Starring and executive produced by comedian and singer Bridget Everett, the seven-episode HBO original comedy series Somebody Somewhere is a beautifully human look at small-town life and the struggle of not knowing what comes next. Sam (Everett) is experiencing a loss that she can’t seem to get on the same emotional page with her family about, and she’s trying to find her voice in a hometown that she’s unsure of where she fits in, but just living every day will help her find herself.
During this interview with Collider, Everett was joined by creators and executive producers Hannah Bos and Paul Thureen (writers on HBO’s High Maintenance) to talk about what brought them together on this series, the Bridgetization of the story, figuring out the most authentic way to wake someone up from their life, finding interesting ways to make use of Sam’s music, the beauty of the Sam-Joel (Jeff Hiller) dynamic, using humor as a healer, and why they’d be happy to go for 10 or 20 seasons.
Collider: This show made me laugh and cry, and I absolutely loved everything about it. Are you already thinking about a second season? Are you thinking about 10 seasons? I just need the entire lives of these characters.
HANNAH BOS: We’re thinking about 10 or 20 seasons. That’s where we’re at right now.
BRIDGET EVERETT: We’re hopeful. You never know. We’re standing by the phone, waiting to get that call.
Have you had conversations about where these characters go from where you leave them, at the end of the season? Have you thought about what happens to them from there?
EVERETT: We’ve been kicking the ball around a little bit just in case, just so that we could be ahead of the game.
BOS: The fun of this show is figuring out, what’s the Bridgetization of it. We’re always trying to see how far we’re gonna go into what Bridget does so beautifully on stage, in that world, for Sam. We’re always thinking forward for Sam and how far she’s gonna go and how she’s gonna use her superpower of singing in the real world.
It’s one thing to have an idea for a show, but it’s another thing to actually have a show and people populating it. How did this all come about? Where did it start? How did it get to what we see now?
EVERETT: Well, I got a deal at HBO, and then I reached out to Carolyn Strauss, who’s a TV mega whatever. To me, she’s a mega good person. She’s the shit, and she’s had her name on some of the best TV in television history. I called her and she was like, “Well, I’m just finishing up Game of Thrones. I think this seems like a logical next step.” And then, we needed writers, so we reached out to Paul and Hannah.
PAUL THUREEN: We came up in the New York performance world, admiring Bridget and seeing her shows and admiring her from afar and being huge fans. The first TV thing that we ever did was adapting one of our plays and we worked with Carolyn, so I think that Carolyn thought of us because Hannah and I are both from the Midwest and we thought that was gonna have that flavor. So, when Carolyn and Bridget came to us, it was just a dream, the idea of us figuring out what our version of that story would be.
BOS: And then, we pitched this version to Duplass’ as well. We were working with them and we came up with the idea for this pilot, and then it went from there.
THUREEN: And then, the world shut down, so we spent a year and half on Zoom, every day, with another writer, Patty Breen, and Bridget and Carolyn, getting the details and flushing it out into a full world together.
It feels like this show really knows how to make use of everything that makes Bridget Everett fabulous. How did you figure out what the perfect formula and combination of all of that would be?
BOS: Bridget was there with us, figuring it out. We were really, I wouldn’t say lucky to have so much time, but we were lucky, in some ways, to have so much time during this pandemic period to study and figure out the right authentic way to wake someone up from their life. When you’re sitting on the voice of angel, as she would say, and when you’re sitting on this talent and it’s been in black and white, how do you use somebody who’s been shut down to open up in a really authentic, grounded way in a small town, slowly over a real period. We got to use this dramatic side of Bridget, as well as her Kansas authentication and real life stuff. And then, there were also things that are just totally Sam and from Paul’s father, who’s a farmer, and find this nice thing together, in a collaborative way.
EVERETT: The wild Bridget on the stage sounds cool to think, “How could you translate that to a TV show?,” but it would get tired really fast. I love that we use music in the show, but it’s always more interesting, at least to me, the things that lead Sam to the song and that lead Sam to the music. It’s my story of how I found music again and how I found singing again. There’s a nice parallel. As a non-classically trained actor, it was helpful to be able to have some real life experiences to fall on.
THUREEN: We like writing about the stuff that’s before or after the stuff that usually is the thing that people write about. We had a similar aesthetic and interest in these moments that aren’t often looked at. And then, also, Bridget is just an incredible actor. Every day on set would just impress us. It was always deeper and more real and locked all the other actors into the world in a really special way. I think we were just very lucky to be working with somebody who’s also really, really talented.
