There’s good and bad news: The good news is that the fabulous HBO series Somebody Somewhere is streaming now; the bad news is that season three is the final season of a very unique show filled with heart, pizazz and originality.
The show stars Bridget Everett, a downtown NYC performance legend, known for her voluptuous body and her self-penned songs about, well, her voluptuous body parts. Everett plays Sam, a woman in her 40s who ends up back in her hometown of Manhattan, Kansas to care for a dying sister, and to deal with the many delightful issues that we pick up along the way: family trauma, loneliness, mortality and more.
The show costars a cavalcade of delightfully offbeat actors like Murray Hill and Jeff Hiller, who play a trans agriculture professor and Sam’s new best friend, respectively. The cast is irresistible, alternating between hilarious tomfoolery and heartbreaking vulnerability as they navigate their way through the challenging realities we all experience as we get older.
Hill and Everett are old friends who’ve performed together on the NYC club and cabaret circuit. They’ve also known Hiller, who got his start doing improv with the iconic Upright Citizen’s Brigade, for years.
Ahead of the final season, PAPER caught up with Everett, Hill and Hiller to chat about the joy audiences have found in three years of Somebody Somewhere.
Bridget, it just warms my heart so much to see you have a show, and that you have your people on the show, and also for it to get renewed for three seasons. That’s so much hope for the downtown scene. I feel like when you did that 2017 show pilot, Love You More, with Loni Anderson, everyone I knew was like, "Oh my God, it's Loni Anderson and Bridget Everett. It's like a dream come true."
Bridget Everett: Yeah, then they sent it to somebody in Silicon Valley and they're like, "We're not interested in her." So it just didn't get picked up.
That's what happened? Was it for Amazon?
Bridget: Yeah, it was for Amazon. They had this system where you would vote on their three pilots. And then we got the highest ratings, we tested through the roof, but then they sent it to somebody in Silicon Valley, and they're like, "We don't think women are going to like her." It's like, "Okay."
But then now we have Somebody Somewhere. So everything happens for a reason, as much as I don't love that saying. Well, I do like it, actually. But people say they don't like it, and I guess I like it.
Murray Hill: The journey is the destination.
I say every time God closes a door, she opens a window.
Bridget: Yes, she does. Basically I got a deal with HBO, and then we met with [show creators] Paul Thureen and Hannah Bos. And, you know, there's a dead sister, which I can relate to, the love of singing. And then Fred Rococo's played by Mr. Murray Hill. That part was predetermined, he didn’t have to audition.
Murray: Thank God, I wouldn't have gotten it.
Bridget: The show was pitched for me, and then they put Murray Hill in it. And so I was like, "This feels really right." And then we went about auditioning people, and it sort of magically just populated with people I've known and respected, and were all people that were hustling on the scene. Jeff was in improv and Murray and I were performance art, cabaret circuit, sort of just barely crossing over, but I knew Jeff. It all kind of happened very organically, which doesn't always happen in show business, I think it's also the reason why it's successful.
And was it originally supposed to be set in Manhattan, Kansas, or they added that because that's where you're from?
Bridget: They wanted to do it in Emporia, Kansas, which is where my dad is from, but–
And that's just a coincidence?
Bridget: No, that was for me. But then I was like, "We're already in Kansas. Let's drive over to Manhattan. Let's go say hi to my mom." And then we got there, and it's a college town, there's a military base, so there's just sort of more to pull on. And plus I'm from Manhattan, so I have that kind of knowledge about what that town was like. It happened like it was supposed to, I guess.
Murray, how did you find out about the show? Did you already know about it before Bridget was involved?
Murray: Well, I think where we were going on 20 years of rejections, because we're downtown people, and, you know.
Yeah. Huge celebrities on a level, but also at the same time, can't get arrested in–
Bridget: In a six-block radius all around Lafayette and Astor Place.
Murray: The gatekeepers have always been very specific in show business, and it started to change a little bit. So, I think when she got the pilot, friends of Bridget’s got excited, too. We're like, "Okay, she's breaking in." Because TV is much different now than it was when, what was that, seven years ago?
Bridget: Probably seven years ago, yeah.
Murray: There's just so much rejection. And then I got the call and I wept. Mickey, I wept.
A big strong man like you?
Murray: Well, I'm big, but also short.
True.
Murray: Everything about me is confusing.
Bridget: Don't forget the hands.
Murray: They can't see this. Well, you could probably see it in photographs. I have small hands, Mickey.
Bridget: Small hands, big heart, can't lose.
Perfect.
Murray: What?
Bridget: Small hands, big heart, can't lose.
