When audiences first met Leisha Hailey, she was singing in the '90s indie-pop duo The Murmurs. She played a version of herself in the cult lesbian movie All Over Me in 1997, around the same time she was dating k.d. lang.

But her celesbian status was certified with 2004's The L Word.

At the time, she was the only out cast member, playing the hilarious, wish-she-was-your-real-life-gal-pal Alice Pieszecki. When it ended after six seasons, it was hard to shake—some fans confused her with her character.

"Yeah, I mean that definitely happens, but in my personal life people know the difference," Hailey tells NewNowNext. "I surround myself with people who know the difference."

Since The L Word, Hailey has returned to television for episodes of American Dad, The New Normal, Supernatural, and, most recently, Silicon Valley. But in her new film, Dead Ant, she's marrying her love of music with her affinity for genre films (comedy and horror, specifically), playing an aging rocker named Stevie, who takes peyote in the desert, only to find her band being attacked by giant ants.

"We did a lot with green screen—we’re screaming at green tape a lot," she shares. "The challenge is you’re taking these people that are so—they’re definitely still high from the night before, and also just out of it probably from all the drug use from back when they were big rock stars. And then acting scared on top of that—that’s what was funny about it."

And keeping a straight face with co-stars Tom Arnold, Sean Astin, Rhys Coiro, and Jake Busey was no easy feat. "We were just trying to find moments to make things really over the top," she recalls." Like, in really dramatic moments, I would try to do sort of ‘80s music-video pose or something. We were trying to make it as over-the-top as we possibly could."

Dead Ant, which early reviewers likened to Attack of the Killer Tomatoes, is a different kind of project for Hailey. But she says she relates to the Lita Ford-esque Stevie.

"I have been doing music for over 20 years, so I really identified with the has-been quality of a band from the early ‘90s or late ‘80s," she says. "I just thought it was funny to play something that I almost felt like I was embarking on myself... There was a time with my last band [Uh Huh Her] where I decided—well, I didn’t decide, I just started feeling a little old up there to be doing it anymore."

She met with writer-director Ron Carlson to nail Stevie's look.

"We met at, like, trashy rock shops on Hollywood Boulevard," she recalls. "I think once we found the pants, and then we got the bangs, and I watched like 8,000 hours of Lita Ford—I just kind of came up with Stevie."

After Dead Ant makes the rounds at horror festivals, Hailey says she's returning familiar territory with the reboot of The L Word. (She's a producer this time around, alongside former cast mates Jennifer Beals and Kate Moennig.) "Obviously my next year will be a big change in my life again."

"Christmas is coming," she adds, referring excitedly to the reboot. "I think it’ll be a good launching pad for different ideas I’ve had in the last couple of years."

Fans are eager to see Alice again, but Dead Ant, Silicon Valley, and other recent projects have given her the opportunity to expand her repertoire. And for that, she's grateful.

"I’ve always looked at [The L Word] as something that’s been a positive force in my life," says Hailey, who's been out since she was a teen. "I do think, however, Hollywood can pigeonhole you and I didn’t really expect that to happen so much after the show was over. And I did find that that was happening a lot. I would get a lot of parts offered to me that were gay and it just kind of became a little, I don’t know, old after a while. They just assume that’s all you can play. Just from an actor’s standpoint."

As for music, Hailey said she's semi-retired, but she wouldn't rule out a reunion show with the Murmurs. "We’ve talked about a one-night-only kind of thing in Los Angeles. You know, get the old band back together. But as far as touring and that whole lifestyle, I’m pretty much done with that."

Except for when she's playing a rock star on screen, that is.

Dead Ant premieres October 10 at the Screamfest Horror Film Festival in L.A.