Lizzy Caplan: Screen Provocateur

When faced with the prospect of playing the sex researcher Virginia Johnson in the Showtime series Masters of Sex, which just wrapped its second season, Lizzy Caplan was not the least bit daunted by the number of graphic nude scenes the role required. “My only hesitation was that people wouldn’t see me as believable,” says the 32 year-old, who stars as a CIA agent opposite Seth Rogen and James Franco in the upcoming raucous comedy The Interview, about a plot to assassinate the North Korean dictator Kim Jong-un. “The emotional content always scared me more than the sexual content.”

Though Masters of Sex bares more than its fair share of skin, the show has also drawn ample attention for its figure-hugging costumes, designed by Ane Crabtree. That wardrobe has encouraged Caplan, who received an Emmy nomination for her performance, to have more fun with fashion offscreen, too, embracing everything from an embroidered Valentino gown to an edgy look by Roksanda Ilincic—with a little help from her stylist Ilaria Urbinati. “I really didn’t get fashion before, but now I’m trying to appreciate it,” Caplan says. “It’s not a world that’s easily accessible through sarcasm and humor, which is generally how I get my foot in all the other doors.”