PaleyFest 2014: ‘Masters of Sex’ Cast Interviews

We ask Michael Sheen and writer Michelle Ashford about William Masters’ strange appeal, and also speak with Lizzy Caplan, Teddy Sears, Caitlin Fitzgerald and Annaleigh Ashford.

Fred Topel

After only one season, “Masters of Sex” has earned a night in the annual Paleyfest lineup from the Paley Center for Media. Of course, Showtime quickly greenlit a second season to continue the story of William Masters and Virginia Johnson’s clinical study of sexual intercourse.

We managed to speak with several of the “Masters of Sex” cast members during last night’s red carpet arrival at the PaleyFest.

Lizzy Caplan

First up, Virginia Johnson herself, Lizzy Caplan, gave us some quick feedback on the show’s accuracy.

CraveOnline: How much better do you know Virginia Johnson now than you did when the show started?

Lizzy Caplan: I know her one year better. I think I know my interpretation of her way better. I feel much more comfortable in her skin, sort of like I’m now part owner of the story we’re trying to tell even though it’s clearly not me in real life.

Of course we know there’s artistic license, but did Virginia have a friendly relationship with Libby Masters in real life?

Lizzy Caplan: She did. That’s actually one of the more fascinating parts of the story. They had a pretty close friendship and this was all going on. We think that Libby was probably aware but maybe not ‘til later on, but nobody was asking those questions so everybody just kind of went along with it. Yeah, they were dear friends.

On the PaleyFest red carpet on Monday (March 24) night, I chatted with most of the stars of Showtime's "Masters of Sex," which resumed production last week.
My interview with Lizzy Caplan was nifty to begin with, as she talked about Masters' end-of-season betrayal, followed by his finale confession. But it really hits a high gear toward the end when I skipped asking about the awkwardness of filming the show's sex scenes and instead asked about awkward reactions to the sex scenes after the show started airing.
Unprompted, she teases that this season's scenes are "pretty steamy, they make Season 1 look like baby games." Then she launched into an impression of her Israeli uncle's reaction to watching the first season. It's pretty much my favorite thing so far this week.
Stay tuned for my chats with Michael Sheen, Teddy Sears, Caitlin Fitzgerald and awesome new cast regular Annaleigh Ashford, as well as series creator Michelle Ashford.
Check out the Lizzy Caplan interview above and remember that "Masters of Sex" returns to Showtime on July 13.

Caitlin Fitzgerald

Caitlin Fitzgerald was one of the first interviews I ever did for “Masters of Sex,” back at their first Television Critics Association presentation. She plays Masters’ wife Libby, who in season one suffered a miscarriage, and became close friends with Virginia.

CraveOnline: What is new for Libby in season two?

Caitlin Fitzgerald: She gets to kinda go to the dark side a little bit which is exciting. We see a whole new dimension of her, not necessarily a likable one.

Darker than when she suffered a miscarriage?

Caitlin Fitzgerald: You know, the miscarriage sort of happened to her and this is her being an agent of darkness. That’s more dramatic than it needed to be, but taking actions that are not necessarily likable.

Is this some artistic license or does it stem from the real history of Libby Masters?

Caitlin Fitzgerald: We don’t know that much about Libby so a lot of what happens to her is artistic license.

Is it prompted by the continuing study, or by other factors?

Caitlin Fitzgerald: Both, I would say.

Can Libby’s friendship with Virginia sustain the study that they’re still trying to do?

Caitlin Fitzgerald: We’ll find out. In a weird way, I think Virginia and Libby really need each other. Certainly I think Virginia is Libby’s only friend in a weird way, so while the study is hard for Libby, she also really cares about and needs fulfillment in her life.

Am I asking the right questions since you can’t really answer them all ?

Caitlin Fitzgerald: Yes, precisely. [Laughs]

Michelle Ashford

As head writer on “Masters of Sex,” Michelle Ashford had most of the answers I was looking for. She wasn’t spoilery, any more than one could read the history of Masters and Johnson. She also had some insight into the appeal of William Masters among female viewers.

CraveOnline: I think we can all imagine how messy a study like this can be. Can you verify from your actual research how messy it got for Masters and Johnson as quickly as it got on the show?

Michelle Ashford: It got messy, I suspect, in terms of their personal relationship and how it got melded in the most curious way with that study, it took about a year. So I think they worked together for a year before it shifted into this other thing. So we condensed it a little bit but not too terribly.

Even as far as their study participants might get involved with each other?

