With the third and final season of the GLAAD-nominated, Dorian and Peabody Award-winning comedy series Somebody Somewhere, created by Paul Thureen and Hannah Bos, airing Sundays at 10:30pm ET/PT on HBO and available to stream on Max, Murray Hill who plays Fred, Jeff Hiller who plays Joel, and Tim Bagley who plays Brad speak with The Queer Review’s editor James Kleinmann about portraying these queer characters living in a small town rural environment and what being part of this show means to them.
James Kleinmann, The Queer Review: it’s so rare that we get to see queer folks on screen outside of a big city. What is it like for each of you to portray these characters living their lives in a small town rural community?
Tim Bagley: “I grew up in Michigan at a time when it was still considered a mental illness to be a homosexual in the DSM [American Psychiatric Association’s Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders]. When I reached puberty and was going through all this discovery about who I was, I knew that I whatever I was going to do it wasn’t going to be in Michigan. So I moved to LA. I think most people back then would move to either LA or New York or San Francisco. So to me, the idea of seeing these characters in a small town is really beautiful. I’ve read a couple of books by both Pete and Chasten Buttigieg and I’ve thought a lot about what it was like for them to be in the Midwest and navigate their relationship so openly and publicly.”
“As far as the relationship with our characters, Brad and and Joel, I think it’s unusual to see people our age in a romantic situation like that. I’m quite a bit older than Jeff, but this kind of relationship and the complexities of it is something that I haven’t been able to play until now. It’s been a real joy to explore that and that part of myself with Jeff in these roles. It’s been really gratifying”.
Anything you’d like to add to that Murray or Jeff?
Jeff Hiller: “Well, I would just say, because I am so much younger than Tim…”
Murray Hill: “Yeah, everybody is!”
Tim: “They are! What can I tell you?!”
Jeff: “I know people like Joel. I know people who are openly gay and who find community at church and in the community that they grew up in. I love that their stories are being told and that they are the main story of this show. It’s such a beautiful thing that isn’t shown that often.”
Murray: “I think it’s radical. I do. My whole act—as you know, James, because you’ve seen some shows—is that I try to find the connection and the humanity with the audience first and then I hit them with the message. I feel like this show is radical in that, as Jeff was just saying, it shows us as full, three-dimensional people who argue over dishwashers, eating junk food, or playing catch, and making fun of each other while they’re taking dumps! It shows that we’re not just fun and fabulous all the time.”
I think it is a great tribute to the queer people who don’t move to the big city, which, as you were saying Tim, in previous times really felt like the only choice if we wanted to live openly. But through this show, and another HBO show We’re Here, we see queer folks who stay right where they are, and although life might be challenging at times, why should they have to leave?
Tim: “I find it really rewarding to be able to tell that story, knowing that there are people living their lives out in these small towns.”
There was a recent study about the epidemic of loneliness in the United States which found that it wasn’t the result of us not having enough friends, but more to do with us not forming deep relationships and connections with those friends. I think that Somebody Somewhere exemplifies how important it is for us to do that and to be open and vulnerable with each other, however hard that might be at times. Could each of you talk about the show in that context?
Jeff: “It’s all about found family, right? It’s not just friendships. I love that they have Thanksgiving together this season. I love that deepness and that bonding that is there between them. It is so important and so rare, and it does take a lot of vulnerability to be able to do that, to put yourself out there and be willing to do that. In a certain way our cast has done that too, because we shoot on location and so every Saturday night we go to Bridget Everett’s house and have margaritas and we bond. It almost tips into bondage, but stops just before that! It’s so beautiful and so important, and I love that science has told us that too.”
Murray: “I’m not as old as Tim, but in our generation the word loneliness for the queer community can also mean isolated. You’re lonely because you don’t feel like there are other people like you and you don’t feel safe, so that makes you feel isolated. With this chosen family and how we started out in the first season to where we are now, it’s like we all became lonely together and then by season three, everybody—including Tim at his age—and Jeff and Bridget, wasn’t feeling so isolated. We were all friends before, but now we have an even a deeper inner life than when everybody started the first season.”
