Everything must come to an end, but after watching the third season of “Somewhere Somebody” we wish this HBO gem could stick around for another two or three years. Somehow, creators Hannah Bros and Paul Thureen and their writing staff have crafted a final go-around that is even more heartbreaking and uplifting than the second season, which just happened to win a Peabody Award. And, at the center of this diamond is once again Bridget Everett with arguably the performance of her career.
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As the third chapter begins, Sam (Everett) finds herself as the odd woman out. Or, at least, that’s how it feels to her. Joel (Jeff Hiller), her best friend, is preoccupied with moving into the home of his new husband, Brad (Tim Bagley). Drinking and party buddy Fred (Murray Hill) is under doctor’s orders to watch his diet and alcohol intake. The little things that made her life in this small Kansas town more bearable are fading away. Throw in financial insecurity and understandable awkwardness over a potential new love interest, and Sam is going through something of a rough patch.
Oh, and, semi-spoiler alert, as we’ve seen with “Somebody” in previous seasons, the end of the show doesn’t tie up all the loose ends in the final episode. And that’s just how Everett likes it.
“I think for the end of the season, all of the seasons, it’s just a snapshot in time of these people,” Everett says. “They’re going to continue to evolve. They’re going to continue to change. I could tell you what they’re doing right now. I know exactly where what’s going to happen. They walk when the lights go out on season three, episode seven. I know what happens next. There is life beyond the season. It would be a disservice to the show to kind of wrap it all up in a tight little bow.”
Everett continues, “For me, what was important about this season was this growth against all odds, that was our theme. And just watching Sam move through things. And sometimes to bring in a new character just to reflect herself. It’s sort of like what it’s bringing up in her when she meets somebody new. It’s not about falling in love or finding anybody new or anything like that. It’s just about what it brings up in Sam, and she happens to get to do it with some great actors.”
Learn the rest of Everett’s thoughts on her fantastic co-stars, the edition of “Iceland” (it will make sense later), and much more in the complete Q&A below.
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The Playlist: Bridget, I have to tell you, I love the new season so much.
Bridget Everett: Thank you.
I am not kidding. I think I teared up three times over multiple episodes. I feel like Sam goes through the gauntlet more in this season than she ever has before. Did the showrunners prepare you for this beforehand?
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Well, I’m in the writer’s room, so it’s just as much my fault as anybody else’s. [Laughs]. So, I think it’s good. I like it. I want Sam to keep growing and keep evolving. So sometimes, that’s through laughter. Sometimes it’s through tears, and sometimes it’s just a quiet moment. So I was all in. I love doing this show, and it’s just so much fun to get to, whether it’s with her sister Trisha in a hotel room or if it’s with Joel in the car, or if it’s with Fred [ ] on a baseball field. I love all of it, all the different colors of the rainbow.
Was there anything that was important for you that you wanted Sam to explore this season in the fun?
Yeah, I wanted her to push through some of her obstacles. Sam likes to be very comfortable. She likes to be at home alone on the couch. She likes to be with Joel. That’s her safe place. But I wanted her to be able to expand beyond that, to learn to love her sister, to maybe explore new things. And in season two [there were] no new people. And I think it’s good to sometimes let new people in.
Well, we do have someone new this season. We have Iceland, if we can refer to him as that, portrayed by Ólafur Darri Ólafsson. Who had that idea in the writer’s room?
Oh, Yeah. [Producer] Carolyn Strauss was talking about him as an actor, and I was like, “Oh my God, it’s so funny you mentioned Dotty because I did a TV show with him a number of years ago called ‘Lady Dynamite‘ starring Maria Bamford.” And I always thought if Sam were to kind of be curious about a guy, that it would be him. He would be the perfect person. And so it just sort of came from that and we got excited about the idea. Paul and Hannah were on board, so we just decided to write the part for him and pray that he would be able to do it. Because, first of all, he’s very famous in Iceland and also he works all the time. All the time. And his schedule was a bear to work out, but he made it happen. He wanted to do it, and we had him for five days, and so we shot everything, all his stuff at one time and it was great. It was incredible.
How important was it to you that not everything, especially this sort of relationship, be tied up with a bow at the end if this really is the last season?
Very important. I think for the end of the season, all of the seasons, it’s just a snapshot in time of these people. They’re going to continue to evolve. They’re going to continue to change. I could tell you what they’re doing right now. I know exactly where what’s going to happen. They walk when the lights go out on season three, episode seven. I know what happens next. There is life beyond the season. It would be a disservice to the show to kind of wrap it all up in a tight little bow. For me, what was important about this season was this growth against all odds, that was our theme. And just watching Sam move through things. And sometimes to bring in a new character just to reflect herself. It’s sort of like what it’s bringing up in her when she meets somebody new. It’s not about falling in love or finding anybody new or anything like that. It’s just about what it brings up in Sam, and she happens to get to do it with some great actors.
