Somebody Somewhere‘s Jeff Hiller would like to get one thing straight: his effervescent role in the HBO comedy was not, in fact, written specifically for him.
But the ease at which he plays Bridget Everett‘s pal Joel — an uncomplicated fella who’s loathe to judge and always quick with a naughty yuck — makes viewers feel like they airdropped into a real-life friendship in progress.
“It’s definitely what we were going for,” says Hiller. “We wanted it to feel authentic and true, and they didn’t want jokes. They wanted the laughter that you would get if you were hanging out with your best friend, as opposed to a set-up, ba-dum-dum kind of a situation. I’m glad it worked.”
It more than just worked; Hiller earned his first Emmy nomination for the role he’s embodied with love since 2022. Here, the longtime character actor who describes his life before the HBO comedy as “just trying to grind it out and make myself actually have a career” talks about the surprise recognition from the TV Academy and the way in which his role has touched fans.
DEADLINE Let’s go back before 2022. How did your audition come about?
JEFF HILLER Bridget emailed me saying, “would you consider auditioning for this show?” At the time, I was temping at a nonprofit so I was like, “yeah, I’ll consider auditioning for anything.” I knew Bridget through the downtown New York scene. I always say, “I have her email, but not her phone number.” That’s how well we knew each other. And when I read the role, I thought, “oh my gosh, I think this role was written for me. How did they know this about me?” But I’ve since spoken to easily a dozen people who have been like, “yeah, I auditioned for that part, too.” So it just so happened that she asked me to audition, and it was a role I really connected to, so I put myself on tape, had a couple callbacks and got the part.
DEADLINE So it wasn’t written with you in mind?
JEFF HILLER No. In fact, the words were, “we did not write this role for you.”
DEADLINE How would you describe your career up to that point?
JEFF HILLER I would work maybe three or four days a year doing guest star and co-starring roles on TV. I might get a play or something. And other than that, I was teaching improv and I would occasionally temp or do catering waiter gigs to try to make all of the ends meet.
DEADLINE So this was your first series regular role?
JEFF HILLER Yes. I was on a show called Nightcap [a 2016 sitcom for Pop] and I was in every episode, but I was just a guest star.
DEADLINE The conversations between Bridget’s character Sam and Joel were always so easy. Was anything improvised at any point?
JEFF HILLER Yeah, lots of things were improvised, but in a way to make it seem more natural as opposed to more wacky or funny. I remember this one scene where Tim Bagley [who played Joel’s boyfriend Brad Schraeder] comes into Sam’s house and she says, “oh, you got a leaf on you.” And I think normally they would’ve said like, “oh, let’s take it again.” And makeup would’ve gone in to take the leaf off of him. But because in real life leaves land on you, they just left it in. And then it became just another piece to make it feel natural, like you are hanging out with your friends, your found family.
DEADLINE Obviously one sitcom already owns the statement about being a show about nothing. But …did you wonder if Somebody Somewhere was kind of like that, too?
JEFF HILLER Certainly in the first season I did. It’s funny because a lot the episodes were written much longer than what you saw. When I first saw the screeners from season one, I thought, “oh my gosh, they’ve really stripped away a lot of the plot.” But what they stripped away was the hijinks to focus on life — normal, regular life. I thought, “oh no, are people going to like this? It’s kind of slow. Are they going to hate this?” I think a lot of people love that slowness. I’m sure there are people who don’t like it and don’t watch it, but I don’t want to talk to them.
DEADLINE Can you remember when you first realized that the show was making an impact?
JEFF HILLER It was actually after season two, people would come up to me. And I just noticed that everyone who came up who said they loved the show had to hold their hand over their heart. It was so dear to them. They had to sort of cover their hearts to say it. And I thought, oh, this is special. That people feel the need to, I dunno, cover their heart chakra, not that I know anything about chakras.
DEADLINE Would they say that they wish they had a friend like Joel?
JEFF HILLER Constantly. And you know what? Same. I wish I had a friend like Joel, too.
DEADLINE Are you saying you’re nothing like Joel?
JEFF HILLER Oh yeah. I’m a bitch. I’m a little like Joel. I think Joel’s better than me for sure. But I think I’m definitely someone who loves to listen, someone who loves to laugh, someone who loves to be there for my friends. But I’m not as wise as Joel. I don’t think that I can look at you and say, “if you sing right now, your life will be so much better.” I don’t have that gift.
DEADLINE What was life like on the set? Was it easy peasy? Were they long days?
JEFF HILLER It was simultaneously fast, but also long because we shot seven episodes in six weeks, and it was block shooting. So everything that happens in this location, we shoot no matter when it happens in the seven episodes that we’re shooting. We only got maybe two or three takes of each scene. We had to get all of it in, so you’d be on set for 12 or 13 hours, something like that.
DEADLINE I’m sure you guys had plenty of people telling you this show is special. So when the Emmys came around each year and the show didn’t get a nod, how did it make you feel?
JEFF HILLER Well, I mean, as bad things happen, not getting nominated for an award is not as bad as losing your apartment or something. But what I felt bad about was Bridget and [creators] Paul Thureen and Hannah Bos, who had been working on this show for years. And we shot the pilot in 2019, but we didn’t shoot episode two until 2021. There was so much work and effort that went into it. I felt bad that they didn’t get recognized. To be honest, I didn’t think HBO expected me to get any recognition. It’s a show for Bridget, and she’s so good in it. I think my big sadness was that she wasn’t recognized for her acting and that the show as a whole wasn’t recognized. [Everett, Thureen and Bos did earn a nomination this year for Outstanding Writing. It was their first nom, as well].
DEADLINE What episode will you be submitting?
JEFF HILLER Episode 306, which is the penultimate episode of the series in which Bridget and I have a slumber party and we’re on a couch, talking. It just ends on that beautiful scene. Lennon Parham directed it, and it’s really indicative of the show a whole. They end on them coming back together and she talks about how she’s dating a guy, and he talks about how he’s having issues with his boyfriend, and it just feels like this beautiful moment of friendship.
DEADLINE Do you miss Joel?
JEFF HILLER Absolutely. Yes, I do. I loved playing him. He’s such a good person. When you’re obviously gay but not famous, you often play the mean, bitchy gay who tells the main lady, “I’m sorry, but you don’t have a reservation.” There’s a lot of just creating conflict in stories. I get that you need concepts in stories and you can’t see the interior life of the waiter. So I like being able to play a role where you get to have an interior life. And I love Joel as a person. I love his interior.
DEADLINE A quick question about Joel’s middle America attire.
JEFF HILLER Tasha Goldthwait is the costume designer and she only sourced clothing from stores that you could find in Manhattan, Kansas. So it’s a lot of Kohl’s and fabrics that aren’t necessarily, what’s the word I’m looking for? Breathable. They can get wet and you won’t even notice.
DEADLINE Speaking of appropriate attire, do you know what you’re going to wear to the Emmys?
JEFF HILLER I’ve said in the past I want it to be very gay. I want to wear something chic, but also bold. I’m talking to a friend of mine who’s a designer, and he’s going to hopefully make me something nice. He works with drag queens normally. So if that gives you an indication …
All three seasons of Somebody Somewhere can be found on HBO Max.
