The naked truth about Tell Me You Love Me

Hey there, time traveller!
This article was published 15/07/2007 (7005 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

HOLLYWOOD — Did they, or didn’t they? Were they, or weren’t they? They wouldn’t REALLY, would they?

Those were the, er, uh, ah, um, hardest questions to date on this summer’s edition of the U.S. networks’ semi-annual press tour in Los Angeles, and they were directed this week by curious and sometimes outraged TV critics to the producers and stars of the upcoming HBO drama series Tell Me You Love Me (which will premiere locally on Sept. 9 on Movie Central).

And the reason for the barrage of questions is because many of the professional TV-watchers gathered here for press tour believe that this new HBO series raises (or lowers, depending on your perspective) the bar related to on-screen sex and crosses from simulation to the actual doing of the deed.

People involved in the show insist that it’s all acting and clever camera work, but many in the TV-critic crowd remain unconvinced.

“The sex scenes in any of the episodes are a pretty integral part of the storyline,” series co-star Michelle Borth said of Tell Me You Love Me, which follows three couples facing intimacy problems who seek assistance from a relationship therapist played by veteran actor Jane Alexander.

“We are not porn stars. We’re actors. And I think part of our job in any scene, whether it’s a sex scene or, you know, a fight scene or, you know, an emotional scene, you do the best that you can do to do it authentically and honestly.”

And of course, the most interesting thing about this gettin’-busy-obsessed game of Did They Or Didn’t They? is that whether they did it or they didn’t, it all started behind closed doors in Winnipeg.

Nine parts of the 10-episode series was filmed here in Los Angeles, but the pilot was produced in Winnipeg a couple of years ago under the working title sexLIFE. And given the extraordinary intimacy involved in this project, both its stars and its producers agree that getting together and getting it on (OK, or not) in an out-of-the-way outpost such as ours actually helped everyone get into the right frame of mind.

“Actually, it was very useful to shoot it there,” Borth told the Free Press in a later interview at HBO’s swanky post-press-conference poolside cocktail party. “When they took us to Winnipeg, because the structure of the show involved shooting the storylines separately, I had a lot of down time. I had a lot of time to connect with Luke (Farrell Kirby), who plays my fiancé in the show.

“It was actually brilliant to take us out into the middle of nowhere, in the middle of winter (it was September, actually), with nothing to do and nowhere to go. There was nothing else to do except spend time together. It worked out really great, because by the time the sex scenes came, we had spent so much time intimate time together, getting to know each other, that it was a really comfortable environment. So when it came time to shoot them, it was, ‘Been there, done that. Let’s do it. Strip down.”’

Nothing to do? Not exactly the sort of endorsement Tourism Winnipeg might be looking for.

“Uh, we drank a lot,” Borth offered, when pressed. “There is not a lot to do in Winnipeg. There’s a great science museum that I went to, and there’s a great strip club that we went to. But honestly, there was not a lot to do. We just hung out together.”

The show’s creator and executive producer, Cynthia Mort, offered a slightly more small-town-friendly view than her clothes-doffing young star.

“At first, I didn’t want to shoot (the pilot) in Winnipeg,” she offered. “I didn’t want to go so far away. But the locations were beautiful and the crews were incredible; it was a great place to work. And actually, taking the cast there, we were kind of sequestered for three weeks, and it kind of helped them form relationships with each other — it was an ensemble, but when one couple was working two or three days, the other couples had nothing to do, so they got to hang out. It was great experience.”

In addition to Alexander, Borth and Kirby, Tell Me You Love Me also stars Tim DeKay, Aislinn Paul, Adam Scott, Kate Towne, Sonja Walger and Ally Walker.

In other words, they’re the ones who did it. Or didn’t.

brad.oswald@freepress.mb.ca