October 11 2025, 08:15 
Actor and comedian Jeff Hiller can’t help but feel a little sorry for the Emmy statue he won last month – Best Supporting Actor in a Comedy Series, for his role as Joel Anderson in “Somebody Somewhere” on HBO.
He was up against six other actors, including 83-year-old screen legend Harrison Ford, who was the favorite to win. Had the Emmy gone to Ford, Hiller speculates, it likely would be ensconced in one of the homes Ford shares with Calista “Ally McBeal” Flockhart.
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“I could be caressing Calista Flockhart right now,” Hiller imagines the statue thinking. “Poor thing.”
Hiller bared his feelings during an interview with Howard Stern after his surprise win at the 2025 Emmy ceremony on Sept. 14. It was his first appearance on Stern’s SiriusXM program. Stern had prompted Hiller’s musings by asking what he thought about the Emmy not going to Ford.
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“Do you ever think about how your Emmy feels?” Stern wanted to know. “Do you think the Emmy says to himself, ‘I was this close to being in Harrison Ford’s mansion’? I could see Calista Flockhart naked, but here I am in Jeff Hiller’s house.”
Hiller, 49, admitted that he was as surprised as anyone that he won.
“I know that people say that, but I’m serious,” Hiller said. “I’ve been in this business for 25 years. If Harrison Ford is nominated, he’s going to get it.”
Ford was nominated for his role as Dr. Paul Rhoades in “Shrinking” on Apple TV+. It was his first Emmy nomination. Other nominees in the same category were: Michael Urie in “Shrinking”; Ebon Moss-Bachrach in “The Bear”; Ike Barinholtz in “The Studio”; Colman Domingo in “The Four Seasons” and Bowen Yang in “Saturday Night Live.”
Hiller was the longest of longshots, and his acceptance speech went viral on social media.
“I feel like I’m going to cry because for the past 25 years I’ve been like, ‘World, I want to be an actor’ – and the world was like, ‘Maybe computers?’” he confessed onstage. “I just want to say thank you to HBO for putting a show about sweaty middle-aged people on the same network as the sexy teens of ‘Euphoria.’ “
Unlike big-budget HBO series such as “Game of Thrones” and “The White Lotus,” “Somebody Somewhere” is a modest production about a group of adult friends making it through life in middle America.
Set in Manhattan, Kansas, it stars Bridget Everett as Samantha “Sam” Miller, who returns to her hometown after her sister’s death. Hiller, who is gay, plays a gay man who becomes Sam’s best friend. His character is the quintessential sad sack – a sweet, gentle soul just trying to get by.
Others in the cast include Mary Catherine Garrison, as Sam’s sister; Tim Bagley, who’s navigating a relationship with Joel, and trans actor Murray Hill as Dr. Fred Rococo, a soil scientist, professor, emcee of an underground cabaret, and stable friend to the others. The result is a quirky, heartwarming, LGBTQ+-friendly world where characters take others’ eccentricities and foibles in stride. In his Emmy remarks, Hiller described it as “a show of connecting and love in this time when compassion is seen as a weakness.”
The series debuted in 2022 and ran for three seasons. Despite overwhelmingly positive reviews, HBO disclosed its cancellation in August 2024. Its third season received two Emmy nominations – Hiller’s nod and Outstanding Writing for a Comedy Series, for creators Hannah Bos, Paul Thureen, and Everett. The writing award went to “The Studio.”
Hiller was previously nominated in 2022 at the Independent Spirit Awards for Best Supporting Performance in a New Scripted Series. He was also part of the “Somebody Somewhere” team that won a Peabody Award in 2022.
The exposure from the Emmy broadcast, and Hiller’s surprise win and acceptance speech, brought new attention to both the show and the work Hiller has done over the past 20-plus years.
During his interview with Stern, Hiller got a chance to talk about the show and his career. He’s also written about his life in a book of autobiographical essays that Simon & Schuster published in June, entitled “Actress of a Certain Age: My Twenty-Year Trail to Overnight Success.” Divided into 24 chapters, the book touches on Hiller’s experiences growing up, his guest roles on TV, and his landing of his breakthrough role after years of struggle. It explores themes of perseverance, “The humiliations of trying to follow your dream,” and finding success later in life.
