Photo: Robert Clark/Apple TV
“Dear God in heaven, what the hell just happened?” Dale Dickey asks as she gets on the phone to discuss her first-ever Emmy nomination, for playing Rosemary the town gossip on Widow’s Bay. “Nobody is more shocked and surprised than me.” Dickey’s face — the “most wrinkled in Hollywood,” she jokes — is a familiar presence onscreen; she played “Patty the Daytime Hooker” on My Name Is Earl and a “skank” on Breaking Bad and earned an Indie Spirit Award for her striking turn as the wife of a gang leader in Winter’s Bone. (The Emmys will require finding something nicer to wear, she jokes.)
But it’s Widow’s Bay, a blend of sitcom and Stephen King created by Katie Dippold, that’s brought Dickey a new burst of attention and gifted her with a series of memorable one-liners as a civil servant who dedicates her life to needling her uptight boss, played by Matthew Rhys. “The fun part is watching Matthew freak out,” she says. Her toughest days on set required memorizing and delivering an 11-page monologue in which Rosemary traces centuries of genealogy down to a final, cursed islander via an old-fashioned overhead projector and marker. “Could we not have found better lighting than the audiovisual?” she laughs. “I’m of an age and I’ve been in this business so long and just throw vanity to the wind. Put dirt on my face, put me in a garbage bag, let me play.”
How did you find out you were nominated?
I had told my husband, “I want to get up and watch at eight,” because Jeff Hiller was going to be one of the people announcing, and he’s my partner in crime on the show. I didn’t realize they only announced so many, but God, there’s so many categories. After I watched it, I knew there was some love for Widow’s Bay and I was very ecstatic, so I went on my computer and I thought, Okay, I’ll just scroll through the rest of them. And I’m scrolling and I get to Supporting Actors in a Comedy, and as I’m scrolling, I see my fucking face — excuse my language — but I’m like, “No, why is that … What?!” I mean, look, I thoroughly expected and knew that Kate would be on the list, and she’s got my vote if I could vote in my category. But it was out of left field for me.
How have the last 24 hours been? Are you hearing from people, have you celebrated?
Oh, that thing about phones blowing up, that’s only happened to me a couple of times — it’s usually sadly when somebody’s died. I mean, God, when my friend Leslie Jordan passed … Anyway, this was for a good reason, but I’m still getting back to people. I’m like, Answer people right away, Dale, or you’ll never get to it! I’ve heard from so many people out of the woodwork, people I’ve worked with. Greg Garcia from My Name Is Earl, who was one of my biggest champions early on and I adore him, he sent me a beautiful email. It means a lot.
One of my friends just said, “She’s Patty the Daytime Hooker!” It must be lovely to have people remember that role.
Usually when I’m in an airport or something, people go, “Oh, you’re the hooker.” Or more likely, “You’re the skank.” I’m like, “Yes, I am a skank from Breaking Bad, but please remember, I ain’t no skank!” I played a lot of pretty charming, interesting roles over the years.
What was your first encounter with the role of Rosemary?
I know I did two self-tapes because they sent me some adjustments, and I redid it. And then I think the third time I did a final callback Zoom interview with both Katie and Hiro and I was terribly nervous. I knew it was a great role and something I could have fun playing with. I remember telling them, “I have not laughed out loud at a script in so long, and this is so fucking funny.” And then Katie’s like, “Yeah, well, but it’s going to be scary, too.” And I’m like, “Oh, how so?” She gave me just a couple of hints and I went, “Okay. I get it. I’ve been on some islands with some ghost stories before. I’m game.”
Tell me about filming the family tree in the penultimate episode. “Dead baby, dead baby, lesbian” is a meme now.
Oh boy, oh boy. This is my first time as a series regular, and even though Rosemary’s the most minor of the lead group, she’s there for a purpose. We filmed out of sequence, but I’ve been in and out of the episodes, a couple of scenes here or there, and all of a sudden Katie comes to me like two weeks ahead of filming episode nine and goes, “By the way, we thought you might want to have this a little early because there’s a little bit of dialogue for Rosemary.” And I went, “Oh, okay, looking forward to reading it.” And then I read it and I was like, “Wait, what the fuck?” I think it was 11 total pages of Rosemary talking. And then you add the slides on top of that. I think there were 10 or 11 different slides I had to put in and out and then the X’s and the O’s.
