NYLON Magazine - September 2007 - (Page 160) LOVE IN THE TIME OF THERAPY Michelle Borth bares body and soul in HBO’s controversial new series, Tell Me You Love Me, from every possible angle. By Amanda Fortini. Photographed by RJ Shaughnessy She addresses the sex first. There is quite a lot of it in Tell Me You Love Me, HBO’s daring new drama, which stars Michelle Borth as the youngest of its leading women. The series follows the messy emotional lives of four fictional couples, and in doing so enters the very private places (the therapist’s office, the bathroom, the bedroom) that are the stuff of real life, but rarely portrayed on television. “Every sex scene that we shot was really an integral part of the storyline,” says Borth, who plays Jamie, a woman in her mid-twenties struggling with commitment issues. “I mean, I don’t think any of it was just to reveal some T & A.” She’s right in the sense that a show that explores issues of intimacy—or, more specifically, the way that sex, or lack of it, can define, enhance, or ultimately ruin a relationship—must necessarily explore what happens (or doesn’t happen) behind closed bedroom doors. And yet, however essential the sex scenes may be, they will no doubt elicit intense, mixed reactions from critics and viewers alike. The physical intimacy here is, to put it mildly, of an au naturel sort rarely seen in movies, let alone in television: full frontal, unprettified, often awkward, occasionally angry, sometimes interminable—in other words, discomfiting in its realism. (Wrinkles, imperfect bodies, and, in one instance, a bruise on Borth’s knee are in evidence.) Think of the prosaicyet-riveting lovemaking between Julie Christie and Donald Sutherland in Don’t Look Now, or, more recently, the sweaty, embarrassing entanglements in Shortbus. Borth insists she’s not worried about the possible maelstrom of critical response: “Honestly, I’m not nervous about it, only because I’m expecting it. I don’t see it not coming and I’ve already prepared myself for it to happen.” stylist: beth birkett. hair: daniel howell at magnetny.com. makeup: dawn broussard using m.a.c cosmetics at magnetny. com. this page from top left: cardigan by insight, pants by young, fabulous, & broke, earrings by aldo, shoes by steve madden, hoodie by diabless, tank by yaya. magnetny.com
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