Ophelia Lovibond is Ready for Minx's Starz Era

"After a while, [the nudity] just becomes part of your workplace."

Last December, fans of the series Minx were dismayed when streaming service Max announced it was canceling the show about a '70s erotic magazine for women. "We had heard ramblings," says the show's star, Ophelia Lovibond. But Starz stepped in and saved the series. (The second season premiered July 21.) "People are tweeting and sending messages, expressing their outrage [about the cancellation]...imagine if that had happened and it was like, 'Good, I hate that show.' [laughs]. It would have been awful." Lovibond plays Joyce, the magazine's feminist creator. "This season she's in a completely different place in her life. She's never been the girl invited to the party." The series quickly became known for its abundance of male nudity. "After a while, it just becomes part of your workplace. I can't imagine being an accountant and getting used to that, but filming a '70s show about porn, it's kind of par for the course." But Lovibond credits intimacy coordinators for making the nude scenes professional. "It's fundamentally changed the way you approach a scene."

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Editor's Note: This conversation with Ophelia Lovibond took place before the Screen Actors Guild strike was announced.

The series has been through it, with Max canceling it, only for STARZ to pick it up. What was all that like?

It was slightly different for us on the inside, because we were we were only in limbo for a couple of days. Ellen [Rapoport] told us Max isn't moving forward. We had a week left in our final week of filming. We had heard ramblings, we'd seen what was going on with the the merger and stuff. It wasn't like, oh my God, where's this come from? And we also knew none of it had been seen. It wasn't like it was a response to the material, it was a purely financial decision. So, right off the bat, I didn't take it personally, and I didn't want anyone in the show to take it personally because this is not based on what we're producing. So the emotion of it was kind of taken out of it for me. And then Paul Feig [executive producer] said to us, "Look, there are several platforms, streamers, that are really keen to acquire this," and he said, "so look, I can't give you an answer for a couple of months, but we're going to be fine." So I just thought okay, great. I trust him, and Starz is a great home for it.

Well, when someone like Paul Feig says everything is gonna be fine, believe it.

He's holding a gin martini wearing a three-piece double-breasted suit. He dresses like that on the plane. I said to him, "Do you wear this in the bath?" I've never seen him in anything less than [a suit], even on a boiling hot L.A. day. But that last week of filming, it actively bonded us together. We were already a very close crew, great relationships with everyone, but that camaraderie really bonded us together and just put people in really good spirits. We left thinking, I don't know where we're going but I just thought, I'm not worried. I think it will be fine. Normally you only get immediate feedback when you're doing a play, but people in real time are tweeting and sending messages, expressing their outrage [to Max canceling the series]. This is really heartwarming. People seem to really actually care. I mean, imagine if that had happened and it was like, "Good, I hate that show. Good decision, HBO," [laughs]. It would have been awful.

No, people were outraged, and I feel like I was leading the protest. So then what can we expect from season two?

It's kind of the biggest swings, bigger storylines, you see each character dealing with success and the effect it has on them. So whether they take it in stride, or whether they kind of get a bit big for their boots or lose their way, this season there's less of us all together in Bottom Dollar [the publisher of the magazine in the series], [we're] out in the wild. The episodes are quite ambitious, bigger concepts. There's a whole episode that talks about Deep Throat and that effect and what people thought about it. And lots of high jinks. It's just bigger, bigger swings.

Where do we find Joyce this season?

Well, Joyce is rich and popular and sought after and famous for the first time. And you can see her—I wouldn't say corrupted, I wouldn't go that far—but she loses sight of why she's doing the writing and the reasons that have gotten her this notoriety. She's lost sight of what got her there in the first place. So you see her taking her eye off the ball a little bit and the effect it has on her friends and family.

Interesting. Joyce is such an interesting character, because she's surrounded by so many unique people, she's certainly more centered and in control.

