- FX's "Dying For Sex" is about a cancer patient who aims to complete a sexual bucket list before she dies.
- The show was inspired by the podcast of the same name hosted by friends Molly Kochan and Nikki Boyer.
- Kochan died in 2019 at the age of 45 from metastatic breast cancer.
FX's "Dying For Sex" follows a woman's quest to have as much kinky sex as she can before she dies.
The eight-part series, which is streaming in full on Hulu, tells the story of Molly (Michelle Williams), a terminal cancer patient who decides to devote her remaining days to sexual exploration, leading her on an enlightening and unexpected sexual odyssey.
In the first episode, Molly learns that her cancer has not only returned but that it's terminal, and decides to leave her unhappy marriage and ask her best friend Nikki (Jenny Slate) if she can "die with her" instead of with her husband (Jay Duplass), who treats her more like a patient than a partner.
Together, Molly, Nikki, and Molly's social worker, Sonya (Esco Jouley), prioritize working through Molly's sexual bucket list, which ends up including BDSM, golden showers, and a guy who likes to be treated like a dog (collar and all).
The show is bold and defiantly joyful, while still being grounded in the reality of what it means to receive end-of-life care — and that's because it is based on a true story.
'Dying for Sex' is based on a podcast by a real cancer patient named Molly Kochan
"Dying For Sex" is based on a Wondery podcast of the same name, which was hosted by Nikki Boyer and Molly Kochan, who died in 2019 at the age of 45 from metastatic breast cancer.
Speaking to Business Insider, Boyer, who serves as an executive producer on the television adaptation, said that she always felt that the way Kochan was spending her final months had to be shared with the world.
"I had picked her up one day, and she'd already gone on two dates that day and was making out with guys before I'd even taken my pajamas off," she recalled. "It was so fascinating that she had such a drive while she was so sick."
As Kochan recounted her latest hook-ups to Boyer that day, the two began joking that it would make a great TV show. From there, they pitched it around, eventually scoring a podcast deal with Wondery.
The podcast, which debuted in early 2020 after Kochan's death, amassed a loyal fan base, thanks in part to her no-holds-barred approach to her sexual encounters.
"What are you going to do to me? Kill me? I'm dying," Kochan joked on one episode of the six-part podcast in response to concern about going home with strangers.
The series makes changes to the real Molly's story, but stays true to its heart
While the series is mostly faithful to Kochan's real story, creators Elizabeth Meriwether and Kim Rosenstock made a few changes to adapt it for television. For instance, Kochan's husband's name and profession have been changed out of respect for his privacy, according to Boyer.
The series also condensed several men that Kochan dated into one character, simply known as "Neighbor Guy" (Rob Delaney), with whom the character explores a variety of kinks and fetishes and ends up having a mutually fulfilling sexual relationship.
However, the real Kochan didn't end up breaking her femur while acquiescing his request to kick him in the groin, as the show depicts.
Boyer added that there were also some timeline changes, which helped to raise the stakes dramatically. For instance, in real life, Boyer was well into her relationship with her boyfriend before Molly got sick, so her love life wasn't nearly as tumultuous as what's depicted on screen.
"The changes to me felt very in line with this version of the story," Boyer said. "At the end of the day, Molly and I very much feel like the center, so the changes don't really bother me."
Michelle Williams and Jenny Slate said they made the characters their own instead of copies of the real Molly Kochan and Nikki Boyer
Amid an increasingly popular trend of adapting narrative and non-fiction podcasts for television, Williams and Slate spoke to Business Insider about how they developed their characters and their on-screen relationship.
Williams told BI that when she signed on to the project, only one episode had been written, which instantly made her want to delve deeper into Kochan's story by consuming the "Dying For Sex" podcast.
"I had fallen head over heels in love with the characters and the relationship between them," she recalled, adding that the script was a "beautiful piece of material."
Williams and Slate had their own ways of developing their unique versions of their characters.
For Williams, the "Dying for Sex" podcast was a useful connection back to the real Molly.
"The podcast served as a map and was something that I always returned to," Williams said. "But I knew that we were going to make something with liberties and changes. The podcast laid out the path for us."
For Slate, the process was slightly different, since she was fortunate enough to take notes from the real Boyer. "Am I supposed to be doing an accurate portrayal of Nikki from the podcast? Do they want me to be like her?" she remembers asking.
In the end, Slate decided to do things differently than Williams, and held off on listening to the podcast until well into filming.
"I felt a little bit conscious of not wanting to psych myself out, I guess," Slate told BI. "I waited until we were almost done filming to start listening to the podcast. I wanted to let myself move with the story as it moved."
Boyer thinks Williams and Slate nailed their roles.
"I knew it was going to be good, but I never dreamt we would go there," Boyer said, praising "Dying for Sex" casting director Jeanie Bacharach. "Jenny is the perfect Nikki for Michelle's Molly."
