House Of Lies S01E04

"Dance for me, Roxy..."

Dawn Olivieri is a star whose rise to TV fame more or less exploded when she landed a recurring role on The CW’s hit series The Vampire Diaries. But it’s a lead spot on Showtime’s House Of Lies where she finally bares all- in more ways than one. She plays Monica Talbot, a woman the actress describes as "narcissistic, manipulative" and willing to do anything to get what she wants. In other words, Olivieri told TV Fanatic, it's her "dream character." Viewers got an immediate impression of Monica in the first few seconds of the pilot episode, as it opened with her lying naked in bed alongside her ex-husband and top business rival, Don Cheadle's Marty Kaan. Look for these two to often be in such compromising positions together. "You don't wanna be taking your clothes off for any old show," Olivieri laughed. "But House of Lies covets that quick wit, that truth, those in-your-face situations... if you're gonna be naked, it might as well be for a show like this."

Olivieri says that since she started acting "pretty much everybody wants me to be naked!" She was so happy getting The Vampire Diaries on The CW knowing that all they could do to me was put her in that bra and underwear, which of course they did! "It’s just my luck in life here," she smiles. "I work out too much, and therefore everybody that hires you wants you to take off your clothes! It's just the way it is. One day I’m going to be very old and I’m not going to have the body that I have."


There is still a little embarrassment though. "It pushes the limit for me, at times, of vulnerability," Olivieri admits. "I think, never are you as vulnerable as when you are completely naked having a scene with someone. I mean, you pretty much can’t get more naked than that, emotionally and physically. So there’s definitely moments in this series that I’ve really had to strong arm my disposition and say, listen, I got to figure out ways to do this and make it real and forget the fact that there are 17 people standing around me, two of which have huge cameras, and really just go for it. I’m naked sometimes, but whatever. I don’t care."

So the nudity is set to continue then? "Oh yeah, come on, it’s Showtime!," she answers cheerfully. "But I’m naked less than Don Cheadle is naked, so at least that makes me feel better." It also helps to share these scenes with such a veteran actor. Olivieri can't say enough positive things about her co-star, referring to him at various times as "accommodating, compassionate, open and a genius in subtlety and nuance." For someone who has only been acting for six years, Olivieri said the experience has been "terrifying" and, well, "orgasmic." "He's the lifeline she can use to manipulate Marty," Olivieri says. "She'll use any kind of business strategy to close a deal. I'll just say this," Olivieri teases. "She's a business woman at all times. If someone or something is encroaching on her territory, she's gonna do something about that."

She certainly doesn't seem to be the most well put-together girl then. "Yeah, she has this psychotic diagnosis," continues the actress. "But where is that coming from? It’s coming from Marty, it’s coming from her ex-husband. And what I liked, what I connected with in creating this character for me was the fact that if you were to interview my ex-boyfriend, he would tell you that I’m a psycho! (Laughs) It doesn’t necessarily mean too much to me. I translate it into the fact that she’s opinionated, she’s passionate, she works very hard, she’s ambitious, but she also parties really hard. She’s the master of the art of dodging the truth, in a way that she wants. That manipulation is kind of what makes her sparkle."

In part, the series is about how we navigate Monica and Marty’s relationship.
"[You’ll see] those threads interweaving, and I think what you find it’s evident that they can’t be together, but they almost can’t be apart," she agrees. "So it creates a really interesting story which possibly many people deal with or have dealt with in the past with there’s just that one person, that one guy or that one girl that you just have this very passionate rollercoaster of a relationship with that you love but you also know it’s bad for you. And it’s how much you indulge in that vice. I think it’s just how much you give into that drug."

There was a time when a wonderful role and story were enough to draw Olivieri to a project. Those elements continue to be essential, but working with such a stellar cast is a prerequisite as well. "There is only so much you can do if you're pulling weight and there's nobody there to play off of," she noted to Backstage. "You can't have those beautiful moments with new actors who are so worried about everything else but the moment. With the stellar actors I'm working with now, there's so much more that can blossom."

The actors she's referring to include Cheadle, Kristen Bell, Glynn Turman, Ben Schwartz, and Josh Lawson. The raunchy, dark comedy recounts the nasty shenanigans of a hot management consulting firm, headed by a delightful sleaze played by Cheadle. Olivieri is his pill-popping ex-wife and business competitor, who's at the top of her game in the boardroom and totally messed up in every other aspect of her life. "The show pushes the envelope and people's comfort level, but for me, Dawn, the script is more truthful than most of those I've read and worked on," she continues. "But the acting challenges are the same" whether nudity is required or not. "You try to do what you have in front of you and then dive into that black hole that you're usually covering up."

In that regard, it also doesn't hurt that Shameless comes on right before her show, and Emmy Rossum is topless a lot. "That kind of helps some," thinks Olivieri. "I think TV is going in a way, especially with these networks like Showtime and HBO, where there’s moments that it makes sense. And the nudity is tasteful, and it’s okay. In that scene, in the very opening scene it makes sense that that’s the situation that I’m in. So as long as it’s not gratuitous, then let’s do it. Let’s tell a story."

Television Series: House Of Lies (S01E04)
Release Date: January 2012
Actress: Kristen Bell & Dawn Olivieri
Video Clips Credit: Deep at Sea, Zorg, Wimsey











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