Elizabeth Meriwether
Appearances
Dying For Sex
Jenny Slate, and Elizabeth Meriwether and Kim Rosenstock: On Throwing Out the Rules | 9
I think both of us were like, holy shit, we have this opportunity to make a show about women in their 40s and sex and bodies. And FX said we could do whatever we wanted. This is an amazing, maybe once in a lifetime opportunity.
Dying For Sex
Jenny Slate, and Elizabeth Meriwether and Kim Rosenstock: On Throwing Out the Rules | 9
I mean, I was so honored and excited when Liz called me about this. And Liz has been one of my favorite writers forever since I was 22 and I read this play that she wrote about a salmon. I don't know. We've been friends for so long. We're so old. That's what's really surreal about this, honestly, is that we're old enough to be reflecting on this friendship for like so long. I know.
Dying For Sex
Jenny Slate, and Elizabeth Meriwether and Kim Rosenstock: On Throwing Out the Rules | 9
I feel like I knew you were lying, but I didn't care.
Dying For Sex
Jenny Slate, and Elizabeth Meriwether and Kim Rosenstock: On Throwing Out the Rules | 9
She's a businesswoman.
Dying For Sex
Jenny Slate, and Elizabeth Meriwether and Kim Rosenstock: On Throwing Out the Rules | 9
Yeah. Well, I was like, yeah, I'm in like a really dark place. I'm really sad. It was like a, you know, dark time. Liz was like, I would like you to listen to this podcast. It's about a woman who has stage four cancer. And I was like, yeah, I don't know if that's good for me right now. But she also has a lot of sex. And I was like, absolutely. Just send me the link. I'm in.
Dying For Sex
Jenny Slate, and Elizabeth Meriwether and Kim Rosenstock: On Throwing Out the Rules | 9
And then I listened to it. And it was actually such an emotional experience for me. I feel like I... It opened me up to like actually have some like real emotional reactions that I hadn't been having like to just life. I suddenly was like just sobbing about everything because the podcast is it kind of is this like magic trick where it is kind of about everything by the end.
Dying For Sex
Jenny Slate, and Elizabeth Meriwether and Kim Rosenstock: On Throwing Out the Rules | 9
And all of life and like all relationships. It's this really small specific story of Molly and you and Molly. But somehow it also just felt so huge by the end. And I felt like I was just sobbing on my floor. I was supposed to talk to you. I feel like I called you. I was like, well, now I can barely talk.
Dying For Sex
Jenny Slate, and Elizabeth Meriwether and Kim Rosenstock: On Throwing Out the Rules | 9
I'm shaking, you know, with actual human feeling, which maybe I haven't allowed myself to have in a long time. Wow.
Dying For Sex
Jenny Slate, and Elizabeth Meriwether and Kim Rosenstock: On Throwing Out the Rules | 9
It was a long process. The very first thing that I feel like we talked about was like, In the podcast, you are in the role, as you are now, of interviewer. And so we were like, we need to make Nikki and her role as caretaker like a much like we that was something that we knew we wanted to build out.
Dying For Sex
Jenny Slate, and Elizabeth Meriwether and Kim Rosenstock: On Throwing Out the Rules | 9
You know, and I think one of my first conversations, at least with you, was just I feel like I grilled you. I loved it. I feel like Liz made fun of me. It was like, that was like a stalker. I was like, tell me every single moment. It's like an interrogation. Cause I was like, I want to actually know what are the things we didn't hear on the podcast? What was going on for you?
Dying For Sex
Jenny Slate, and Elizabeth Meriwether and Kim Rosenstock: On Throwing Out the Rules | 9
Like what was, what was happening in your life around taking care of Molly? And then I think,
Dying For Sex
Jenny Slate, and Elizabeth Meriwether and Kim Rosenstock: On Throwing Out the Rules | 9
She thought they were, like, women's sweatpants, right?
Dying For Sex
Jenny Slate, and Elizabeth Meriwether and Kim Rosenstock: On Throwing Out the Rules | 9
Like, I mean, Liz, we talked about it. And we were like, oh, wouldn't it be amazing to see an episode where we, the magic school bus sex episode, like literally go into her body. Oh, yeah, we were going to go inside of her body. Wait, what? I mean, we were really, here's the thing.
Dying For Sex
Jenny Slate, and Elizabeth Meriwether and Kim Rosenstock: On Throwing Out the Rules | 9
You know what I mean? Like, I feel like we. That didn't make it to page. That didn't make it to the page.
Dying For Sex
Jenny Slate, and Elizabeth Meriwether and Kim Rosenstock: On Throwing Out the Rules | 9
I think both of us were like, holy shit, we have this opportunity to make a show about women in their 40s and sex and bodies. And FX said we could do whatever we wanted. And so it was like, oh, my God. It almost felt like paralyzing at a certain point.
Dying For Sex
Jenny Slate, and Elizabeth Meriwether and Kim Rosenstock: On Throwing Out the Rules | 9
This is an amazing, maybe once in a lifetime opportunity. And there's so many things I think both of us wanted to do and say about this. But ultimately, the friendship and the love story of the friendship, I think, was like a huge through line that I think we just kept coming back to over and over again.
Dying For Sex
Jenny Slate, and Elizabeth Meriwether and Kim Rosenstock: On Throwing Out the Rules | 9
Because it's a very serious... Like, we don't want to ever feel like we're making light of it or making... It's not funny. It's really awful.
