Bridget Everett on How ‘Somebody Somewhere' Was the Best Experience of Her Life: ‘It's Like, Now What Am I Gonna Do?'
'I'm so grateful that I got to do it, and I miss doing it all the time,' Everett tells Variety's Awards Circuit Podcast of her HBO series. 'I still think about them. I think about the show and people come up to me a lot, so it lives on for me. I talk to people about it on the street all the time and as much as I am uncomfortable having conversations with strangers, I really enjoy it because it's personal to me. I love that people connect to it, and sometimes in a profound way, because they've dealt with a similar kind of grief.'
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'Somebody Somewhere' stars Everett as Sam, a woman who moves home to Manhattan, Kan., as she mourns the death of a sister while reconnects with her other sister Trisha (Mary Catherine Garrison). Along the way, she builds new bonds with friends like Joel (Jeff Hiller), his eventual husband Brad (Tim Bagley) and Fred (Murray Hill).
'It's changed me and helped me be a lot more at peace with myself,' Everett says. 'You get the dream of making a show with people that you love and in a way that you want to tell a story, and then if it makes you feel better in the end, I mean, it's like, now what am I gonna do? Because I feel like I've had the best experience of my life.'
On this bonus edition of the Variety Awards Circuit podcast, we tackle that question of what Everett might do next, how the folks in her hometown reacted to being put in the spotlight, and how 'Somebody Somewhere' really resonated with audiences as something truly special. Also on this episode, we talk to Paul Giamatti about his standout episode of this season's 'Black Mirror.' Listen below!
Everett has an amazing voice, as fans of her cabaret shows, theater performances and other music gigs (including her band The Tender Moments) can attest. But 'Somebody Somewhere' viewers got a taste of that singing prowess too — particularly in the show's series finale.
'There's nothing that makes me happier than singing, and there's nothing that makes me sometimes sadder than singing,' she tells Variety's Awards Circuit Podcast. 'But it's really, putting the show together, to find a way to incorporate music that that felt organic. We never wanted to do a big 'Glee'-style number. We wanted to do something how music sort of is part of the fabric of my life or Sam's life.'
In the finale, Everett's character Sam brings her friends and sister together to the bar where she works, and she sings 'The Climb,' by Miley Cyrus.
'I used to sing that song live in some of my road shows, and I've always loved it,' she says. 'It is kind of sentimental and on the nose, like the lyrics are very literal. But to me, I never get tired of singing it.'
Besides tackling grief, friendship, love and relationships, 'Somebody Somewhere' shined a spotlight on the kind of town that is rarely seen on TV. 'My family, we're all from there — my brother still lives there, and my mom lived there at the time when she was still alive,' Everett says. 'I was like, I want them to be proud of this. I want Manhattan to be proud of this.
'We did a final watch party there, and the cast all came back with me,' she says. 'The feeling in the room was like a rock concert. It was so emotional. I was weeping, just being around all these people that the show connected with that were from there. Feeling like we got that right was so moving to me.'
So what is next? 'We're trying to dream up something else,' Everett adds.' I want to do something that feels right, but I want to work. I want to do something. It's hard after you do something that's built for you. I had such a big part of the creative elements, the writing, the producing, all that business. I want to be able to do that again.'
Variety's 'Awards Circuit' podcast, hosted by Clayton Davis, Jazz Tangcay, Emily Longeretta, Jenelle Riley and Michael Schneider, who also produces, is your one-stop source for lively conversations about the best in film and television. Each episode, 'Awards Circuit' features interviews with top film and TV talent and creatives, discussions and debates about awards races and industry headlines, and much more. Subscribe via Apple Podcasts, Stitcher, Spotify or anywhere you download podcasts.
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