Rob Delaneyis no stranger to wild scenes. Appearing in everything fromCatastrophetoBad MonkeytoDeadpool & Wolverine, you’d think he’d done just about all there is to do onscreen. I can assure you that, while watchingDying for Sex, you will quickly be proven wrong. Delaney takes on a role known simply as Neighbor Guy in the eight-episode series, whobegins a complicated and kinky but also surprisingly heartfelt and sweet relationship with a woman named Molly(Michelle Williams) who is, as the title of the show suggests, dying from Stage IV cancer and also interested in having a lot of intercourse after abruptly leaving her 15-year marriage.
Jay Duplasstakes on the role of Molly’s ex-husband, Steve,a man who has dedicated years of his life to helping Molly get better— without a lot of regard for how Molly feels about that. Steve is a complex role, as he’s simultaneously performatively selfless and deeply selfish and the show’s antagonist without feeling like a villain. This is far from the first time Duplass has taken on a messy relationship both in front of and behind the camera, as he’s known for starring in shows likeTransparentand creating series likeTogetherness.
Collider got the chance to speak to Delaney and Duplass about their work in the series. Delaney breaks down Molly and Neighbor Guy’s “meet yuck” and the challenge of shooting Episode 7, while Duplass discusses working withSissy Spacekand his favorite line delivery of the series, which just so happens to be from Delaney.
Rob Delaney and Jay Duplass Break Down ‘Dying for Sex’s Complicated Romances
COLLIDER: First of all, congratulations on the show. You both are so wonderful in it.
JAY DUPLASS: That is a great question.
Thank you. Okay, we’re done now!
DUPLASS: [Laughs] Yeah, cool.
Jay, I do want to start with you because this show essentially starts at the end of Molly and Steve’s marriage, which is pretty interesting. I’m curious what kind of work you did fleshing out the beginning of the relationship and the history between these two characters.
DUPLASS: Well, I’ve been sort of lowkey in love with Michelle Williams for quite some time now, so that was an easy entree for me. Lots of moments in my life wishing I could be married to that lady, so that was an easy starter. But yeah, I am married. I know what long-term relationships are about — at least for me.It was pretty easy to imagine a fun life with her, and I really relied on what was written so well, which was: Steve’s a freaking maniac when it comes to getting somebody out of a cancerous situation, which is cool. It’s just really cool that I had this sort of taskmaster guy that I could just enter into. His motivation was to save the person that he loves the most from dying. That’s not what she wants right now, but he also has his own needs. He’s good at what he does. I think there’s so much fun stuff to explore there. I think playing people who are hellbent on things is really fun, so it was just really fun and playful, and I got to play sort of like a maniac who also loved his wife. It’s a very complicated antagonist for a show and very unusual, so I was psyched to do it.
Yeah, absolutely. We do actually see the rather untraditional beginnings, I would say, of Molly’s relationship with Neighbor Guy, which isn’t so much a meet-cute as it is like a meet-hate. Rob, how did you approach that first scene? Because there is such a specific vibe set up between them from the get-go.
ROB DELANEY: Yeah, I guessit’s like a meet-yuck.
Meet-yuck.
DELANEY: Neighbor Guy was fun becauseyou’re doing something that will kind of be flipped on its head a little later, so I felt real freedom to just play him as offensive and disgusting and repulsive as possible— I mean literally strewing the hall with garbage. The thing that I like about Neighbor Guy isMolly sort of imbues him with a bit of her magic, and he winds up blossoming, and they have quite a beautiful love story. I think, for me, thinking about somebody who’s in the sacred space between death and life and what they choose to give their attention to can really be transformed, so it felt like a really great opportunity and a lot of fun to do.
Definitely. I love that he’s just called Neighbor Guy, but I’m curious if they gave you a specific reason why he never gets a first name.
DELANEY: You know, they never did. And I’m not, by nature, a curious person, so I never asked. [Laughs]
Jay Duplass on Working with Sissy Spacek in ‘Dying for Sex’
So fair. We love it. It’s just Neighbor Guy. I found the dynamic between Steve and Molly’s mother, Gail, really interesting. Jay, I wondered if you could talk about working with Sissy Spacek to sort of establish that relationship because it’s not maybe what you would expect from an ex-husband and the mom like that.
