The female experience is key to 'The Deuce': A team of women featuring Maggie Gyllenhaal helps shape the direction of a series on the porn industry
NEW YORK _ Before Maggie Gyllenhaal agreed to play Candy, a Times Square prostitute in the 1970s-set HBO series "The Deuce," she had one condition: She needed to be a producer on the series too.
While Gyllenhaal was excited to work with co-creators David Simon and George Pelecanos, she'd seen scripts for only three of the eight episodes and felt she had to have some formalized creative input _ particularly given the provocative subject matter and inherent potential for exploitation.
Her agents, managers and friends told her it would never happen. But HBO said yes.
"It was for insurance, and I never had to use my insurance," says the actress, 39, relaxing at a Brooklyn cafe after a long photo shoot. The process ended up being intensely collaborative,