Born and raised in San Antonio, Texas, Hiller now lives in New York City with his husband, artist Neil Goldberg. He told Stern that he has played mostly gay characters. In his Emmy speech, he thanked Everett for giving him a chance: “You changed my life, and you told so many people to believe in themselves, and they do.”
Stern asked Hiller whether there was a point at which he came out of the closet.
“I have come out of the closet,” he said, “but literally every time, people are like, ‘I know.’ No one’s ever shocked. It’s sort of: ‘Thank you for telling me.’ “
“You didn’t have a straight affect?” Stern asked.
“When I wanted to act straight, I just thought to myself – this is so harsh, but – I thought to myself, just drain all of the intelligence from your face… and I’d just give one-syllable responses,” Hiller replied.
“Was that how it was early on in acting – every role was ‘the gay guy’?“ Stern asked.
“Even now,” Hiller said.
Stern suggested that he consider playing a villain who might be gay.
Hiller said he did play a villain on Ryan Murphy’s “American Horror Story: NYC.” He was a gay serial killer who preyed on patrons of New York City’s leather bars in the 1980s. Russell Tovey portrayed a closeted police detective who was after him.
“I killed gay guys. And I was gay. It was based on a gay guy serial killer,” Hiller said.
“That sounds good,” Stern said. “I would watch that.”
Hiller said he’d play another villain.
“I’ve got a face for serial killing,” he said. “I’ll do it again.
Hiller’s other credits include: “American Horror Stories”; “Unbreakable Kimmy Schmidt”; “Playing House”; “Nightcap”; “Impastor”;“The Hotwives of Orlando”; “Set It Up” and “Greta.” For the Logo channel, he once played a guy who did laser hair removal on a man’s rear end. “It was just like staring into the abyss,” he said. “And we shot that scene for about four hours.”
Hiller told Stern that he had been a social worker before he became an actor, but he wasn’t good at it.
“I knew that if any other job appealed to me, it was to help people,” he said. Unfortunately, “I was truly terrible as a social worker.”
“Why were you so terrible, because you lacked compassion?” Stern asked.
“No, it was almost like I had too much compassion,” Hiller said. “You have to hold people to a case plan, and you have to say, like, you didn’t apply for a job, so there are consequences to that.”
Hiller said he couldn’t be stern or harsh with clients when they didn’t follow through.
“I was just like, ‘Oh, that’s OK,’ “ he said. “Sometimes – this is really bad – a couple of times, I gave people money… I would be so sad for them.”
“It’s a social worker,” Stern said. “First of all, you’re not making a lot of money. You’re one step away from getting a social worker to work on you. “
Stern asked if Hiller wrote his Emmy remarks in advance.
“I had the joke about the ‘sexy teens of Euphoria’ worked out,” he said, but not the line about computers: “That one was just spur of the moment.”
He said he keeps his Emmy in his apartment but hasn’t found a good place to display it.
“This sounds like a joke, but it really does make my apartment seem smaller,” he said. “The only shelf I have, the Emmy’s too tall to fit on the shelf and not hit the ceiling. I don’t know where to put it yet. Right now it’s sitting right next to the TV, but it’s not a good spot.”
Was he upset that the show didn’t get a fourth season?
“Yeah, I would [have done] this for 100 more years,” Hiller said. “But I am sort of excited because a lot of people – because I won the Emmy – are like, ‘Oh, I started watching because you won that gold statue,’ and I’m happy people are watching it.”
Stern asked if the Emmy has brought any new jobs.
“I‘ve gotten a lot of offers of, like, host a gala. But no, like, work,” he admitted.
Looking ahead, Hiller said he doesn’t need to play straight characters: “I just want to play lots of different types of gay guys. That’s fine.”
And he doesn’t mind going on auditions.
“I’ll do it. I don’t care. I’m good at auditioning,” he said. “It’s one of my superpowers.”
Hiller’s latest film is “Lost & Found in Cleveland,” an indie production that follows five people whose paths cross when an antiques appraisal TV show visits their midwestern city. Completed last year, it will be shown for free on Plex starting Nov. 7. Hiller’s book of essays, Actress of a Certain Age: My Twenty Year Trail to Overnight Success, is available now.
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