Actor Thomas Middleditch, known for his role on the HBO comedy Silicon Valley and Verizon commercial star, recently revealed that “swinging” parties “saved his marriage.”
In an interview published this week, Middleditch told Playboy that when he first married wife Mollie Gates in 2015, he insisted that he did not want to stop trolling for other women. But instead of making it a deal-breaker, he claims she decided to work with him on his proclivities.
“I don’t know how much I can say, because I don’t want my wife to be mad at me,” Middleditch told the magazine. “Only after I got married was I like, ‘Mollie, I’m sorry, but we have to get nontraditional here.’ To her credit, instead of saying ‘Fuck you, I’m out,’ she was like, ‘Let’s figure this out.'”
The Zombieland: Double Tap actor went on to insist that attending swinging parties with his wife was their solution and the agreement saved their marriage.
“To be honest, swinging has saved our marriage,” Middleditch continued. “We have different speeds, and we argue over it constantly, but it’s better than feeling unheard and alone and that you have to scurry in the shadows. By the way, it’s now called being ‘part of the lifestyle.’ The term swinging is old.”
Middleditch went on to reject the accusation that he is a “pervert” and instead says he believes he is merely “sexual.”
“I’d always thought I was a romantic and that when I fall in love, that stuff fades away. It does for some years — enough to be like, ‘I should get married, and I’ll be different,’ but it’s part of me,” the actor said of his interest in other women. “If that’s part of your being and it feels important to you, find a way to explore it, because repression sucks.”
Middleditch, who has also lent his voice to many animated projects, also insisted that he and his wife have crafted “rules” for their swinging.
“We’re not off on our own; we’re together, a unit,” he explained. “It’s a perpetual state of management and communication, to the point where it’s like, ‘All right, we’ve got to stop. Chill.’ I’m gas, and she’s brakes. This is actually the premise for a comedy series we’re writing together.”
Follow Warner Todd Huston on Twitter @warnerthuston.