Jeff Hiller was not expecting an Emmy nomination. No, really. This is not a case of a celebrity feigning surprise that their name was read on nomination morning — or claiming that they hadn’t even known the announcement was coming, so they slept right through the broadcast.
No, Hiller genuinely had no reason to believe he’d earn a supporting-actor nod for HBO’s “Somebody Somewhere.” His name was near the bottom of most awards prognosticators’ prediction lists, if it even appeared at all. So on July 15, the longtime character actor used to playing what he calls the “bitchy customer-service agent” wasn’t watching the Television Academy’s live feed or monitoring social media with butterflies in his stomach.
He was at home in New York City, chatting with his sister on the phone. When his agent kept calling, he wondered if it was about a role in a Fox series he’d recently auditioned for. “I was like, ‘Did I get it? Am I the gay restaurant owner?’” he said, referencing another familiar role. He figured he’d call his agent back. But then his manager rang, and in a panic, Hiller thought he’d missed a call time on an Apple TV+ series shooting in Boston. “I was like, ‘Am I supposed to be there right now?!?’
“I mean, it’s bonkers,” he said in an office in downtown Manhattan following a photo shoot for TheWrap. “I keep saying that. It’s not even about, do I think I’m worthy of it or deserve it? It’s just…I can’t believe it.” He pauses for the tiniest of beats before adding, with a rip-roaring laugh, “People who are reading about it are like, ‘We don’t care, girl! We don’t care that you’re having a moment!’”
As becomes clear during the course of our conversation, this kind of self-deprecation is par for the course with Hiller, who in person is open and unassuming, despite his 6-foot-5 stature. But the truth is, people do care that he beat the odds and was nominated for his work on a treasure of a show that, over three seasons, amassed heaps of critical praise, a Peabody Award and a modest but loyal viewership.
I used to be a social worker taking care of people who were experiencing homelessness. And now I’m like, ‘How’s my hair?’
Hiller’s character, Joel, is a church-going gay man living in Manhattan, Kansas, adrift in middle age until he befriends Sam, an acquaintance from high school played by exec producer Bridget Everett, whose life loosely inspired the series. With the lightest of touches and a fly-on-the-wall realism, “Somebody Somewhere” explores grief, loneliness, faith and community. The soulmate friendship between Joel and Sam is the show’s emotional center, and Hiller, who auditioned for the role while he was making ends meet through cater-waiter gigs and temp jobs, brings what could have been a one-note gay sidekick to vibrant, three-dimensional life.
It helped that he understood who Joel was from the moment he read the first script, written by series co-creators Hannah Bos and Paul Thureen. “In the pilot, he talks about how he goes to church, and he’s also clearly gay,” said Hiller, 49. “And I thought, Oh my God. Because it takes a lot of nuance to discuss that and show that. In popular culture, gay and the church, they don’t mix. But when you are in the Midwest, you see lots of queer folks who find community in the church. I grew up in the church and I knew a lot of queer folks who found community (there). So I thought that was amazing.”
The similarities between actor and character didn’t end there: Like Joel, Hiller had a vision board featuring a Vitamix, got stress rashes as a kid and drove a Buick LeSabre in his 20s. The part was not written specifically for him, but as the cast settled into their roles, Bos and Thureen encouraged improvisation “just to make it more authentic and more real,” Hiller said. “And I really found freedom in that. After Season 1, they were all like, ‘the Joel giggle!’ And I was like, ‘What are you talking about? The Joel…?’ And then I was like, ‘I think that’s just me.’” The distinctive giggle then rippled out of him like sonic ribbon candy.
What makes the surprise Emmy nomination even sweeter is that it came while Hiller was promoting his memoir, “Actress of a Certain Age,” an upbeat, witty read that chronicles the bullying he endured as a kid in San Antonio, Texas; his mother’s unconditional support; his stint as a social worker in Colorado; his discovery of improv at New York’s Upright Citizens Brigade; and his two-decade struggle to be a working actor. He talks about the joy of making “Somebody Somewhere” and how the series helped him land bigger parts, including the “gay serial killer” he played in the 2022 season of Ryan Murphy’s “American Horror Story.” As does “Somebody Somewhere,” the book leans into the importance of not giving up on yourself.
“When I turned 40, I did have this moment where I was like, ‘I need to go to grad school. I need to do something,’ because I gave up hope of becoming an actor,” he said. “I mean, I was working, like, two days a year on acting. It was embarrassing. I was afraid that it would be pitiful if I was middle-aged and still following my dream. And so when I wrote the book, I wanted to say…” He stops as his voice shakes and his eyes well up. “It’s not pitiful to believe in yourself. I think I did still have hope and I was embarrassed to still have that hope. But I stuck with it. And I’m glad I did.” Then comes the trademark self-deprecation: “It feels a little selfish. I used to be a social worker taking care of people who were experiencing homelessness. And now I’m like, ‘How’s my hair?’”
Still, for the first time since “Somebody Somewhere” ended after last year’s Season 3, Hiller has been allowing himself to feel more than a little optimistic about what’s ahead. There’s the supporting role in the series shooting in Boston that he can’t talk about in detail yet, and he’s pitching shows that he’s written. He’d love to go back to Broadway, where he appeared in “Bloody Bloody Andrew Jackson” 15 years ago — but “in a play, not a musical,” he said, “because musicals are hard. It’s the dancing. I’m too old!”
He is looking forward to attending the Emmys in September with his husband, visual artist Neil Goldberg, as well as Everett, Bos and Thureen, who were nominated for writing. He would love to meet Pedro Pascal and RuPaul there. And his formalwear? “You know, I’m a bit of a fashion plate,” he said jokingly. “I do like dressing up, so I want to wear something just shy of ridiculous. Nobody’s going to look at me and be like, ‘Who’s that straight person?’ They’re gonna be like, ‘Wow, that homosexual is walking the carpet.’” He flashes the wide, warm smile that helped make Joel such a beloved character. “I want that.”
This story first ran in the Down to the Wire Comedy issue of TheWrap’s awards magazine. Read more from the issue here.
