The Bridgerton prequel series focused on Queen Charlotte is coming out next week. In Queen Charlotte: A Bridgerton Story, Golda Rosheuvel will return as the HBIC queen we already know from the existing series, while India Amarteifio will play the teenaged version of the queen as she meets and marries King George III. The main actors and producers appeared at the LA premiere last week, which included a screening of the first episode and a panel discussion after. Both Queen Charlottes, India and Golda, talked about wearing their natural hair on screen and how meaningful that representation is to them.

The “Bridgerton” universe is expanding as creator and executive producer Shonda Rhimes now shifts her focus to the prequel series “Queen Charlotte: A Bridgerton Story,” featuring one of the franchise’s most captivating and beloved characters.

The Netflix historical drama follows Queen Charlotte’s rise to the throne and her love story with King George III. Golda Rosheuvel who plays the formidable queen in “Bridgerton,” also stars in “Queen Charlotte.” She portrays the queen in the present timeline.

Meanwhile, India Amarteifio portrays the bright-eyed 17-year-old version of the queen as her reign begins.

On April 26, Rhimes joined Rosheuvel and Amarteifio at the extravagant Los Angeles premiere of “Queen Charlotte.” Fellow cast members Corey Mylchreest (King George III) and Arsema Thomas (Young Lady Agatha Danbury), executive producer Betsy Beers and director Tom Verica were also in attendance at the event, which included a screening of the first episode followed by a panel.

During the panel, led by Variety’s Angelique Jackson, the cast spoke about the significance of Queen Charlotte, a Black woman, being at the center of the new series. The character instantly became a fan-favorite for “Bridgerton” viewers because of her witty replies, elaborate ball gowns and intricate hair pieces that tower high above her head.

Charlotte’s signature hairdos are further highlighted in the new series. In one of the “Queen Charlotte” promotional photos, Amarteifio sports a sparkling crown and a large afro.

On a more serious note, the “Queen Charlotte” star continued, “This job is so much bigger than us and myself and it just means so much to have this representation, for especially young Black girls growing up.”

Amarteifio recalled not seeing herself represented on screen often as a child. “I never thought growing up wanting to be an actor that this role would be something that I could even consider myself being a part of,” she shared.

Rosheuvel also opened up about being on a show that showcases Black women and their hair in England’s Regency era.

“It’s extraordinary on one hand and very heavy on the other,” she explained. “I remember my initial chats with hair and makeup and being really really shocked, actually, that they wanted to just tease my own hair out and have that as kind of the front line of the wig.”

She revealed that she had never had that experience on set before.

“Those words and that kind of discussion of showing my own natural hair within a character’s look had never ever been discussed with me. So, I got so emotional and I cried because it was such a moment of I’m being seen not only as an actress, as a person of color. But this character is being seen through these ideas, hair and makeup and costume and how the show looks,” she said.

The British actor added, “I will never ever forget it.”

Viewers can experience the wigs, songs and Charlotte’s powerful reign when the series hits Netflix on May 4.

I love all this discussion of natural hair on the panel of a big Netflix show. India talked about how meaningful it felt for her to provide this representation for young Black girls, since it was something she didn’t have and couldn’t even imagine when she was growing up. And Golda spoke similarly, saying that her work on Bridgerton was the first time in her career where her natural hair was to be used (as the starting point for the wigs) and she was shocked and touched that her own hair was finally being used in the character’s look. Also, Arsema Thomas, who plays the young Lady Danbury, bonded with India over natural haircare. Apparently, the (white, male) director Tom Verica suggested a few topics for them to discuss during their audition. His suggestion was HBO Max’s “Sex and the City” sequel series “And Just Like That…,” but Arsema and India ended up talking about their hair routines (because that series is trite and there’s not much to say about it). Anyway, I am very excited for this series and the representation. Hopefully it will hold us over until the third season of “Bridgerton” finally comes out.

