The ‘Minx’ Writers’ Room Fought Over Joyce’s Hookup with Shane

Minx Episode 4 “An exciting new chapter in the annals of erotica” on HBO Max turns the tables on the workplace romance. Joyce Prigger (Ophelia Lovibond) finds herself hooking up with Minx‘s first cover model Shane (Taylor Zakhar Perez) during what’s supposed to be a feminism study session. Joyce feels energized by the fun of what she sees as a fun, consensual one night stand. However after the two have sex again, Shane falls hard for Joyce. When he learns she doesn’t feel the same, a heartbroken Shane decides he doesn’t want to be in the magazine anymore. Joyce has to break the news that his contract is set and he can’t back out. So did Joyce just take advantage of Shane?? Is Shane a #MeToo??

Minx is set in the wild west of 1970s erotic magazine publishing. Doug Renetti (Jake Johnson) is an ambitious publisher who sees potential in Joyce’s feminist magazine idea. The twist is he wants to put her progressive writing in between pages of naked men. The magazine will cater to women, luring them in with the peen pics so they can read articles on women’s liberation. Joyce reluctantly agrees and is surprised to find herself attracted to the magazine’s first centerfold: the dim-witted firefighter Shane.

When Shane and Joyce hook up, she is sort of still his boss, right? So is Joyce taking advantage of the power dynamics at play in the relationship? What exactly were the writers of Minx trying to say with this relationship?

“It was something that we talked about in the writers’ room and in production,” Minx creator and showrunner Ellen Rapoport said. “We had fights about it.”

“The writer of the episode, Ben Karlin, and I had so many conversations about whether she actually did anything wrong. And what’s funny is in my point of view she did nothing wrong. He’s no longer her employee. He’s a freelance model. There isn’t a power dynamic between them because his job is done for the magazine. It’s over. So it’s like, why not?” Rapoport said. “And Ben who’s a dude, who’s a guy, was like, ‘She’s totally violating him. She’s taking advantage of him.'”

Given that the relationship caused debates in Minx’s writers’ room, how did Ophelia Lovibond — the actress behind Joyce — feel about the situation?

“For Joyce, I think it’s something she would never have done prior to being in the Bottom Dollar environment,” Lovibond said. “Of course she has sexual urges, but she’s been denying them or [believing] that they debase her and she needs to focus on academia. She was kind of overtaken by these urges and she indulged them. Which is something she talks about. She never normally does that and the fact that she does that awakens an entire facet of herself that’s simply been dormant. I think she finds that self discovery really exciting.”

That said, Lovibond was aware of the irony at play. Joyce, a feminist arguing for women’s empowerment in all places, has found herself in an inappropriate power dynamic with Shane.

“But that’s what was so fun to play. If on paper, Joyce would say how inappropriate that was, she then finds herself in the moment, she realizes, ‘Oh my god I’ve just done what I say people shouldn’t do,'” Lovibond said. “Again that’s self discovery to realize she’s been quite judgmental of people without accepting that emotions interrupt logic.”

Rapoport agreed that the conversation was worth having on its own. “I just thought it was great that we came at it from different points of view and that we were having that conversation. You know I don’t think that that question is actually really answered. But it’s asked,” she said.

“To me the bigger violation is that she knew he was really in love with her and much more into her and that she wasn’t cool about it and instead just slept with him again. Which is something that men have done to women for decades,” Rapoport said.

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