When Jenny Slate received an Emmy nomination for playing the best friend to
Michelle Williams character in the FX Limited series “Dying for Sex”, the sudden
Attention made her feel as if she was blinking in the sunlight.
And you can’t really blame her, because Slate is known as the sparkling voice behind “Marcel the Shell with Shoes On” and “Big Mouth”, and the snappy actress who largely makes comedic work in “obvious child”, “Kroll show” and “Everything Everywhere at Any.”
These roles would not necessarily prepare anyone for the part that led to her first Emmy nomination: Nikki Boyer, whose best friend, Molly, continues with a series of sexual adventures after being diagnosed with terminal cancer.
The scenes between the two women extend from the emotional anxiety in Molly’s last days at Hospice, which move between dream sequences and cold reality, to the entertaining complications of booking Molly’s next BDSM meeting.
“It was just overflowing with things that I loved and liked what I like to look at, not just what I like to do,” Slate said. “Seeing such intimacy on the page in combination with such absolutely crazy and inventive and singular comedy was incredible.”
Williams and slate transition from crying to laughter in a finger. “It’s
Certainly true that people experience doubt and confidence at the same time, that they experience fatigue and great endurance at once, that there is a simultaneous character for how we live, especially in intensity and dear – that these moments are about combination, ”said Slate.
The near nature of Nikki and Molly’s friendship was anchored in a deep chemistry
Between slate and Williams, whom the couple felt from their first meeting. Slate said they prepared as much as they could before handing over to the moment. “It’s really like magic,” she said. “It’s a version of falling into something with someone. It requires a lot of confidence, and it also requires a lot of happiness and willingness to connect. Even just making a scene with Michelle was a gigantic treasure for me.”
Slate withdrew from Elizabeth Meriwether and Kim Rosenstock’s script, but also from Molly and Nikki’s real experiences described in their “Dying for Sex” podcast. “The more she and Molly share their story, the more favor,” Sade said. “In this iteration, even more people get to experience what it is like to reach for what they want. I felt that in this role I really was enough for what I want, something I have been waiting in so many ways.”
This story first ran down to The Wire: Drama Issue of thewrap’s Awards Magazine.
Read more from Down to the Wire: Drama question here.
