‘The Righteous Gemstones’ Star Edi Patterson Says Goodbye to Judy Gemstone: ‘I Always Feel Like She Is Just Doing Her Best’

Spoilers ahead for “The Righteous Gemstones” Season 4, Episode 9

Heading into the writers room for the fourth season of “The Righteous Gemstones,” series star, writer and producer Edi Patterson didn’t know this season was going to be the last for the HBO comedy. No one did.

“Even though I’m in on the writing, it was never a definite thing until after we finished the season. We started to get a feeling that maybe it was time to end the story,” Patterson told TheWrap.

For fans of the HBO comedy, the Gemstone family may seem like a ridiculous crop of people. They constantly scheme and lie, stealing money from their family’s megachurch and spending millions on harebrained schemes. They have some of the most vulgar mouths in TV history. One of Patterson’s favorite Judy lines happened in Season 1 after Judy tells her brother, “I’m gonna move to Malibu beach, shave my pussy, learn to surf.” When Jesse (Danny McBride) asks her “Why you gotta shave your pussy?” Judy exasperatedly yells “So I can surf faster, Jesse!” a line that Patterson is proud to have ad libbed. But for all of their spoiled insanity, Patterson has always taken Judy seriously.

“I never have thought of Judy as ridiculous. I always feel like she is just doing her best,” Patterson explained. “There’s so much heart and truth through the entire series, through every single season.”

A great example of this is Judy’s main arc this season, which involves her getting into a feud with a caregiving monkey by the name of Dr. Watson after her husband BJ (Tim Baltz) has a pole dancing accident. Yes, it’s a mouthful. But it’s also the story of Judy finally learning how to be a caretaker for the man she loves.

“I think that normal things that people learn in their life, it takes Judy a little longer to learn them. I do think she’s at that point with BJ where she knows she has to show respect and niceness,” Patterson said. “When you love someone, you have to be cool sometimes.”

That storyline was especially fun for Patterson because it involved her doing several scenes with an actual Capuchin monkey. Though the actor loved her scenes with the money, she admitted it was “sort of frustrating” having to act around the animal.

“The monkey is so incredibly cute. I mean, shockingly cute. All I wanted to do — and what I think most people involved wanted to do — was hold it and pet it and talk to it. And it’s important for the trainer to be the only voice the monkey hears on set,” Patterson explained. “So it was a lot of teeth gritting and walking past and stealing glances.”

This season was also especially challenging because of the finale. The last episode of “The Righteous Gemstones” sees Jesse, Judy and Kelvin (Adam DeVine) face off against Corey (Seann William Scott), a childhood friend who has grown to resent the siblings and tries to kill them. After several shootings and a high-stakes confrontation, “That Man of God May Be Complete” sees these three children of the cloth finally put their money where their mouths are, so to speak, and say a prayer over their dying friend. It’s a surprisingly touching moment that demonstrates these characters’ faith without judging it. So it’s extra shocking that this notable intimacy was achieved in the midst of a natural disaster.

“That day was insane. A hurricane had come through. We had about four hours of power, and it was our last day that we could shoot that mansion on the lake. It was all very, very high pressure,” Patterson said. “But it was awesome to just be in the truth of that moment and let it lay out. It was pretty powerful.”

With “The Righteous Gemstones” coming to an end, Patterson is happy with their work. Though she thinks the Gemstone family will always be off somewhere getting up to schemes, Patterson believes there has been actual growth over these past four seasons.

“I think they grow like actual, real-life people do. It’s very incremental. It’s very small. You may learn a big lesson, but it may take you a while to really implement it. Whenever anything is portrayed in that, ‘I’m a completely different person now after I went through this one thing,’ it’s just not real. I like that we do it bit by bit by bit,” Patterson said. “We wanted you to feel stoked for them, as crazy as they are. Hopefully, when you watch it, you have the feeling like, ‘Oh, those are my homies. I want the best for them.’ We want you to root for us.”

The post ‘The Righteous Gemstones’ Star Edi Patterson Says Goodbye to Judy Gemstone: ‘I Always Feel Like She Is Just Doing Her Best’ appeared first on TheWrap.