Tell Me You Love Me

Ally Walker is one of the stars of the new HBO relationship drama Tell Me You Love Me, about the love lives of three couples at different stages in their lives.  Walker plays Katie, a woman in her 40s who is unsatisfied by the fact that her husband (Tim DeKay) and her no longer have sex.  Walker is an accomplished actress who previous starred on NBC's Profiler.

Ally spoke to BuddyTV about her role on Tell Me You Love Me, her views on the explicit nature of some of the sex scenes, and her experience with James Woods on an episode of ER.  Below you will find a transcript as well as the mp3 audio file of the interview.

Hi, this is John from Buddy TV, and we're talking with Ally Walker from the new HBO series Tell Me You Love Me. How you doing, Ally?

I'm good. How are you, John?


I'm doing great. Now, why don't you tell us a little bit about the show? Because this is a new show, and I don't think that many people are probably familiar with it.

Yeah, OK. It's a show that HBO has done. Cynthia Mort created it, and it's about, it's basically a really honest look at intimacy and the issues between couples. There are three couples in question, and one in their 20s, one in their 30s, one in their 40s, with the different things that go that are appropriate to those ages. You know, like the girl in her 20s, played by Michelle Borth, and her lover, her experience with lovers. The middle couples is in their 30s, and they're played by Sonya Walger and Adam Scott…Sorry, I'm up on a mountain and I'm really filthy, hiking with my dog. But anyway, that couple is exploring the difficulty of getting pregnant. And our couple, played by Tim DeKay and myself, we're kind of exploring what's going on as you progress into your marriage for a long time, you have kids, how intimacy changes, what different things affect you, and things like that. So it's a really cool show, I'm really proud of it.


And is there any interaction then, between the different couples?

Not really, no. We'll walk through each other's scenes sometimes. We'll be in the background of one of Michelle's scenes or something like that. But no, we don't know each other. We all go to the same therapist played by Jane Alexander, who's like a god amongst gods, so there you go.


Yeah, so that's how it's all interwoven. And since it's about sex and intimacy, I imagine on HBO, is there gonna be any racy things or…?

Oh yeah, truly racy. I think lots of people are saying. It's not racy in the typical sense of being racy, it's not there to titillate you. It's not there to be, you know, it's not sort of an erotica or pornography for people to get excited about. It's not like that, it's really kind of an honest… if anything, it's kind of the opposite. It's kind of so honest it kind of freaks you out a little bit.

It's more like European filmmaking, where it's no big deal, and there are sexual things and they're very explicit, some of them. But it's set in a way that's just kind of blatantly honest. There's no beauty lighting, there's nothing going on there for the audience, it's there for the story. So it's getting a lot of flak about the sex scenes, but I think when people see it, they'll realize that those are just parts of the story. They're not really there to just be like, “Ooh, we're in a pornographic sex scene now.”


Now, you previously starred on a show on NBC, Profiler. I'm just wondering, what are some of the differences between doing a major network show like that, and doing an HBO series?

Well, there are a lot of differences. Profiler was basically, I was kind of the lead of that show, and I was kind of, you know, I was the profiler. So I was working a lot of hours, and then we produced 22 shows as opposed to 10, which we're producing at HBO. I really enjoy working, so I always enjoy every experience, but HBO is probably one of the best companies I've ever worked for.

It just really takes care of its artists, they really protect the integrity of the story, they really protect the people that work for them. They're very, you know, it's not like “Do it this way, or else.” It's sort of like, it's open for the interpretation that the actors bring of the material.

It's protected and nurtured there, so it's really a positive experience. I've been blown away by how they're great with this. It's been a really pleasant experience. They're just really supportive on every level. So I've been kind of wonderfully surprised at how kind and supportive they are.


In addition to being on Profiler and this new show, you've guest-starred on a lot of shows. And I, personally as a fan, I remember you probably most memorably for your guest stint on ER with James Woods.

Oh yeah, that was great, that was really good. It was really fun working with Jimmy Woods, he's an amazing actor. Actually, everyone on that show is really good, Maura [Tierney] and everybody. It was kind of, it was a great set, I really enjoyed it and the role is great, I like doing character parts, I like doing different parts.

It was really wonderful to be able to work with somebody of a caliber of acting of Jimmy Woods, and just kind of go into a system like ER where they've been doing it for 12, 14 years and it just runs so smoothly. Everybody's really comfortable and really at ease, and you get to really work on the material. The writing is perfect, it was great, I loved it.


Are there any other shows on TV, do you get a chance to watch a lot of TV?

I don't, really, I wish I could. I have three little kids, I have three little boys ages nine, six, and three, so I'm kind of putting people to bed around the time I used to watch TV. But there are some shows I really like, I loved watching Heroes when I got around to watching that. There's a lot of good stuff, I love FX, I love HBO, Showtime has some great stuff.

I think it's really, I think cable and HBO has had a really positive effect in that people are taking more risks on TV now, they're taking chances, the material isn't so pat, it isn't so formulaic. Things are really surprising now, and I think that HBO and the cable networks are directly responsible for that.



-Interview conducted by John Kubicek
(Image courtesy of HBO)