Dying for Sex: How a Surprisingly Sexy Show About Cancer Was Brought to Life

Michelle, tell me about signing on to do the show and what stood out to you?

Michelle Williams: I hadn’t worked for quite a while, and that script really woke me up. It was so different than anything I’d encountered, and so immediately felt extremely special to me. I felt like I had stumbled into this treasure, and I immediately listened to the podcast, I think, on a drive. I was driving by myself, and by the time I had reached my destination, I had finished the podcast and was more affected by it than anything else in recent memory. And so, the combination of those two experiences, I knew then I’d been making this show. There were some hurdles to get past. Midway into our conversations, I found out I was pregnant with another baby. And so, then this got put on pause.

Meriwether: There was a moment when I was like, “We can make it work!”

Williams: This was one of the very first people that I told that I was pregnant. I was barely—it was glimmering in my…not my stomach, in my uterus.

Slate: Wait, what? Oh my God, I thought it was in your tummy.

Laughter

Meriwether: Michelle called me, and I was like, “I don’t know you at all. I’m so happy for you. Can you still somehow do this show?” We both were trying to figure out, like, yeah, maybe we could time it and VFX? And then it was like, “No, of course not.”

Williams: We were like, “This shouldn’t stop a woman from being in the workplace!” And then we started really imagining on a practical level what it would be like to block a scene with a giant stomach in the way and were like, “It’s going to be too hard.” And then, after a delivery and postpartum period, it never got it out of my mind. I picked up the phone and called my agent and said, “Who got that part? Tell me who is it?” And he said, “No, it hasn’t been made.”

Meriwether: It felt like your first love. You lose your first love, and then you’re like, “How can I love again? How can I love again?”

Rosenstock: I mean, it didn’t feel like anyone else could play the part. It felt like it didn’t make any sense for anyone else to play the part.

Meriwether: Yeah, so we ran to the airport, like, “Don’t get on the plane!”

Williams: After that, I ran into Liz, who said that she was moving to Brooklyn. And then I thought, oh, this is totally viable for me. Bcause if she’s going to be here, it makes sense for the show to shoot here and then I can stay home with these kids, and it’s not going to feel like as much of an upheaval to make this show New York City-based.

Meriwether: I was so worried that Michelle was going to think I was moving to Brooklyn to get her to make the show. I was trying to be like, “I’m moving to Brooklyn, unrelated…” Trying to not creep her out.