In crafting the arc of her HBO dramedy Somebody Somewhere (set in her hometown of Manhattan, Kansas), New York cabaret legend Bridget Everett wanted to tell a story about finding “your person.” Not in a romantic way — in the series, her character, Sam, forms an impactful friendship with Jeff Hiller’s Joel after she returns home to care for her dying sister. Joel welcomes Sam into his community of small-town queer folk, and the growth the pair go through during the course of three seasons shows how their friendship has given each of them permission to find a sustaining kernel of levity in their lives. In this scene between Joel and Sam in the finale episode, “AGG,” the duo are able to express how important their relationship has been to them, and will continue to be, for the rest of their lives.
Everett had been approached by Somebody Somewhere‘s showrunners initially to make a series about another small town in Kansas: Emporia. But while scouting, Everett said to them: “We’re so close to my hometown, let’s just drive over there. You can meet my mom, whatever. And then once we were [there], we were all kind of like, ‘This is it,’ ” she recalls. Setting a show so (literally) close to home presented a unique set of challenges. “I actually was kind of terrified,” Everett continues, “because my mom and brother still lived there at the time, and that’s where I’m from. I didn’t want to misrepresent it or do anything that made fun of Kansans. I wanted to give it the most realistic lens that I could, having not lived there for a while.”
Certain lines in the final cut of this scene differ from what’s on the page because “the scene felt most effective when it was just a one shot, when we weren’t cutting,” says Everett. That meant picking one long shot where “there are probably better takes of certain moments, and maybe a more direct read of the script, but this felt natural and lived in.”
Hiller and Everett didn’t know each other well before filming the pilot of Somebody Somewhere, even though the character of Joel seems tailor-made for him. Everett actually had two other friends of hers in mind as she began to write the part: “One of them is actually Mary Catherine [Garrison], who plays [Sam’s sister] Tricia, and my friend Zach. They had characteristics that were similar to Joel: helping me open up, helping me be less sad, and just having fun. Mary Catherine, she has a very special way of talking to you, making you feel like you’re the only person in the room. And I think Joel does that, too.”
Somebody Somewhere is a show about people’s feelings, about quiet grief and the intricacies of relationships among individuals living in a small Kansas town. As Everett worked with her co-writers on crafting the story at the center of Somebody Somewhere, “what resonated with me most [were] emotional themes that I felt might be too personal, or maybe not universal enough,” she says. “But as with everything else, the more personal you make something, the more universal it can feel. I knew that [worked] in cabaret, but I’d never done a TV show before.”
This scene “crystallizes Somebody Somewhere to a T,” Everett says, emphasizing its slice-of-life tone and conversation filled with laughter as well as tears. “It shows me where they’ve arrived by the end of the series: Even though [Joel] has a new partner, I think it’s very special that the two of them are still the center of each other’s universe.” When Joel calls Sam his person, “It feels like over the course of three seasons, he’s helped bring her back to life and given her a purpose. She used to be her sister’s person, and now she finds that she can move on and have value to somebody else. And most importantly, it kick-starts a new sense of self for her. It gives her a real boost, and it’s something she didn’t know that she needed to hear.”
Detailed improvised lines from Hiller — like here, where in the final cut Joel describes Sam sitting in the garage — added another layer of richness to the script Everett did with her co-writers, series creators Hannah Bos and Paul Thureen. “[Hiller] comes from the improv world, and I come from the cabaret world, and in my cabaret shows, I have a sort of running script — I’ve never written it down — but I know basically what I want to say,” explains Everett. “I think with this show, you know what has to be said, but if you add a little bit of candy here and there, there’s nothing wrong with that. I really believe that whenever we are able to put it in our mouth the way that feels right, you’re going to have a more effective performance.”
This take stood out in the edit because of how Hiller improvised this specific line, adding in a phrase about how his life is so much better with Sam in it before discovering for himself that she’s his person, in real time. “The other [takes], it was like something he held in his heart and had maybe said to her before,” Everett muses. “This time, the way he did it, it felt like he was seeing it for himself the first time, which I thought was really sweet, and the most effective, which was also in turn probably the most effective take for Sam, because she’s responding to that.”
While the writers didn’t know at the time that this would be the series finale, ending Somebody Somewhere on a moment of communal joy (and, of course, a cabaret rendition of Miley Cyrus’ “The Climb”) felt like a perfect closing moment for Sam, Joel and their friends. As evidenced in this scene, too, Everett wanted the season to end on the fact that “Sam was having a good day, and she wanted her friends to come, and she wanted to invite them to see her sing. She was taking the initiative.” While this line isn’t in the final take used in the episode, its meaning, about Sam finding happiness and love for herself, is implicit in the performances.
This story first appeared in an August stand-alone issue of The Hollywood Reporter magazine. To receive the magazine, click here to subscribe.
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