Great Interview with Big Love Stars Bill Paxton and Jeanne Tripplehorn

http://www.channelnewsasia.com/stories/entertainmentfeatures/view/101372...

From a Asia newspaper where season 3 is just starting.
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It isn't everyday that one gets to meet a polygamist face to face - much less two polygamists. So, when this reporter had a chance to meet Bill Paxton and Jeanne Tripplehorn in a swanky Universal Hilton Hotel suite in Los Angeles earlier this year, you can bet your wives I didn't hold back.

What is it like playing a Viagra-popping man juggling three jealous wives with emotional needs and an entirely illegal living arrangement? What is it like to be a sister wife? Who gets naked the most?

You know, the pertinent questions.

Okay, so Paxton and Tripplehorn only play polygamists on HBO's critically-acclaimed drama Big Love, but barring a terribly unfortunate meeting with a cyber-boyfriend in Bahrain, they're the best people to answer my hard-hitting (aka prying) questions about plural marriage. Especially since they've "been" practising polygamists Bill Henrickson and first wife Barbara for three seasons and counting (a fourth season has been picked up for a January premiere in the United States next year).

The Henricksons live out as normal a middle-class suburban life as any mainstream polygamist family (if there ever was one) entrenched in their religious beliefs can.

Beyond the surface melodrama of Bill's attempts to keep his three wives (Tripplehorn, Chloe Sevigny and Ginnifer Goodwin) emotionally, sexually and financially happy; as well as his never-ending struggle with the Utah commune and hierarchical order his religion mandates, the show is ultimately about love, sacrifice and family - universal themes that we, monogamous folk, can relate to.

So, perhaps the most important question of all has yet to be answered. How is it possible that a show as good as Big Love has yet to bring home an Emmy or Golden Globe? Especially in a boob tube age of mediocre reality programmes and mirthless sitcoms.

Let's hope it's three times the charm for Big Love - like it was for Bill Henrickson.

What is it like playing a character like Bill over the years? Three adoring wives who all want to please him - pretty perfect, huh?

Bill Paxton (BP): My perception of Bill has definitely changed since we first started. I've grown to admire the character I play greatly. He's a man after my own heart in terms of what he's taken on to try to keep this family together and to grow his family.

But going back to the basic idea of this guy who has got all these wives, it really is kind of like a male fantasy on a lot of levels. I have got a pretty healthy fantasy life, I think. (Laughs)

And when they hired Jeanne Tripplehorn, I was like, where do I sign up? I'm in! I'm in!

What were the reactions from the Mormon Church?

Jeanne Tripplehorn (JT): I don't think they were crazy about it. There have been campaigns in the Mormon church and all but I think we've been great about clue-ing the church in to what we're doing. We have in the past, I believe, communicated with them so that they are not threatened.

I know back in the first season, they were really concerned about us pulling Mormons back into the dark ages, and (reinstating) the public's view of them that they are polygamists. They aren't! That ended with Utah getting Statehood and Mormons dropped polygamy as part of their religion.

We keep saying these (characters) are not Mormons! (The characters belong to a fictional fundamentalist group called the United Effort Brotherhood).

BP: Hey, every religion has some kind of dark past, right? And we play these people with no judgment - we play them very honestly.

What is it like playing a woman in a polygamist relationship?

JT: My research was based on books written by women, about women in polygamist relationships. I've even read "couple" books. There is just so much out there.

I read a lot of books about how they do it, how they break up the responsibilities - it really is an organisational web! It's amazing how these families do it! You know, the housework, all the responsibilities and the duties expected of the wives like, you know, who's with the man? How do you get the sleeping schedule going?

But like in the show, the women are not victims. They are all willingly involved. It is a sisterhood.

The women may not always get along, but at the end of the day, they'll always stand together and stand by their man.

Bill, can you comment on all the nude scenes you get do? It's a nice twist that it's the man who shows the most flesh in the show.

BP: I can comment on it, sure. (Laughs)

JT: I know! That's true! I love it!

BP: It's always so much the other way - always with women showing more in the sex scenes. So, we're kinda trying to shake it up little bit. There hasn't been as much flesh this year, I don't think.

JT: Yeah, it's not a fleshy Season 3 - we were all commenting on that. We were all hanging out at the craft service table saying, now there is no reason to stay away!

BP: (Laughs) I was so pumped up in the beginning of the first season but now it's like, "Hand me a cheeseburger!"

JT: This year, each episode is so dense with story, there was no time for sex. Nobody had time for sex!

What feedback have you gotten over the years? Do you reckon this show has sparked an important debate?

BP: The feedback I get is very encouraging. I get people from every walk of life, from every age group, men and women, who always ask, "When is the show coming back?"

Gals will say, "You need a fourth wife?" Or guys will say, "Hey, you need a hand with her?" And I'll say, "Well I could use a couple!" It's very nice.

JT: Stewardesses love the show. I don't know why, but I get on the plane and suddenly I have friends everywhere.

BP: It's cutting across every demographic there is. And when you get something like that, that cross-over appeal, it's special.

And I do think it has definitely contributed to debate. Especially this year's episodes debate about how someone's religion is more valid than another - I'm sorry, no one's is.

JT: It really is about freedom of religion and a true test of (American) democracy, about the right to pray to your own God.

BP: The thing about our show is that the writers have been very clever about it. You're not hit over the head with the message. It's delivered in a thoughtful way, which you can take in and enjoy.