{"id":28416,"date":"2021-07-05T13:52:10","date_gmt":"2021-07-05T13:52:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/graziamagazine.com\/us\/?post_type=articles&p=28416"},"modified":"2021-07-05T13:52:10","modified_gmt":"2021-07-05T13:52:10","slug":"mary-hollis-inboden-kevin-can-f-himself","status":"publish","type":"articles","link":"https:\/\/graziamagazine.com\/us\/articles\/mary-hollis-inboden-kevin-can-f-himself\/","title":{"rendered":"Mary Hollis Inboden on Adding Nuance to Sitcom Tropes on \u2018Kevin Can F**k Himself\u2019"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"Mary
Mary Hollis Inboden in Kevin Can F*** Himself<\/i> (Photo: Jojo Whilden\/AMC)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

It\u2019s always remarkable to talk to an actor who bears almost zero resemblance to their character. On AMC\u2019s dark sitcom satire Kevin Can F**k Himself<\/em><\/a>, Mary Hollis Inboden plays sullen, cynical tough girl Patty, the wisecracking foil to Annie Murphy<\/a>\u2019s type-A Allison. But Zooming in from a friend\u2019s sunny LA garden, Inboden is the polar opposite of her character in almost every way. She\u2019s as she is bubbly as she is thoughtful about the show\u2019s complicated themes, ready to discuss thorny issues in her Arkansas twang.<\/p>\n

\u201cI was told by our brilliant dialect coach that I had the farthest to run,\u201d she says of mastering Patty\u2019s working-class Worcester accent.<\/p>\n

On the show\u2019s most recent episode, Patty\u2019s world begins to fall apart. Kevin (Eric Petersen) banishes her from his group of friends, her boyfriend breaks up with her and her side hustle as a small time oxy dealer is beginning to catch up with her. Needless to say, Inboden had a lot to say about all of that.<\/p>\n

The show is, of course, a satire of a certain type of network sitcom. Does Patty have a sitcom analogue that you\u2019re aware of? <\/strong>
\nCarla from Cheers<\/em> comes to mind\u2014her relationship with Diane specifically. She\u2019s pretty biting and bitter. We\u2019re talking about a sitcom, we\u2019re talking about sort of one-note people. Tropes; the idea that you can only be one thing, and those things never change because that\u2019s what makes it so comfortable watching a sitcom.<\/p>\n

People have compared your performance to Rosie O\u2019Donnell. What do you make of that? <\/strong>
\nI\u2019ve seen the Rosie O\u2019Donnell comparison, and I\u2019m completely flattered by that. I didn\u2019t think about it until I started working on the accent, and in order to learn the accent I had to spend a lot of time looking at myself in the mirror. And with this dark hair, there\u2019s a resemblance. I\u2019m completely flattered. I think Rosie O\u2019Donnell is incredible and still has one of my favorite talk shows of all time. But as long as we\u2019re talking about it, Rosie O\u2019Donnell would absolutely be the one who plays Patty [on a traditional sitcom], and she would be the one-note trope while she\u2019s capable of so much more.<\/p>\n

So, what notes are being added to your character in the scenes where she\u2019s not in Kevin\u2019s sitcom? <\/strong>
\nWith Patty, there\u2019s more than meets the eye. She\u2019s such a hard shell on the outside, but really, we\u2019re starting to realize why. And one of those reasons is, while she\u2019s constantly hanging out with the boys and throwing out her quips, she\u2019s the member of the club that\u2019s attempted to keep her brother alive<\/em>. When you think about Neal and his antics, this is a man who suffers no consequences, like Kevin, and Patty is the one who has to kind of make sure that problems get solved. I\u2019m sure Patty keeps the lights on at their house next door. She\u2019s the responsible one. So, when the women are able to step outside of Kevin\u2019s universe, you find that [Patty\u2019s] not really as tough as you would originally think.<\/p>\n