Photos credit Netflix and Getty Images for Netflix

Lizzy Caplan is a working actress who consistently turns in great performances. She can do comedy, horror and drama convincingly and she doesn’t keep her personal life under wraps but she’s not on social media. I’ve seen interviews with her but don’t feel like I “know” her, like I do other actors. Caplan stars as the Glenn Close character, Alex, in a Fatal Attraction remake series on Paramount Plus. It just premiered yesterday. Amanda Peet plays the wife and Joshua Jackson is the cheater Dan, originally played by Michael Douglas. It’s in the trailer so it’s not a spoiler to say that it takes place in flashbacks while Jackson is in jail ten years later for Caplan’s murder.

Caplan has a new interview with Rolling Stone. I just learned from that piece that she has an 18-month-old son, Alfie, with her husband of six years, British actor Tom Riley. Caplan and Riley move to where their jobs are and live in both London and New York. She dryly joked to Rolling Stone that they would have to set down roots once Alfie needed to go to school. Here’s more from that interview.

On her baby and lifestyle
Because I feel like I’m a 700-year-old woman with a baby who wakes up at 6 am. I’m really relishing this time off.I’m trying to bank as much time as possible with my kid. It’s great because he’s 18 months now, which is an extremely hilarious and fun age. But, as anybody who has a baby that age knows, it’s very exhausting. So I hang with him, and then I basically faceplant at the end of the day.

I can’t imagine actually only living in one place — I get bored. We like to switch it up. But it’s also SO MUCH paperwork to live in two countries. I’m just thinking about that sentence written down and what a douchey, douchey sentence it is. It’s soooo haaard to live in two countries.

We go wherever our jobs are… We’ve been doing that since we’ve been together, which has been eight years. But now we’ve got a kid. So the clock is ticking. We can’t do this forever. Like eventually, I guess we have to educate him.”

On the Fatal Attraction reboot
I’m as guilty as anybody else when I hear that something is being remade. My knee-jerk reaction is always, ‘Well, why? Why would we do that?’

But Fatal Attraction, there’s something so unique about it in that it is a film that fully holds up, It’s just as sexy, exciting, and scary, and the performances are just as compelling as they were in the ‘80s. And yet, audiences — and the world — have changed so dramatically. Our sensibilities have shifted completely to the point that [the original] Fatal Attraction, I truly believe it couldn’t exist today. Because we want to know more about where the Alex Forrest character is coming from. We want to see the Dan character suffer consequences for his actions. At the end of the movie, they zoom in on a photo of the family, like, ‘Domesticity wins!’ And I just feel like [today] we are more primed to look for gray areas and nuance.

On her character’s psychology
Alex is living in constant fear of abandonment. We’ll get to see more of her upbringing, her family life. I think for her, it’s a combination of brain chemistry, upbringing, and circumstance. So we wanted to take all of that really seriously without saying, ‘Oh, this is a detailed portrait of somebody with borderline personality disorder,’ because it certainly is not.”

On how things have changed since Fata Attraction was made
We’re almost shifting back into a prude-er way of being. I do think it’s a strange time in our society where, on one hand, things feel hyper-sexualized in terms of your appearance, on social media, and flaunting your body in that way. Yet it also feels removed from actual sexuality and eroticism and all the things that made these erotic thrillers work back in the day. There’s a distance between the sexiness of Instagram and actual sexiness.

[From Rolling Stone]

There’s more in the piece about how sad she was to miss the Party Down revival (a half truth, as the author reveals but I won’t spoil it) and she promises to be in season four. They also talk more about Alex’s mental illness, and how careful both Caplan and the showrunner, Alexandra Cunningham, were to portray it as both nuanced and not representative of everyone with borderline personality disorder.

As for remakes, she’s saying what most of us think about them – there’s no need, why revisit that masterpiece, don’t ruin the original/my childhood. This looks fabulous though, and Caplan’s interview really sold me on it. I like how the streaming services are giving us so much content, both original and remakes. Some of the remakes are unnecessary but some appeal to our nostalgia (Gilmore Girls, The Conners) and others, like this one, take a compelling story and tell us what’s next. I’ll give this a chance and I bet once I see an episode or two I won’t be able to imagine another actress in Caplan’s place. She’s that good.

