When Jenny Slate received an Emmy nomination for playing the best friend of
Michelle Williams’ character in the FX limited series “Dying for Sex,” the sudden
attention made her feel as if she were blinking in the sunlight.
And you can’t really blame her, because Slate is known as the squeaky voice behind “Marcel the Shell with Shoes On” and “Big Mouth,” and the quirky actress doing largely comedic work in “Obvious Child,” “Kroll Show” and “Everything Everywhere All at Once.”
Those roles wouldn’t necessarily prepare anyone for the part that led to her first Emmy nomination: Nikki Boyer, whose best friend, Molly, goes on a series of sexual adventures after being diagnosed with terminal cancer.
The scenes between the two women range from the emotional anguish of Molly’s final days in hospice, which move between dream sequences and cold reality, to the amusing complications of booking Molly’s next BDSM encounter.
“It was just overflowing with things that I loved and enjoyed in terms of what I like to watch, not just what I like to perform,” Slate said. “To see such intimacy on the page paired with such absolutely wacky and inventive and singular comedy was incredible.”
Williams and Slate transition from crying to laughing in the snap of a finger. “It is
certainly true that people experience doubt and confidence at the same time, that they experience exhaustion and great stamina at once, that there is a simultaneous nature to how we live, especially in intensity and in love — that those moments are about combination,” Slate said.
The close nature of Nikki and Molly’s friendship was rooted in a deep chemistry
between Slate and Williams, which the pair felt from their first meeting. Slate said they prepared as much as they could before surrendering to the moment. “It really is like magic,” she said. “It’s a version of falling into something with someone. It takes a lot of trust, and it also takes a lot of happiness and willingness to connect. Even just getting to do one scene with Michelle was a gigantic treasure for me.”
Slate drew from Elizabeth Meriwether and Kim Rosenstock’s script, but also from Molly and Nikki’s real-life experiences as described on their “Dying for Sex” podcast. “The more she and Molly share their story, the more others benefit,” Slate said. “In this iteration, even more people get to experience what it’s like to reach for what they want. I felt that in this role, I was really reaching for what I want, something I’ve been waiting for in so many ways.”
This story first ran in the Down to the Wire: Drama issue of TheWrap’s awards magazine.
Read more from the Down to the Wire: Drama issue here.
