Taste Test
What is “good taste” anyway? Allow your favorite actor, musician, celebrity, or comedian to let you in on what they’re watching, reading, and consuming.
Despite being one of the funniest shows on television, the last day of shooting The Righteous Gemstones was a sob fest. “It was like a tiny person climbed into each of our bodies and went, Okay, let the dams go,” Edi Patterson told the Cut on a recent Zoom call. Patterson has spent four seasons delivering a masterful performance as Judy Gemstone, the horny, profanity-loving middle child of a South Carolina megachurch dynasty. Now, as the series finale approaches, she’s doing something very un-Judy-like: reflecting.
“All of us were just pouring tears. It was really emotional,” Patterson said. The secret sauce to fostering that kind of on-set community is a great leader and natural chemistry, both of which Patterson found in Danny McBride, who created Gemstones and stars as Jesse, the eldest son.
Patterson had worked with McBride on his previous show Vice Principals and called their comedy partnership “a revelation.” “I was a fan of his, but not until we were doing Vice Principals did I totally know, Something else is happening here,” Patterson recalled, “I don’t know if this is some past-life brother-sister shit or what.” Whatever it is, it really works for them. Along with Adam DeVine, they’ve created the most compelling sibling trio this side of Succession.
While it hasn’t been easy to say good-bye to the Gemstones, Patterson takes heart in the idea that they’re still out there putting together the silliest, most vile strings of words you’ve ever heard. “The world that they’re in that you watch is a world that I think exists, like, in the metaverse,” she said, “And I think that they’re in there just crushing it.”
How does it feel now that the final season is airing and it’s out in the world?
It feels awesome. It was really sort of sad initially to know that it was done, but then seeing the episodes and knowing that we went out with a bang just makes me so happy. I have nothing but excitement and happiness when I watch it. I’ve seen every episode five times, and I still watch it every week.
You were also a writer on the show, which has this classic Danny McBride dumb, masculine energy to it. How was it being the only woman in that writers’ room?
It’s interesting with Danny, because he’s so smart. It’s so complex to do what he does. I never felt weird because it’s almost like I’ve always just been in there with a bunch of creatures, if that makes sense.
Gender doesn’t exist in that room.
Yeah, kind of! Not to sound crazy, but it’s just very creative and funny, and we’re just always trying to find the best thing. Thankfully, I never had any creepy feelings. It always felt just like fun creatures trying to make the best thing possible.
There’s just something about the way [McBride’s] brain works that I see and it really, really works for me and really tickles me. I always like his ideas, and luckily he finds my writing really funny, too. If I make myself laugh when I’m writing something, I love knowing that it’s crazy enough that it’s probably going to make him laugh, too.
What are you going to miss most about playing Judy?
Oh, dude. Everything. Mostly the ability to just move through a world at full speed with no filters and to sort of shoot from the hip and ask questions later. I feel like it’s always a little bit of a delayed reaction for her with, you know, emotions and being a decent human. Coming from an animal place is really, really fun. I’ll miss how wild Judy is.
If you were doing that kind of acting-school exercise where you had to embody an animal, which animal would Judy be?
Some kind of wildcat, but the one that the other wildcats are a little leery of.
Okay, let’s do the Taste Test questions. Where do you get your best culture recommendations from?
For cool new music in a certain vein? McBride. We try to send each other albums and stuff and go, “You gotta check this guy out.” For food stuff, there’s a food scene in Charleston, South Carolina, where we shot Gemstones, that is off the charts. I think it’s the best in the U.S. All my friends in the food industry there know about food all over. They know about the cool spots in New York and L.A.
So it sounds like you’ve just got a bunch of cool friends.
I do have some cool friends.
Click here to preview your posts with PRO themes ››
Is Danny the person in the Gemstones cast with the best cultural recommendations? Or is John Goodman sneaking in with an amazing movie recommendation?
Well, John Goodman will hand you a book that you’ve never read and it will be something that you love. He gave me this Elaine May book, he’s the one who gave me A Confederacy of Dunces. He’s very, very well read and fun to talk about that stuff with.
If you could invite five celebrities — dead or alive — to a dinner party, who would you pick?
Carol Burnett, Meryl Streep, I don’t know why this is coming to my head, but Jim Morrison. It’s gonna get wild. Albert Einstein. And … George Saunders. I got to do a story on his Liberation Day audiobook.
That’s a lot of intense people.
That’s right, I like that. I like intensity.
What were you obsessed with as a kid?
Anything funny. Characters. So, I was obsessed with Tracey Ullman. I was obsessed with Carol Burnett reruns. I was obsessed with In Living Color, SNL. I also was obsessed with horror. Stories, movies, all of it. I actually used to make horror movies at my house. I’d make my sister and the neighbors and my cousins be in them.
Do you have a pre-filming ritual?
I like to just try to get my head right. Depending on what kind of scenes we’re doing there’s times when I know I can still be focused and I can have Below Deck on in my trailer. If the scene is super emotional, then I just need silence or some music just to kind of stay in it.
Below Deck … Are you a Bravo person?
Yeah. Below Deck was just weirdly on a lot as we were filming this season. I would say I’m more of a Housewives person, and I like Beverly Hills. I like the ones where they’re really going for it. It really makes me laugh.
What’s the best piece of gossip you’ve ever heard?
So many spring to mind, honestly. I think I was 11, and a woman we knew came over to talk to my mom and dad. She maybe had been told by a therapist or someone counseling her, “You need to tell this to two other people, just so two other people know this.” I don’t think I knew that part, but I knew she had to come over and tell them something. So they went in the living room and they closed both doors, and I stood there like a little asshole and had my ear to the door, and the story was so bone chilling. That woman came over to tell them that this other man we knew, who was married, she was married, too, had tried to kiss her.
It was super scandalizing and I couldn’t quite hide that I had heard this scandalous thing. My face was all wide-eyed after and my mom and dad were like, “Were you listening to that?” I had to tell them immediately.
What’s the last book you couldn’t put down?
It was either All Fours or Big Swiss. Both of those I ripped through. The thing I liked about All Fours was how inside the character’s head [Miranda July] got. I feel like it was pretty masterful. It was almost— clearly not horror vibes, but Stephen King is really good at that, too, where you’re like, “Oh God, I see the inside of this person’s brain.” Obviously it’s a very horny book and it’s very sexy and fun in that way, but I was very into the decorating of the motel room. I love decorating and interior design, anyway, so I was super into the audacity of all that.
Big Swiss I just thought was a blast. I actually listened to that, and my friend Rebecca Lowman is one of the readers on it and she’s so good. It was really fun. It was like hanging out with my friend and reading an awesome book.
What’s your interior-design philosophy?
I want to feel stoked every time I walk into my house. I want to feel, like, Oh, I love looking at that. I like color, I would say I’m kind of aesthetically driven. I like things. I lean toward maximalism, but it’s not a full-on maximalist vibe. I like stuff.
Do you have a comfort rewatch?
I’ve found that the only movies that I really like to rewatch are movies where it’s, like, a day. I’ll always rewatch Dazed and Confused because it’s that kind of thing: They’re getting ready for the party that night. I’ll always rewatch Friday because it’s the same kind of thing. I don’t know what that is, but my comfort thing is watching things where it’s just a small amount of time.
This interview has been edited and condensed for clarity.