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photos credit: Ryan Hartford/startraksphoto.com

Yahoo Life has a series called “It Figures,” in which influential figures discuss body image. Katherine Heigl is in “Firefly Lane” on Netflix and the second half of its final season premiered a few days ago. Katherine spoke to Yahoo for its series and talked about her past body image and how it’s evolved to present day. She talks about how negatively she looked at herself earlier in her career and says something many people will find familiar: that when she looks back at that time now she can’t believe how she perceived herself compared to how she actually looked. And she talks about her view of her body in present day and her approach toward her body and aging.

Katherine Heigl made her film debut decades ago, kickstarting a massively successful career on-screen — most notably as the “it” girl for rom-coms of the early 2000s. Looking back, one of her biggest regrets is how she treated her body.

“I can’t believe how mean I was to myself. It almost makes me want to cry because it breaks my heart,” the Firefly Lane actress tells Yahoo Life. “I was so f***ing mean. And I said the most awful things to myself and I was so hard on my body.”

The 44-year-old recalls that she “hated” the way she looked at the time and would often compare herself to those around her. “I always felt I was like, so much bigger and heavier than everybody else,” she says.

[The negative self-talk is] something that Heigl is cognizant of as her figure evolves. However, getting older has presented new challenges to her experience with body acceptance.

“February or so [in 2021], I started inexplicably gaining weight, like a lot of weight, like I think I put on 20 pounds. And I couldn’t figure it out. Everything I had always done in the past wasn’t working,” she says, noting that she returned to old habits. “I restricted, I restricted, I restricted, I started working out more, working out more, working out more, giving up everything that I like and literally not losing a pound. Nothing budged.”

She went on to say that she was “intermittent fasting,” which she likens to “starving yourself for 16 hours a day.” When she brought her concerns to doctors, Heigl felt dismissed.

“I started going to doctors and a lot of just like regular general practitioners, ob-gyns [told me], ‘Oh, you know, just exercise more and restrict calories.’ And I’d go, ‘I am doing those things. I’m down to 1,200 calories a day. Any lower and I’m gonna pass out.’ And they’d be like, ‘Oh, well, you know, this is just kind of part of getting older.’ And I was like, ‘Really?’”

Heigl explains that she’s learned to ask herself questions about how she’s feeling in her body in an attempt to remain grounded and focused on her health, rather than her appearance.

“‘Katie, if you weren’t in front of camera, would you care? Would you care about your weight?’” she asks. “The answer was yes, I would care. Because I don’t feel well. And I’m tired and I have no energy and I’m moody as hell. My body doesn’t feel like my own.”

Most importantly, she wanted to be given the opportunity to address the weight gain “in a healthy way,” she says. “It can be done holistically, it can be done mindfully, you know. But this idea like, either live with it or stop eating just really pissed me off.”

As she’s found the means to approach her body in a more mindful way, she’s attempted to apply the same mindset to other areas of her life. The difficult part is coming to terms with how she wants to see herself age versus what others might expect of her.

“I’m not against anybody doing whatever they feel they need to to feel their best, to wake up in the morning and have self-confidence and feel whatever best that is for them. It’s so individual and so personal,” she explains. “I want people to understand I am in the public eye. I made a choice to be. I feel it is part of my job to look my very best, within reason. But if I weren’t in the public eye, I still think I would want to look and feel my best for my age, within reason.”

And she wants to be as transparent as she can be as a person in the spotlight going through it.

“I get a little tired of the idea that like actresses just have genetically superior DNA. Maybe some do, I don’t know. But I know I have made choices to maintain, as one will. I also have made choices not to go too far because it’s not been worth it to me,” she says. “I don’t want to change my face, and I’m not interested in looking 25 anymore. That was a nice time, it has passed.”

[From Yahoo Life]

Katherine specifically references re-watching “The Ugly Truth,” as the project where she was shocked at how great she looked then compared to what she thought at the time. But I just kept thinking of that scene in “Knocked Up” when she gets the promotion and they tell her to lose weight in a roundabout way because they can’t legally tell her to do so. I also remember a time when she was lauded for being a more “healthy weight” compared to some of her medical drama costars, but even if people thought they were being positive, it probably felt different to her. I thought it was interesting that she talked about her recent 20-pound weight gain and being dismissed by doctors, but never really talked about whether she found a solution or just learned to accept it. I think her pivoting to talking about people doing what they need to feel their best indicates the former. I do like that she hit back against the idea that “actresses just have genetically superior DNA.” So many promote that idea and it’s infuriating.

