-The show is fantastic. This is really exciting,
David Simon, George Pelecanos are the co-creators.
David Simon did "The Wire,"
and this is a really exciting show
that takes place in New York in the ´70s.
-Yes. -You were here in New York then.
You were a kid. -Not in ´71.
-Okay, not in ´71. -[ Laughs ] No.
-But you were here back
when it was a little dirtier than now.
-I was. -What were your memories of 42nd
and 2nd and that sort of Times Square area?
-Well, I came here to go to college.
-Uh-huh. -I went to Columbia in ´95.
I mean, Times Square, by then, was already kind of like the way
it is now, wasn´t it? -Yeah, but I feel like I --
The first time I came to New York was ´95,
and I still feel like it was almost now
with, like, four porno shops left.
[ Laughter ] -Yeah, that´s true. That´s true.
-Which was really jarring. -Yeah. Yeah.
-Yeah. -That´s true, the combination.
-´Cause you´re like, "Hmm, am I gonna get a coffee
or go into a weird booth for an hour"? So, yeah.
-That´s true, that´s true. I remember, actually, this is
more about, like, way over on the West Side
in the West Village. There was a -- there was, I think,
a porn shop called "Harmony."
-Oh, that´s lovely. [ Laughter ]
-I thought it was a health food store.
-Harmony does sound more like a health food store.
-I did walk into it one day thinking it was
a health food store. -[ Laughs ] Yeah.
You were like, these are not granola bars.
[ Laughter ]
I also want to compliment your wig in that scene.
-Thank you so much. -And this was a wig
you selected, yes? -Yes, well, we did the, like,
the camera test which usually have had conversations
with people before. -Yeah.
-And you know, you have an idea of what you want to do,
but like, they hadn´t hired a hair woman yet.
-Uh-huh. -So I get there and there´s like
20 blonde wigs and they looked okay, and then I saw one
that was, like, uh, I mean, to be totally honest,
I think it maybe was like
a dime store clown wig or something.
-[ Laughs ] Yeah. [ Laughter ]
-And -- But I went -- Okay, I don´t want
but I want to look like Bernadette Peters
or like Hanna Schygulla from the Fassbender movies or something,
and I went -- or like, my character´s name is Candy.
I wanted to look like -- like cotton candy, like yummy.
-Yeah. -You know? And so I put
that wig on for the camera test, and everyone got freaked out,
and then I convinced them, you know, and then we got
a really good one made.
Actually, I´ve been seeing Edie Falco
on the side of buses with my wig on.
-Yeah. It´s very similar. You´re right.
She´s in -- it´s like a Menendez brothers show,
and she has your wig.
-Do you know what I´m talking about?
-Yeah, I do. I´ve seen it on buses, too.
Do you think it´s the same wig
and they´re just running it from set to set?
[ Laughter ]
-I´m going to text her that I want my wig back.
-[ Laughs ] I want your... So you play -- this is about --
you play a sex worker who then becomes --
starts directing adult films ´cause this is about
the legalization of the pornography industry.
And you actually -- is it true that you went
and found sex workers who worked in New York
at that time and talked to them? -Yes.
Before we shot the pilot, I was, like, getting ready to do it
and I realized I had so many questions I didn´t have any way
to answer unless I actually talked to a sex worker.
So I asked Nina Noble, who´s the third in the triumvirate
of David Simon, George Pelecanos,
and Nina is the sort of behind the scenes
other element in that group.
I said, like, I need to talk to a sex worker,
and she found me Annie Sprinkle, who was a prostitute
in the early ´70s and then got into porn,
and she´s kind of like an intellectual pornographer.
-That´s very -- that´s probably the perfect person to find
to talk to for something like this.
[ Laughter ] -Yeah.
She´s like a sex activist and she´s hot and she´s funny
and she, you know, she answered all of the, like,
real down and dirty questions I had.
-What is -- because I think we´re on late enough at night
for me to say this, but... [ Laughter ]
...what sort of down and dirty questions did you ask?
-Well, I was like, first of all, how many men a night?
-Yeah, I guess that would be one.
-So she said like 8 to 10. -Wow!
-Yeah. -That´s really crazy.
-Well, right, so if that´s your reality
and it´s really 8 to 10 men a night,
then who are you and how do you manage that,
and you know, what does that actually feel like
and if you´re telling the story of that woman as opposed
to the "Pretty Woman" version of this story, you know,
how do you make sure to tell the truth?
And you know, so I had questions like that.
I said, "well, what do you do if it´s really, really cold?"
"Uh, do you wax, you know?" -Yeah.
-It was like...So, she was incredibly helpful.
She also introduced me to a lot of her friends,
so I ended up talking to many women in their 60s and 70s
who had been involved in, like, the early days of porn,
which was particularly cool because, you know, I think,
some people as they get older, get wiser and more interesting.
-Yeah. I´m sure in reflecting back on it has a lot more value
putting the years between it. Did they -- were they happy
that the show was being made,
that this story was being told this way
as opposed to the "Pretty Woman" way?
-Yeah, I think so. I think a lot of people,
you know, from what I can tell from Twitter,
sex workers who have tweeted with me,
I think they´re waiting to see. -Oh, well, that´s fair.
-And I think that´s smart. And I think that -- I hope that
they´ll feel respected and pleased with what we´re doing.
-I´m guessing it´ll probably just be the wig
if they have an issue. [ Laughter ]
Like, "you know, we wouldn´t pick
Um... -[ Laughs ]