In your episode, you play a woman named Nera who is expecting her first child. Even though we are only getting a glimpse of one day of her life, the set
I know some women who have gone through IVF, and I’ve seen their dedication and their resilience, and some of them had partners, and some of them did not. Either way, it takes a massive toll. There is so much planning with being so intentional about wanting that connection, wanting to bring a child into the world. It’s also extremely expensive. I wanted to lean into that experience and what I knew from them. I spoke to quite a few people who had done [IVF]. But because this takes such a turn, I don’t want to say it’s for them because they will be like, “What?! What are you talking about? That’s crazy.” That was some of the research I did and some of what I wanted to explore. I’m also really fascinated by home-birth videos and seeing this amazing act that we all, literally all as human beings on this planet, went through the same portal to get here. That is crazy to me that it’s so dangerous and so miraculous and also so mundane at the same time, that it’s constantly happening. Every second, someone else is being born, so I wanted to explore that. I was thinking about how rare it is to see what happens with women’s bodies on camera other than the sexual act. So just exploring different ways of the wonders and horrors of our bodies.
Each episode showcases a moment of isolation for a different person, which feels particularly timely with what we all have been experiencing during this global pandemic. How have you personally been dealing with any feelings of isolation or loneliness?
Thank you for that question. We do have to focus on that, especially in moments like now with the constant inundation of bad news and all the terror that is happening around us. All of the FaceTime calls with friends and the dinner dates online, I had never done anything like that. There were people who live far away, and it’s always been, “Well, when I come visit you…,” but now that the option isn’t there, it’s like, “Hey, why don’t we do this dinner date?” I love music, and there has been a lot of dancing. Dancing at the house and dancing with family. I started gardening a lot more. I already had a green thumb and lots of plants, but this was the first time I was really able to watch everything happen. You are literally there watching that bad boy come out of the ground. And then, I also had the pleasure of cooking more. So that’s been really amazing.
And seeing—this echoes back to the episode—the resilience of people. I think we were all like, “How are we going to get through this? How do I navigate grocery stores?” All of these little things, and now, here we are. We are still pushing through and still managing our relationships, our marriages, our careers. It’s still not over, but I feel like I am stronger and different than I was a year ago, hopefully for the better. But yeah, lots of music and maybe way too much TV. A lot more TV than I have ever watched in my life. But it’s actually fun.