Michelle Williams’ latest project is inspired by a heartfelt and emotional true story.
The Oscar-nominated actress, 44, stars as Molly Kochan in the new Hulu series Dying for Sex, which premiered Friday, April 4. The show follows Kochan as she embarks on a journey of sexual rediscovery after receiving a terminal cancer diagnosis, all while having her best friend, Nikki Boyer (Jenny Slate), by her side.
The series — cocreated by New Girl creator Elizabeth Meriwether and producer Kim Rosenstock — was based on Kochan and Boyer’s 2020 podcast of the same name, which documented Kochan’s love life and cancer journey leading up to her 2019 death.
“I was so moved by the podcast — it just absolutely hooked my heart, and I couldn’t ignore it. I was a puddle on the floor,” Williams shared in an interview with Women’s Health published on Friday. “I couldn’t really articulate why it had moved me so deeply. I listened to it again; a puddle on the floor again. There was a connection there that I needed to honor.”
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While the series is filled with steamy moments, Williams said she loves how the show puts Kochan and Boyer’s friendship front and center. “It’s talking about the passionate, dimensional love that exists in a best friendship, which I hadn’t really seen foregrounded before,” she told the outlet. “It’s always kind of in the service of one of them getting the guy. So I was excited to see something that I’ve had experience with in my personal life, in my relationship with my own best friend, be the central love story.”
Scroll down to learn the true story behind the new show Dying for Sex:
When Was Molly Kochan Diagnosed With Cancer?
In a July 2017 post on her Everything Leads to This blog, Kochan shared that she asked her gynecologist about pain she was experiencing during sex and a small lump in her breast shortly after her 2005 engagement to her ex-husband, who is called Steve in the series and is played by Jay Duplass.
Though the doctor dismissed her concerns at the time, the lump had developed into breast cancer that spread to her lymph nodes by 2011. She proceeded to undergo chemotherapy and a bilateral mastectomy, among other treatments, and began a five-year hormone therapy program to prevent it from returning.
After getting a biopsy in 2015, Kochan received her terminal stage IV breast cancer diagnosis, as the cancer had spread to her brain, bones and liver.
How Did Molly Kochan and Nikki Boyer Meet?
Kochan and Boyer were friends for over 10 years by the time Kochan was diagnosed with terminal breast cancer. The besties met when they were paired up during a Los Angeles acting class in 2000.
“She didn’t like me very much because I was annoying and probably vying for everyone’s attention,” Boyer joked in a March 29 interview with The Times. Had they not been paired up together during the class, Boyer said she doesn’t know “if Molly and I would have found each other’s friendship.”
Boyer told the outlet that she and Kochan shared the same doctor who initially dismissed Kochan’s cancer concerns in 2005. “My naive brain at the time [thought], he must know best, he’s a doctor,” she stated.
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How Did Molly Kochan Begin Her New Love Life Journey?
After getting her terminal diagnosis in 2015, Kochan decided to leave her struggling marriage and explore her sexuality, as her cancer treatment increased her libido.
“The truth is, without this diagnosis I probably would have stayed, continued to try to make things work. Because there is a lot of love there,” she wrote on her blog in March 2016. “But there is also a lot of stress. And a stressful environment is not a good one when battling cancer.”
Boyer joked to The Times that Kochan was “horny all the time” due to her hormone treatment and began sending lingerie selfies to men she met on dating apps as a form of distraction from her cancer. One of Kochan’s unique dates with a man referred to as “neighbor guy” (played by Rob Delaney) in the series involved a request for Kochan to kick him in the testicles.
“A lot of people think, ‘She’s just having sex, f***ing around to make herself feel good,’” Boyer said to The Times. “But it wasn’t just about that. There was healing of old wounds. Her whole life she felt fragmented and during sex she was allowed to make her own choices and put the pieces together for herself.”
Boyer added, “She made people feel seen and cared for. It was about a lot more than the sex for Molly. Towards the end I think she was looking for love.”
How Was the Show ‘Dying for Sex’ Created?
Upon realizing Kochan’s sexual escapades made for good entertainment, she and Boyer pitched her story as a TV show titled Dying for Sex. The project was rejected multiple times before they decided to create a podcast instead, which was picked up by Wondery in 2019 and released the following year.
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In addition to the podcast, Kochan also wrote a posthumous memoir, Screw Cancer: Becoming Whole, which was released in August 2020. “I really started this journey desperate to fall in love. Wanted to find my soulmate,” Kochan wrote in the book. “It was a romantic human idea I wanted to belong to.”
In the book’s foreword, Boyer said that her friend wrote “most of the book” from her “hospital bed, pouring her heart onto every page.” She added, “This book is what kept her alive, especially in her final weeks of life.”
When Did Molly Kochan Die?
Kochan died at age 45 in March 2019. “I woke with just enough time for her last two breaths,” Boyer told The Times. “I put my hand on her head and my other hand on her heart. I said, ‘I’m here, I’ve got you.’ I was in awe of her in that moment. It was one of the most magical things I’ve ever experienced. It was so intense and beautiful.”
A blog post titled “I Have Died” was published on Kochan’s website shortly after her death. She described her last days as being “great” and noted that she was surrounded “with the people who were meant to be there.”
Kochan wrote, “As I die, I still put pressure on myself. I get angry when I can’t sit up to type. There are projects I am hoping to finish before I go. But I have no control over any of that. The only thing I can work on is being without the guilt of not doing. Accepting that my days are what they were.”
Dying for Sex is streaming now on Hulu.
