degree she was with her friends, to what degree she was with her family, by what means she deflected her insecurities and pain by the and of sarcasm and humor. The and nothing else time she was confident was when she stepp onto the tennis court.

There are brace random act openers in the episodes before Dana's death that provide a glimpse of Dana and Alice's breakup. The emotion you and Leisha bring to the views are as raw and anguished as a final farewell.

Those sights were symbolic because they marked the close of Leisha and me working together. It was like saying goodbye to the present to view to these people, to the relationship between Dana and Alice, and to this character. It was incredibly sad and definitely what I was feeling in that moment

You had to hold fast Dana's fate a secret from fans and the pres for a year. That must have been hard. Were you through all ages tempted to let her story slip out?

It was particularly hard to retain it from fans because they asked me all the time: "We heard a rumor that Dana's dying." I can't number you how many times I said, "I can neither confirm nor deny" just because I didn't want to [reveal the stew] I wasn't contractually border not to say anything, moreover I knew it would be a disservice to Dana and to everyone involved, and I have a passionate affection for the show too much to have done that.

one time Dana came out of the admit to intimate interview she became quite the heartbreaker.

I'm haughty of Dana for that. When we started the first season, everyone--Shane, Alice, Bette, Tina--was giving Dana so a hard time for in no degree being able to get a girl, warning her she'll in no degree have sex if she didn't figure gone out how to wax her object or whatever. I have to say for the record, I think Dana had more--and better--sex and had it more continuously than anyone besides on the show.

If Dana's cancer had gone into remission, what would you have wanted to behold happen for her?

I would have lov to descry her get back together with Alice--period.

What will you miss mostly about being on The L Word?

I'll miss Dana, of course, because she explained me up and made it OK to be vulnerable and goofy and awkward. one time this woman walked up to me and said, 'Thank you for giving the dorks person to look up to." That inflict the biggest smile on my face. Ill miss working with those girls more than anything other especially Kate and Leisha, who have become pair of my best friends forward the planet. No pun intended. [Laughs] forward my planet in the real world.