Photos credit: Vince Flores/Avalon and Netflix/Firefly Lane

On Saturday, the Prince and Princess of Wales celebrated their twelfth wedding anniversary, literally through gritted teeth. The Kensington Palace social media accounts posted this one photo, taken by photographer Matt Porteous, for the “happy day.” You don’t even have to be eagle-eyed to pick up on the fact that William and Kate organized one single day with a photographer last summer and they’ve been releasing photos from the shoot ever since. Their anniversary photo was taken the same day as the Mother’s Day photos, and the same day as their Christmas card photo.

It wouldn’t have been so bad if they were waiting to release a really good pic of themselves, but they were holding on to this photo for months and months and it’s just not flattering for either of them. Kate looks like she’s being held hostage by someone who just ripped a rancid fart. William…didn’t even bother to remove his sunglasses, and his smile looks insincere. The bikes are a convenient excuse for them to not get too close. It looks like they don’t even live together, idk.

Meanwhile, this news came out on their anniversary eve: apparently, William has decided that he’ll do a documentary about HIS life, just like Harry! It’s so clearly all about Harry and the fact that William is copying his younger brother, much like Kate constantly copies everything (superficial) about Meghan.

Prince William is to front a fly on the wall documentary following him as heir to the throne — in a landmark first and a major blow to his sulking brother. The future monarch has invited ITV’s cameras to join him as he travels the country on a homelessness initiative. It will give the public their most intimate and candid insight yet into Wills, 40, and his family.

The serious and responsible TV appearances will focus on life as a working senior royal — and be in stark contrast to Prince Harry’s countless bombshell interviews and documentary appearances, which he has used to devastate his family and the historic institution. ITV chiefs hope a successful first run this summer — highlighting William’s passionate work on a major new homelessness project — will lead to further instalments.

A TV source said: “This is pretty extraordinary — it’s never been done before. Generally access to senior royals is very limited and totally controlled, but William clearly wants to change that. He’s keen to highlight his work, particularly on a homeless project which was a subject very close to his mother’s heart, and to connect with the public on a new level. He knows all too well how important it is that the monarchy develops a more modern relationship with the British people. TV is a great way to do that, but this is a dramatic contrast to what Harry has been doing.

“William has invited cameras to follow him as he fulfils his duties, giving a proper insight into himself and his work as Prince of Wales — this isn’t anything like his brother’s TV appearances.”

[From The Sun]

“This isn’t anything like his brother’s TV appearances.” Harry and Meghan made a documentary about their African tour in 2019 and that was mostly focused on their work and events, but the headlines were about how William was incandescent with rage that Meghan and Harry spoke candidly about how vulnerable and abused they felt. Harry also did The Me You Can’t See, a wonderful docuseries about mental health. Additionally, this is not the first documentary William has attempted, although I’m not surprised that no one remembers Prince William: A Planet For Us All (terrible use of a colon) in 2020. That was a documentary where William wandered around various royal estates and spoke vaguely about his keenness for the environment. This new project will be in the same vein – William wandering around, saying sh-t like “yar, we’ve got to solve homelessness.” Anyway, William is a f–king embarrassment and he should probably use some of his Duchy money to buy himself a new personality instead of incessantly copying Harry.

Photos courtesy of Matt Porteous for Kensington Palace.

I wondered when the British media would get to this, or if they would ignore the issue because they got terribly burned by it last September. When QEII passed away, Prince Harry was “included” in the week-long grieving and funeral arrangements, including various processions, casket-movements and “standing watch” or something. I know there are formal names for all of that stuff, but the point of it was that while Harry was “included,” he was being visibly “punished” for his crimes (the crimes of marrying a Black woman and prioritizing his wife and not allowing the institution to kill her).

The punishment was that Harry wasn’t allowed to wear his military uniform. He’s a combat veteran who served two tours of duty in Afghanistan. The international press was outraged on Harry’s behalf – American media did segments on the uniform debacle, and the photos of Harry looking dignified in his suit made him stand out like a king. The conversation got so bonkers that Harry even released a statement telling the press to settle down, that he was just doing all of this to show respect to his late grandmother. King Charles, facing down a massive negative press cycle just days into his reign, relented and allowed Harry to wear a uniform for the standing-guard thing with the grandchildren. That was it. And now it looks like Charles has also banned Harry from wearing a military uniform to the coronation.

