Betty Gilpin told “getting naked on camera was necessary toll” for TV breakthrough
Betty Gilpin has talked about being asked to appear naked on-screen while auditioning for her first major television role.
“The first big TV job I auditioned for, I was told that getting naked on camera was the necessary toll to pay if I wanted the part,” she told IndieWire in a new interview, though declined to name the show in question.
This came ahead of celebrated work in women’s wrestling comedy Glow playing Debbie “Liberty Belle” Eagan – and as Dr. Carrie Roman in the Showtime comedy-drama series Nurse Jackie. Prior to that, Gilpin had various, smaller roles in Law and Order, The Good Wife and others.
After Glow was unexpectedly cancelled by Netflix, despite being a big hit with fans, Gilpin later wrote a moving eulogy for the show, saying in Vanity Fair that “it was the best job I’ll ever have”.
“Our business is a strange mix of attempting childhood dreams to a room full of asleep people and shirking dignity for awake tomato-throwers for rent. This was one of those extremely rare times where we got to do the dream for awake people. And it didn’t disappear in an audition room or unsent email. We did it on a show, recorded it all, I swear. Thirty episodes.”
She added: “Apparently numbers-wise, GLOW really only appealed to men in kimonos and women in cat hair, who, as far as I’m concerned, are the beating heart of the arts and the reason to keep waking up.”
Gilpin is currently appearing in new mini-series Three Woman, which is based on the 2019 non-fiction book of the same name by Lisa Taddero. The work explores female sexuality through the stories of women across the US. You can see the trailer for the show above.
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Elizabeth Aubrey
NME
