Pavarotti, Domingo, and Carreras? Nah. The production crew on Six Feet Under had their own “Three Tenors.”
Three-time Emmy winner Patricia Clarkson sat down with Jesse Tyler Ferguson for his Dinner’s on Me podcast and, naturally, the conversation turned to the celebrated HBO melodrama/dark comedy from the early aughts. Clarkson appeared as a semi-regular on the fatalistic series as the younger sister to the family matriarch played by Frances Conroy.
“Aunt Sarah,” she remembered fondly, “this crazy part to play the sister. It was just such a crazy shoot. I would fly in, everyone thought I was a regular, but I wasn’t.”
“Well, you won two Emmys for it,” Ferguson reminded her.
Axelle/Bauer-Griffin/FilmMagic
Patricia Clarkson at the 2025 Vanity Fair Oscar Party in Beverly Hills
Sign up for Entertainment Weekly‘s free daily newsletter to get breaking TV news, exclusive first looks, recaps, reviews, interviews with your favorite stars, and more.
“But that’s the writing,” Clarkson demurred, citing the work of series creator Alan Ball as well as playwright Kate Robin, future Transparent creator Joey Soloway, Lars and the Real Girl screenwriter Nancy Oliver, and others.
“And the directing,” she added. “And the actors I was surrounded with. Franny [Frances] Conroy and Kathy Bates. So when the three of us would work together, they’d say, ‘Get the Three Tenors on set!’ That was a blessing.”
Clarkson continued, “I would get these scenes, and sometimes, as the crazy aunt, I had these [moments where] I thought, ‘Oh, surely they’re going to cut this down or they’re going to rewrite it. But a lot of times, what I got on the page stayed. I just learned it, I’d run it, learn my monologues. When writing is great, it doesn’t take a toll on you like when you’re trying to make something work.”
Prior to Six Feet Under, Clarkson — perhaps best known today for her work on the 2018 miniseries Sharp Objects — was in a slew of Broadway and Off Broadway shows, television series and feature films, particularly well-regarded independent productions.
Ferguson mentioned two that were released in 2003, The Station Agent, in which she played opposite Peter Dinklage, and Pieces of April, which got her an Academy Award nomination for Best Supporting Actress. Clarkson also cited David Gordon Green’s moody All the Real Girls from the same year.
“That was [late independent film executive] Bingham Ray,” she explained. “That was independent cinema. That was when Sundance was really on fire.”
“You were labeled the Sundance Queen,” Ferguson recalled.
“Independent cinema was alive and well and kicking and really powerful,” she said. “And it still is. Look at the [Oscar] win of Anora. But I was lucky. I hit the jackpot when it was on fire. My mom was just like, ‘Patty, what are you playing this time?'”
United Artists/Courtesy Everett
Patricia Clarkson and Rusty DeWees in Peter Hedges’ ‘Pieces of April’
For more of Patricia Clarkson’s appearance on Dinner’s on Me, check out the podcast below.
Read the original article on Entertainment Weekly