Murray: Can't say that to a gay guy. When they hear small hands, they're like, "Whoa."
I don't mind, I'm not a size queen. I like something easy to handle.
Murray: Yeah!
You were also on Amy Schumer’s Hulu show, Life & Beth. That’s two celebrity shows at one time, two shows!
Murray: As someone who moved to New York to find themselves, because I come from a right-wing religious family... So getting on HBO and Hulu, it was validation that somebody like me, a chubby trans guy with small hands and a big personality, and short, could get on TV. It's like, "Finally." And you and I knew each other when I started, it was in the ‘90s. So I've always wanted, from the day I started doing this, to get into some kind of mainstream media, because it was the fastest, quickest way to represent.
Totally, I agree.
Murray: Because, you know, Joe's Pub, or The Cock, all those places I performed. That's great, and I was visible there, but that's literally 50 people, two o'clock in the morning, loaded.
Bridget: Which is also fun. But it just is not the same impact.
It doesn't "push the needle," as they say.
Murray: And there were a lot of needles there.
It's true. Jeff, what did you think when you heard this? Have you ever done any TV before?
Jeff Hiller: I've done a lot of guest star and co-star things, like playing a lot of waiters. When I got it, I read it and I was like, "Oh, my God. It's all nuanced and smart." I didn't know you could be not famous and be in something that's good. So I was really excited.
Did you get your start in improv, or you've just done a lot of improv?
Jeff: I started at the Upright Citizens Brigade.
Oh, wow. How fabulous.
Murray: Were you a founding member?
Jeff: No, I was not a founding member, but I started when it was still quite poor.
Murray: Mickey, you know what's cool about Somebody Somewhere. And I'm not going to... Well, I'll speak for all of us because I like to do that sometimes–
Bridget: I'm not going to... Okay, I will.
Murray: You've seen us all in the nightlife, and we're all very big personalities. Very big. And what I love about Somebody Somewhere and getting cast in it? It was an opportunity to not be big, and not to do the easy thing and not...
I love it.
Murray: I think for Bridget, too, her cabaret act is completely different than how she is on Somebody Somewhere. And the fact that people like us — we'll keep that nice and open — we're given the opportunity to be three-dimensional. And I think that's something that I am going to take with me as like, okay, that's what we set out to do. We did it. We got on TV, we were ourselves, and our personalities and our stage presence and our chemistry from nightlife get pounded every night. Showed up on screen, but in a quiet way.
Yeah. Maybe even more in season two when you did the party van scene and then you sang your dirty songs in the party van. Do you remember that?
Bridget: Oh, sure.
There's the Bridget we know and love, whereas it is, and again, it's funny, but it's like a lot of very funny people on a show that's not that funny, because it's like real life. You know what I mean? There are hilarious moments, but at the same time, a lot of it's not hilarious, and it's just very much real life.
Bridget: Yeah, it's meant to be a slice of life. It's not like you're trying to bump, set, spike the jokes. You're just having a conversation with your friends. And my friends are funny, but they're also depressed, or they fuck up, or all that stuff.
Which one's depressed and which one fucks up?
Murray: Actually, I don't know Mickey if you noticed, but she very specifically tried not to look at me for both of those. But I fucked up, and I'm depressed, and... With all the Prozac that I'm on, I shouldn't be, but I am.
And have you tried to avoid being dirty-singing, nightlife, Bridget on the show? Or do you just sort of take it as it comes?
Bridget: I think, well, I wanted the music to be like it is in life. Like, that's a part of me, it's a part of Sam. It happens, it pops up, but it's not like, "Okay, what genital can I sing about this episode?" It's more just where it comes and why it comes. Sam has that in her, but it's a part of her, and it comes out when she's feeling really bold and great. But then she also doesn't feel bold and great, and that's when she cries in a car.
Murray: Well, it's also the story of people that escaped their hometowns to come to New York to find themselves, but Somebody Somewhere is, she stayed. So that's a very different kind of plot twist.
It's also interesting to me, I feel like Sam really didn't make it or get anywhere in New York, whereas you have had a flourishing career in New York.
Bridget: Well, Sam, because she wasn't living New York, she was living in Lawrence, which is like a town over, basically. And she just, she's just kind of happy sleepwalking through life, or comfortable sleepwalking through life. Not happy. So, it's fun for her to find the music again as she starts to fall in love with her friend Joel. And not romantically, but as a friend.
You have a romance going on the show now, Jeff, a hot romance. How has that been to play?
Jeff: Sexy. It's been great. I love him. Have you seen season three?
Yes. The whole season.
Jeff: I was going to be like, yeah, there's a really intense sex scene.
