"The first person I'd ever met who was poly, I met in 2005, so it's not conceptually passing strange to me and not really foreign territory," actress DeWanda Wise shared with me on "Salon Talks" while discussing playing a polyamorous character on the Starz series "Three Women."

The show, based on the Lisa Taddeo book of the same name, tells the stories of four different women — those alluded to in the title plus one narrator — through the lens of their complicated experiences with love and desire. They are misunderstood, mainly by the men in their lives and the inability to understand their many complexities.

Wise plays Sloane, a successful businesswoman who is in control of everything — her persona, her family, her nontraditional sex life. Sloane and her husband Richard, played by Blair Underwood, participate in an open marriage. From the surface, the couple appears to be very happy. However, the many rules and unchecked emotions that linger around multiple sex partners begin to poke holes in their happily ever after.

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Wise, who played Nola Darling in the Spike Lee Netflix reboot of "She's Gotta Have It," was a fan of Taddeo's book prior to being considered for the role. She didn't personally identify with Sloane when reading, but was drawn in by how the book commands deep reflection about relationships.

In my conversation with Wise, she credits the emotional presence in her own marriage to fellow actor Alano Miller (whom she fell in love with and married after three months of dating). The couple has shared 15 years of marriage and Wise was ready to talk about the work it takes to be successful. Not the pretty pictures for social media, the red carpets, or fluffy profile pieces, but the beautiful struggle of learning how to love through the conflict — the kind of love and patience that Sloane may not possess.

“I still feel like he's a really f**king good husband. I'm a decent wife. He hates it when I say that, but I'm like, "I'm okay." I do my absolute best. And that's what it is, right?” Wise explained, “All it is is grappling with these terms. What is the role? What is the role of husband? What is the role of wife? And how can you, or do you subvert whatever those expectations are? You got to talk about the expectations. You got to talk about the invisible expectations.”

Watch my "Salon Talks" episode with Wise here or read a Q&A of our conversation below to hear more about "Three Women," her secrets for maintaining a healthy marriage, and why she wants her next role to be on stage.

The following conversation has been lightly edited for clarity and length.

Can you walk us into the world of “Three Women”?

Lisa Taddeo, the author, took this enormous ten-year road trip into the heart of America and really got into the lives of all these women to get to the core of the multifaceted nature of female desire. That's what this book is, it’s a non-fictional exploration of what makes us tick, what turns us on, what turns us off, what gets us on, what gets us off. And our series is the TV adaptation of that exploration.

Your involvement with “Three Women” began around you connecting with the book?

Yes. My TV agent at the time asked if I'd read the book, and I was like, "Who had not read the book?" And so I reread it in preparation of meeting........

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