In this day and age, the line between actor and musician is very thin. Every celebrity wants to cross the waters and trade in a script for a microphone or vice versa. In the most enjoyable cases, at least for people as mean-spirited as us, they fail and end up drunk onstage and fighting hecklers (we see you, Joaquin!). However, there are a few talented entertainers who can cross over and potentially achieve greatness. Janina Gavankar is one of those people.
A trained pianist, vocalist, and orchestral percussionist, Janina has taken a step back from music, applied her talents to acting, and is now on the road to success. After playing "Papi" on Showtime's hit series The L Word, the 26-year-old Dutch/Indian beauty now plays a cop in ABC's new summer series The Gates, which boasts bloodthirsty vampires, hungry werewolves, and other supernatural creatures. We got a chance to sit with Janina to discuss her new role, her move back into music, being a gamer, and being a sex symbol. Multi-tasking has never looked so good...
Interview By Dominic Green
Complex: Your old group Endera was signed to Cash Money. How did Endera come about?
Janina: We were like five girls that sounded like En Vogue. It was four white girls and then me, and we worked with an artist development group in Atlanta. Jamaica Craft, who is a great choreographer, was our choreographer then, so we danced hard. I did the damn thing. It was a great experience. I learned how to engineer, use Pro Tools, and produce.
Complex: You still a fan of Cash Money now?
Janina: Yeah, I partied with Drake in New York. My very close friends are Jay Sean and his production team—and I just met Slim for the first time since back in the day. I was at Jay's shoot with Sean Paul and Lil' Jon in L.A. and me and Slim just stared at each other and we were silent for a good 20 minutes. [Laughs.] We were just flashing back to when we worked together. I was like, "I read your press. Jay Sean is the first Indian to be signed to Cash Money. Yeah, that's cool. All right." And he just laughed. But it was a hell of a time, I was living in Chicago, living three lives. I was going to school, I was in this group, and I was auditioning for anything that I could audition for. I ended up doing a lot of commercials and some theater.
Complex: Growing up in Joliet, Illinois, did you always have dreams of escaping and being in the Hollywood lights?
Janina: I never really had dreams of becoming a star. I was never that kid. I'm a music nerd and a theater geek. I never thought I would stay in Joliet, but I wanted to go where I was needed. I did some theater in Chicago and there are only so many commercials you can do, so I moved to L.A.
Complex: When did you move to L.A.?
Janina: About five years ago. I've always just done things that come naturally, and that's always been surrounding myself with artists that I respect and that are way better at what they do than at what I do [Laughs]. I've worked my ass off to earn the right to get a shot.
Complex: So did music lead you into acting?
Janina: Yeah, I took classical piano and was an orchestral percussionist. In high school, I was Maria in West Side Story and I had a total out-of-body experience and became someone else and I really had—sounds cliché, but I had that magical moment. Then I changed my whole life and I said at one point, "Shit, I want to be an actor. What now?" That's when I started living three lives in Chicago. When the group started falling apart, I moved to L.A. and started working steadily as an actor. I'm a musician—music will never go away—but my focus is acting, and I started late so I have to play catch-up. So that means I have to work twice as hard in this game. But it will never stop, I think I always feel I have to work twice as hard.
Complex: How long were you in the group for and when did it end?
Janina: We were together for two and half years, right before I moved to L.A. Well, even at the end of it, I was sort of living between L.A. and Chicago because I was so emotionally wrapped up, you know? When you really get into your life with a group of people, you can't just peace out. I don't know if you know this, but I released a music video this past Thursday.
Complex: It's a remake of Kanye West's "Love Lockdown," right?
Janina: Yeah.
Complex: I've seen a few comments saying it's better than the original.
Janina: Oh, yay! I'm glad.
Complex: Can you explain a little bit about the making of the video?
Janina: Yeah, I stepped away from music to focus on acting when I moved here. I don't think people understand that you can be dedicated to more than one medium because most people don't do it well, so I stepped away to make sure I did one thing well. In the middle of last year, I had a little bit of a mental breakdown. [Laughs.] I looked up in the sky and said, "I miss music so much! Universe, if you want me to do it, you better tell me," and people started calling out of the sky. But being who I am, I don't just say, "Hey, lets work." I'm not just a girl you can throw in the studio and cut tracks with. I am a producer and a musician, so I felt like I had to prove it to myself that I was ready to come back. So, I found a film compulsive friend of mine, Timo Chen, and I told him I had this idea—I don't want to call it a cover, I want to call it a flip, of Kanye's "Love Lockdown." I was going through a massive break-up—my five year relationship was ending—so this song and this video is all pure survival and I had to do it. I think that is why people are taking to it so well.
CLICK NEXT FOR PART 2, FEATURING JANINA'S THOUGHTS ON HER NEW ABC SHOW & BEING A SEX SYMBOL...
