PALEY CENTER FOR MEDIA, THE: PALEYFEST 2014: MASTERS OF SEX {LONG VERSION}
Summary
One in a series of evenings and special screenings presented as part of The Paley Center for Media's 31st William S. Paley Television Festival in Los Angeles. Held this year at the Dolby Theatre in Hollywood, the festival celebrates the excellence and diversity of American television and is dedicated to television's creative community. This PALEYFEST 2014 seminar honors "Masters of Sex," the historical drama series based on the book by Thomas Maier about the groundbreaking research into human sexuality conducted by Dr. William Masters and Virginia Johnson.
Host Dany Berghoff (vice-president, The Paley Center for Media/Los Angeles) offers opening remarks and acknowledges Allison and Sam Paley, relatives of the festival's namesake, in the audience. Berghoff welcomes moderator Jarett Wieselman (senior editor, BuzzFeed) to the stage. Wieselman introduces a brief clip package featuring scenes from the show's first season.
After the clips, Wieselman moderates the following panelists: creator and executive producer Michelle Ashford; executive producer Sarah Timberman; and cast members Michael Sheen (Dr. William Masters), Lizzy Caplan (Virginia Johnson), Caitlin FitzGerald (Libby Masters), Teddy Sears (Dr. Austin Langham), and Annaleigh Ashford (Betty DiMello).
The panelists touch on such topics as: Timberman's idea for the show after seeing a review of Maier's book; the interest in finding actors with "ferocious intelligence and an unconventional bent" to their careers; Sheen and Caplan's wildly different roles before joining the series; why actors now laugh at the one-time stigma of performing on television; how Masters and Johnson's private natures necessitated the show's mix of history and fiction; Caplan's determination to prove herself as a dramatic actress; Sears' memories of his audition, which included a sex scene; Ashford's initial audition for Jane, later played by Helene Yorke, and later attraction to the role of Betty; FitzGerald's views of Libby as more than a "conventional fifties housewife"; the complex, hard-to-define themes of love, sex and intimacy within the show; the real-life basis for the decade-long "threeway marriage" between William, Libby, and Virginia; the characters' realistic flaws; the audience's "demand" for a "refreshing feminist story" written by women; the show as a period piece that examines timeless questions about relationships; the need to compress time within the seasons, as the real Masters and Johnson collected data for a decade before publishing; the "literally clinical" nature of the sex scenes; the effects of shooting in an abandoned tuberculosis hospital; the convincing recreations of the East Coast set in Los Angeles; Caplan's discovery of her character through specific, formal language and posture; the female actors' awe of their long hair and makeup process, similar to that of real '50s women; and the surprising difficulties of the period-appropriate undergarments.
Questions from the audience then lead to a discussion of the following topics among others: the writers' historical research; comparisons to the works of Arthur Miller, in which there are "no bad guys"; favorite scenes which include Masters' tearful breakdown after the loss of his unborn child; the dramatic arc of Dr. Ethan Haas (Nicholas D'Agosto); how the cast and crew became "very close very quickly" because of the show's intimate subject matter; and inspiration from their real-life counterparts' ability to "compartmentalize."
Details
- NETWORK: N/A
- DATE: March 24, 2014 7:00 PM
- RUNNING TIME: N/A
- COLOR/B&W: Color
- CATALOG ID: 113957
- GENRE: Seminars
- SUBJECT HEADING: LGBT Collection
- SERIES RUN: N/A
- COMMERCIALS: N/A
CREDITS
- Dany Berghoff … Host
- Jarett Wieselman … Moderator
- Annaleigh Ashford … Panelist
- Teddy Sears … Panelist
- Caitlin FitzGerald … Panelist
- Sarah Timberman … Panelist
- Lizzy Caplan … Panelist
- Michael Sheen … Panelist
- Michelle Ashford … Panelist
- Allison Paley … Guest
- Sam Paley … Guest
- Thomas Maier
- Helene Yorke
- Arthur Miller
- Nicholas D'Agosto