'Minx' Showrunner Reveals Why Jake Johnson Wanted to Get a Perm & the One Thing She Can’t Talk About with Ophelia Lovibond
For its sophomore season, Minx returned on a different network, that quite frankly it’s found it’s real home in. After HBO, sorry Max, the artist formerly known as HBO, cancelled it, Starz picked up the baton, so Ophelia Lovibond and Jake Johnson could live to Minx another day. And minx they did. Showrunner Ellen Rapoport sat down exclusively with SheKnows to break down the season 2 finale of her show, which brought us feminism, love, humor and of course an ample supply of male anatomy shots. Rapoport revealed who she hopes joins the show in the future, what it was like having Elizabeth Perkins as the hero turned possible villain, and which character she’s most like. She also told us what she loves most about working with Johnson (Doug Renetti) and Lovibond (Joyce Prigger). Let’s just say, it involves a perm. Yes, a perm.
In the first season, Minx left off with Lovibond and Johnson’s characters going their separate ways, and Minx’s future looking not so good. The second season kicks off with the two still at odds and Minx looking like it’s sort of dead in the water. But thankfully, Elizabeth Perkin’s character, Constance, comes in to save the day. Or so they think. Lovibond’s Joyce and Johnson’s Doug finally reconcile and everything seems to be going well, until they realize, they don’t really have as much power as they used to. And then everything goes off the rails.
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Rapoport shared with us what she loves most about working with Lovibond and Johnson. “Ophelia is just the most prepared, professional actress… she’s an absolute dream,” Rapoport raves. “I feel like it started with our very first rehearsal, where she just showed up, her script had like notes on every single page, and she had gone out and bought every book that I had mentioned in the pilot that I’d mentioned, including The Kinsey Report, which I feel like nobody should read! It’s like hundreds and hundreds of pages long and she just continued to do that,” she laughs. “It was just this amazing level of dedication. At a certain point, I was like, ‘We can’t just keep referencing books willy-nilly, this poor woman is going to have 5,000 books to read if I don’t stop.’” Lovibond’s one woman book club probably needed a little break! To read the entire Kinsey Report is a feat, after all, the only two to read it are probably Kinsey himself and Lovibond.
As for Johnson, Rapoport says, “What I love about Jake is that he just has these random ideas that you hear and you’re like, ‘That’s crazy,’ and then you think about it and you’re like, ‘Yeah, that actually completely works,’ and it finds its way into the show.” How crazy were these ideas? He had one idea that we tried to do but it didn’t work with his hair. He thought Doug should get a perm. He was excited and wanted to step it up a notch, but it didn’t work with his hair. So I was like, ‘What if we tried to give you a blow out?’ And it kept getting more and more ruffled, so we tried that in the second episode, but his hair just has a mind of its own, it was impossible, we had people on Jake hair watch.” So, did Johnson actually go through with getting a perm? “No, I was like, ‘No one will be able to tell if you get a perm, your hair is already so wild, why don’t we get you like a really sleek blow out, but we had to lose it…. We had people on Jake hair continuity watch. It started out really sleek, but then as he got more and more stressed out, it kept getting curlier and curlier.”
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Jake Johnson, big hair, don’t care. Release the hair blow out pics, Minx! The hair wasn’t Johnson’s only pitch to them. “He was like, ‘I think Doug should just get punched in the face.’ And then nobody talked about it,” she laughs, but then they found the perfect episode to slot in Johnson’s punchy idea. Rapoport appreciates Johnson’s commitment. “He just has no vanity, all of his ideas are like, ‘How can I make myself look as bad as possible, I want to perm my hair, I want to black out in an episode, I want someone to take me down,’ and you just have to appreciate them.”
Rapoport tells us where each character is left in the finale. Doug “thinks he’s gotten what he wanted this whole season. He thinks he’s back where he belongs.” He’s in control, has power, success, money. But Rapoport says she doesn’t think he’s going to enjoy having all that. The finale finds Doug and Constance coming together, literally. And Joyce driving off into the Minx sunset leaving everything behind.
Rapoport doesn’t see Perkin’s Constance character as a pure villain. Referencing a key scene that breaks Joyce’s spirit in the finale between Constance and Joyce, Rapoport says, “If you’re only goal is to make money, which is hers, then she’s not wrong…. She’s wrong in so many ways, but on certain things, she’s right.” Constance tells Joyce she can’t run a story written by her sister, who’s just come out. Rapoport says that the best part of Constance is the nuance. “It’s 1973, and what she’s saying has validity. It’s not like a mustache-twirling aspect for her in that scene, she just thinks she’s completely right.” (If Constance had a mustache, she definitely would have been twirling it, let’s be honest). By the end of the episode, Constance calls a joyful Doug back to bed! Hot Villain summer. Meanwhile, Joyce has hit the road, a little Joyce ride if you will, where she has seemingly left it all behind. And the magazine Minx fam is once again at odds.
As for season 3, Rapoport reveals she isn’t allowing herself to think about it. With the ongoing Writer’s Guild and SAG-AFTRA strike, Rapoport is enjoying season 2, and tells us who she’d love to see join the show if Minx gets a new season. “I’ve seen a lot of people on line writing about Oscar Isaac and Jake look so much alike, and I was like, that would be nice to meet Doug’s brother.” Yes, we’re completely in favor of this casting.
Season 3 of Minx can’t come soon enough. Sort of worried that Doug might be swimming with the fishes, after all in the finale, Constance’s last sidekick ended up in the koi pond. Maybe Joyce will come back to town and fish him out of trouble. But Rapoport says if Doug had to choose between Joyce and Constance, “He’s choosing Constance! Joyce shot down his Chippendale’s idea, that was a good idea, Joyce, he likes her, but at the end of the day, she’s getting in his way.” Maybe, Joyce should keep driving. Doug has to learn. Hopefully, he won’t be a Koi fish floating in season 3. Minx seasons 1 and 2 are on Starz, and there’s no better time to catch up.
Before you go, check out the all-time best ‘Outlander’ episodes you need to watch.
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