Somebody Somewhere’s Bridget Everett on That Major Sam and Iceland Moment: ‘She Doesn’t Know How to Process That’
Sam and Iceland ‘shippers: Did we totally manifest a new love for our girl Sammy? Well, it’s complicated.
In Sunday’s penultimate episode of Somebody Somewhere, Sam and Iceland (played by Olafur Darri ólafsson) finally spent some time together walking around her family’s farm talking about goats, dogs, gardening and the like. (She even made a list of conversation starters!) The duo really seemed to hit it off, until Iceland leaned in for the sweetest of smooches, only Sam didn’t react well to the surprise at. all. She was stone-cold stunned, looking as if she was staving off a panic attack. After some extremely long moments of awkward silence, she fought her impulse to flee, but the romantic interaction still brought out some deep insecurities she just couldn’t shake.
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“I think she’s terrified,” Bridget Everett tells TVLine. “Everything has so much weight with Sam. It can’t just be a kiss. Everything feels so hard for her. It probably feels really good too [but] she doesn’t know how to process that. She doesn’t know how to be seen in that way. It’s overwhelming for her. It’s new territory.”
Sam told Joel she was not feeling great about the date because she really does like the guy, admitting she has no idea what she’s doing. “I just keep thinking about what if he got to know me,” she said, tearing up. “How could he want that?”
“Sam takes some huge steps this season,” says co-creator, writer and executive producer Hannah Bos. “I think about that scene before the kiss when she’s getting dressed. We see so much of Sam struggling with her self-worth in the mirror putting on those shirts. I feel like we’ve all been there, where you’re like, ‘Can I bring myself to this moment? Am I allowed to bring myself? Do I want this? Am I allowed to want this?’ So in that moment, I think she gets scared and she backtracks. The show is very much about people taking one step forward and two steps back.”
Adds co-creator, writer and executive producer Paul Thureen: “On set, we had a real emotional reaction to it. There’s always these issues of self-love. She’s overwhelmed by the emotion of it and scared to be vulnerable with somebody. It’s much easier for her to run away and shut down. We all know Sam so well and we’ve seen her have this reaction. So your first thought is: ‘She’s going to run away,’ and then she doesn’t. And then they just go for a walk. Taking three seasons to build up to this seemingly tiny little moment where she decides not to run away, I’m really proud of that growth for Sam and that she’s able to keep going and see what happens.”
For Everett, ólafsson was the only choice to portray Iceland. The two actors previously worked together on Maria Bamford’s Netflix series Lady Dynamite, which ran for two seasons from 2016-2017.
“The part was written for him,” says Everett. “I’ve always just loved watching him and what he does. He’s such a soulful actor and he’s very sweet. He’s like a bear of a guy and it just made sense. I always thought if Sam ever pursued that kind of relationship or if she had any kind of love interest that it would have to be him and him alone.”
“We just thought about [Iceland] as a person who could catalyze something in her, and it becoming a next step in her feeling worthy of love or loving,” says Thureen. “It wasn’t about her finding love or her settling with somebody. It’s this person coming into her life and what that opens up in her and how that connects to Sam’s growth and self-worth.”
What did you think about Sam’s big kiss and even bigger emotions? Drop your thoughts in the comments below!
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