So how do you make something like that real when it couldn’t be any less organically comfortable?
It’s like when you were a kid and you would make believe things. When you’re there on the set and you’re working with great actors like Michael Sheen and just some part of you really believes what’s happening. It’s probably not healthy but I think that’s what happens.
You’re on a show about sex. Did you expect I would be asking about the getting ready for bed scene?
[Laughs] I’m thrilled.
Were you looking for television?
In the last few years, I think TV has gotten so good and when I graduated from art school, from acting school a number of years ago, I was a purist. I was going to do theater and film and TV was sort of declasse’. I just think it’s gotten so good. Really the things I want to watch these days are the television shows.
What was the art school you went to?
NYU.
What did you learn there that are still helping you today?
So many things. I had great teachers whom I still work with today and I had great acting classes and also great academic classes. I think that’s important because I think actors should be as smart as they possibly can.
Are you still based in New York?
Yes, partly. I go back and forth. Sort of half and half. I’ve gotten really good at packing.
Was doing a Whit Stillman film part of your art school plan?
Absolutely. Yes, working with Whit was phenomenal. Those kinds of movies that are these auteur directors who have such a specific vision, it’s thrilling.
Did Damsels in Distress live up to your expectations of a Whit Stillman experience?
Yeah, I mean there’s a song and dance number at the end. It was like the best day of my life.
Is the ‘50s period of “Masters of Sex” something you relish, with all the costumes?
Yeah, I think it contributes to the fantasy of it all. I’ve never really done a period piece like that. The clothes were so beautiful. My first scene that we shot after we got picked up was in this unbelievable car. It just makes me feel like I’m my grandmother in all those pictures I grew up looking at. It seems like a time warp, it’s so cool.
Do you actually get to drive the old classic cars?
No. Sadly, I sit behind the wheel and pretend to drive it.
Do you have scenes with Lizzie Caplan?
I do. Our characters become friends in the series which is great, so there is this sort of strange triangular situation that arises. We all are kind of sickos and have a strange sense of humor and we just get a kick out of each other. It makes going to work a pleasure.
When you’re dealing with this material, do you have to laugh?
Yeah, as much as you possibly can. My character especially, because she has a hard time it was really necessary to have people who could make me laugh.
Do you remember any specific incidents of levity?
There was a day, one of the last days, we did a whole series of photos. He’s going to kill me for saying this, of Michael pumping various cast and crew members. The photos are spectacular. Just to amuse ourselves between takes, just for our own consumption, and now for you.
How much downtime did you have between shooting the pilot and the series?
A while. We shot the pilot in spring 2012 and we started in January 2013, so it’s a long time.
Was that hard to have such a gap?
TV’s weird because it’s both the greatest gig as an actor potentially because it can be all this work for all this time, but there are so many question marks at every stage of the process. You hope to get the pilot, you hope you get to stay on the pilot because people get replaced all the time, and then you hope the pilot gets picked up and now we’re hoping that we get to do a second series.
Was it hard to find the sort of sexual repression from 50 years ago, or was it maybe closer than you realized?
When I got the part, there was a part of me that thought I have nothing in common with a ‘50s housewife. How am I going to possibly do this? I was surprised and a little bit alarmed to discover how like her I was in a lot of ways. Not necessarily in a repressed kind of way, but in just the questions she’s asking, the things that are important to her, what she’s wondering about.
Did you delve into any of the Masters and Johnson research?
I read the book that we based the show on. I didn’t read any of their work specifically and in the first season, they haven’t published any of the books. We’re sort of saving it for a second season. I did a lot of research on the time period because I wanted to know how scandalous what they were doing was in the context of the 1950s
Did you find anything surprising?
You know what surprised me was the stereotype we have of the ‘50s is everyone’s really repressed. These perfect housewives, perfect children and in so much of the research I did, especially about women, there was a lot of subversive behavior going on just under the surface of the culture. A lot of the sexual revolution that erupted in the ‘60s started in the ‘50s as a kind of pushback against this really buttoned up society. I thought that was really interesting.