EVERETT: Please don’t strike that from the record, Christina.
Bridget, there’s something just magical about watching the friendship between your character and Jeff Hiller’s character in this. There’s this odd buddy duo going on between the two of them. What did you enjoy about working with Jeff and letting that whole dynamic come to life?
EVERETT: It’s exactly that. It’s finding a friend where you never thought you would find one, and that’s a reflection of my real life. When I was growing up, I had friends that were there my entire life. You didn’t really get a chance to discover somebody new. Meeting Murray [Hill], who plays Fred Rococo, in my real life is a perfect example. When I met Murray, I was like, “What the fuck is all of this?!” But it made sense to me. Sam doesn’t like religion, but Joel does. It’s finding a common ground with somebody that doesn’t make any sense. It’s like those odd animal videos. Those are my favorite, when you’ve got the monkey that loves the squirrel and they’re giving each other trust falls and tickle fights. I love that. What’s better than that?
I love the moment when Sam sings to Joel. That song and that whole moment is just so beautiful. What was that like to do and to find what that moment would be?
EVERETT: First of all, when you’re doing it on set, the music is in your ear, so nobody else is experiencing what you’re experiencing, but I asked them to give Jeff that. He didn’t wanna hear it until we filmed it, so he had the little earwig in too. We shot that later. We shot things very out of order. That was a very real moment between Jeff and me. I feel like there were a lot of gifts that I got from Jeff, filming this, with the friendship behind the scenes and also just having somebody to be on-screen with and feel safe. I always go into these TVs and movies being like, “I’m gonna get fired at any minute.” He made me better. He made me feel good and confident, and was a pat on the leg when I didn’t feel good. So, it was a love letter from Sam to Joel, but also Bridget to Jeff.
THUREEN: And Bridget wrote that song. I just wanna clarify that that’s a Bridget Everett original.
There are a lot of heavy topics explored in this show. There’s death and grief, there’s alcoholism, addiction and recovery, there’s infidelity, there’s the feeling of being stuck in a place that you aren’t sure how to get out of, which is something that so many people can relate to. What are the challenges of balancing that with the comedy of it all?
THUREEN: The comedy always comes from a real place. We all have family members who are just bonkers, but if you saw them in a TV show, you’d say, “That’s too much.” It’s about grounding them in those real moments. There are a lot of issues going on that people don’t talk about them, and what people do instead of talking about their feelings is very funny and sad. We spend our time not talking about those things and seeing those reverberations. Grief affects this whole family and tears apart the family because they’re not talking about it. The humor is how we cope with things. It’s a balancing act, but it’s the fun challenge of this show, to focus on those elevated moments and the fun times together, like Sam and Joel sitting in a car, laughing and talking and joking. Joel says he has to keep busy, so the terror doesn’t creep in. That’s what you do. So, the humor always comes from a real place.
BOS: A lot of people make shows about somebody who’s talented or has this gift, like Sam does, and they leave. And this is a show about where someone stays in their hometown and figures out how to use it there.
EVERETT: In my family, humor is the healer. We laugh at everything, sometimes at great expense to me because I’m the youngest. I just got text message from my brother, who’s dealing with some crazy stuff, and he said, “I’m just so grateful for the Everett humor.” For me, it’s the only way to get through everything.
Bridget, what is this whole experience like for you, having grown up in a small town and being in show choir and doing high school musicals, and then having success in Hollywood and in this industry and getting a deal at HBO that leads to a TV show?
EVERETT: I finally got the part! I never got the fucking lead. I don’t know. It still feels like make-believe. Even when we’re watching the edits and they’re playing a full episode and it’s got that HBO sounds, you’re like, “Oh, my God, we’re really on HBO.” It all feels like a dream. It doesn’t feel real. I have been on HBO before, but this time, it’s us and it’s ours. We’re all a little older and it feels a little sweeter. For me to really fully understand it, it’s gonna take five to six seasons. You can just pass that memo up the flag pole for us, please. I want a chance so that, in Season 6, we’ll jump the shark, but then we’ll come back with a very meaningful Season 8, 9, and 10.
Somebody Somewhere airs on Sunday nights on HBO and is available to stream at HBO Max.