Kim Rosenstock
Appearances
Dying For Sex
Jenny Slate, and Elizabeth Meriwether and Kim Rosenstock: On Throwing Out the Rules | 9
We did the scene that's from the podcast where she pees on a guy in a bathtub and like she had a rig taped to her leg. And then you're just like, I can't believe that like I'm doing this. I can't believe that this is my job.
Dying For Sex
Jenny Slate, and Elizabeth Meriwether and Kim Rosenstock: On Throwing Out the Rules | 9
Apologies ahead of time. We're so lucky to be stuck with you. You are such an amazing part of this community.
Dying For Sex
Jenny Slate, and Elizabeth Meriwether and Kim Rosenstock: On Throwing Out the Rules | 9
I feel like it's hard for me to realize how long we've been friends. It's that moment in our lives where we're like, oh, wait a second, we've known each other for like 20 years. Wow. And Kim was such a huge part of New Girl. And she had, you know, written some of the
Dying For Sex
Jenny Slate, and Elizabeth Meriwether and Kim Rosenstock: On Throwing Out the Rules | 9
best episodes and I thought of her immediately when I thought of who I wanted to do it with just because she has this amazing sense of tone, like that something can be both funny and heartbreaking. But also Kim is the reason I have an agent. We were friends in New York and she was working at a theater and she was working for a literary manager who went off to have a baby.
Dying For Sex
Jenny Slate, and Elizabeth Meriwether and Kim Rosenstock: On Throwing Out the Rules | 9
And she was in charge of the theater for a little bit and called me and said, do you have a play to do a reading of? And I lied and said, yes.
Dying For Sex
Jenny Slate, and Elizabeth Meriwether and Kim Rosenstock: On Throwing Out the Rules | 9
I had nothing to lose.
Dying For Sex
Jenny Slate, and Elizabeth Meriwether and Kim Rosenstock: On Throwing Out the Rules | 9
And I went off and wrote a play, and then we did a reading of it, and that's how I got an agent. So I actually owe, like, my entire career to Kim. But yes, okay. So anyway, that's our history, but I feel like that was incredibly... important going into this project, which obviously it's so much about friends who have been together for a long time through a lot of different parts of their lives.
Dying For Sex
Jenny Slate, and Elizabeth Meriwether and Kim Rosenstock: On Throwing Out the Rules | 9
I mean, I think that was what drew us both in, Nikki, was you and Molly sort of talking about How many, you know, men and careers and places and just all these different things that you guys have gone through together. I don't know, like an old friend knows you in a way that I think sometimes even like your spouse doesn't know.
Dying For Sex
Jenny Slate, and Elizabeth Meriwether and Kim Rosenstock: On Throwing Out the Rules | 9
You know, like an old friend has like known you for so much of your life. It's such an important relationship. It was one of my favorite parts of the podcast, just like the celebration of that.
Dying For Sex
Jenny Slate, and Elizabeth Meriwether and Kim Rosenstock: On Throwing Out the Rules | 9
A producer friend sent it to me, just a description of it. I was immediately like, this is for me. Just that it was about death and sex. I find I'm really drawn to surprising combinations of stories. And then I just completely binged it. And then the next day I was trying to get the rights to it. Really? That's my story.
Dying For Sex
Jenny Slate, and Elizabeth Meriwether and Kim Rosenstock: On Throwing Out the Rules | 9
Yeah. I was wearing shoulder pads and I was like, get me Nikki Boyer on line three. I do remember the first time I met you because it was the last meeting I had before COVID. But we were kind of like, ah, what's this about? Like, well, you know, this will blow over.
Dying For Sex
Jenny Slate, and Elizabeth Meriwether and Kim Rosenstock: On Throwing Out the Rules | 9
Yeah. And then once we met and sort of decided to do it together, I reached out to Kim because I was still working on the dropout and I needed like a partner on it. And Kim, is that when you listened to it for the first time?
Dying For Sex
Jenny Slate, and Elizabeth Meriwether and Kim Rosenstock: On Throwing Out the Rules | 9
I mean, there was so much amazing stuff and there is still stuff that I really wish we could have had on the show. The tickle guy in particular. I think about him all the time. I'm so mad that we had to cut it. He almost made it. He was so close. He was so close to being hot.
Dying For Sex
Jenny Slate, and Elizabeth Meriwether and Kim Rosenstock: On Throwing Out the Rules | 9
So, yeah, I mean, with anything that you're adapting, there are things that you just kick yourself about not being able to include. You know, we talked a lot about how are we going to understand what's happening for Molly now? while she's having sex or having these moments with these guys, but still also really tell Nikki's story too.
Dying For Sex
Jenny Slate, and Elizabeth Meriwether and Kim Rosenstock: On Throwing Out the Rules | 9
And we actually had voiceover in originally and then took it out and then it came back. I think at some point our director, Shannon Murphy, was kind of like, it doesn't matter what the rules are. You just have to kind of get the story out.