Prince Harry could be facing ‘uniform humiliation’ at King Charles III’s coronation as he may not be allowed to wear military garb.

The Duke of Sussex did announce that he will be attending the historic coronation on May 6 – but he will be alone as Meghan and their two children Prince Archie and Princess Lilibet will remain at home in California.

Now royal commentators are considering what the prince will be wearing and whether he will even be allowed to fit within the processions to Westminster Abbey.

Military Historian Dr Peter Johnston told True Royalty TV’s The Royal Beat that Harry may be allowed to display a different tribute to his service despite serving two tours in Afghanistan.

‘I imagine Harry won’t wear uniform [at the Coronation],’ he said. ‘Even as a veteran who did two tours in Afghanistan, he won’t wear uniform. I imagine he’ll wear his medals but quite where he fits within the procession and where he comes, I think will be probably reasonably similar to where he was at the funeral as well.’

[From The Daily Mail]

Yeah. Again, I’m sure it does sting Harry, which is their intention, but also – he’s the bigger man and they all know it. He knows that he served. He knows that he went to war. He knows that his father and brother are the absolute worst. So he’ll wear his Dior suit and look like a million bucks and all of these nasty little people will crow about how clever they look for punishing him. It will blow up in their faces yet again, because they are all idiots.

Photos courtesy of Avalon Red, Cover Images.

Maybe I missed it, but Thomas Markle was keeping a relatively low profile ever since QEII died, correct? He got some mileage out of faking a stroke last year, just before the British tabloids were about to fly him out for the Jubbly. They had big plans to parade him around all of the events and “force” some kind of awkward reunion between Thomas and the Duchess of Sussex. Much like his “heart attack” just before Meghan’s wedding, the stroke was conveniently timed to avoid a more thorough examination of his actions, words and behavior. Now, Samantha Markle has been trying to sue Meghan for a while and Samantha’s lawsuit just keeps getting more and more unhinged. Well, long story short, these grifters are back. They sat down for an interview with an Australian outlet:

Apparently, this airs tonight? It features Toxic Tom’s “deathbed plea” to Meghan, as he sits beside two of his other grifter children, and begs (to camera) “How can I fix this?” Let me take a swing at this one, Toxic Tom: you should try to do what Meghan advised back in 2018, which is stop talking to the media, stop selling her out, stop listening to your unhinged grifter daughter Samantha, and actually act like you have the good sense god gave a goose. Then, within the same f–king beat, Samantha says that Meghan “would still be a waitress if it wasn’t for dad.” And Samantha also claims that Meghan and Harry are “very unhealthy for each other, it’s a toxic relationship.”

Imagine being this grasping, this disgusting, all for a relatively paltry payout. Notice, as well, that while the British media is covering these quotes, they’re not the ones paying for it. Dan Wootton, Piers Morgan, the Mail, the Sun, they’ve all spent years paying Thomas and Samantha thousands of dollars to recite scripts and lie about Meghan. The British media has stopped paying – which is why Tom and Scammy ran to an Australian outlet.

Photos courtesy of ‘60 Minutes Australia’ and WENN.

The Met Gala is on Monday and it doesn’t seem to be as buzzy as years past. Granted, in 2021, the gala was pushed back until September, and barely anyone flew in from Europe so it was like this weird American-centric gala. I don’t even remember last year’s. Maybe the pandemic sort of changed how we talk about the Met Gala and what we expect from it. Maybe some celebrities and fashionistas are just like… who cares? Blake Lively is one of those people. Blake usually attends the gala and she always tries to go big with her look. To mixed results, in my opinion. But this year, Blake’s not going.

The show will have to go on without Blake Lively. On Thursday during the grand re-opening of the Tiffany & Co. Fifth Avenue in New York City, the It Ends with Us actress said she would not be attending the 2023 Met Gala.

