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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Damsels In Undress

The nudity clause, once required only in movies, is suddenly becoming a standard part of TV work, reports Sean Daly in today's New York Post. The pressure on young actresses to sign can be tremendous, he writes, and it’s not just on cable anymore...

Behind every boob shot and flash of bare buttocks is a hard working entertainment lawyer because they are usually the one to negotiate Hollywood’s most awkward legal agreement: the nudity clause. "The nudity rider spells out exactly what an actor agrees to do in a role: partial nudity, full frontal nudity — even simulated sex," LA attorney Brian J. Murphy says. The document — usually about one page — can be extremely detailed. It typically includes which body parts can be shown, from which angle and for how long. The nudity clause — once a rarity on TV — is becoming, if not standard, an everyday part of contract negotiations. What is more, it’s starting to show.


Kristen Bell, for example, who came to fame 10 years ago as a crime-solving high school student on Veronica Mars, agreed to work in a bra and panties — but not the 'Full Monty' — in the new sex-filled Showtime drama House of Lies. She’s now 31. Shows like NBC’s Playboy Club negotiated detailed nudity riders with key actors to cover scenes filmed for DVD or overseas use. "You have to be careful not to put yourself in a position where you might be taken advantage of," says 19 year-old Vanessa Marano of ABC Family’s Switched at Birth. "Especially if you are not a series regular and you are just a woman going in for a guest spot on cable, they will expect you to take it off. I did Dexter, and there were people naked everywhere on that. I was safe because I was underage, but if I were older, my clothes would have probably had to come off."

Bare breasts and simulated sex have been essential ingredients on pay cable shows like The Sopranos, Sex and the City and Californication for years. Now the four broadcast networks may soon be able to show a lot more skin in prime time, depending on whether the US Supreme Court decides the FCC can no longer regulate against “indecency” — a vague term that can cover anything from a fleeting F-bomb to a deliberate flash of a backside.”

The networks — which have been consistently losing ground to cable, which is unregulated, in the ratings ­— have been complaining for years about the two-standard system. No matter. The ruling has pushed the issue of pressure on actors to strip down to get the part to the front burner. Shonda Rhimes — creator of Grey’s Anatomy and Private Practice — insists nobody is forced to disrobe on her steamy ABC shows. “We will write in a love scene, and if somebody says ‘I want to do this love scene while wearing a turtleneck and snow pants,’ we will say ‘fine,’ ” she tells The Post. “If somebody wants to do it completely naked, that is great, too.”

John Wells, producer of the sexually charged Showtime series Shameless, is less flexible. “We are very clear [upfront] that nudity will be required,” he says. “We don’t hire actors who tell us they are not comfortable doing it.” Yet Wells may not be able to fire any of his stars for refusing to strip down. “The performer has the right to refuse to do [nudity] once they have agreed to do it,” says Screen Actors Guild rep Elizabeth Moseley. “Basically, it is not binding. If the performer changes their mind, the producer (only) has the right to use a body double.”
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House Of Bare-Assed Lies

"I know you just checked out my ass..."

Don Cheadle and Kristen Bell are set to take a bite out of corporate America — and are showing off their behinds in the process — in the just-released trailer for the new Showtime comedy House of Lies (Jan. 8).

Written by Matthew Carnahan based on the book by Martin Kihn, the project centers on Marty (Cheadle), a self-loathing highly successful management consultant from a top-tier firm who is never above using any means necessary to get his clients the information they want. Former Veronica Mars star Bell will play Jeannie Van Der Hooven, a razor-sharp, Ivy-League graduate who works at Marty’s firm. The new comedy series also features Parks and Recreation scene stealer Ben Schwartz (aka Jean-Ralphio), Dawn Oliveri as Marti’s ex-wife, Glynn Turman as Marty’s psychoanalyst father and Donis Leonard Jr. as his young son. Jessika Borsiczky is executive producing the pilot, which will be directed by Stephen Hopkins.

The series promises to show you an uncensored side of the cutthroat corporate world, with guys who don't play by the rules, even pulling stats “from my ass” as Cheadle’s character reveals, and sticking it to “the 1 percent.” And sometimes, that involves getting slapped around a little. As our narrator sums up: “They’re the 1 percent sticking it to the 1 percent.” Check it out, as I'm 99 percent sure you won’t mind seeing Kristen Bell in a state of undress.



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