I think that's where a lot of the comedy [came from]. The kind of tension that came in season one, in season two, it's quite a different side to Joyce. She feels quite different this season. She's in a completely different place in her life. She's never been the girl invited to the party. She's never been the one with enough money to spend on something. She's never actually owned anything silk. Let's put it that way. She's "Little Miss Polyester." So you see her exploring a different side to herself. Ellen quite rightly said, people are complex, they are not one thing, a different side of you comes out depending on who you're talking to. So add into the mix a new environment and fame, you just see her become maybe more chaotic.

What was it about Joyce you first responded to?

I just loved her immediately. As soon as I read it. I just thought, I know who this is. She's kind of an amalgamation of several different people. And the writing made me laugh out loud. That's such a cliche thing to do, but to be reading a script and you're laughing, snorting unattractively out loud, that's got to be really funny. I could hear the voices. The characters had really distinct voices. It had a feminist message but was very, very funny, and it wasn't dogmatic. It [had] substance but really fun. What I really liked about her is that she makes mistakes and she's not this flawless role model. She's not socially manicured, she gets herself into trouble sometimes, she says the wrong thing and doesn't realize it, she can be quite halting. I like that this shows you can make a mistake and you don't need to be completely discounted and ignored for the rest of your life. We need to be able to make mistakes in order to then be better. And I liked that it was exploring that while being incredibly funny.

So much of the talk of the first season was the amount of male nudity on the show, a rarity for shows. How have people responded to you about the nudity on the show?

This might sound incredibly disingenuous, but I was surprised by how often it was talked about. I don't know what that says about me. What first attracted me to [the show] when I read in the pilot, it said, "dick montage." And then underneath it said, "Yeah, you read me right, a dick montage." But it still did take me by surprise how preoccupied people were by that. What has been good though, as the show's gone on, people have seen that it's celebrating nudity in all its forms. Nudity doesn't necessarily mean sexualization. They can be different things. And I think that it's conjured so much conversation exposes how imbalanced it has been, which in itself is quite a conversation starter. The fact that it's galvanized such conversation exposes the fact that it was so missing. The show is also making a point in that way.

And that's something we don't see on a lot of other shows.

I'm glad it's added to the conversation. And even when you're on set, the way it's filmed—I mean, Jake [Johnson] would disagree with me, he's always like, "Oh my God, suddenly there's someone naked," because [they're] rehearsing with robes on and then they call action and the robes have dropped to the ground. He was like, "It always throws me." After a while, it just becomes part of your workplace. I can't imagine being an accountant and getting used to that but filming a '70s show about porn, it's kind of par for the course. [laughs] When the actors, male or female, who were doing those kinds of scenes, they would always say, "thank you, [that] felt really comfortable." And it was really important to all of us that everyone felt safe.

And Minx very much led the way for intimacy coordinators on set. How has that changed how you shoot nude and sex scenes?

It's fundamentally changed the way you approach a scene. It's very choreographed in the way you would have a stunt coordinator. If you were doing a full on knife fight, there's time set aside to coordinate that stunt. There's safety assessments you check, you run through it at half speed. Intimacy coordinating is approached in the same way. You discuss the scene, you say what each person has come up with, and then you choreograph that almost like a dance, so there's no improvising. Before, you would just go ahead. You just start making out with some random guy. You just had to figure it out. Looking back, it was like the Wild Wild West. But now it's very contained, orchestrated, which is not to say without passion; I think some people feel...they worry that that removes the spontaneity. Well, it is acting, that's where the acting comes in. An intimacy coordinator has made it that there's no surprises. Sometimes the director could say to you, "You look beautiful. What are you worrying about?" [You] just feel a little bit coerced, and there's just no room for that. Everything is figured out. You check everything, where the other person is safe to be touched, [where] they don't want to be touched, what can be seen on camera, and then you do it half speed, and then you just speed it up. It's much more professional, and more like work.

Now I'll say, the clothes of the '70s are a love it or hate it aesthetic. Do you love it?

I love the aesthetic so much. That's another thing that drew me to the show. Choices were led by character, so it was whatever suited her character and her budget and stuff like that. It's heaven when I'm in that costume.

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