Janina Gavankar dishes about The Gates

By April MacIntyre Jul 6, 2010, 5:20 GMT

"The Gates" actress Janina Gavankar plays Leigh, a deputy in the police department with her own mysterious back-story.

"The Gates" on ABC draws on the hot trend of vampiric romanticism and caged suburban female lust that has weirdly bubbled up in middle-aged women flocking to sexless sanguine soap-opera dramas in paleface, aka the 'Twilight' films.

Unlike the Twilight sagas, "The Gates" flirts more openly with actual sexual moments, despite its tame network home. Certainly not as lusty or tongue-in-fang as HBO' bawdy, bloody Southern Gothic "True Blood," which has copious amounts of male nudity and great fun with the dialogue.

"The Gates" actress Janina Gavankar plays Leigh, a deputy in the police department with her own mysterious back-story. 

Also starring in "The Gates" is Frank Grillo (Nick Monohan), Marisol Nichols (Sarah Monohan), Rhona Mitra (Claire Radcliff), Luke Mably (Dylan Radcliff ), Travis Caldwell (Charlie Monohan), Skyler Samuels (Andie Bates), Colton Haynes (Brett Crezski), Chandra West (Devon Buckley), Victoria Platt (Peg Mueller) and Justin Miles (Marcus Jordan).films

Details interviewed Janina Gavankar of The Gates and asked her what made the show compelling:

"It's a gated community, and, you know, you've driven by these huge gated communities before. I have always felt like they should never really be trusted. Why do they need a gate? What's going on in there? In our gated community, everybody is living amongst each other being fairly normal and upper-class. But some of the neighbors happen to be supernatural, and they're all living in this suburban utopia...Controlled utopia.

Details asked Janina if she was similar to her character, Leigh.  "Leigh's very reserved. You're always wondering what she's thinking. I'm never going to deny that there's a piece of me in every character. I know that you have to be reserved about certain things in your life."