“You will not,” Lively, 35, told reporters including PEOPLE when asked on the red carpet whether fans would see her at the annual biggest night in fashion. “But I will be watching.”

After being complimented the star on her 2022 ensemble, she said, “Thank you, that’s very sweet. I’ll be wearing that on my couch on Monday.”

[From People]

When I saw this, I genuinely thought “yeah, but who was desperate to see Blake?” Then there were thousands of tweets with people losing their minds about Blake not attending this year. Truly. I’m sure I’ll get slammed, but Blake was always so boring at the gala – it was always “a Mall Girl gets dressed up” aesthetic. The thing is, I don’t think Rihanna is going either, and Beyonce hasn’t gone in years. So there will be a dearth of big-name “fashionistas” at this year’s gala.

So far, these are the people who have confirmed: Megan Thee Stallion, Penelope Cruz, Kendall Jenner, Kaia Gerber, Kristen Stewart, Michaela Coel, Roger Federer, Dua Lipa, Kim Kardashian, Elle Fanning, Paris Hilton, La La Anthony, Priyanka Chopra, Florence Pugh (who will wear Valentino), Camila Morrone and… Choupette. Literally, I think they’re going to bring Karl Lagerfeld’s beloved cat onto the carpet.

Photos courtesy of Avalon Red.

Harry Styles appeared on James Corden’s final episode of The Late Late Show. Apparently, Prince Harry was in the audience as well. [Just Jared]
Kirsten Dunst & her husband Jesse Plemons turned up for the Love & Death premiere this week. He’s lost a lot of weight since I last saw him. [Go Fug Yourself]
Bam Margera surrendered to authorities after going on the run. [Dlisted]
Of course Angelina Jolie did her research before this week’s White House state dinner. She still decided to honor her family’s ties to Korea. [LaineyGossip]
I disliked the way Ted Lasso dealt with love-bombing. [Pajiba]
Black Mirror Season 6 has a trailer! [OMG Blog]
A Nebraska Republican claims no one is forcing people to be pregnant as he argues for an abortion ban in the state. [Jezebel]
Ethan Hawke & Pedro Pascal are my dream couple, honestly. [Egotastic]
Millennials loved the late Jerry Springer. [Buzzfeed]
Curly-haired Blake Lively wore a great Brandon Maxwell. [RCFA]
Jerry Springer testified in front of the US Senate? [Seriously OMG]
Jimmy Kimmel jokes about Fox News’ file on Tucker Carlson. [Towleroad]

Emma Thompson did some Oscar-campaigning in recent months for her indie film, Good Luck to You, Leo Grande. She ended up getting nominated for a BAFTA, a Golden Globe and a bunch of critics awards for her performance, but she didn’t get the Oscar nomination. And I think she’s fine with it – for years now, she’s been anti-Hollywood and anti-awards season, or perhaps she’s just very, very British. In any case, Emma spoke to the Radio Times podcast about the Oscars and about whether she believes in “romantic love.” Some highlights:

Romantic love is a myth: “It’s philosophically helpful and uplifting to remember that romantic love is a myth and quite dangerous. We really do have to take it with a massive pinch of salt. To think sensibly about love and the way it can grow is essential. Long-term relationships are hugely difficult and complicated. If anyone thinks that happy ever after has a place in our lives, forget it.”

She felt ill every time she’s gone to the Oscars: “Both times I had to do the Oscars I got ill, quite seriously ill, before and during it. I just found the pressure of it and glare of it too much … It’s sort of astonishing – and then you think you want to lie down in a dark room. You think, ‘Please don’t ask me any questions or make me talk about myself.’ It’s horrible. I quite quickly developed a sort of allergy to that, but it’s sort of part of the job.”

On fame: “Fame doesn’t happen overnight, it’s gradual. I’m lucky from that point of view; I think it must be awful if you have to deal with being James Bond, or one of those people who really can’t go anywhere. To lose your anonymity completely … it’s not very pleasant for you or the people around you. If that’s what you want, to be recognised, then I suppose you can deal with it, and it’s not so intrusive. But it’s not what I wanted, and I think it’s a highly toxic condition.”

