Tatiana Maslany has addressed the handling of a “taboo” subject by her new Apple TV thriller Maximum Pleasure Guaranteed, which sees her character strike up a relationship with an online sex worker.
The story begins as Paula (Maslany) struggles through a messy divorce with ex Karl (New Girl’s Jake Johnson), where custody of their shared daughter is a point of great contention.
During this trying time, Paula finds some solace in video calls with a ‘camboy’, whose company goes beyond eroticism as she shares – misguidedly – details about her personal life with ‘Trevor’ (played by 13 Reasons Why alum Brandon Flynn).
The rise of online sex work, through OnlyFans and similar websites, has been raised by several TV dramas of late, including HBO’s Euphoria, Apple TV’s own Margo’s Got Money Troubles and the upcoming Channel 4 thriller Tip Toe.
In an interview with Radio Times, Maslany said that there’s “a real taboo around that sort of sex work and the intimacy that can be found there”.
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“Obviously, it doesn’t go well for Paula,” the Orphan Black star continued. “She probably trusts Trevor too much. But I do think there’s an actual connection there.
“And I do think that it fulfils something for her, where she can be sort of received for everything that she is. She’s allowed to complain, she’s allowed to joke, she’s allowed to be loud… [and] gentle and sexual and all of it.”
Maslany explained: “And that’s really important for her, as a person who’s gone through an incredible heartbreak, where the person she trusted the most has completely betrayed her.”
Series creator David J Rosen (of Prime Video’s Hunters) said the plot of the show, in which online intimacy leads Paula into a deadly conspiracy, stemmed from reports of a “loneliness epidemic” taking hold in the digital age.
“I started thinking about this character of a single mum, who’s got the most going on in the world, with no time for herself,” he elaborated.
“In the late hours of the night… she reaches out through [technology] for just a little bit of happiness, a little bit of companionship. And then ends up falling into her own modern day Rear Window.”
Maximum Pleasure Guaranteed, which launched on Apple TV today with a double-bill, is a fast-paced watch spanning multiple genres – including elements of thriller, comedy and horror – punctuated with several surprising twists along the way.
The unpredictable nature of the series evokes Maslany’s star-making Orphan Black, which consistently kept fans guessing with a dark tale of human cloning. The actor sees a definite “through line” between the two projects.
“[There’s] an inability to pinpoint exactly what the genre is… it lives in a lot of different spaces. It’s funny, but it’s also scary and thriller-y, and there’s a lot of great plot that people could jump into,” said Maslany.
“But also there’s just really beautiful intimate moments between people and dynamics that are very human. Even Paula, I think, has multitudes to her, where she’s very volatile emotionally, she’s incredibly reactive.
The actor added: “She makes decisions that don’t make total sense to everybody, and yet she kind of plays these roles in her life, and is trying to play them the best that she can, and in the worst circumstances.”
Maximum Pleasure Guaranteed is available to stream on Apple TV. Start your seven day free Apple TV trial at Apple.
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