In the second episode of Hulu’s Pam & Tommy, starring Lily James and Sebastian Stan as notorious ’90s couple Pamela Anderson and Tommy Lee, a new character pops out. While high on ecstasy, Stan’s Lee has a heady conversation with his penis, who encourages Lee to keep up his promiscuous ways.
At a finale event March 8, co-showrunners D.V. DeVincentis and Robert Siegel told THR that DeVincentis originally had voiced the animatronic appendage, but that Hulu was seeking a name to rerecord the role. “I got bumped, I didn’t have my SAG dues paid,” DeVincentis joked. It was Seth Rogen who suggested friend Jason Mantzoukas, who had voluminous experience with below-the-belt voicework on Netflix’s raunchy animated Big Mouth.
“There was no other choice, honestly. I wish I could say he was the second or third,” confirmed Rogen, who exec produced and stars as disgruntled contractor Rand Gauthier. “I don’t know what that says about Jason, but as soon as we knew we needed someone, I said ‘Jason Mantzoukas’ and no one argued. He’s always top of mind for me.” Added Siegel, “It felt like typecasting. [Or else] It was, what? Tim Blake Nelson?”
The Pam & Tommy moment arrives amid a wave of films and TV shows that feature male full-frontal nudity. Asked about the trend by THR, Stan, who also rides around on a motorcycle in the buff in the indie Monday, says he “doesn’t even think twice about it” anymore.
“I feel that women have to have had to do it for so long, and now, it’s almost like, well, OK, it’s our turn now.” He added that what he will take into consideration is if it serves the story and there’s a real point to it plot-wise. “[I’ll do it] if it’s not salacious and not purely for grabbing-attention purposes.”
Of the parts that he’s appeared in the buff, Stan says those moments always “felt earned” or integral to the story. “As long as it’s being approached from a conversational point of view, where everyone agrees on what it is and we’re all on the same page, then I think it is OK.”
A version of this story first appeared in the March 16 issue of The Hollywood Reporter magazine. Click here to subscribe.
Source: Hollywood
