It’s just me Kismet checking in with my monthly haranguing cajoling encouraging for you to check out the FX series Dying for Sex. It’s profound, it’s hilarious, and it’s nominated for nine Emmys! Which means its stars are still busy giving interviews as part of their award campaigns. Michelle Williams, who also executive produced the show, is nominated for Outstanding Lead Actress in a Limited Series or Movie — a category she won in 2019 for Fosse/Verdon. The Hollywood Reporter just ran a piece in which Michelle talks about the humor laced throughout the series, still getting nervous ahead of award shows (despite her kabillion career nods), and the joy of celebrating a best friendship as the main storyline.

Getting nominated for awards is still thrilling, if a little nerve-wracking: “I get so nervous,” Williams, 44, confesses. “It’s a lot of adrenaline and I still have to keep taking my own advice, which is to try and stay in the moment and enjoy it because it’s all over so quickly.”

She said yes to the project right away: As soon as showrunners and executive producers Kim Rosenstock and Elizabeth Meriwether presented the limited series idea to Williams, she recognized a professional calling. “It wasn’t an intellectual thought or a conversation that I had with a bunch of people,” says Williams, who’s also an executive producer of the project. “It was like my heart committed to this the moment that I read the script and listened to the podcast.”

A love letter to friendship: At the core of the show is the bond that grows increasingly deeper between Molly and Nikki, and Williams notes the goal of the series was “to honor the love that exists between women and show that a friendship can be as passionate as a romantic relationship.”

Finding the humor wasn’t all that hard: Despite the heaviness of the circumstances the friends find themselves navigating — cancer support groups, convoluted health care coverage, palliative care — the series is not without levity, with Williams personally finding humor in the understatedly hilarious ways the creative team brought the details of the story to life onscreen. Says Williams with a laugh: “You read something in the script like the puppy guy and they’re doing puppy play and she’s going to pee on puppy guy and you’re like, ‘Well, I wonder what kind of dog it’s going to be, what’s this puppy going to look like?’ And then one day this marvelous actor [Conrad Ricamora] shows up and you’re like, ‘Oh wow. I never imagined that it was going to be a vizsla. It’s a red dog!’”

Viewer reactions have been wonderfully overwhelming: “I continue to be moved by the response from the communities that this show is really speaking to: the cancer community, the bereaved community. To feel like the work that you did has found a meaning in somebody’s life is beyond my wildest dreams of what I could offer,” says Williams. “Every time that I hear from somebody who feels aided and abetted by this show, I am hands together in a prayer emoji.”

[From THR]

That puppy guy commentary is priceless! I always love reading these inside baseball moments from actors, and Michelle in particular often has really vivid imagery when discussing her process. Back during Brokeback Mountain, I remember her saying that for the scene where she first sees the boys kissing, her preparation/mantra was, “I want to be like water. I want to slip through fingers, but hold up a ship.” 20 years later and I’m still not entirely sure what that means, yet find it utterly beautiful. While not quite the same poetic tone, something about Michelle reading the Dying for Sex script and wondering, “Hm, what kind of dog will it be?” I find fascinating. (And fun fact: Conrad Ricamora, the actor who plays “puppy guy,” originated the role of Mary’s Husband in Tony winner Cole Escola’s hit play Oh, Mary!, off and on Broadway.)

As for honoring the love, passion, and intimacy between friends, well, that kind of feels like the overarching story Michelle is here on earth to tell. Her longtime best friendship with Busy Philipps is testament to that, and their sharing their bond with the world brings joy to many, judging by the comments we get when covering the pair. Here’s to all of our besties!

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