“He has one of the best butts I’ve ever seen in my life! I was like, ‘Oh, I can balance something. Can I put my coffee here?’” Brooke Shields says with a laugh about actor Jefferson Brown, who guest stars as her love interest, hunky Kevin Walker, in the fifth episode of the Acorn TV cozy mystery series You’re Killing Me.
Shields’ character, the Gen X bestselling author and amateur detective Allie Chandler, sleeps with Kevin, who’s in construction/remodeling, after an evening together that includes cooking dinner, discussing romance, and a hilarious duet of The Piña Colada Song.
For Shields, the scenes with Brown were a welcome chapter in her career, which has often seen her objectified. She says, “It was so wild for me as a female who’s always been the one that’s been the sexualized one or dealing with body doubles, to have a male be objectified. It was so modern. I mean, he’s beautiful and he’s so nice and it was so much fun working with him. And he’s such a good human being. And physically, it’s ridiculous. I mean, the amount that whatever he has to do to look like that is insane. But to be a female and have that be the objectified one and it being a male was just so — it felt so feminist in the best way and it was celebrated.”
The only one not celebrating is Kevin’s daughter, who happens to be Allie’s Zillennial co-sleuth Andi, played by Amalia Williamson. She’s embarrassed to find the two making breakfast together the next morning. But Shields credits Andi with giving Allie, who has notoriously married everyone she slept with (that would be two men total), the perspective to think about sex in a new way.
“I think Allie is listening to Andi [who told her,] ‘You know what? Everything doesn’t have to be so serious. You don’t have to marry everybody. You can actually have fun. You’re a sexual being — at your age even — and why not?’” she said. “That’s a revelation to my character. So, I let go. It’s almost like she gave me permission.”
Watch the video above for the full interview.
You’re Killing Me, Mondays, Acorn TV