{alltv} 'Franklin & Bash's' Mark-Paul Gosselaar on nudity and that 'intense' sex scene on 'Weeds'

Tuesday, May 10, 2011

{alltv} 'Franklin & Bash's' Mark-Paul Gosselaar on nudity and that 'intense' sex scene on 'Weeds'

From "Saved by the Bell" to his new series "Franklin & Bash," Mark-Paul Gosselaar can admit that his looks have been an asset in his career. In fact, his character on the new TNT series, charming attorney Peter Bash, is very comfortable with his looks, and body for that matter, as the actor tells us we'll see in the premiere episode.

"It's never comfortable doing that kind of work," Gosselaar tells Zap2it of nude scenes. "Especially the one I'm doing for 'Franklin & Bash,' I'm doing it in front of a 100 extras butt-a** naked. It's like I can't think of a worse thing to show up to work to do."

That's right, folks, Gosselaar gives us the full moon in the premiere episode of "Franklin & Bash" on June 1, which doesn't seem to be his favorite method for defining his character's personality on the series.

"No matter how confident you are about yourself, it's uncomfortable," he says. "It's awkward."

"But through out the season," he continues. "We don't have so many moments when it's so in your face. I think the beauty of our show is that we stay true to our characters. We don't do things for shock value. The a** shot, if you will, in the pilot was meant to set up Peter Bash's character. Through the season, we've progressed in other directions and used other tools to show his character. But, it just so happened in the pilot that that's how we expressed it."

Gosselaar's apparent discomfort with nudity may be surprising to viewers who last saw him when he guest-starred on the most recent season of Showtime's "Weeds." He played the hunky bar owner who gets into some kinky positions with star Mary-Louise Parker. "That was pretty intense," he says of the scenes.

"I was f**ked up for weeks after doing that scene," he admits. "I mean that's an intense scene with M.L.P., which was a great scene, but those are difficult. I needed therapy after that one. I mean, f**k, we just mulled each other on-screen. And is that going to be accepted? Or are people just going to be turned off by that whole thing?"

Are you surprised by Gosselaar's take on nudity and sex scenes?