Danny McBride praises his Righteous Gemstones co-star Edi Patterson as “special and unique”
The Gemstones creator discusses bringing Patterson on as an actress and a writer
Aux News Danny McBride
When casting HBO’s The Righteous Gemstones, series creator Danny McBride looked for fearlessness above anything else in his actors, and one of the most fearless performers on the show is Edi Patterson.
In a recent interview with Esquire, McBride explains that from the first moment she stepped onto the set of Vice Principals, McBride’s previous project with HBO, he “just couldn’t get through takes with her.” He explains, “There’s just something special and fucking unique and funny about her.”
The Righteous Gemstones is a special show—unlike anything on the air right now— expertly treading the line between sophomoric humor and its deeper themes of family and forgiveness, and Patterson delivers that uncanny valley McBride dialogue with crass glee while bringing pathos to the frustrated middle child of the Gemstone clan.
But not only did McBride cast Patterson as Judy Gemstone, the middle child of the spoiled Gemstone clan, he also brought her into the writer’s room. “I’ve never been in that mindset like, ‘Guys are funnier than girls and girls can’t be funny,’” McBride explains.
Gemstones executive producer David Gordon Green adds, “Having her involved in the writer’s room is inevitably a very valuable voice for not just her character, but the show in general, and having representation for female characters in the writer’s room, I think is just, is awesome.”
Patterson credits him for allowing her to bring that extra something to her performance. “I felt a creative permission from him to let it rip and to kind of run down the field as fast as I could.” Patterson had done just that, and she became a fan favorite with a standout performance that, in a fair and just world, will garner the actress an Emmy nod sometime over the show’s run.
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She is absolutely hilarious on this show, honestly the whole cast is fantastic, the show itself is just so good, each episode has a ton of laughs. McBride has really come a long way since Eastbound and Down, he’s in a really killer groove with this series, he’s got the perfect cast and it shows, each episode is good, there’s not a bad one yet IMO. It also doesn’t hurt that he brought Walton Goggins on, he’s worked with him before on Vice Principals, that dude is one of the most diverse and flexible actors out there, he’s funny, he does serious stuff, film, TV, doesn’t matter, dude is just a phenomenal actor through and through.
When she says her father is having gay sex and calls it “slapping buttholes,” I lost it. She’s hilarious.
And he’s right! Everything involving Judy has just been wonderful.
I was today years old when I found out her and Jean Villepique weren’t the same person.
We need some Stevie.
How does she have time to film this show while managing the W hotel and selling kisses?
Go Bean Dip!
I see a fellow human of substance and qualityI would add that her performance is….rather good
Judy’s story in the season one finale about her “boyfriend” is one of the funniest things I’ve seen in a while.
I dunno, I adore this show but everyone reacting to that scene as so profoundly hilarious and ‘Judy is so crazy omg!’ kinda turned me off. I don’t find sexual assault particularly funny, and it doesn’t matter which gender identity is on which side of said assault.
I see your point. Personally I can laugh at some fucked up stuff. An old episode of south park had me laughing at childhood cancer the other day. Doesn’t mean I think sexual assault or cancer are funny.
oh, don’t get me wrong, i love jet black humor, and i know as a society we need that kind of catharsis to process how horrid the world can be. but if we’re gonna feel squicky about sympathizing with a character who has sexually assaulted someone, i wanna see it applied regardless of which shoe is on which foot. it was played as a ‘wow, Judy is so fucked up’ moment, and there’s definitely humor in her poor boyfriend’s reaction to it, but i still feel weird about laughing off the psychosis of a character who’s just admitted to raping someone.
and when it comes down to it, if that had been a male character, there would’ve been serious outcry against it being played for laughs, i’d think. people would be up in arms at being asked to laugh at and even like someone who’d committed such a crime.
It *is* a dark comedy.
well, i’d like to believe the creators were just underlining how oblivious Judy is to how psychotic and unstable she is, rather than considering her actions hilarious and excusable.
Yeah, I’ve never thought of that story as something we’re supposed to be proud of her for.
McBride has no problem playing both sides—nothing seems off limits. In every one of his productions he will go three clicks past what everyone feels is the outer parameter for a character and/or a plot line. The fact he is appreciative and confident enough to allow Patterson to not only freely run full tilt to those outer reaches with improv gusto, but bring her on as a writer and grant her own flourishes to a character without limits is why his stuff is like nothing else. I assume at some point there will be ridiculous and offensive content but it doesn’t stop me from laughing or recoiling—or both at the same time. I didn’t find it offensive, just the usual McBride envelope, pushed to the point of ripping wide open.
I agree. I love Edi and the Judy character but her admitting to sexual assault being played as a joke didn’t work for me. I know this show can get really dark but this is the one case where I felt like the writers were off. That should have been a disturbing scene but it didn’t come across that way.
More mentions of the handjob-as-sexual-assault than kidnapping the guy’s kid? That’s kind of why I have a hard time taking the pearl-clutching too seriously here.
Yeah, this was maybe one of the funniest bits of improv I’ve heard/seen in a long time….she’s pretty much great.
Before that scene, I just chalked her behavior up to all the hurt and abandonment. Nope. She cray-cray.
we weren’t boyfriends and girlfriends after that
I found it funny, but I was more impressed by the ability of that scene to make me go on the one hand “My god, she is a truly horrible person” and on the other hand “I want to give her a hug” To be able to bring fort both feelings is impressive.
