'Three Women' star Blair Underwood used humor to make intimate scenes comfortable: 'I had to laugh'

Before she landed a leading role in Three Women, Betty Gilpin was “obsessed” with the book about female desire on which the Starz show is based.

“I didn't think you were allowed to talk about this,” Gilpin told Yahoo Entertainment about the pressure and vulnerability that come with women’s sexuality. “Then there it was, in front of me, in three completely different women's stories.”

Three Women, which premieres Sept. 13, is created and executive produced by Lisa Taddeo, who also wrote the book about three real-life women in America. The limited series stars Gilpin alongside DeWanda Wise and Gabrielle Creevy as a trio of women whose diverse stories Shailene Woodley’s character Gia is writing about in a book exploring desire.

One of those storylines centers on Gilpin’s character, Lina, a suburban stay-at-home mom whose husband flinches whenever she touches him. Gilpin said that as an actor, playing this role was “such a gift.”

“It's so rare to have that much real estate and red meat on the page to play with, and I just felt so lucky,” she said.

To say the series is steamy would be an understatement. There’s full-frontal nudity, intimate scenes with multiple partners and one moment in a car that’s particularly candid.

“I had done many sex scenes before, but I think the goal of those sex scenes felt like, ‘OK, we have to trick the audience into thinking I am a 12.’ Like, if I'm coming in at whatever number on the scale I'm at in patriarchy, societal terms, we need to, all hands on deck, every department needs to paint and sculpt and light and dial me into being the video game version of myself and then have this corny, unrealistic sex scene that's sort of algorithm food that lets us do the other weird scenes,” Gilpin said.

Three Women explores the moments that happen behind closed doors that aren’t always airbrushed and sexy. That’s something Gilpin appreciated.

“These scenes felt so important and integral to these women's stories,” Gilpin said. “You're sort of seeing all the between moments that women have that we don't talk about, the kind of backstage moments or the deep breath in the bathroom or the car where you think those feelings that you feel in those moments — those fantasies or fears — that they're yours alone.”

For Wise, who plays Sloane, a woman who’s in an open marriage with Richard (Blair Underwood), embracing her character’s narrative, as well as the intimate scenes that came with it, was all about “empathy and understanding,” she said.

Filming those sequences, with multiple partners, however, presented unique concerns for both Wise and Underwood.

“I was more concerned with making sure that our guests felt comfortable,” Wise said about the actors who joined them. “They had to know that we had their back.”

Underwood agreed.

“I’m so glad you said that, because I felt the exact same way,” he said, crediting intimacy coordinator Claire Warden with helping to facilitate conversations on set. “We had already, very quickly, DeWanda and I, felt a kinship and a comfort level, but then to bring in this third element, who's a guest star for the one day, it's like, how do you make them comfortable?”

To that end, Underwood used humor to negotiate a potentially awkward on-set moment with a fellow actor who also happened to be a fan.

“I had to laugh. That foursome we had, there was a brother in there, and he said, ‘Man, I've been a fan of yours for years. I always wanted to work with you. I just didn't think I'd be naked while we're doing it,’” Underwood said. “I said, ‘Hey, let's be comfortable. Let's roll.’”

As far as being a male actor in a series that intimately captures women’s stories, Underwood said that, ultimately, his aim was to be respectful.

“I feel like I was raised by a strong mother and father. So a lot of that comes in who you are as a human being, how you walk through life and how you present yourself, so it wasn't a whole lot of change,” he said. “I tried to be respectful to all people, but have a great admiration for women, especially strong, powerful women like everybody around me, everybody on that set and in my personal life.”

“Blair was just raised right,” Wise added. “There's no other self where he's like, ‘OK, I'm working with women now. I’ve got to behave.’”

Three Women premieres Sept. 13 at 10 p.m. ET on Starz and at midnight on the Starz app.