Dying For Sex
Jenny Slate, and Elizabeth Meriwether and Kim Rosenstock: On Throwing Out the Rules | 9
No, you didn't. We were really testing the limits of what we. Nikki, there are some things that like were, it'd be better that you like just didn't hear about.
Dying For Sex
Jenny Slate, and Elizabeth Meriwether and Kim Rosenstock: On Throwing Out the Rules | 9
How cool would that have been, though? You would see, you would, like, be inside Molly's body.
Dying For Sex
Jenny Slate, and Elizabeth Meriwether and Kim Rosenstock: On Throwing Out the Rules | 9
I just also want to say, Nikki, you gave us like an enormous amount of freedom and grace of just like being able to.
Dying For Sex
Jenny Slate, and Elizabeth Meriwether and Kim Rosenstock: On Throwing Out the Rules | 9
kind of make mistakes but also kind of needing to do our own work on who the characters are and there's some big differences between the Nikki character in the show and you and also Molly you know there are differences but I think our North Star was the spirit of Molly in the podcast like how do we get the spirit of what she was trying to find in herself and into the show.
Dying For Sex
Jenny Slate, and Elizabeth Meriwether and Kim Rosenstock: On Throwing Out the Rules | 9
The other thing I wanted to just like pinpoint is how hard we worked on that first scene in front of the bodega where Molly tells Nikki that she has cancer. I think that kind of encapsulates how hard the sort of tone of the show was. And it was like, okay, we are starting this show with a scene where one woman tells her best friend that she has cancer, but it needs to be funny.
Dying For Sex
Jenny Slate, and Elizabeth Meriwether and Kim Rosenstock: On Throwing Out the Rules | 9
Yeah, I mean, I was going to say also, like, all of Kim and my sort of stress about everything, it just... Kind of disappeared once we got onto set because I think there's so many conversations that you can have about a moment. And then when it's on Michelle Williams' face, all of the stress disappears because you're like, well, that's completely clear.
Dying For Sex
Jenny Slate, and Elizabeth Meriwether and Kim Rosenstock: On Throwing Out the Rules | 9
Like that is an actress playing seven things at once and in the best way. Right. And Jenny just, I mean, Jenny read that scene for us. We did like a chemistry read and I was crying in the back of the room. You know, it was kind of like Jenny is incredible in that way of being able to riff and then bring it back. And like this like very funny scene.
Dying For Sex
Jenny Slate, and Elizabeth Meriwether and Kim Rosenstock: On Throwing Out the Rules | 9
really nimble actress who can kind of navigate really tricky tones and stuff. So anyway, I will say, like, yes, we banged our head against the wall sometimes, but those two actresses were everything for us and for the show, you know?
Dying For Sex
Jenny Slate, and Elizabeth Meriwether and Kim Rosenstock: On Throwing Out the Rules | 9
Yeah, no, for me, yeah.
Dying For Sex
Jenny Slate, and Elizabeth Meriwether and Kim Rosenstock: On Throwing Out the Rules | 9
private usually yeah we had an intimacy coordinator it was really helpful to give like a framework I mean at every stage not just the filming of the sex scenes we were like talking about the writing of it and just the crew as we were shooting it like there were just conversations all the time about everybody being able to be there in whatever way felt the most comfortable for them and
Dying For Sex
Jenny Slate, and Elizabeth Meriwether and Kim Rosenstock: On Throwing Out the Rules | 9
But, yeah, I mean, I was very aware of the sex scenes needing to be truthful, kind of hot, you know, when they need it to be. And also moving story forward as opposed to kind of just being there as a little break from the story. Also, just in the actual filming of them, I think it was important to Kim and I that they felt really human and really, like...
Dying For Sex
Jenny Slate, and Elizabeth Meriwether and Kim Rosenstock: On Throwing Out the Rules | 9
The comedy doesn't come from making fun of these characters and what they're doing. The comedy comes from human beings trying to figure themselves out in the moment in that way. sex is very funny. It doesn't mean it's not hot or interesting. It's also just very human and funny and things make weird noises and people look strange from different angles.
Dying For Sex
Jenny Slate, and Elizabeth Meriwether and Kim Rosenstock: On Throwing Out the Rules | 9
And, you know, I think it was just, we tried to kind of be aware of that when we were shooting, like that we weren't going to shoot it in the same way that I feel like every time I saw a sex scene growing up, it was, like, two people kissing, and then it would, like, the camera, like, pans off of them and, like, pans back into that, you know?
Dying For Sex
Jenny Slate, and Elizabeth Meriwether and Kim Rosenstock: On Throwing Out the Rules | 9
Or it's just, like, everything is glowy and in a beautiful light. And then when you actually have sex, you're like, where's that? Where's my beautiful light? Yeah. There's been some times where I've been like wishing that the camera would pan away, like metaphorically, whatever.