Murray: Well, there is.
Bridget: There is.
Unfortunately it was with the little rescue dog in the storm drain, in the director's cut.
Bridget: The one day I don't go to set.
Jeff: It's so fun. I think that, just like what Bridget’s saying, where everything is real, it's a slice of life, and I think that it's fun to play a relationship that does feel real. You really do have an, "I love you, but also you're annoying sometimes." I think that's important and beautiful.
Had you ever done Zumba before the show?
Jeff: I hadn't done Zumba before we started doing Zumba [for the show].
Bridget: Okay. I was like, "Well, this is what we do." But I have done it since. There's this Korean woman that does it on YouTube, and it's so good.
Murray: I love Zumba.
Bridget: And I like it, because I got a little jiggle, and they just, like, there's no production value. Anyway, if you're going to do Zumba, check it out. Just like that time you came over and made me watch porn with the...
Made you watch porn?
Murray: No. Okay, listen, I don't want to derail this–
Bridget: You wouldn't let me close the drapes.
Murray: I don't want to derail this too much, but I was brought up Catholic. So you don't watch porn, because you're going to hell. Now, I'm going to hell for so many reasons at this point, so I didn't, and I don't watch porn. So Bridget says, "It's something for everybody, there's something for everybody." I was like, are you sure?
Porn, or Zumba?
Murray: Porn.
Bridget: Awkward.
Murray: And I said, "Okay, I want to see a butch dyke and a hot femme going for it.” And what do we do? We get two European sisters in a backlit, like, loft somewhere. I'm like, "This is not what I'm talking about."
Bridget: But then we found one that you liked.
Murray: Then we found one, and then Bridget shut the blinds, because she didn't want the neighbors to see what we were watching.
Bridget: Well, Michael Moore lives on the terrace across the street. He could see in the house.
Murray: And the guy, the butch... Do you remember the guy? Do you remember the dyke? The butch dyke's name was Sid.
Bridget: Yeah, that's right.
Murray: And Sid was with the femme tattoo artist, and they were on the tattoo bench. And you know–
You can imagine.
Bridget: See, we made a memory. That's what life is, making memories.
Absolutely.
Murray: It's the only thing I've ever seen.
Jeff: That's a real slice of life, too.
Now, have they been working more of your personal story into Sam's journey?
Bridget: Well, I'm one of the writers, so I work in as much as I want. But like, I'm just saying that because it's less about my specific journey, and more about my feelings about things. My feelings about music or relationships or family. The themes of life. But yeah, I think every season we try to go deeper and put more of, I put myself in it, and I think it feels a little raw, but not, in a way. I mean, in a way it doesn't because we're all... When we're doing it, when we're shooting, it doesn't feel like we're making an HBO show. It just feels like we're off hanging out and there's a camera there, and we're all having fun together, and it doesn't feel like HBO. Do you know what I mean?
Totally.
Bridget: Which is great. And then you sit down on Sunday night and the thing comes on, "Shhh!" And I'm just like "Ahhh."
Murray: I'm like, "That's us?"
Bridget: I know, I am too. Or when you're watching another show, and then ours is the little pre-teaser, what else is on HBO? I'm like, "Wait, wait."
It's the real deal. It's also the kind of thing that everyone understands. If you say, "Oh, I have a show on HBO." Otherwise, you could say, "Oh, I have a show." And people are like, "Where?" And I'm like, "On my own Instagram live."
Bridget: Yeah, exactly.
What is the name of the town in Illinois where you film? What's that like, being on location there for so long?
Jeff: Lockport?
Bridget: Lockport, I was going to say Lamont, because there's also places in Lamont that we shoot, but Lockport is the sort of closest to downtown Manhattan, Kansas that we could find. So we shoot in the greater Chicagoland area. We do a lot there, but different places, and we've all gone to the Targets together and had different reactions.
Murray: And Naperville.
Bridget: Naperville.
Well, that's not like the middle of nowhere, that's suburbs, at least.
Bridget: No, Naperville is a little more cosmopolitan.
Murray: Well, a little, a little.
Oh, you're going to throw shade on the Chicagoland area?
Murray: No, we enjoyed it. I enjoyed it. I got wrecked. I wasn't, didn't even have a mustache or suit on. I went into the bookstore to get RuPaul's memoir, showbiz, on the day it was released. I also got Jeff a copy.
Jeff: It was interesting.
Bridget: And they're like, "Are you on that show? What are you doing here?" I'm like, "I know it takes place in Kansas, but we film down the street."
I love it. And now I told Bridget, I have a friend who's a chef in France, who's her biggest fan, thinks she's the most gorgeous woman in the history of the world.