Michelle Ashford: It’s funny. A lot of this we have to surmise because they destroyed a lot of their records, which is of course a tragedy for us. Sometimes we have to just sort of imagine. We have a very good biography that Thom Maier wrote that we based a lot of this on and filled with fact, but there are big holes in there as well. So sometimes we just have to think, well, how would it have gone? We do have signposts along the way but then we have to fill in.

A lot of my female friends are really attracted to Masters. Are you surprised he became the sex symbol of the show?

Michelle Ashford: No, because now I know Michael [Sheen] and he’s just immensely charming and winning and complicated and smart. No, I think he’s sort of catnip actually. I think what he is is not necessarily traditionally handsome but as a result of his intelligence at the fact that he is a very good looking man, I think he’s a very refreshing kind of sex symbol.

I think a number of my friends think they could have fixed him too.

Michelle Ashford: Oh yes, well, every woman, don’t they? The damaged man.

What can we look forward to in season two?

Michelle Ashford: We got a different direction. Masters has left that hospital. He has to strike out on his own. What does that mean? He gets into a very curious part of the St. Louis community. We explore the African-American community this year. It’s very different. It’ll look very different.

Did Masters and Johnson actually have African-American participants?

Michelle Ashford: They did, they had a few and they were trying to figure out what to do with that and what it meant, so it becomes this very curious journey and the world is changing. St. Louis actually was the place, Martin Luther King had come there in 1957 and said St. Louis was doing the most impressive work in terms of race and what was happening there. So it starts to bubble around their lives a lot more than it certainly did the first year.

How far after the finale does the season premiere pick up?

Michelle Ashford: It starts pretty quickly. Pretty much immediately. So we spend some time there and we answer some questions and things happen, but then we move and we have a big time jump.

How big a time jump?

Michelle Ashford: Well, you’ll just have to see.

Have you abandoned all the old sets and locations?

Michelle Ashford: No, because we were there for a bit but then by the end of the year, we will have abandoned them all except for their homes.

What are some of the exciting new places you get to shoot?

Michelle Ashford: Well, there’s a lot of different hospitals that are explored for a while and Masters and Johnson set up an office. That’s where they spent the rest of their careers in real life, so they have a whole new office. Where it is is pretty interesting.

Teddy Sears

Teddy Sears played some of the messiest scenes in Masters and Johnson’s first studies. As their colleague Dr. Austin Langham, he participated in the study, but fell in love with his partner, Jane Martin (Helene Yorke).

CraveOnline: Where does season two pick up for Austin?

Teddy Sears: Season two, he is, God, how do I put this, sort of back to his old tricks from season one. But we very quickly learn of an event in his life, or an event at the hospital that changes his trajectory for what I believe to be the run of the second season. I’ve only seen the first couple scripts. You would think that Austin would’ve learned something from how season one ended when he finds out about fathering the child with the girl from the study, and it doesn’t really affect him at all. I think he’s able to compartmentalize family in one box and chasing nurses at the hospital in another.

Is he still participating in the study?

Teddy Sears: Well, the study has left the hospital because Bill’s been summarily fired. We open with there being no study, but Bill very actively trying to get the study back off the ground. So we don’t see any study stuff right off the bat.

Is he still pursuing Jane?

Teddy Sears: Oh yeah, but Jane in real life now has a Broadway show so we’re not going to see too much of her because she’s on the east coast. There are other people who have caught his eye. He’s moved on.

Is Austin based on a real person from Masters and Johnson’s study?

Teddy Sears: Austin is based on a real person, but the story that Austin is telling is not the story of the guy this character is based on. It’s sort of an amalgam of fact and fiction, but it’s going to be mostly fiction at this point because there’s just so much more to mine with this character Austin that Michelle and Sarah [Timberman] have come up with, versus the guy that this guy’s based on. He eventually left the hospital with his family. I think they decided, “Let’s base Langham on a real guy, but let’s have some creative license with where we go.”

Let’s get him into more trouble than Austin really got into?

Teddy Sears: Let’s get into more trouble, exactly, yeah. The Masters and Johnson story needs to be told and it’s sort of fun to have Austin’s stuff bump up against what they’re doing.

Annaleigh Ashford

Annaleigh Ashford played a very important figure in Masters and Johnson’s research. She plays Betty, a prostitute who volunteers to help out, or I should say agrees to help out. She still charges her usual fee.

CraveOnline: When you got this role, did you know it was going to be recurring?

