Jonathan Bailey reveals how he selected his fake penis for Fellow Travelers: 'They've all got their different personalities'

Jonathan Bailey thought long and hard when it came to selecting the perfect prosthetic penis for his Fellow Travelers character.

The actor discussed picking the prop and the hilarious way that the political drama's costume department used it to on his final day of filming on Thursday’s episode of Late Night with Seth Meyers. “Did you have a hand in the decision-making?” Host Seth Meyers asked. A laughing Bailey replied, “Um, just one hand.”

Fellow Travelers follows the decades-long relationship between congressional staffer Tim (Bailey) and Hawk (Matt Bomer), a state department official, beginning in the 1950s. Over the course of the series, Bailey noted that Tim undergoes multiple life changes, but that "there’s one thing that remained the same throughout."

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A laughing Bailey continued, “When we started, obviously, you wear a protective layer, obviously, to protect yourself and so it’s not awkward. But, for the nature of the show, you want to choose something that maybe reflects what’s actually going on.”

Meyers then revealed a completely censored photo of, assumedly, blurred-out prosthetic penises that was taken on one of Bailey’s first days on set. “They’ve all got their different personalities,” Bailey said of the props. “When you’re approaching character you think emotionally, cerebrally, and then you have to really make a big choice.”

Meyers cheekily quipped, “Is that what you did? You made the big choice?”

“No, no, no!” Bailey remarked as the host laughed. “I think it’s only fair — I believe in representation for everyone.”

Meyers then turned over another photo that was quickly covered up by Bailey. “No!” The actor exclaimed, before grabbing another card. “Wait, hang on, hang on… I want to show you this one first.” 

Bailey prefaced the image by shouting out the “loads of people that keep you going” behind-the scenes-on a show, including the costume and makeup departments. “On the last day Beth, my amazing wardrobe assistant, cheered me up,” he explained before unveiling the photo, which showed his nude protective layer had been updated to feature two googly eyes and Tim's prosthetic penis for its nose.

That wasn't the last time he saw Little Timmy, either. “I got home and I unpacked my suitcase to find,” he said, before flipping over the second photo to reveal the googly-eyed garment — this time without the prosthetic penis, so it wore a seemingly shocked expression.

As Meyers laughed, Bailey joked that the surprised underwear “sort of represents how I was feeling inside.” 

Bailey previously posted a collection of prosthetic penises as part of a photo set celebrating his time shooting Fellow Travelers on his Instagram account in November. Speaking with Entertainment Weekly last October, series producer Robbie Rogers revealed that Tim and Hawk's sex scenes were all meticulously planned by producers, episodic directors, and intimacy coordinators.

"When you're with Tim and Hawk in Tim's apartment, you really feel the intimacy and what it's like between two men before and after having sex," he said. "Some people might feel awkward, but I feel like in our story it feels quite authentic and real."

Rogers noted the actors were also very involved in the process too and that there were "a lot of conversations about what [the actors] were willing and wanted to do." He added, "A lot of that was actors [having] ideas about their characters. We were really open to those discussions."

Watch Bailey discuss his prosthetic penis in the clip above.