I want to see a Judy and Tiffany episode just go all down the fucking rabbit hole of feral, Funyun™, fun!
I love Tiffany, I have to admit. Underrated character.
She’s like Pennsatucky from Orange is the New Black. You can’t use her character too much otherwise the shtick becomes a beaten horse. But when writers do bring her out you know; shit-is-about-to-go-down.
that one still hurts 🙁 RIP Penn
like “shit’s about to go down *into a port-a-potty*” LOL. I laughed for easily 45 seconds straight at her giving birth in that port-a-potty *and I knew it was coming the minute she ran into it; I even yelled at my wife “she’s gonna have a toilet baby!” OMFG that was funny, now I gotta watch it again.
“I’m going to move to Malibu, shave my pussy, and learn to surf”
“Shave your pussy? Why are you going to shave your pussy?”
“So I can surf faster, Jesse!”
That and ‘it makes my bird twitch’ are the two funniest moments on an extremely funny show.
“They’re goin for my BIRD!” — Bubbles
When she told Eli she thought he and Junior were “fuckin like bears and doing donkey punches [sic]” I spit out my drink. She has great timing and delivery for the jokes.
Dropping secretions and hep C loads all over the place
For me, it’s a toss-up between:
“Let’s fucking kill people!” and “PUT IT IN HIS BOTTOM!”
Girl is unhinged.
Judy is my low-key MVP for the series. Every time she opens her mouth I imagine the filthiest thing she could possibly say and she says something filthier. It started out weird but now it’s the funniest thing on the show.
She is easily the funniest character on the show, and considering the roster of talent we’re talking about that is astounding.
Her bathroom rant this season was probably the best performance of anybody not named Jennifer.Either that or that epic toilet baby scene.
awww
Edi is rad, but…why is this a news item?
Dude complimented his costar. Pretty sure that’s legally required at press junkets now.
This is bot-quality reporting.
I thought the same. Being unfamiliar with the show or the actors in the headline, I thought this was about an apology for saying something insensitive/offensive about a costar, especially with the quotes around “special and unique”.
I mean it’s nice to have the occasional story where we can just all come together and say “Yeah this woman rules”
It is, definitely. It’s just the way the headline was written, and this site’s history of mean-spirited articles for no reason at all, it was a bit confusing is all.
That’s not a story. That’s a fluff opinion piece. We could do with less of those, actually.
I agree, it’s not particularly noteworthy or newsworthy (and I love Patterson, but this isn’t newsworthy). I have a feeling with the restructuring/reallocation of human assets at G/O media we’re likely to see a lot of this type of rehash, especially on weekends. At places I’ve worked before, when there was downsizing/ “corporate reorganization” we often were pushed to do this kind of stuff—Fluffy rewrites that get put in the can during the week for automatic release on the weekend. Helps keep staffing levels down on the weekend while still releasing content.
Yeah, 100% this. There was also that kinda strange ‘Quentin Tarantino saved Michelle Yeoh’s career’ article earlier this week, which was odd coming from a website that (aside from the now-departed film critics) has been fairly disdainful of Tarantino for the past few years. It does seem like a new editorial directive to run more positive stories.
Yeah, I hope that’s not the case, but I think that’s where we’re headed. I think the powers that be want AV Club to have a chummier relationship to Hollywood rather than a critical distance. That’s my lay of the land of the new editorial direction, or at least how it has seemed to me. Less substance, more industry cheerleading. I hope I’m wrong, but I don’t think I am.
That’s the New AV Club for ya
Yes, and particularly: “I’ve never been in that mindset like, ‘Guys are funnier than girls and girls can’t be funny,’” What was happening in that interview that this felt like a necessary statement? And what is happening here that it was chosen as a featured quote?
It’s always nice to hear a bit of backstory behind a favorite actor and their beloved character; isn’t that what all these types of sites do? Enjoy the refreshing positive story! 🙂
Her publicist has a connection at the AV Club, I’d guess. I mean, she’s great and deserves publicity, but it is an odd news item
A few months back Tatiana Tenreyro wrote a couple of weird articles on Mare of Easttown’s Angourie Rice that were clearly at least partially the work of Rice’s PR rep. So yeah I think this is where we’re headed.
Like half of all internet content is ghostwritten marketing SEO nonsense. I’m not even really exaggerating
I would not argue against them. I’m seriously not sure Tenreyro’s a real person
I thought either she was a person with Down’s Syndrome or another disability, or was dead.
While the show is easily the third-best series McBride has starred in, Edi Patterson is a treasure. She should get her own show.
I’d put it 2 behind VP, but it may be #1 when all is said and done.Then again, I was only a mild fan of EaD, so my opinions are trash.
Love Edi. She was great as the psycho in VP and Judy is my favorite Gemstone.
I’m not a huge fan of Righteous Gemstones (VP and EaD are far superior but that’s another subject) but she kills it in everything she does. She reminds me of a female Jason Mantzoukas in a way, but with JM, he’s better in small does. I think Edi could do a show on her own for sure.
I’ve only seen Season 1 of this show, but she was fantastic in it. As one of the few cast members who wasn’t already famous, the fact that she made such an impression while surrounded by heavyweights is all the more impressive.
“Person is good” seems like a weird angle for a story.
I became familiar with Edi from appearances on several improv podcasts, and was excited to see her on screen in Vice Principals and now Righteous Gemstones. She might be the most skilled performer on the planet when it comes to creating deeply unpleasant, insufferable characters.
This scene is genius.