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Stripping down for a nude scene is just another day at the office for Lizzy Caplan in Masters of Sex

SHE plays TV’s famed sexologist — now Masters of Sex Star Lizzy Caplan reveals the weird things people share with her about their sex lives.

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Gallery

THREE years into playing famed sexologist Virginia Johnson, stripping down for a nude scene has now become just like another day at the office for Masters of Sex star Lizzy Caplan.

Which is a good thing, given this season former The Good Wife star Josh Charles has upped the heat factor on the steamy series about real-life 1950s and 60s sex researchers Bill Masters (Michael Sheen) and Virginia Johnson (Caplan) even further.

Caplan, 33, has become more comfortable talking about sex since she took on the role, but for her character, season three sees her increasingly uncomfortable with the spotlight as the research duo unveil their findings, despite Virginia’s bold proclamation that “we are the sexual revolution”.

Yet in 2015, Caplan says, women haven’t come so far as she would have hoped since the 1950s.

“I am a woman in a very liberal industry, living in a very liberal part of this country and I still find that I am battling against things that don’t feel particularly far from what somebody in the 1950s would have to deal with,” she says.

Josh Charles As Will, The Good Wife Picture: Supplied
Josh Charles As Will, The Good Wife Picture: Supplied

“And being a woman, you still are fighting for equal rights all the time.”

On a personal level, three years working on the show have made Caplan more comfortable about talking about sex in general — even with complete strangers.

“I sort of get vague questions from people a lot, but even before the show — and I don’t know what it is but I am one of those people that people open up to — specifically about sexual misadventures.

“So it’s just kind of more of the same. I guess personally I can notice certain involuntary things that happened to a person’s body when having sex.

“And I always like to hear people’s weird sex stories … I find them hilarious.”

Sex scenes, the diminutive brunette confides, are now more comfortable to shoot that in those early first episodes.

Masters of Sex Thursday, 9.30pm, SBS (L-R) Lizzy Caplan (plays Virginia Johnson) and Caitlin FitzGerald (plays Libby Masters).
Masters of Sex Thursday, 9.30pm, SBS (L-R) Lizzy Caplan (plays Virginia Johnson) and Caitlin FitzGerald (plays Libby Masters).

“It’s just what we do, it’s what we do on this show,” she says.

“It’s never going to be the most boring day (laughs) and it’s always going to feel something that you wouldn’t necessarily feel doing something else, but versus the beginning of the show it’s a completely different animal.

“I sleep just fine the night before doing nude scenes.

“In the beginning, it wasn’t necessarily just scary but yeah, I put a lot of thought into it and I was very in my head about it and in the hours leading up to it.

“And at this point, it really just truly feels like another day at the office.”

MASTERS OF SEX

THURSDAY, 9.30PM, ABC

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Original URL: https://www.news.com.au/entertainment/tv/stripping-down-for-a-nude-scene-is-just-another-day-at-the-office-for-lizzy-caplan-in-masters-of-sex/news-story/fb7afe12af4f9d0b151068cbaaa23713