Dying For Sex
Jenny Slate, and Elizabeth Meriwether and Kim Rosenstock: On Throwing Out the Rules | 9
making it um and she was so non-judgmental i mean molly was so incredible in that way and i i think it was so important to us that we went into everything with that feeling of like we're not making fun of people's desires we're making we're just living in the moment and the full humanity of it and the silliness of it and the the joy of it and i think i I mean, I really wanted it to be hot, too.
Dying For Sex
Jenny Slate, and Elizabeth Meriwether and Kim Rosenstock: On Throwing Out the Rules | 9
I wanted to find a way that all of that could also be very hot and fun.
Dying For Sex
Jenny Slate, and Elizabeth Meriwether and Kim Rosenstock: On Throwing Out the Rules | 9
I think it was more just really based on the character and what had gone on with Molly. Because I think Molly loved lingerie. Molly loved to kind of, like, perform while she was having these moments with these guys. And so it actually felt right in this framework of her being in the more, you know, top or sort of dom position and the man being more submissive.
Dying For Sex
Jenny Slate, and Elizabeth Meriwether and Kim Rosenstock: On Throwing Out the Rules | 9
It felt right that there was male nudity and not female nudity. But... Yeah, I mean, it's a show about bodies.
Dying For Sex
Jenny Slate, and Elizabeth Meriwether and Kim Rosenstock: On Throwing Out the Rules | 9
Yeah, for me, I think I was really into the relationship between Michelle and Rob Delaney, who's kind of a character that we it's a composite of a few of the guys from the podcast. But I'm just a huge like rom-com nerd, I guess. Yeah. I loved their relationship and it felt so kind of like new to me. Like I haven't seen that on television.
Dying For Sex
Jenny Slate, and Elizabeth Meriwether and Kim Rosenstock: On Throwing Out the Rules | 9
And the sort of big scene that we're building towards the two of them.
Dying For Sex
Jenny Slate, and Elizabeth Meriwether and Kim Rosenstock: On Throwing Out the Rules | 9
Yeah. Just shooting it, it was just so emotional for me. I don't know, as a writer, you just have these moments where you're like, I can't believe all of these people came together to do this thing, to tell this story. I had that kind of emotional moment on set when we were shooting that.
Dying For Sex
Jenny Slate, and Elizabeth Meriwether and Kim Rosenstock: On Throwing Out the Rules | 9
Yeah. I mean, there's also like a lot of wild, crazy moments. Like what?
Dying For Sex
Jenny Slate, and Elizabeth Meriwether and Kim Rosenstock: On Throwing Out the Rules | 9
I mean, we did the scene that's from the podcast where she pees on a guy. So we like shot, you know, a scene where she was peeing on him in a bathtub and like she had a rig taped to her leg. And what's really great about production is that All of these kind of airy fairy ideas that you have get sort of boiled down to like a couple conversations about the color of the fake pee.
Dying For Sex
Jenny Slate, and Elizabeth Meriwether and Kim Rosenstock: On Throwing Out the Rules | 9
They're highly technical. It didn't look like pee enough and like where the stream of it was. To be accurate from where she was standing.
Dying For Sex
Jenny Slate, and Elizabeth Meriwether and Kim Rosenstock: On Throwing Out the Rules | 9
Yeah. And then you're just like, I can't believe that like I'm doing this.
Dying For Sex
Jenny Slate, and Elizabeth Meriwether and Kim Rosenstock: On Throwing Out the Rules | 9
Well, Nikki, they listen to the podcast.
Dying For Sex
Jenny Slate, and Elizabeth Meriwether and Kim Rosenstock: On Throwing Out the Rules | 9
Yeah, I mean, it was a huge part of our interview process, filling all of those crew jobs and actors and everything was just like, if the person said they loved the podcast, we knew that they at least understood what we were trying to do. So it was, yeah, I think it felt really like a personal show for a lot of people. Very much so.
Dying For Sex
Jenny Slate, and Elizabeth Meriwether and Kim Rosenstock: On Throwing Out the Rules | 9
Yeah, that's hard for me.
Dying For Sex
Jenny Slate, and Elizabeth Meriwether and Kim Rosenstock: On Throwing Out the Rules | 9
Also, not to like sound corny, but whenever you said that we've got it right or whenever you said that you loved it and were moved by it, I felt an enormous amount of pride.
Dying For Sex
Jenny Slate, and Elizabeth Meriwether and Kim Rosenstock: On Throwing Out the Rules | 9
Just like an enormous amount of just joy. I don't know. I mean, it's like we were all guided by you and Molly. And we're just so grateful that you guys put your story out there and that we got to tell it.