Valerie Is Brought to Her Knees

Written by Amy B. Harris
Directed by John Riggi

"Hello, hello, hello!" Valerie exclaims, shooting with Jane. "Welcome to my trailer on the studio lot. Come on in." Valerie says the trailer is her "place to get away from it all," inspiring Mickey to complain about the smell inside. Valerie retorts: "Well, it's not Smell-O-Vision." Mickey notes that the smell is coming from the bathroom in the trailer.

The first assistant director Shayna shows up at Valerie's trailer with the day's call sheet, and Valerie points out that Seth Rogen is playing Mitch in ‘Seeing Red.' Shayna says they probably won't get to the last scene on the sheet, the one where Mallory "blows Mitch" in a sexual fantasy. Jane asks: "Is doing it going to make you feel uncomfortable?" Valerie says actors are frequently asked to "step outside their comfort zone," adding that, for example, one time she had to play a "brunette with migraines." The line producer Ron shows up and asks Valerie about the $7,000 invoice he got for her wig. Valerie earnestly explains that her hair is different than Mallory's, although the wig looks nearly identical to her hair. Marianina, who places Valerie's wig, shows up, and Ron says he's not paying for both her and Mickey. Valerie whispers to him that she'll pay Mickey's salary.

Valerie meets Seth Rogen at the set gate and spills water on him while delivering "first day flowers" to him. Seth jokes about Valerie making his breakfast, requesting ham and calling her "Gingersnaps." Valerie shows up to the shooting stage in her track suit, telling her cameras that ‘Mary Tyler Moore,' ‘Roseanne' and ‘I'm It!' were all shot here. "Now I'm back," Valerie says, "doing another classic show along with those others." Valerie delivers a ham to Seth Rogen as a joke, while calling him "Seth MacFarlane." Valerie also gives Paulie G. a start-of-production gift -- a special binder for his papers to commemorate his first day as a director.

Valerie and Seth shoot a scene that features Mallory barging into Mitch's office. "What are you a 9-year-old boy?" Mallory asks Mitch. Seth improvises a lot, which Paulie G. loves, while Valerie is called out for switching one word of her dialogue.

That night at home, Valerie talks to Mark about the upcoming sex scene, noting that she hasn't done one since she made out with Alan Thicke in a ‘Growing Pains' flashback. Mark wants to practice with her in bed, but she says they can't because of the ceiling camera.

The next day on set, Shayna arrives in the makeup trailer. "Valerie, I'd like to invite you to set," she says. "We're ready to do the blowjob." First, Valerie has to shoot for a full minute, standing between two naked women, Monica and Celeste, who make "orgasm noises" during a portion of the scene. Jane doesn't want to shoot the gals, telling Valerie she thinks it's exploitative. A prop guy asks Valerie if she'll need knee pads for the blowjob scene. She says "no."

Paulie G. goes over the scene, directing Valerie to "blow" Seth. "You cool with this?" Seth asks her. Valerie says an uneasy "sure" but asks Paulie G. for clarity about how to play the scene, ultimately deciding that the blowjob is "symbolic, not sexual." Clearly uncomfortable, Valerie riffs a line, and Seth, sensing Valerie's discomfort, suggests that he should do the blowjob work instead of her. "I don't know if you need her to do anything at all," he says. In the resulting scene, Valerie walks over, drops below frame, and keeps her head out of the shot as Seth appears to enjoy a blowjob. Seth tells her: "I got you, Gingersnaps."