\"Mary
Mary Hollis Inboden in Kevin Can F*** Himself<\/i> (Photo: Jojo Whilden\/AMC)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Why does<\/em> she hang out with Kevin and co.? <\/strong>
\nI think it\u2019s a lack of choice, honestly. She doesn\u2019t wanna make a choice. It\u2019s easy. They\u2019re next door. She can sort of circulate there and make fun rather than participate, and she doesn\u2019t really have to have an opinion about anything. She doesn\u2019t want to be a girl like Allison. What that means to her is\u2014they\u2019ve decided that they have absolutely nothing in common, and really they do, because they\u2019re two women circulating in this world. Allison\u2019s constantly dreaming, and Patty is constantly pragmatic, and it\u2019s not until they step outside that they realize that Patty can be the implementer of Allison\u2019s dreams. And what a combo that is.<\/p>\n

She has warmed to Allison over the past few episodes. Why do you think that is? What does she see in Allison now that she didn\u2019t before? <\/strong>
\nAllison starts to make Patty think about a life beyond their two houses. And we know now that Patty has this secret life that has been fulfilling her that has nothing to do with Kevin. She keeps it to herself because it\u2019s illegal, but also it\u2019s something that makes her feel really good. Patty is dealing drugs and knows that that\u2019s wrong, but also comes at it from a place of just wanting to help people out. You don\u2019t see all the help that she provides [to Kevin and Neal], and really what she\u2019s doing is being a fly on the wall just in case something goes wrong. When she steps outside, we realize that she\u2019s got all these secrets. And then Allison comes along and she\u2019s questioning Patty. You\u2019re fine with things always staying the same? <\/em>Patty\u2019s actually not. She just doesn\u2019t know a way out. Dreaming really scares a person like Patty. Dreaming means you\u2019re stepping outside yourself and where you belong, and the shoe is always going to drop and it\u2019s going to fall on your<\/em> head. This is a woman who has suffered a lot of disappointments.<\/p>\n

There\u2019s a line in Episode 4, after Allison and Patty have been stopped by the cops, Allison says to Patty, \u201cYou just laughed at the way Kevin treated me for 10 years.\u201d I feel like in that moment Patty is a stand-in for the audience, especially when she says, \u201cIt seemed harmless.\u201d <\/strong>
\nIt is, in fact, the thesis of the show. There\u2019s one other line that Patty has in the pilot that was always so important to us: \u201cDon\u2019t tell Kevin I ratted him out. He got the mailwoman deported.\u201d We slide right over it, but if you think about the serious implications of that\u2026 But the line that you\u2019re talking about, when Annie and I were performing that, I remember thinking, Oh, my gosh! I\u2019m changed.<\/em> Mary Hollis won\u2019t be able to watch one of these shows again without realizing that in a white male led sitcom, the butt of the joke most often is a female, a person of color or a gay person. And when we know better, we need to do better.<\/p>\n

\"Annie
Annie Murphy and Mary Hollis Inboden in Kevin Can F*** Himself<\/i> (Photo: Jojo Whilden\/AMC)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

It\u2019s interesting hearing you talk about Patty\u2019s caretaker side, which I hadn\u2019t really thought about. But I wonder now if that\u2019s part of why Allison tells Patty about her plan to kill Kevin\u2014because she knows on some level that Patty won\u2019t let her do something so self-destructive. \u00a0<\/strong>
\nI think Allison tells Patty that she\u2019s gonna kill Kevin because at that point, after we see Kevin be so incredibly toxic and actually almost get Patty<\/em> in trouble, they\u2019re now in mutually assured destruction territory. A lot of people ask us, you know, Why not just leave him?<\/em> Kevin, if we ever got to meet him in the single-cam scenes, is an abusive person. He is somebody who would not actually let her leave. And how does she leave? With $194 in her pocket? I think in that mode, Patty is able to be like, Ok, I\u2019ll help you<\/em>.<\/p>\n

