When we were talking about articles for today’s column, this news item came up, but I was so focused on Valerie Cherish (coming soon) that I forgot to confirm I was doing this one. When Lainey prodded me “And the Sheen one too, right?” I was confused for a second.
Because of course, for her, it’s a Michael Sheen story. “Sarah Silverman to appear on Masters of Sex.” That’s his show (he’s also a producer) and his girlfriend. To me it is always a story of the woman who had a show where the opening credits regularly said things like “My dog smells like poop.” I love her.
And I don’t totally understand why, except that when I was on a red carpet with her once she was so willing to play and help us get the best shots by screwing around. Come to think of it, that accounts for a lot.
But mostly I just think she’s continuing to play her own game in a boys’ club – that she’s getting better and better at appearing mainstream while being utterly up front about the fact that her level of humour is de rigueur for men but shocking for women. Remember that line from her music video about her perfect Friday night? “Stay at home, order in, watch a movie then masturbate.” That is a line that is still prone to give people pause when they hear it coming from a woman, but if it was a dude you wouldn’t even blink. She’s sort of consistently hanging just above or below your radar, pushing boundaries because she wants to and then turning around and smiling like “what, that surprised you? It’s just me! What are you eating?”
So now she’s on a show all about sex, in the 50s. Obviously her trademark openness is not gonna be what’s required – I suspect she’ll be playing against type. Her story is an arc, not just an episode, so we’ll be able to get deep – my hunch says she might also be interested in playing a Jewish woman since religious and racial differences were such a fundamental conflict around that time.
Oh man, now I’m excited. Masters of Sex doesn’t start until July so I can easily fit in a re-watch before then, right?
