Molly Shannon (‘The Other Two’) on Pat in Season 3: ‘She’s come into her power this season and she’s really owning it’ [Exclusive Video Interview]
In playing Pat Dubek for three seasons on “The Other Two,” Molly Shannon has gotten a chance to see how much the character has changed going into the third season. “I think Pat is different this season. She has more of an edge to her. She’s feistier, she actually speaks in a different way. She’s come into her power this season and she’s really owning it,” she tells Gold Derby during our recent webchat (watch the exclusive video interview above). A good part of that growth and becoming dirtier, sharper and wittier comes from her character not having to be a mother to young children anymore. “It’s her whole chapter two. She has a whole new romance. You see her really coming into her own.”
“The Other Two,” which is currently streaming on Max, centers on two siblings, Brooke (Heléne Yorke) and Cary (Drew Tarver), who are forced to re-evaluate the direction of their lives when their teenage brother Chase (Case Walker), becomes a celebrity on social media. In addition to Shannon playing the family matriarch Pat, Ken Marino also stars as Chase’s agent, Streeter. She has been nominated for two Critics’ Choice TV Awards for Comedy Supporting Actress for her work on the show. She’s also earned three Emmy nominations over her career for “Saturday Night Live” (Variety Performance, 2000), “Enlightened” and “Will & Grace” (Comedy Guest Actress, 2013 and 2017) and claimed the Independent Spirit Award for Best Supporting Actress in 2016 for “Other People.”
While Pat may have grown, Shannon says there are still aspects of the character that she really feels Pat could do better with. “She’s very much a people pleaser. She’ll really want to say no but she’ll say, ‘Well, I guess if that’s what you really think would be better. Okay.’” She elaborates that Pat needs to know that the word no can serve as a complete sentence and that it’s okay to turn people down for some things. “She’s just gotten into a bind and it’s just too much and her life is out of balance. So I think she has to learn how to have better boundaries and not just please everyone.”
In April, Shannon got to revisit familiar territory when she hosted “Saturday Night Live” for a second time after being a part of the show’s cast from 1995 until 2001. Returning to the show was like riding a bike for her. “It’s like a muscle that I hadn’t used for a while that you forget about, but after I hosted I felt like I want to do it again. I really missed it!” In addition to seeing so many of her old colleagues who still work on the show, the hosting gig was memorable for her because her two grown children got to see her from the audience. “They’d never seen me perform live like that, so they were in the audience and that was the most thrilling feeling having them see me.”
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