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It's one thing for a mature actor to play gay in TV or film; it's another for an adolescent thespian, still growing into her womanhood, to handle a same-sex screen romance. But for 14-year-old Evan Rachel Wood -- who portrays Jessie Sammler on ABC's drama Once and Again -- it was no big deal.
"It wasn't hard, and it wasn't weird," insists the girlish-voiced Wood, who's been acting since she was 4. "I was always raised to just accept people for who they are, and it wasn't any different than if I was playing a story line with a boy. It was just fine."
In the upcoming plot twist, set to air in March after the three-year-old series takes a forced hiatus, Jessie finds herself dealing with confused feelings about her best friend, Katie, played by Mischa Barton (the wide-eyed roommate of the lovers in the 2001 girls-school film...
