Jeff Hiller and Bridget Everett star as Joel and Sam Someone somewhere.

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HBO

Comedian, actor and comedian Bridget Everett grew up in Manhattan. No, not the Big Apple, the ‘Little Apple’ – that’s Manhattan, Kansas. Although she had friends, Everett didn’t feel like she belonged; she says she didn’t share the “traditional values” that seemed to dominate her conservative community.

“I had a kind of blue sense of humor, and I always got in trouble for doing something naughty — not keg parties and stuff, but out of my mouth,” says Everett. “I just felt like Kansas wasn’t where I needed to be.”

After studying music and opera at Arizona State University, Everett made her way to New York City. One of the first people she met was Murray Hill, a comedian and drag king performer. Something clicked: “I thought, ‘My God, this is what I was looking for. These are my people,'” Everett says.

Everett spent years waiting tables while developing a raunchy cabaret show. She stars in the semi-autobiographical HBO series, Someone somewhere.

The show, which has just begun its third and final season, centers on a woman in her 40s named Sam who returns to Manhattan, Kansas, to help care for her dying sister, Holly. The series begins approximately six months after Holly’s death, when Sam befriends Joel, a gay man in town who welcomes her into his community. Everett says the series was inspired in part by her own sister’s death.

“I was waiting tables at the time. I barely had two cents to rub together and I ended up not being able to visit her,” she says. ‘And I’ve never actually forgiven myself for it. So this is a way to honor her in a way that I couldn’t before.”

Interview highlights

About Sam finding her person in Joel Someone somewhere

I think for Sam, and this is really central to the show, is that for some people, romantic relationships are not the goal. Sam just wants to be loved and wants to have her person, but that doesn’t necessarily mean it’s a romantic relationship. And I think usually in TV and film or in theater or whatever… it’s about boy meets boy, boy meets girl, girl meets girl… that’s the ultimate, that people fall in love. But this is it for Sam. Joel is the person.

About the final season of Someone somewhere

It felt like a miracle that we got a pilot at all. And every time we got the green light for a new season, it felt like a miracle. It’s a small show with a small audience and a small budget. And we have a very loyal and loving audience. …Behind the scenes, we wrote each season as if it were a moment in time and never knew when the show would be over. So this is the end of this iteration. But maybe one day we’ll make a movie. Maybe. Who knows what’s next? Because for me the characters still live on and I know their stories are not yet finished.

About why she likes to perform cabaret without a bra

My mother always went to the supermarket alone in her nightgown without a bra. And as conservative and down-to-earth as she was… she also had this kind of unusual side to her. And that’s the part of her that I loved. So I think the kind of lawlessness of her going into Food 4 Less, a grocery store, without her bra on, like I just loved that.

So now I go on stage without a bra and I just want people to not be so closed in. I want them to come in and let go. And so I do everything I can to help them feel free, because growing up I didn’t feel that way. And I think I chased that feeling on stage. …Nothing is meant to be taken too seriously. But what I do take seriously is that people feel good.

About her mother, a music teacher

My mother was a music teacher. She was a public school teacher and music teacher. And she also gave after-school lessons: violin, piano, guitar, everything. She didn’t teach me, but she insisted that we all take piano lessons. And the great thing about having a music teacher as a mother is that she thought it was completely okay for me to want to be a singer, and she really supported that. … I remember booking a festival in Australia and calling my mom and she said, ‘Look at that! You travel the world because of your singing.” … She loved (my voice). … If I didn’t get the lead role in the musical, she thought I was robbed. And she liked my singing.

About her mother’s drinking

My mother’s drinking was honestly always out of control, but I just thought that was the way life was. And then when I was in college, or when I lived in Arizona, it got really bad. For example, she stopped going to work, she locked her doors, things like that. And then my brother and sister came and got her and took her to rehab. So they were the ones who really took action. … When she went to rehab, she just quit. She said, “I lost the taste for it.” But her life had really spiraled out of control due to drinking. …

Even though she drank a lot, she made us laugh and spent so much time with us. She came to every swim meet, every concert, sitting in the front row. And she was very helpful. She just drank way too much.

About what she learned from studying opera in college

You have to take care of your voice. You need to warm up. You need to cool down. It’s just like any other muscle. You want to stretch it, you want to take care of it. I wish I took care of my insides and the rest of my body the way I take care of my voice. I always drink way too much water. I always run to the toilet. But I know this will help my voice stay healthy. Because if I can’t sing, if I lose my voice, if I catch a cold or for whatever reason… then I really go into a spiral.

Lauren Krenzel and Anna Bauman produced and edited this interview for broadcast. Bridget Bentz, Molly Seavy-Nesper and Beth Novey adapted it for the web.