The missing person
US TV show Search Party shows how strangely things can go when a bunch of New York millennials go on a mission to find their missing friend. Meredith Hagner, who plays Portia, tells DANIELLE McGRANE about the hit show and where things will go next.
This show has quite a unique premise, it must have been an exciting one to work on? It was so fun. None of us knew what to expect when we made the first season. We were like, “OK, well we’re making each other laugh”, but I don’t think we were quite expecting to have people like it as much as they have. It’s surreal.
It is such an unusual storyline, what did you think going into it? It’s definitely unusual. I didn’t think there was any world in which it would be bad, but the pilot was when we all signed on and there was no way to know that it would become as deep and dark and awesome as it has, even cinematically. I’ve learned to have low expectations in this industry and then when something really great like this happens, and all the pieces come together the right way, you can’t help but feel just so tremendously grateful.
Your character Portia is an actress, are there similarities between you both? I present myself very differently as a person, but I always think about Portia as my own cautionary tale to myself. It’s like me having gone down a different path in life. She’s like what could happen to me and I just always found the psychology behind being an actor fascinating. You’re constantly at the whim of other people and what they think, and trying to prove your ability all the time. It’s just a very sad and funny profession. It is very fun having an avenue to make fun of it, it’s really a blast.
You have a scene in the next season with Jay Duplass where you’re in a strange audition. Was it fun to do that? Yeah it was really fun. It’s so dark. I’ve had bizarre experiences in auditions so it was really fun to play with that. And she’s such a vulnerable character, like an open book in a way, so it’s fun to tap into all that stuff with her.
The ending of the first season was quite dark, and it looks like it gets even darker this season. It gets so good though. I think it’s so much better. I really am awestruck by what they were able to do in such a smart way. And also they comment on so many societal things that I think is just very poignant and it’s such a unique way of looking at the world. I didn’t realise the darkness was going to be so moving. Can you give a brief synopsis of what we can expect to see in season two? I’m going to keep it vague so I don’t give anything away, but what you see is how doing this terrible thing, and being implicated in terrible things, has an effect on these people and what that really does. So the stories get deeper for everyone and everyone has a different manifestation of this experience, psychologically and physically.
The cast are all so different, bringing something unique. Yeah we all do. I look at John (Reynolds) and Alia (Shawkat) and everyone has their own super power and everyone’s such a force. Acting with each of them is like a different, very fulfilling experience. Alia does such a beautiful job, she has a breathtaking performance this season.
Hagner: “None of us knew what to expect when we made the first season. We were like, ‘OK, well we’re making each other laugh’, but I don’t think we were quite expecting to have people like it as much as they have.”