Tim: “One thing that I feel like I have in common with my character, Brad, is that I’ve always felt like I’m on this journey on my own. Like when I left my hometown and came out to LA, I’ve just kind of walked through this life, but I’ve made such good, lifelong friends along the way who are family to me. I couldn’t be in a relationship with somebody who didn’t understand that some of these friendships are longterm and that it’s really important for me to spend one-on-one time with them. So I don’t really feel loneliness in my life, but I certainly have. We learn in this season that Brad has been alone for a while, but that only makes him even more grateful and surprised to meet Joel. All of a sudden, it’s this wonderful thing that he’s very happy about. Then to be welcomed into Joel’s world by his friends feels very authentic and very real.”
Tim, I love the way Sam helps Brad to come up with the love song for Joel and the way he performs it. Could you talk about doing those scenes with Bridget?
Tim: “I think it’s what bonds Sam and Brad. I will never forget the way Bridget was looking at me when we were shooting it. It was so moving and it felt very authentic to me, like this was a friend helping me. It was a fun thing to shoot, but to me that whole scene is all about Bridget and looking at Joel’s face. He was so loving. It was a lot of sensory coming towards me. More than my little my little head is used to handling!”
Jeff and Murray, what was it like to witness the result of their songwriting in that beautiful scene where Brad sings to Joel?
Jeff: “To speak about Tim as if he’s not here…”
Murray: “Oh, he’s here alright!”
Jeff: “Tim was so raw in that scene. On the page, it made it seem like Brad was going, “I’m scared to sing, I’m scared to sing!” But then to see the emotion that he infused into it, it told an entirely different story. A story about so much pain, so many emotions that he’s been bottling in, a fear of being completely vulnerable again after he’s been so injured previously. Which are things we learn about him this season. Everything about Tim’s performance in that scene just knocked it out of the field. That’s a sports reference! Good, it was good!”
Murray: “Knock it out of the park is the reference, Jeffrey!”
Jeff: “I kind of knew that!”
Murray: “James, do you go to therapy? Because you’re gay you probably do, right?”
I probably should, but I don’t.
Murray: “Oh, you haven’t?! I knew there was something wrong with you! Well, in therapy there’s this thing called transference. When transference happens, that’s when it’s working. I’ve had this happen a couple of times doing Somebody Somewhere, like when I did the scene with Sam’s dad in the first season. It’s this weird thing that happens where I’m in that moment and I’m believing everything that is happening like it’s real, rather than it being acting and written.”
“When Tim was doing that scene and Jeff and Bridget were reacting, I was there and feeling it like it was actually happening, like transference. I wasn’t thinking, ‘you know what, there’s no ventilation in this room’, ‘there’s no air conditioning’, ‘it’s hot as fucking hell in this tiny, little room where he’s singing’. I wasn’t thinking any of that. I was like, ‘Oh man, this is deep, this is moving’. Transference, James. You should try it!”
It’s been such a healing and comforting show to watch and season three is bittersweet because sadly it is the final season. As we sadly say goodbye to the show, what has it meant to each of you to be part of it?
Murray: “I got a lot out of it, like the normal stuff that you would think, but I also felt validated by the gatekeepers. The fact that HBO, which is the fucking Holy Grail, allowed this story to be told collectively by all of us is incredible. Then for me, personally, this gender ambiguous trans guy that you’re not really sure about, they just show him as a person. It leads with the heart and the humanity. What I take away is that sadly that’s a very rare opportunity and I’m glad I got it.”
Jeff: “Obviously, career-wise it’s huge and artistically it’s huge. Before this, I never played characters that had names! They were just professions; you know, waiter, or florist. I played a lot of waiters! But beyond that, it feels so good to be a part of a show that when people watch it they feel seen; they feel hope; they address the fact that they’re lonely and we can talk about being lonely. It’s a show that feels important and it’s a show that I would watch even if I weren’t on it. It’s beautiful and I feel so proud to be associated with it at all.”
Murray: “Somebody Somewhere is a weighted blanket.”
Tim: “That is exactly what I was going to say. I feel pride in doing this show. There’s a simple kindness and empathy about it that we don’t often see. I really appreciate the heart of that combined with the comedy that makes it funny and beautiful. I’m really thrilled and proud to be a part of this offering.”
By James Kleinmann
New episodes of the third and final season of Somebody Somewhere debut Sundays at 10:30pm ET/PT on HBO and will be available to stream on Max. The series finale airs Sunday, December 8th, 2024.
