You probably didn’t think that Tommy Lee’s penis would be a role being offered up to anyone for new Hulu series Pam & Tommy, but it turns out one actor has, indeed, had the unexpected challenge of portraying a rockstar’s genitalia – only the voice, mind you... The penis itself is an animatronic one, obviously.
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The new series chronicles the marriage of Baywatch star Pamela Anderson and her Mötley Crüe drummer husband Tommy Lee, detailing the scandal after a sex tape of the couple was leaked.
Variety reports how viewers will ‘all be talking about a specific scene’ in episode two, explaining that it depicts Lee – having just met Anderson – wondering if he’s falling in love, discussing the matter ‘in a heart-to-heart talk with his penis’.
The conversation, which is inspired by a real passage in Lee’s autobiography Tommyland, sees actor Sebastian Stan laying his soul bare to a ‘chatty organ’ voiced by Jason Mantzoukas, who you may recognise from the likes of The Good Place, Big Mouth and John Wick Chapter 3.
Unsurprisingly, the idea was met with some 'pushback', according to the series' writer Robert Siegal, who said people came round in the end.
He told Variety: “As much as I’d like to take credit for that, I was simply adapting a chapter from [Lee’s] memoir.
“I think it might be a first [for television]. There was gentle pushback, because you’ve got to push back a little when a talking penis is presented to you. But Hulu was extremely supportive.”
Director Craig Gillespie said shooting the scene was ‘just awkward’, adding: “You’ve got four puppeteers working with an animatronic penis. And then, how much is too much, and do you start to lose his emotional torment of what’s going on? Hopefully it works.”
Stan said he simply had to approach the bizarre scene like he would if acting alongside any other co-star.
“By the end of it, I treated it like it was an intimate buddy conversation that one might have when they’re falling in love,” he said.
Alongside Stan as Lee, Lily James also features in the new series as 90s pin-up Pamela Anderson, while Seth Rogen plays Rand Gauthier, the man who stole the couple’s x-rated tape.
The limited series will premiere on Hulu on 2 February.
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