Michelle Williams on the Real Love Story at Center of ‘Dying for Sex’

This isn’t Michelle Williams‘ first Emmys rodeo. The golden laurel has taken residence in her home since 2019, when she won for outstanding lead actress in a limited series or movie for portraying Tony-winning actress and dancer Gwen Verdon in the FX biographical drama Fosse/Verdon. Now she’s back in the same race for Dying for Sex, also on FX, but that doesn’t make campaigning any easier.

“I get so nervous,” Williams, 44, confesses. “It’s a lot of adrenaline and I still have to keep taking my own advice, which is to try and stay in the moment and enjoy it because it’s all over so quickly.”

Williams is nominated for her portrayal of real-life podcaster Molly Kochan, who, upon a terminal cancer diagnosis in 2015, separated from her husband of 15 years and embarked on a journey of sexual exploration that included multiple casual liaisons with a variety of male suitors. In 2018, she and best friend Nikki Boyer, played by Jenny Slate in the series, started the podcast Dying for Sex, on which she detailed her numerous hookups, cancer experience and childhood traumas. Kochan then spent the final months of her life writing her memoir, Screw Cancer: Becoming Whole — which Boyer later self-published — before she died in 2019 at the age of 45.

As soon as showrunners and executive producers Kim Rosenstock and Elizabeth Meriwether presented the limited series idea to Williams, she recognized a professional calling.

“It wasn’t an intellectual thought or a conversation that I had with a bunch of people,” says Williams, who’s also an executive producer of the project. “It was like my heart committed to this the moment that I read the script and listened to the podcast.”

Contrary to what the series’ title may suggest, the eight-episode comedy-drama doesn’t revolve around sexcapades — though there are plenty of those, including an ongoing and unexpectedly intimate tryst between Molly and her unnamed neighbor, played by Rob Delaney, who received a supporting actor Emmy nod for his role. At the core of the show is the bond that grows increasingly deeper between Molly and Nikki, and Williams notes the goal of the series was “to honor the love that exists between women and show that a friendship can be as passionate as a romantic relationship.”

Despite the heaviness of the circumstances the friends find themselves navigating — cancer support groups, convoluted health care coverage, palliative care — the series is not without levity, with Williams personally finding humor in the understatedly hilarious ways the creative team brought the details of the story to life onscreen.

Says Williams with a laugh: “You read something in the script like the puppy guy and they’re doing puppy play and she’s going to pee on puppy guy and you’re like, ‘Well, I wonder what kind of dog it’s going to be, what’s this puppy going to look like?’ And then one day this marvelous actor [Conrad Ricamora] shows up and you’re like, ‘Oh wow. I never imagined that it was going to be a vizsla. It’s a red dog!’ “

The morning Emmy nominations were announced on July 15, the Dying for Sex crew’s group chat was abuzz with congratulatory messages over the nine nods it received, including outstanding limited series, contemporary costumes, casting, writing, directing, music composition and supporting actress for Slate.

“Now we get to be partnered over the excitement of sharing this nomination together,” says Williams. “It means we get to keep seeing each other and it means in some ways that the show isn’t over; we haven’t lost our connection to it completely. I’m excited to revisit the bond between me and Jenny, between the two women who wrote and created the show, Liz and Kim, our costume designer [Melissa Toth], our director, Shannon [Murphy]. To share this with our entire team is so moving.”

Critical acclaim notwith-standing, Williams has found it equally fulfilling to experience the reaction from viewers who see themselves in Molly and Nikki.

“I continue to be moved by the response from the communities that this show is really speaking to: the cancer community, the bereaved community. To feel like the work that you did has found a meaning in somebody’s life is beyond my wildest dreams of what I could offer,” says Williams. “Every time that I hear from somebody who feels aided and abetted by this show, I am hands together in a prayer emoji.”

This story first appeared in an August stand-alone issue of The Hollywood Reporter magazine. To receive the magazine, click here to subscribe.