“Dying for Sex”: Radical Honesty, Deep Friendship, and Humor Shape FX’s New Limited Series

At a recent press conference, the cast and creatives behind FX’s Dying for Sex gathered to reflect on the making of their powerful new limited series. Inspired by the podcast of the same name, the show explores one woman’s journey through terminal illness, sexual exploration, and profound friendship - told with radical honesty, intimacy, and humor.

For executive producers and co-creators Liz Meriwether and Kim Rosenstock, capturing the spirit of the original podcast was essential. Meriwether explained that the team approached the storytelling without thinking about jokes or punchlines, saying, “We were just going to sort of tell the story and let it be as awkward and beautiful and tragic and weird as possible and just like follow where it goes, which we really took from the podcast." Rosenstock agreed, adding, “We knew we had to make something different, but we wanted it to feel the same. We wanted you to have that feeling that we all had when we listened to it."

Director Shannon Murphy recalled a favorite moment on set that captured the spirit of spontaneity they aimed for, describing how, “One of my favorite moments was when we got Michelle to have a body rig with a camera because she then got to be technically in charge of Molly's cinematic kind of dissociation but what it allowed was her to also be in charge of it."

Michelle Williams, who stars as Molly and also serves as an executive producer, embraced the deeply vulnerable material, especially as a mother thinking about the legacy she wanted to leave her children. “I've always wanted to make something that I would feel proud of and that even they, as they grew up, could feel a deeper understanding of who I was and what I was interested in," she shared. “And, so, I stand behind this, and went wholeheartedly into the experience."

At the emotional center of Dying for Sex is the friendship between Molly and Nikki, played by Williams and Jenny Slate. Slate reflected on the rarity of such a relationship being central to a story, saying, “The type of love of listening, of being able to question yourself, find out what it means to really be emotionally intimate with someone is something that I'm sure a person can have in many types of relationships but often a romantic relationship is the one that is prized and the one that somehow gives a person a certificate that says you're worthy of love."

For Nikki Boyer, whose real-life friendship with Molly inspired the story, seeing it brought to life was emotional and affirming. Reflecting on how Molly would have reacted to the adaptation, she said, “She would've been beyond proud, and I feel like she's here. I feel her around. And, so, this is a dream come true for me, and I think really for her to have it told with such authenticity... I don’t even think she could've wrapped her complicated, beautiful brain around what is happening."

The series also prompted reflections on mortality and living fully. Rob Delaney, who plays Neighbor Guy, shared how working on Dying for Sex shifted his perspective on life and death, saying, “While we might not sitting here have that diagnosis, we are going to die, and so I think for me, doing a show is very helpful because it got me in sort of a healthy-ish death mindset and accepting of the fact that is going to come."

Jay Duplass, who portrays Steve, admitted he avoided listening to the podcast before filming. “I became scared of listening to the Dying for Sex podcast because the scripts were so great and the story was so specific and the character was so specific, and I was like I need to wait."

Throughout the conversation, a consistent theme emerged: Dying for Sex embraces the beautiful messiness of being human. Michelle Williams may have captured it best when reflecting on what she learned from portraying Molly. She spoke about how Molly’s encounters with others were guided by radical acceptance, saying, “As she opened herself up to these sexual encounters, the way that she observed the people that were put in her path was with what I would call radical acceptance of their bodies and what they desired and how their desires surprised themselves and how their desires had weighed them down and made them feel ashamed." Williams added that she continues to think about “how to view sex within that framework, take out the negativity and the shame."

With humor, vulnerability, and radical acceptance, Dying for Sex invites viewers to rethink what it means to live fully, with love, laughter, and connection leading the way. The entire FX series is now streaming on Hulu.