South Florida Sun-Sentinel Palm Beach (Sunday)
Comedian Harrison breaks out in grounded role
Even from the recent virtual year of Sundance, there are still bound to be breakout performances and newly minted stars-to-be. A solid bet for that distinction is Patti Harrison, one of the leads in the grounded comedy “Together Together.”
Written and directed by Nikole Beckwith, the film stars Harrison as Anna, a 20-something woman who is hired as a surrogate by a 40-something single man (Ed Helms). As the pregnancy progresses the two loners soon strike up an unlikely friendship.
The sensitive earnestness of her performance in “Together Together” is something new from Harrison, who first made a name for herself as an acerbic, absurdist stand-up comedian. She has appeared on television shows such as “High Maintenance,” “Broad City” and “Shrill” and was also in the 2018 film “A Simple Favor” and worked as a writer on the series “Big Mouth” and “Dispatches From Elsewhere.”
This interview with Harrison has been edited for clarity and length.
Q: Do you consider yourself more of a comedian, an actor or just sort of an all-purpose performer?
A: I think I identify as a comedian before kind of anything else. Before I identify as a person, as a human being with empathy. I would say that in terms of tracking the career paths of a lot of comedians, it’s an interesting one because there’s so many different ways to do it. …
It is a very cool kind of open-ended place to enter because I don’t know if I ever really imagined myself working in a writers room or acting in that capacity.
I’ve been pretty open to just seeing what my opportunities are and what comes my way. And this was something that I definitely hadn’t imagined happening. I mean, I think everyone has those weird side fantasies of, “What if one day I did something more dramatic?” People in creative industries have these adjacent creative urges, “But what if I became a musician? What if I became a painter?” I think it kind of fell under that.
Q: Do you see the performance in the movie as essentially a dramatic one?
A: I think it’s because I have this bias of me being somewhat aware of myself and knowing myself, that it’s way more grounded and anchored in an emotional drive and purpose and the story that it’s telling than anything I write for myself. A lot of the stuff that I want to create personally is usually pretty absurd or silly comedy stuff.
So this does feel — even though I understand that it is a comedy, a lot of the goofier moments in the movie don’t come from Anna’s character necessarily. It comes from these orbiting characters like Julio Torres or Greta Titelman or Anna Konkle coming in. And they have these opportunities to add this levity and a fun chemistry. But I think the purpose is more nuanced than anything I ever aspired to do as a comedian, as someone who identifies as a silly comedian.
Q: Was it hard for you to adjust to what this role needed?
A: It was a weird adjustment. Any time I get something sent to me I just assume they want something very silly. I get typecast as kind of … a young millennial assistant. I don’t know if millennial is young anymore.
At first, I was very hesitant about the tone and what (Nikole) specifically wanted me to be able to deliver to it. And I’m transgender. Is this like a stunt casting thing? There were all these questions because we hadn’t met before. And then when we did meet initially, it was like a beautiful first date. I feel like the story of the movie, the skeleton of the movie is kind of the skeleton of my friendship with Nikole now. Where I’m platonically deeply in love with her.
Q: As a trans performer, to be cast in a cisgender role where your transness is not part of the role, what does that mean to you?
A: I think that it can be looked at in probably a pretty heady way, if you think about just all of the layers of it, but I think it was a lot simpler than that.
It’s been interesting to think about why I started trying to make stuff, do comedy and act and write. And a lot of the stuff that I found personally interesting to write and create was stuff that didn’t have to do with me being trans. Because for me, getting to do comedy or getting this creative outlet served as an escape to not think about this one lens that I’ve been pigeonholed in for this part of my life and that people have a hard time seeing me outside of — to see me as a fully fleshed-out person.
Everything else that
I’ve ever filmed I’ve had to shoot maybe two or three days a week, ’cause I’m in a scene or two, I’m a supporting character. So it’s really fun and breezy, and I just get to fly in and be silly and leave. But this was a lot more work, and it was in this character who wasn’t trans, and it’s a plot point the movie depends on, the fact that this character is cis. But it really helped. I was focusing on anything else for a full month than me thinking about being trans, and it was just a lot of work, and it took me out of this headspace. I was pretty tired, but I think it was a good kind of tired.
This movie specifically felt really special because it was something that I never really thought I was going to get to do. And when I say that, I just didn’t think I’d be playing a pregnant woman in a movie that is earnest. And I want there to be more opportunities for marginalized people who are in the creative industries. Because I do think representation is really important.
I know that a lot of people say that, but not all representation is good, and we need good representation. And that means letting people play roles outside of what their boxes are, what society tells them their boxes are. So this really felt like that for me.