Bridget: Believe it.
It's true. And he's super hot. Well, there you go.
Murray: Set it up.
Have you guys gotten groupies or fans from the show that reach out on social media, for example?
Murray: Yes.
Jeff: Yeah, some. I find that I'm quite beloved in the lesbian community.
Murray: That makes sense.
Bridget: Because one of Jeff's fans stopped me on the street and was like, "I saw Jeff, your co-star, down on the street, and I lost my shit. I could not stop crying." And then she's like, "Anyway, great to meet you." Bitch didn't even like get misty when she saw me. I'm like, "Okay, okay. I think he's great too."
Murray: Showbiz.
How about you, Murray?
Murray: I've had some interesting responses. Recently, I was at a Mets game, and it's a pretty heterosexual environment, a lot of drinking, a lot of celebrating. But the Mets fans are notoriously of the people. So I'm in there, and these huge–
Did you have a baseball outfit on?
Murray: Of course. These huge burly guys, huge guys drinking beer, and I'm like... It's always with me, am I about to get hate-crimed, or they recognize me? It's always a thin line.
I hear you.
Murray: These guys come up and they're like, "Oh my God, I love your show. My wife loves your show." I'm like, "What the fuck? I'm at a Mets game," and they're doing that.
Jeff: That is wild.
Murray: That is exciting. And then I get a lot of messages on Instagram from parents that thank me and thank the show, and thank Bridget for having a trans person that's shown as three-dimensional, but also not as a serial killer, or a victim, or that kind of thing. So it was just this guy Fred. So when I get notes from the kids, I'm like, "Okay, it was worth it for that 12-hour scene in the bus without air conditioning."
Air conditioning's a recurring theme in your life, Murray.
Murray: Yes.
Any guest stars that you would hope to have on at some point?
Bridget: Loni Anderson.
Really? You have to.
Bridget: I love Loni.
I worship Loni Anderson. And since she's your former co-star.
Bridget: If the show were to continue, which it's not–
It's not? You know for sure it's not?
Bridget: Yes. This is the last season.
This is the finale season?
Bridget: Yeah. So–
Murray: Maybe after this article, Mickey–
Hello, groundswell.
Bridget: Maybe the people will rise up and demand.
We need Loni.
Murray: I was like, Loni Anderson playing Jeff’s mom would be badass.
Jeff: Could you imagine?
I can very clearly imagine.
Bridget: I can very much imagine. She's great, and she's great, I love her.
Yeah. She's amazing.
Bridget: I want to see more of her on TV.
I agree. Well, that's why I was so excited to hear about Love You More when it happened. I was like, "Wow, this could be a full-blown Loni Anderson renaissance." As it were.
Bridget: Should have been.
Yeah. Should have been. Could have been.
Jeff: Well, I'm glad that this show happened instead.
Exactly.
Jeff: Personally.
Now, are you all still, when you're not filming, do you still do sort of improv or your club dates, or what happens off-season?
Murray: Well, we haven't really been off-season too much, because the pandemic and all that, the strikes and all that stuff. So we are back at Joe's Pub, just back at the improv. Bridget's doing the Beacon Theater next week.
The Beacon Theater, that's fabulous.
Bridget: Yeah, thank you.
Do you find that the crowds are the same or different, since the TV show?
Bridget: No, Murray calls it calls it the... What do you–
Jeff: The TV bump.
Murray: The TV bump.
Bridget: He's like, "You feel that?" The TV bump. And it's true. It's such a, like–
Murray: You go out there, and they're already on your side. Just because you've been on TV.
Bridget: Yeah.
It's true. I mean, we spent so many years going out for the first 20 minutes just trying to make them–
Bridget: When I walk out on stage, people are confused. I don't know about you guys, but it takes a while for the–
Murray: Same.
Same.
Bridget: So it takes them a minute to adjust, but now that we've been on TV, it's like, "Oh." It's just, it makes it easier. It's like running the marathon and you didn't have to train.
Fabulous.
Murray: Write it down.
Photography: Timothy Greenfield-Sanders
Photo assistant: Thitipol S. Samuttha
Studio majordomo: Beauregard Houston-Montgomery
Studio manager: Mico Livingston-Beale
Styling (Bridget): Larry Krone, House of Larréon
Styling (Jeff): Heidi Cannon
Hair (Bridget): Rheanne White
Makeup (Bridget, Murray): Theo Kogan
Grooming (Jeff): Evy Drew for Exclusive Artists, using Jaxon Lane
Director of Special Projects: Mickey Boardman
Production assistants: Dillon Camp, Rafael Flores
