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Emmy nominations were announced on Tuesday, and if you start reading them now you have a good shot at getting through all the categories by the time the awards air on September 14! Seriously, there are A LOT of categories. I’m thrilled, though, because my favorite show of the year was honored with a respectable nine nominations. Yes, I’m talking about Dying for Sex, the (mostly) comedy based on a true story about a woman who leaves her husband upon getting a terminal cancer diagnosis and instead opts to die with her best friend, all while she embarks on a journey of sexual discovery in between chemo sessions. Hilarious! It truly is hard to capture how funny the series is, as well as emotional and soul-wrenching. One of the episodes is titled “Feelings Can Become Amplified,” and that’s a good descriptor of the whole show. It was profound to watch it, and newly-nominated Lead Actress Michelle Williams says it was equally profound to bring it to life:
Dying for Sex is written by Liz Meriwether and Kim Rosenstock, and loosely based on the real-life story of Molly Kochlan (Williams) who leaves her husband in search of sexual pleasure following a terminal cancer diagnosis. Molly and her best friend Nikki had co-hosted a podcast based on Molly’s blog “Everything Leads to This.” The show also stars Emmy nominees Jenny Slate as Nikki and Rob Delaney as ‘Neighbor Guy’, with Jay Duplass as Molly’s husband Steve and Sissy Spacek as Molly’s mother Gail.
Slate and Delaney also scored nominations today, giving the series a total of nine.
The legacy of Molly is carried on by the show’s visibility and success, Williams noted. “She lives on, she gets to live a little more and we get to gather in her name once again.” She called the show’s Emmy recognition an opportunity to “make more contact” with Molly, saying “it’s like another download of her energy.”
Playing the role of Molly has left Williams with a certain perspective on her own life, she said. “One of the things that really lingers for me is her radical insistence on, first of all, life on her own terms without fear of judgment and her commitment to pleasure amidst pain, to try and hold enough space for both things. I can take that as a reminder just through my normal days, which have their ups and downs, and can be difficult or joyful, but that they don’t have to just be one thing.”
She continued, “We have been so blessed, so fortunate to be on the receiving end of what the show has meant to people. And I greet that with such appreciation and so much humility. And again, I draw it all right back to Molly and Nikki. We are amplifiers of who they were, so all the credit goes straight back to them. But to receive the reaction of the show have been one of the most profound experiences of my professional life.”
Yeah, this show really knocked me on my ass, and I guess I’m a glutton for punishment because I’ve watched the whole series three times through! Throwing the light and love back onto the real women, Molly Kochlan and Nikki Boyer, is a very gracious way for Michelle to handle the acclaim. Still, everyone who worked on the show earned every inch of their nominations! They include Outstanding Limited or Anthology Series, Directing, Writing, Casting, Music, Contemporary Costumes, plus the three acting noms: Michelle for Lead Actress, Jenny Slate for Supporting Actress (though you could make the argument that she’s really a co-lead), and Rob Delaney for Supporting Actor. I had no doubt Michelle would be nominated, and I think the win will be a toss up between her and Cristin Milioti for The Penguin. I also felt solid that Jenny Slate would get a nomination, though I didn’t realize this is her first from the Emmys, congrats! And likewise to Rob Delaney (this is his first Emmy nom for acting), who was so, so perfect as Neighbor Guy. Both of them are up against multiple actors from Adolescence, though, who I think will end up winning. And not for nothing, the “contemporary costumes” really were spiffy!
Also sending congrats to Robby Hoffman — she was mesmerizing in her one-episode appearance on Dying for Sex, and just scored a Guest Actress in a Comedy nom for Hacks.
Photos credit: Janet Mayer/INSTARimages.com, Darla Khazei/INSTARimages, Getty
Rob Delaney was so brilliant in Catastrophe he made me want to watch whatever he’s in. Interesting that he and Michelle have both had profound experience with grief to bring to this project.
Best show maybe ever. We were so gobsmacked at how amazing and profound it was. Then funny just when you thought you couldn’t take any more. Absolutely brilliant. I’m sad I can’t watch it again for the first time.
Haven’t seen the show but I loved the book. I cried like a baby a few times while reading it. Michelle is one of my faves so I look forward to watching this,
I have been keeping my tv viewing to decidedly light fare, due to the stress of the fall of democracy and the start of the american holocaust.
But this article makes me want to watch this, though there will inevitably be crying.
Michelle Williams is such a great actress, i LOVED her Gwen Verdon miniseries.