DUPLASS: Yeah, I’m no stranger to charming ladies' moms. [Laughs] I’m admitting something right now. But I don’t know. Well, first of all, it’s Sissy Spacek, and Jesus Christ — yet another person that I’m like, “Boy, it would be cool to be married to somebody like that.” I love my wife. But we did have a natural rapport on set right away. There was something really fun. Look, I think Sissy Spacek has a great rapport with everybody probably — she’s a wonderful human being.She’s very playful and very curious and was just like psyched to be there, which I was like, “That’s nuts. You’re Sissy Spacek. You’re iconic.” I don’t know how much TV she’s done, but I don’t think very much — if any — so just the fact that the camera was up and I was in the same shot as her was exciting to me.
First of all, the scripts are just written so well. You don’t have to generate anything — we know what this is. But Sissy is so playful and so fun that, for the last episode, we did a lot of circus work is what it felt like — spinning around the room together and just getting nuts together. I mean, you’re talking about somebody who’s been doing this for, what, 60-something-plus years? And she’s in the room, andyou just feel like you’re both 11 years old goofing off. That’s genuinely what it felt like, so it was fun and natural to almost flirt with her in front of my ex-wife while my new girlfriend was here. The most insane scene I think I filmed on the show.
Rob Delaney Reveals His Most Difficult ‘Dying for Sex’ Scene
Yeah, this show is full of wild scenes. I feel like you, Rob, have a lot of really wild stuff to do, but it always does manage to feel so strangely grounded in a lot of ways. I’m curious, for you, if there was a scene you were most nervous about approaching and selling, and then which scene ultimately ended up being the most challenging for you?
DELANEY: They might both be the same, and that would bethe seventh episode, which takes place primarily in Molly’s hospital room. I knew that would be very emotionally difficult for a variety of reasons, and it sure did turn out to be as well. And then also, both Jay and I have had other jobs other than actors — as writers and producers and, for Jay, director — and so you also want to verify that you’re making your stuff that’s taking place in one room be interesting. There’s a lot of different ways you approach stuff and try things — different takes and with different sort of senses of space and musicality and all that — and so making sure that basically the sort of suite of scenes that took place there were varied enough, true enough, beautiful enough, funny enough. Of course, I could have not worried about any of that since the creative team there was so brilliant, but you find yourself thinking about it, so I was like, “Can we collectively pull this off?” That was a challenge. But the biggest one was emotional — that was very taxing to do.
Rob Delaney and Jay Duplass Discuss Their Favorite ‘Dying for Sex’ Lines
Absolutely. I mean, you have both mentioned the writing, and it is just so sharp. It has such a musicality to it that you mentioned. I have to say, in context, “Just keep kicking me in the dick,” is somehow one of the most romantic lines I feel like that’s been uttered for a long time. I’m curious if you both have a favorite line that sticks out to you from this show.
DELANEY: My character, at one point, talks about howhe had an STD that doctors thought had gone extinct, and shooting that was a tremendous amount of fun because we’re using words like, “Should we say grundle or chode or taint? Taint — a lot of people are saying that these days. Should we go back? Like when I grew up in Boston, it was the grundle, but then chode took over for a bit.”
DUPLASS: “Chode.”
DELANEY: “Now, typically you’ll hear taint, but they’re all great words.” We’re definitely playing around — very, on a serious level — being like, “Grundle, grundle…”
DUPLASS: Analysis.
DELANEY: Looking at Michelle being like, “Grundle,” and just seeing how it lands.
DUPLASS: Consensus groups. A lot of testing. Maybe my favorite line from the show is roughlyEpisode 6 when you see Molly outside, and she says, “I’ve never seen you in the light before,” and you said, “Is it disappointing?”I thought that was so brilliantly written and performed.
DELANEY: Aww, thanks.
DUPLASS: I felt a tremendous history in this being a disappointment come across your face and body. I think that’s my favorite in the whole [show], “Is it disappointing?”
DELANEY: Oh my god.
All episodes ofDying for Sexare now available to stream on Hulu.
