Cinema AND TRAILER: Patti Cake$ star Bridget Everett interview

She's made her mark on the New York cabaret scene and now with her first dramatic role in Patti Cake$, the comedian-singer tells Gemma Dunn why she's glad to have stepped outside of her wheelhouse
Bridgett EverettBridgett Everett
Bridgett Everett

Unruly sex bomb with the voice of an angel” read one of the casting calls for Geremy Jasper’s debut feature directorial, Patti Cake$.

It was written for the part of Barb: a ‘balls-to-the-wall’ bitter, boozy mother. And having spotted cabaret queen Bridget Everett on Inside Amy Schumer, Jasper had found the woman for the job.

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But despite Everett’s notoriety for her fearless and uninhibited original performances, signing up would take some convincing.

“I hadn’t been in a movie like this,” explains the singer and comedian, 45, who regularly plays to sold-out theatres with her band The Tender Moments.

“I’ve only ever done comedy parts in things, so having a lead role and having to be dramatic felt really outside of my wheelhouse,” she admits.

“I talked to Geremy, a friend and my agent and they were like, ‘Just take the pressure off and go for it!’ And I am so happy I did.

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“I am going to get that as my new tattoo: ‘sexy with the voice of an angel’.”

A hit at this year’s Sundance Film Festival, Patti Cake$ is ultimately Jasper’s love letter to his hometown of New Jersey, plus the creative spirit, hip-hop music and the strong women who raised him.

Rooted in his post-college years, it’s a coming-of-age story focused on Patricia Dombrowski (Danielle Macdonald), who fancies herself as a one-of-a-kind hip-hop legend in the making. But stuck at home with her wheelchair-bound grandmother (Cathy Moriarty) and less-than-encouraging mother Barb (Everett), it’s less than an easy ride to fame and glory for the unlikely rapper.

Yet it’s that tug-of-war to the top that Everett could really get on board with.

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“I’ve spent my whole life being a dreamer!” quips the six-foot-six blonde, her laugh infectious.

“These are my favourite kinds of movies; I love watching somebody battle against their circumstance, find the fire inside of them and latch onto that and just not let go. I love that about this movie.”

However unlike Patti, Everett was always encouraged by her own mother - a music teacher in her own right - to pursue her love of performing.

“She sort of looked the other way when I waited tables for so many years trying to chase my dream,” she reveals. “Because she always wanted to be Dolly in Hello, Dolly! on Broadway and she understood the need. “She just had six kids instead of moving to New York like a maniac,” she adds, with a smile.

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But the grapple was worth it for the Downtown Manhattan favourite with a larger-than-life personality.

For the past decade, Everett, who describes herself as “alt-cabaret provocateur”, has carved out a career as a world-renowned cabaret artist, hailed as “raw and riotous” by The New York Times and named “the most exciting performer in New York City” on the cover of the Village Voice.

Trained as a classical singer, she’s a regular fixture at comedy festivals; has headlined her own major US tour; impressed with her live television special, Bridget Everett - Gynaecological Wonder, on Comedy Central; and is the co-creator, co-writer and star of upcoming Amazon series Love You More.

It’s no surprise, then, that the singing scenes were her most comfortable moments in Patti Cake$.

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“Geremy chose it, but it was a perfect fit for me,” she says of one of her big scenes, in which she belts out Heart’s hit These Dreams in a shabby karaoke bar.

“First of all I love Ann Wilson’s voice so much and I love karaoke, so it was an honour to play a character in a karaoke bar singing a song that I love to somebody that I love.

“(My go-to karaoke song] is You Oughta Know or Piece of My Heart,” she adds, having recently received a standing ovation for the latter on The Tonight Show with Jimmy Fallon.

“Anything that is just savage, I love a savage karaoke song,” she says, grinning. “For me, it’s about getting on top of the bar and just going totally ape shit.”

As for falling off the bar in the name of Barb?

“Its second nature,” she confesses, with a laugh.

Patti Cake$ opens in cinemas on Friday