We talked earlier about thinking about the mailwoman joke, and there\u2019s something similar in this most recent episode. Kevin kicks Patty out of their group and replaces her with \u201cNew Paddy.\u201d That\u2019s kind of a familiar sitcom storyline, but when you think about it, Kevin has told this woman that she\u2019s replaceable, that her friendship means nothing to him. <\/strong>
\nCompletely and quickly and in front of her, and we\u2019re all laughing at it. And I want to be clear: sitcoms have a place. They\u2019ve been around forever and I don\u2019t think they need to go away! Those can be beneficial, especially in a stressful world.<\/p>\n

But it\u2019s worth reconsidering whose perspective these jokes come from and what messages are being put out there. <\/strong>
\nThat\u2019s right. Because for years and years, those writers rooms were made up of one type of person: white older gentlemen. I\u2019m not on the attack about that. But we need many voices and we need representation.<\/p>\n

\"Candice
Candice Coke as Det. Ridgeway in Kevin Can F*** Himself<\/i>(Photo: Jojo Whilden\/AMC)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Is there a vibe between Patty and Detective Ridgeway? What\u2019s going on there?\u00a0 <\/strong>
\nThere is a vibe. But I think Patty is so scared that Detective Ridgeway is sniffing around\u2014Detective Ridgeway might have a vibe, but at this point it\u2019s safe to say that Patty is like, I have to do whatever you say so that I avoid trouble for me and my friend. <\/em>There\u2019s this tension, you\u2019re not sure where this is gonna go. I think Patty\u2019s sexuality, by Episode 5, we\u2019re curious, we\u2019re opening things up. Her boyfriend has broken up with her, so it\u2019s leading her to ask a lot of questions of herself. That\u2019s one thing that I really love about Patty. Again, in the multi-cam [scenes] you would never explore that. Her sexuality becomes so important to the single-cam world, really becoming the person that she wants to be instead of this sardonic trope.<\/p>\n

I want to go back to something you said earlier about what Kevin would be like if we ever saw him in the single-cam scenes. I think I took it for granted that we never would, so I hadn\u2019t thought about what he might be like outside of that sitcom version of reality. But in reality, that character could potentially be kinda scary. <\/strong>
\nSo, I had a different take on it than Valerie Armstrong did. I thought these were men who would be, like, sexually assaulting people. And I think it\u2019s actually far more powerful to think of these men as\u2026 Neal for instance: he somehow avoids paying his taxes. He is constantly up to shenanigans that put our house in danger. Kevin, I feel like he\u2019s a really controlling and manipulative guy who gets what he wants.<\/p>\n

Right, he doesn\u2019t have to be literally physically abusive to affect the people around him in profoundly hurtful way. <\/strong>
\nSure. Or even a thing where a woman is talking about her Me Too<\/a> experience, and instead of getting the space to talk about that experience, the Kevin in the room will stand up and tell her what that experience was. I guess my first take on Kevin in the outside world was that he was incredibly abusive. Valerie\u2019s was, yes, he\u2019s controlling and manipulative, but he\u2019s a guy that everybody will still be around because he\u2019s very fun and he\u2019s charming. He\u2019s very well-liked.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":29097,"featured_media":28418,"template":"","format":"standard","categories":[38,16],"yoast_head":"\nMary Hollis Inboden on adding nuance to sitcom tropes<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"On AMC\u2019s dark sitcom satire Kevin Can F**k Himself, Mary Hollis Inboden plays sullen, cynical tough girl Patty, the wisecracking foil to Annie Murphy\u2019s type-A Allison.\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/graziamagazine.com\/us\/articles\/mary-hollis-inboden-kevin-can-f-himself\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Mary Hollis Inboden on Adding Nuance to Sitcom Tropes on \u2018Kevin Can F**k Himself\u2019\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"On AMC\u2019s dark sitcom 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