Dying For Sex
Jenny Slate, and Elizabeth Meriwether and Kim Rosenstock: On Throwing Out the Rules | 9
It was just like, oh, this is somebody that you'd be like, I want to die with you. Like, Jenny is such a singular, specific, amazing comedian. But she has so much love. You just feel really good around her. And she's, like, somebody who just makes you feel safe, too. And then I think Michelle is just so honest. Like, everything she does just feels so...
Dying For Sex
Jenny Slate, and Elizabeth Meriwether and Kim Rosenstock: On Throwing Out the Rules | 9
truthful that there were some things that wouldn't work and we would find them because of Michelle I feel like she would be like totally and she's so funny like she's so she's so funny in the show yeah and so subtly funny right like just a look or a nod and a ugh Also, I took it for granted that, like, two amazing actors can just immediately be best friends.
Dying For Sex
Jenny Slate, and Elizabeth Meriwether and Kim Rosenstock: On Throwing Out the Rules | 9
I don't know about you, but, like, on set, like, that first day, I was like, they didn't really know each other. And we had to shoot that scene at the end of the pilot. Like, it was, like, one of our first few days. And the I want to die with you scene, I'm like, I don't even know if they've ever, like, hung out. Like, you know, they just, they dove into it.
Dying For Sex
Jenny Slate, and Elizabeth Meriwether and Kim Rosenstock: On Throwing Out the Rules | 9
And they created that relationship that... I know it might sound like obvious, but I just was like, oh, it takes two incredible performers to just immediately seem like they've been friends forever. Because the way you structure the podcast, we start with that happy ending story, you know, and you're just like listening to two best friends talk about this crazy thing that happened at the masseuse.
Dying For Sex
Jenny Slate, and Elizabeth Meriwether and Kim Rosenstock: On Throwing Out the Rules | 9
And you're like, I just want to be with these people. I just want to spend time with these people.
Dying For Sex
Jenny Slate, and Elizabeth Meriwether and Kim Rosenstock: On Throwing Out the Rules | 9
I mean, Liz had an amazing idea to hire an intimacy coordinator for the writers room. And when she said it, I was like, that's such a good idea because like we were going to have to ask our writers to like, you know, talk about these things that are really vulnerable and.
Dying For Sex
Jenny Slate, and Elizabeth Meriwether and Kim Rosenstock: On Throwing Out the Rules | 9
I feel like there was this feeling that like Molly had been so fearless and like on the podcast, you can hear that fearlessness. So like, how do we show this sex in a way that feels fearless, but is also highly conscious of everyone's experience and wanting to make sure everybody feels good while being
Dying For Sex
Jenny Slate, and Elizabeth Meriwether and Kim Rosenstock: On Throwing Out the Rules | 9
It felt, again, like those men felt so safe with Molly that they could be so open and vulnerable. And I think part of what the show and what the podcast does is hopefully helps people release some of the shame they might feel around even talking about what they like, what turns them on. And so to make that show but not actually show it would feel like that's shame.
Dying For Sex
Jenny Slate, and Elizabeth Meriwether and Kim Rosenstock: On Throwing Out the Rules | 9
Like, why are we cutting away from that? I love that. What was your favorite scene to shoot? I would love to know from the two of you. You know, I really, in the final episode, there's like a very expressionistic, hyper-realistic scene that happens with Molly as, you know, she's getting closer to the end. And like, I just remember everybody who came off set was like so happy and excited.
Dying For Sex
Jenny Slate, and Elizabeth Meriwether and Kim Rosenstock: On Throwing Out the Rules | 9
People were just like filled with joy shooting this scene that's actually happening on this person's deathbed. And I was like, that's kind of amazing that that is happening right now. And so that was one that was really fun to watch the cast shooting. Because they were just having a really good time.
Dying For Sex
Jenny Slate, and Elizabeth Meriwether and Kim Rosenstock: On Throwing Out the Rules | 9
This is my job. Yeah. And the other thing that was amazing about this show was I feel like every actor that came across our path somehow was like the exact right person for the part. I've never worked on anything where it felt like that. Like where it was like every single person who had some like deep sense of a desire to do this and like had some real personal connection to the material.
Dying For Sex
Jenny Slate, and Elizabeth Meriwether and Kim Rosenstock: On Throwing Out the Rules | 9
Why are you laughing? That's not something I feel like Liz or I ever feel.
Dying For Sex
Jenny Slate, and Elizabeth Meriwether and Kim Rosenstock: On Throwing Out the Rules | 9
Oh, I'm really proud of that. No, I'm not. I'm so bad at like... You know what I am proud of? I'm proud that we put a character with ADHD on screen who has to become a caretaker and like rises to the occasion. And I was really proud that we put that big bag on screen and like all the shit falling out of it. My people will feel really seen by this.
Dying For Sex
Jenny Slate, and Elizabeth Meriwether and Kim Rosenstock: On Throwing Out the Rules | 9
But I do think it's that thing where like Molly seeing Nikki as the person who can rise to this occasion makes Nikki rise to the occasion and that it's okay that she's not super put together. That doesn't mean you can't show up for somebody and love somebody and take care of somebody.
Dying For Sex
Jenny Slate, and Elizabeth Meriwether and Kim Rosenstock: On Throwing Out the Rules | 9
I was like, that was all we were trying to do, I think, was like capture that really like just intangible thing on the podcast, just the humanness of it and that relationship. Yeah.
Dying For Sex
Jenny Slate, and Elizabeth Meriwether and Kim Rosenstock: On Throwing Out the Rules | 9
Now we're all crying.