There’s an Animatronic Penis in 'Pam & Tommy'

In the show, which features the roller coaster relationship between the model and the Mötley Crüe drummer, there’s a scene where Lee is giving "little Tommy" a pep talk because he’d just fallen head over heels for Anderson. And actually, it’s all based on real life. The show’s writer Robert Siegel told Variety that it was directly inspired by Tommy’s memoir Tommyland, which was published in 2005. “As much as I’d like to take credit for that, I was simply adapting a chapter from [Lee’s] memoir,” he shared.

The penis in question is voiced by Jason Mantzoukas, which means it will respond when Lee is trying to have a conversation with him about falling in love with Anderson. “By the end of [the scene], I treated it like it was an intimate buddy conversation that one might have when they’re falling in love,” Sebastian Stan, who stars as Tommy, shared.

But if you think it sounds like it was really — and we mean really — awkward to film, you’d be correct. “You’ve got four puppeteers working with an animatronic penis,” director Craig Gillespie told Variety. “And then, how much is too much, and do you start to lose his emotional torment of what’s going on? Hopefully it works.”

The NSFW scene seems to work enough for Hulu to allow it — something Siegel was skeptical of, naturally. “There was gentle pushback, because you’ve got to push back a little when a talking penis is presented to you,” he said.

This is just one of what is sure to be several intimate scenes in this series, as Anderson and Lee were certainly known for their voracious lust for each other. Lily James, who stars as Anderson, told the outlet that thanks to intimacy coordinators on set, she felt comfortable throughout each of these love-filled scenes. “You always have to approach those scenes with caution and make sure that you really trust the people involved,” she said. “It was very collaborative; we really spoke through each choice of what we wanted to show. It’s very choreographed, which is really important too. ... But we also didn’t want it to feel sensational or unnecessary.”

Hulu’s Pam & Tommy will arrive on Hulu on Feb. 2.

Photo via Hulu