Meet Deadwood's Spice Girl
Hush your mouth! The trash talk on HBO's Deadwood (Sundays at 10 pm/ET) has drawn many gripes from critics. Of course, the Western series is penned by NYPD Blue creator David Milch, who introduced lots of low-brow language into the cop show's scripts. "It's all anyone talks about, but I think they'll get over it," Paula Malcomson — who plays Trixie, the saloon tramp — tells TV Guide Online. "The people who don't shouldn't be watching anyway."
Born in Belfast, Northern Ireland, the sharp-tongued actress has little patience for linguistic prudishness. "F--- is actually part of the Irish language," she declares, chuckling. "I try not to be too profane around children or old people. Other than that, that's how I speak. It really doesn't bother me, and I trust David Milch to make the choice for tough people to speak tough. Life in the Old West was really hard, and we're trying to keep it real.
"Is it distracting?" she wonders. "I'm not sure. It's hard for me to say because I'm in the middle of it all." Indeed, Malcomson's role as Trixie puts her in lots of awkward situations. It's no task for a feint-hearted thespian, that's for sure. Trix is often seen getting naked, beaten up or both.
"If you're going to play a prostitute, you can't be too squeamish about that sort of thing," she says. "It's just part of the job, since the role requires it." Laughing, she adds, "I've certainly played whores before. I don't know what that says about me. I was the lead in [a production of] Eugene O'Neill's play Anna Christie, and that was good preparation for this. I also did the Western Tombstone, where the mens' wives were all whores when they found them."
