Before she got a leading role in Three womenBetty Gilpin was “obsessed” with the book about female desire on which the Starz show is based.
“I thought this was something you weren’t supposed to talk about,” Gilpin told Yahoo Entertainment about the pressures and vulnerability that come with women’s sexuality. “And then there it was, right there in front of me, in the stories of three completely different women.”
Three womenpremiering September 13, is created and executive produced by Lisa Taddeo, who also wrote the book about three real women in America. The limited series stars Gilpin, alongside DeWanda Wise and Gabrielle Creevy as a trio of women whose disparate stories Shailene Woodley’s character Gia chronicles in a book exploring desire.
One of those storylines revolves around Gilpin’s character, Lina, a suburban housewife whose husband recoils when she touches him. Gilpin said that playing this role as an actor was “such a gift.”
“It’s so rare to have that much space and red meat on the page to play with, and I just felt so lucky,” she said.
To say the series is steamy would be an understatement. There is full-frontal nudity, intimate scenes with multiple partners, and a particularly candid moment in a car.
“I had done a lot of sex scenes, but I think the goal of those sex scenes was, ‘Okay, we need to make the audience think I’m a 12.’ If I’m at whatever number on the scale of patriarchy or society, we have to have all hands on deck, every department has to paint, sculpt, light, and style me as the video game version of myself and then create this corny, unrealistic sex scene that’s kind of algorithm fodder that we can use to do these other weird scenes,” Gilpin said.
Three women explores the moments that happen behind closed doors that aren’t always photoshopped and sexy, which is something Gilpin appreciated.
“These scenes felt so important and integral to these women’s stories,” Gilpin said. “You kind of see all the in-between moments that women have that we don’t talk about, the backstage moments or the deep breaths in the bathroom or the car where you think that those feelings that you’re having in those moments — those fantasies or fears — are just yours.”
For Wise, who plays Sloane, a woman in an open marriage with Richard (Blair Underwood), it was about “empathy and understanding” to embrace her character’s story and the intimate scenes that came with it, she said.
However, filming these scenes, with multiple partners, presented unique challenges for both Wise and Underwood.
“I was more concerned with making sure our guests were comfortable,” Wise said of the actors who went with them. “They needed to know we had their backs.”
Underwood agreed.
“I’m so glad you said that, because I felt the exact same thing,” he said, crediting intimacy coordinator Claire Warden for helping facilitate the conversations on set. “We already, very quickly, DeWanda and I, had a kinship and a comfort level, but then to throw in this third element, who’s a guest star for that one day, it’s like, how do you make them feel comfortable?”
To achieve that goal, Underwood used humor to reconcile a potentially awkward moment on set with a fellow actor who also happened to be a fan.
“I laughed. That foursome we had, there was a brother there, and he was like, ‘Man, I’ve been a fan of yours for years. I’ve always wanted to work with you. I just didn’t think I’d be naked while we were doing it,'” Underwood said. “I said, ‘Hey, let’s make this easy. Let’s go.'”
Regarding his role as a male actor on a series that intimately captures women’s stories, Underwood said his goal was ultimately to be respectful.
“I feel like I was raised by a strong mother and father. So a lot of that comes from who you are as a person, how you go through life and how you present yourself, so it wasn’t that much of a change,” he said. “I tried to be respectful to everyone, but I have a huge admiration for women, especially strong, powerful women like everyone around me, everyone on that set and in my personal life.”
“Blair was just raised right,” Wise added. “There’s no other me that’s like, ‘OK, I’m working with women now. I have to behave.'”
Three women premieres September 13 at 10 p.m. ET on Starz and at midnight on the Starz app.