I was a little terrified. I’m like, I’m in my 60s now. My memory used to be good, but we’ll see. They were so great. Katie and Hiro came to me and said, “Listen, we know this is going to be difficult, particularly once we get in there and start cutting in and out. Anything and everything we can do to help you …” They offered to have a teleprompter and I said, “I’ve never worked with one of those. I think it’ll just mess me up. Let me learn it and let’s just wing it.” And Stephen Root, Wyck, and Nancy Lenehan, who plays Gerrie, came over to where I was staying and helped me run my lines. I could never have gotten through it without such a great supportive group. I think it took us two days to get the whole thing done. And then I was extremely relieved, probably the most relieved I’ve been in a very long time. But what a fun ride, man.
It’s one thing to list off a bunch of names, but you really have to lend her humor and exhaustion to the whole thing.
All that goes out the window and you just hope the performance is there because you’re concentrating. Oh, God, what’s the story of this? What decade is this? It was like being back in junior high when you had to learn charts and stuff with dates and names and important events.
I used to say I’m the most wrinkled woman in Hollywood, but I kind of think I might be the most wrinkled actor of both sexes in Hollywood, which is fine with me, but I’m like, could we not have found better lighting than the audiovisual? [Laughs.] Most light is unforgiving on this face, but I’m of an age and I’ve been in this business so long and just throw vanity to the wind. Put dirt on my face, put me in a garbage bag, let me play.
And Rosemary is so over anything that’s occurring on the island. She’s like, “Yeah, I’ve seen this. I’ve been through it.” You’re the person least reacting to the horror. Matthew’s freaking out constantly.
The fun part is watching Matthew freak out. My character, she’s like the town gossip, and I kind of think her primary purpose in life is to annoy Loftis, to annoy Matthew Rhys, and that’s a lot of fun!
After we’d gone through a few episodes, we were all trying to piece everything together since we’re filming out of sequence. I sent Katie some questions about Rosemary. I know she’s born on the island, but we all know each other. Where does she fit in in terms of how she feels about everything? Well, some people are too dramatic with it and take it too seriously. Some people just ignore it. Rosemary’s in between. She knows it’s cursed. She knows the shit happens. She’s not going to be bothered by it until it does. Let’s just keep on living life. And that’s a fine line to play. I’m imagining season two, we’ll get into some new and scary things, and Rosemary might have some different reactions because it gets pretty scary there at the end. I think even Rosemary is probably putting on a diaper at some point.
Have you talked to Katie about lore for the character or future plans?
She told me Rosemary probably had a bunch of odd jobs on the island. She hangs out at the bar a lot. She’s probably been engaged several times, but who’s gonna marry her? And she’s not gonna have anybody. She’s just a single woman that does her job and probably owns a few real-estate places on the island. Now, in my imagination, those are really haunted. I want to go into the haunted house.
Had you worked with Jeff Hiller before this? It’s so fun to watch you two bounce off each other.
I’ve never worked with Jeff, and what a joy. He’s just delightful. But it got a little complicated on set because his character’s name is Dale, and I am Dale. So when the director or something would compliment Dale, I would be like, “Oh, thank you. ” And it’s like, “No, we meant the character Dale. Jeff-Dale, not you-Dale.” [Laughs.] I’m exaggerating. He’s so great at the deadpan improvising. A lot of our stuff is just sitting there trying to react together. And I look forward to having more playtime with him. I learned so much from working with expert comedians, all of them. When I’m not working, I like to go to set and watch. I always learn new tricks. There’s a grace to this kind of comedy that I’ve never felt really very adept at, but I just follow along and try to fit in.
Was there a moment where you felt the momentum around Widow’s Bay grow?
My friends, people that I’ve known or worked with, were all of a sudden texting, “Hey, we’re watching Widow’s Bay. Really like it. I can’t wait for next week.” And when I’m out at the grocery store, people will recognize me. They always think, “Do you go to my church? Did I go to school with you? Why do I know you?” And it’s usually from Breaking Bad. But this time, strangers were coming up going, “You’re that gossip on Widow’s Bay. We love that show.” It was out-of-the-blue strangers early on.
And I enjoyed watching it. I mean, I’d read all the scripts, of course, but I didn’t see half the stuff they filmed, so it was exciting for me to watch it. I did go to set the day they filmed the scary clown coming through the crawl space, since I was the one that said he had to go in the crawl space. And I’m sitting in Video Village and I know I shrieked out loud, which you’re not supposed to do. It scared the shit out of me. He was scary! Scary clown! We’ll see what happens next year with the fright.
Did you have a favorite Rosemary one-liner?
She’s always commenting at the end because she tends to talk too much. “Oh, nobody wants to hear what I have to say today,” or “can’t do anything right today.” It’s just her little way of dealing with the rejection, I guess.
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