[From The Daily Mail and The Guardian]

I don’t think romantic love is a “myth,” but I agree that you need more than romantic love or sexual chemistry to make a marriage or partnership work long-term. That’s basically what she’s saying – you need to do the work and you can’t expect “romantic love” to be enough to sustain a relationship. But romantic love isn’t a myth! As for the stuff about the Oscars… I’ve never really understood why so many British actors are so anti-Oscars or anti-Hollywood in general. They pride themselves on “keeping it real” and being authentic… and then they cozy up to the Windsors. Emma does that. She’s anti-Hollywood-fakery and then she cozies up to King Charles and the rest of them.

Photos courtesy of Avalon Red.

Joshua Jackson is currently promoting the Fatal Attraction limited series, where he plays Dan, the character originally played by Michael Douglas, and Lizzy Caplan plays Alex (originally played by Glenn Close). The series is on Paramount+, which basically means that they can do an explicit, R-rated show with graphic sex scenes. Don’t tell the Puriteens, who cry on Beyonce’s internet every day that sex, nudity and intimacy should not be shown in films or television shows. This is not Joshua’s first “sexy” show, and he seems to be fine with showing his body and working out the mechanics of sex scenes with a partner. Variety also spoke to Lizzy Caplan, who sings Jackson’s praises and you can tell they had a good rapport and they worked well together and with the intimacy coordinator. From this Variety interview with Jackson:

The importance of sex scenes: “The sex scenes are of great importance because they’re furthering the narrative. You have to believe that these people want to f–k each other.” He adds that the show works hard to create “something in the beginning that’s transgressive and animalistic, then moving into something sweeter as the sex scenes progress — which is in its way more transgressive, because he’s married.”

The series shows Alex’s point of view as well: “I went back and watched the original and was like, ‘Holy sh-t, we’ve come a long way.’ The movie is incredible, but the gender dynamics are impossible to wrap your head around.”

Jackson thinks Dan is a sh-thead: “The second his principles bump up against his convenience, he chooses his convenience.”

His pet peeves: “One of my pet peeves is two characters have sex, and it’s the most amazing sex she’s ever had. She wakes up in the morning, and she pulls the sheet up over her breasts. I’ve never in my life had great sex with somebody and then have them be like, ‘But I don’t want you to see my nipples in the morning.’”

He feels like the show is about the female gaze: “God bless Silver for being amazing and coming at this from the female gaze. There are so many ways to tell the story of a sex scene that don’t need to be about certain pieces of a woman’s body. There are so many different ways that this can give you all of that stuff without it having to be exploitive of the women’s body.”

Lizzy Caplan couldn’t have been more comfortable with Jackson: She’d just welcomed her first child as filming began, so wasn’t feeling so secure shooting close-ups. “As I’m trying to figure out how this new postpartum body works, Joshua was right there to help me out. Want to know what true feminism is? That, in a man.”

Having a daughter with Jodie Turner Smith: “There are things I would have been interested in doing before having the baby, like playing a real racist motherf–ker. Now, it’s just not something that I want to put on camera and have my daughter see.”

Jodie isn’t bothered by his sex scenes: “Jodie is not fussed about my sex scenes,” Jackson says. And, anyway, he finds more intimacy in scenes between characters falling in love, since sex scenes are more technical. After a pause, he laughs and adds, “The sex scenes themselves, Jodie kind of enjoys them, actually. It’s a weird thing where she’s like a voyeur. So that works! If that’s your thing — excellent.”

How he views Dawson’s Creek: “‘Dawson’s Creek’ never ever thought that young people are stupid. It never spoke down to anyone. We weren’t trying to be too cool. ‘Gossip Girl’ was trying to be in the zeitgeist and be cool to kids. We were all nerdy kids. It doesn’t have to be ‘Euphoria’ to have an impact.”

[From Variety]

I would actually find it icky if Joshua was the only one from the show talking about how great it is to shoot sex scenes, but it’s clear that Lizzy Caplan felt respected and protected by Joshua, the director and the crew. Plus, this is Fatal Attraction – of course there are going to be sex scenes, that’s the whole point, a married man has a torrid affair and everything goes sideways. It would be a total bait-and-switch if they didn’t have tons of sex scenes. As for Joshua calling Jodie a voyeur… well, okay then! No comment, I guess.

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