Sam has a lot of obstacles this season. She thinks she’s losing her friends. She thinks the world around her is sort of falling apart. It’s quite a change from the end of season two where it seemed like everything was not necessarily hunky-dory, but pretty good. How did you, as an actor, get to those emotional places when you need to?
I don’t know. I think you just sort of insert yourself in the moment and roll the dice for the best. But honestly, in season three, I think Sam arrives at a place where she’s like, “O.K., this is my new reality. Joel, who’s my world, has opened me up, and now he’s kind of doing something else.” She’s just trying to figure out how to not backslide to just being on the couch and alone all the time. She’s trying to navigate her sort of new normal. So yeah, I think that what’s interesting about this season is that she’s taken an interest in herself and working on herself and how she shows up for other people. She’s never really been able to do that because she’s been too locked inside. And I love seeing how she doesn’t think that she’ll be able to care for people. They care for her, and she can, and she’s trying that. And sometimes it really hurts, and other times it’s a great step forward. It’s like life.
It is! I think one of the things I love about the show is how accurately it depicts adult friendships. Especially the relationship between her and Joel where you do feel like you’re losing a friend because they have a partner and they’re moving on, but they sort of come back together. Can you just talk about the chemistry that you and Jeff have?
It’s so easy. Every scene with him is just, it’s so much, it’s a breeze. Even when it’s a hard scene. There’s something that Jeff himself is so charismatic and so undeniable like Sam can’t help but love him. I can’t help but love him. So, it makes sense to me that she finds somebody like him and slowly opens up. I’ve been largely single most of my life. And when you have somebody like that and then you’re not their number one anymore, or you think you’re not their number one anymore, you kind of want to retreat. And I think you have to watch the season to know that Sam is more important than she thinks she is in a lot of different ways.
Halfway through the season, there is a wonderful moment where Joel’s husband wants to sing a song in front of Jeff, and he can’t get through it. And Sam is accompanying him on the piano. Can you talk about shooting that scene? Because both you and Tim Bagley, who plays Brad, are so good in that moment.
It was great. I had had a conversation with Tim about the idea that Brad would sing this song for Joel, and I asked him some questions about his own experiences, and they’re in the song. So, I knew it was going to be really wonderful. And Tim has such a huge heart. The mood in the room when he was singing was just like…he just transformed it. It was incredible. And I just felt like I was singing with a friend. I adore him. He’s just like the gentlest, kindest, sweetest, wickedly funny person you’ll ever meet. And it was also fun just watching him have a moment like that when he’s always kind of played the funny guy, the crazy gay guy, you know what I mean? I think he’s been told that by directors. So, to see him get to play somebody that has emotions and range and feeling was just thrilling, and I just was so happy to be there.
The show has a cult following and is a big critics favorite, but it hasn’t necessarily been the biggest hit on HBO. What did winning something like the Peabody Award mean to you guys for all the work you’ve put into the show?
It was so meaningful. I know that that stuff, awards, shouldn’t matter, but we are so proud of the show and aren’t a part of a lot of those kinds of conversations. So, to be honored with the Peabody is so meaningful. And when I gave a speech, I said, for the rest of my life, I’m going to introduce myself as Peabody Award winner Bridget Everett. [Laughs.] And I mean, I’m proud of this show, and I want people to watch it. And I think that a prestigious organization like Peabody giving us a pat on the back just felt otherworldly. It really lifted us up.
So in theory, this is in theory the last season. Did the writing staff go into it that way when you wrote it or were you hoping that there might still be a chance of a fourth season?
I think that we felt lucky to ever get season one. We felt lucky that the pilot got picked up. So, every time we write, we don’t write an ending to it because we don’t want it to end. We just write it as a moment in time in the character’s lives, and whatever happens happens. And we just feel like the luckiest people in the world that we got to do three seasons of a show like this, and only HBO would do it. And I know that for a fact, and I still can’t, the whole thing feels like a dream, honestly.
From this season overall, is there one memory you’ll remember the most on set shooting or a scene that you remember?
I mean, the song with Brad is so special. There’s a scene in the car with Joel where he says something to Sam that just still rocks my little heart. But also being in the hotel room with Mary Catherine [Garrison], we were roommates for many years. I could never imagine us being on the HBO show together and having to get to do such special scenes together. I don’t know. There are too many, too many to pick from. I’m lucky.
“Somebody Somewhere” season 3 debuts on HBO and Max on Oct. 27