By making the arc of its HBO dramatic Someone somewhere (Located in his hometown of Manhattan, Kansas), the legend of the New York cabaret, Bridget Everett, wanted to tell a story about the search for “your person”. Not in a romantic way – in the series, his character, Sam, constitutes a hardy friendship with Joel de Jeff Hiller after his return home to take care of his dying sister. Joel welcomes Sam in his community of Folk Queer in a small town, and the growth that the pair crosses during three seasons shows how their friendship gave each of them permission to find a nucleus of lasting lightness in their lives. In this scene between Joel and Sam in the final episode, “AGG”, the duo is able to express how important their relationship has been for them and will continue to be, for the rest of their lives.
Everett had been approached by Someone somewhereThe showrunners are initially to make a series on another small town in Kansas: Emporia. But during scouting, Everett said to them: “We are so close to my hometown, let’s drive there. You can meet my mother, whatever. And then once we were [there]We were all like, “that’s it,” she recalls. Remember to make a show so (literally) near his home presented a unique set of challenges. “I was actually a little terrified,” continues Everett, “because my mother and my brother still lived there at the time, and that’s where I come. I did not want to distort it or do everything that made fun of the Kansans. I wanted to give him the most realistic goal as possible, not having lived there for a while. »»
Certain lines of the final cup of this scene differ from what is on the page because “the scene was most effective when it was only one blow, when we do not cut,” explains Everett. It meant choosing a long blow where “there are probably better taken of certain moments, and perhaps a more direct reading of the script, but it seemed natural and lived.”
Hiller and Everett did not know each other long before filming the pilot of Someone somewhereEven if the character of Joel seems to be tailor -made for him. Everett actually had two other friends in mind as she was starting to write the game: “One of them is actually Mary Catherine [Garrison]Who’s playing [Sam’s sister] Tricia, and my friend Zach. They had characteristics similar to Joel: help me open, help me be less sad and have fun. Mary Catherine, she has a very special way to speak to you, giving you the impression of being the only person in the room. And I think Joel does that too.
Someone somewhere is a show on the feelings of people, on quiet sorrow and the subtleties of relations between individuals living in a small town in Kansas. As Everett worked with its co-authors on the development of history at the center of Someone somewhere“What resonated me the most [were] The emotional themes I felt could be too personal, or perhaps not universal enough, “she said.” But as for everything else, the more you do something, the more universal it can be. I knew that [worked] In Cabaret, but I had never made a television program before. “”
This scene “crystallizes Someone somewhere to a t, “says Everett, emphasizing his slice of life and his conversation filled with laughter as well as tears.” This shows me where they arrived at the end of the series: Even if [Joel] To a new partner, I think it is very special that both are always at the center of the other’s universe. When Joel calls Sam his person: “It looks like in three seasons, he helped bring her back to life and give her a goal. She was her sister’s person, and now she finds that she can move on and have someone else’s value. And above all, he launches a new sense of self for her. It gives her a real boost, and that is something that she didn’t know she needed to hear. »»
Detailed improvised lines of Hiller – as here, where, in the final cup, Joel describes Sam seated in the garage – added another layer of wealth to the script that Everett made with his co -authors, the creators of the Hannah Bos and Paul Thureen series. “”[Hiller] Come from the world of improvisation, and I come from the world of the cabaret, and in my cabaret programs, I have a kind of script in progress – I have never written it – but I essentially know what I mean, “explains Everett.” I think that with this show, you know what to be said, but if you add a little candy here and there, there is nothing with that. I really believe that each time we are able to put it in our mouths as it feels good, you will have a more effective performance. “”
This taking stood out in the assembly because of how Hiller improvised this specific line, adding a sentence on how his life is so better with Sam before discovering for himself that she is his person, in real time. “The other [takes]It was like something he was holding in his heart and may have told him before, “said Everett.” This time, the way he had done it, I felt like he was seeing him for himself the first time, which I really thought gentle and the most effective, which was also the most effective taking for Sam, because she responds to this. “”
While the writers did not know at the time that it would be the final of the series, ending Someone somewhere On a moment of community joy (and, of course, an interpretation of Cabaret by “The Climb” by Miley Cyrus) looked like a perfect closing moment for Sam, Joel and their friends. As this scene also testifies, Everett wanted the season to end on the fact that “Sam was spending 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. ” Although this line is not in the last take used in the episode, its meaning, about Sam find happiness and love for itself, is implicit in performance.
This story appeared for the first time in an autonomous issue of August of The Hollywood Reporter review. To receive the magazine, click here to subscribe.
