These days it seems like indie actress Lizzy Caplan is popping up everywhere, from her new movie, Bachelorette, to a guest stint on New Girl. The actress also has two upcoming projects: the film 3,2,1…Frankie Go Boom and the TV series, Masters of Sex.
Caplan admits she was drawn to Frankie because “I needed a job! That was definitely part of it.” But the paycheck wasn’t the only reason she wanted to do another indie. She also added, “I read the script and really fell in love with it and really wanted to go after it because I thought it was so strange and yet so funny. Just real laughs when reading a script are difficult to come by. And I also thought it would be a very challenging character because even though for the second half of the movie she’s pretty straight and sweet, those first early scenes, I knew would be something that would terrify me right before he yelled ‘Action.’ And that’s the kind of stuff I seek out.”
For Masters of Sex, Caplan will be playing Virginia Johnson, who was a sex researcher in the ‘50s. “I read the book, and there were little things peppered throughout the book that were pretty strange coincidences,” the actress said in an interview with NBC New York. “Just tiny little things that wouldn’t be mind-blowing but that I started to feel sort of connected to her. And there was something so brave to me about this woman who was so comfortable with her sexuality at a time where women weren’t. They had no ownership over their own sexuality.”
Caplan was also pleased about the casting of Johnson’s research partner, William Masters. “Showing up on set with Michael Sheen, who’s an actor I respect so much—I refer to him as a real actor because he’s like played Hamlet and is one of those trained actors,” Caplan said. “And it felt like the dynamic was already in place because if felt like this scrappy little comedy actress coming in and playing with this big gun. And that was how it felt for the two of these people, so before we even started rolling, it was like, ‘Okay, whoever’s casting this show is smart because they’re setting up this like power situation like from the get-go.’ And Michael and I have since become good buddies and we’re gonna have a blast shooting the show. And I’m like ridiculously excited.”
3,2,1…Frankie Go Boom will hit theaters October 12, and Masters of Sex is currently in post-production.