Annaleigh Ashford: Oh my gosh, no. I had no idea. She was just very representational of the hookers of St. Louis in that first pilot, but I just can’t believe I’m here. It’s amazing. It’s amazing how much her character has grown and how her journey has taken me here.

Is Betty going to continue to be important in the second season?

Annaleigh Ashford: You know, I think that she’s going to continue to be important in telling the other side of their sexual study. So I have no idea what’s happening next but I can’t wait to find out. I’m kind of in the dark which is great. I like to be surprised.

How were the prostitutes of the era different from the general women of the era?

Annaleigh Ashford: They were the lowest of the social stratosphere. They kind of always have been from day one, especially in a time like the ‘50s when sex was so private, so quiet. One of the most interesting things about Betty is in that one area, she has power over a man and she has power over an educated man. She knows more than him about that one specific conversation. It’s amazing to see a woman have power over a man.

And that’s before anyone had thought of a hooker with a heart of gold, isn’t it?

Annaleigh Ashford: I mean, how about that? Sweet Charity hadn’t come out yet, right?

Michael Sheen

We almost didn’t get Michael Sheen at all. I was to be one spot next to the cutoff point for his last interview. Fortunately the publicists at the PaleyFest allowed him to do one more interview with a group of reporters. When I asked him about Masters’ sex appeal, he played it totally cool.

CraveOnline: A lot of female viewers are very attracted to Masters. Are you surprised he’s become the sex symbol of “Masters of Sex?”

Michael Sheen: Why would that be a surprise? I don’t understand.

Where will we see him pick up in season two? Because he was a mess when we left him.

Michael Sheen: Well, that was one of the things I loved about the storyline for him is that he begins season one as a man who is possibly the most defended, guarded, invulnerable man in the world, and he ends the season standing there in the rain saying how much he needs someone, the most vulnerable man.

So I love that kind of journey, but as with most people who are not particularly comfortable with being vulnerable, I don’t think that’s going to last. In fact, the more the pendulum swings one way, the more it has to swing back the other way. So there is something in him I think that has to punish everyone who makes him vulnerable as well, so look out, Lizzy.

Sarah Timberman

Executive Producer Sarah Timberman was also available to answer more questions about the direction season two is going in.

CraveOnline: Moving into the second season, do you have to step more into artistic license than fact based research?

Sarah Timberman: No, really we have so much fact on which we can continue to rely on season two because Masters and Johnson’s documented work spans decades, so we feel like there’s an embarrassment of riches in the source material, in Thom Maier’s book.

So we don’t feel like we ever will need to depart completely from reality over the course of the series. Of course we took license in season one and we’re certainly taking some license in season two in terms of where exactly [they set up]. As you know, the project at the hospital ends at the end of season one and that was a very truthful reflection of reality. We will have Masters and Johnson spend a period of time in the wilderness.

It’ll be a tumultuous season. They’re going to land in a couple of different places before they find their footing again so some of that is of course fictionalized, but we’re trying to remain true to the spirit of their work and also trying to truthfully track how their work evolved over the years. It’s a tall order but Michelle is the best writer for the task. We will continue to touch upon milestones that are absolutely based in reality and then depart again and then come back to reality and then depart again. It’s the nature of this kind of show.

Is there one piece of research that you just can’t wait to work into the show?

Sarah Timberman: We’re very interested in getting to the surrogates work that they did and of course we’re interested in getting to the work they did with couples, which is distinguishable from what we covered in season one because that was research they were doing with strangers who were coupled together in the research project.

This is way down the road, but we’re excited to get to couples coming in who are really helped in a significant way by Masters and Johnson. People who’d been through years of therapy would come in and have life changing experiences, so we’re excited to get there but that won’t be for quite some time. Surrogates are in the not too distant future and that seems very interesting to us.

Possibly season two material?

Sarah Timberman: Maybe. One of the things that we thank Showtime for is the degree to which they encourage us in season one and beyond to continue to come back to the actual research and to document it. If you go back and look at season one, most of our episodes touch upon one facet of their research or another.

We ended up getting to any number of discoveries that Masters and Johnson made. They’re debunking some of Freud’s ideas and they’re really documenting the way in which women experience sex differently from men and we’ll continue in that fashion. We’re going to keep looking at truth because this story is an incredible one and Thom wrote an amazing book. It’s one of these great things of truth being sometimes more fantastic than fiction.

‘Masters of Sex’ S2: Cast Interviews