Why Lulu From She-Hulk Episode 6 Looks So Familiar
Depending on one's outlook, weddings can either be a tremendously fun time or an absolute slog. Sometimes, they can even be a little bit of both depending on the company. Of course, it's unlikely that any of us have attended a wedding that also has a superhero present, as well as a supervillain — though chances are strong that some of us have seen a fight or two at what is supposed to be the happiest day of someone's life. The latest episode of "She-Hulk: Attorney at Law" sees Jennifer Walters (Tatiana Maslany) excited to be a bridesmaid for a friend from high school, and she looks forward to showing up as her She-Hulk persona.
Unfortunately, her green visage isn't exactly received well by the bride-to-be, who complains that Jen's She-Hulk form is distracting from her, giving viewers the sense that said bride is in fact, a bridezilla. This continues throughout the episode as Jen's friend and bride-to-be Lulu (Patti Harrison) gives her menial tasks, like ironing shirts and cleaning up. The episode ends with She-Hulk engaged in a quick altercation with Titania (Jameela Jamil), and a look into a secret online community of internet trolls. Despite the wildly inconsistent interactions at this wedding, Lulu manages to come of as a bit of a handful. So why does Lulu look so familiar?
Harrison appears as a boutique employee in Broad City
Perhaps the first place viewers may have recognized Patti Harrison from is a brief role on Comedy Central's "Broad City." This particular show follows Abbi (Abbi Jacobson) and Ilana (Ilana Wexler) as they wrangle with big city living in New York City. The show is propelled forward with the humor and carefree attitude of the two friends. Harrison appears in a single scene as an unamed Anthropologie employee in the 2017 episode "Bedbugs." Her scene starts with Abbi seeking employment at the fancy shop, and she confidently asks Harrison's character to speak with the manager, and Harrison complies with a warm smile on her face.
Speaking with Interview Magazine in 2021, Harrison was asked a series of rapid fire questions, and she made her opinions known about being caught in a leading role by saying, "Leading roles suck a**. It's too much work. They want you to remember all the lines, they want you to be there every day, they want you to be respectful. It was so different from what I'd been doing before, which is a lot of little character drop-in parts."
Harrison made an impression in Search Party
The next place people may remember Patti Harrison from is the grimly humored "Search Party," which is also set in New York City. "Search Party" stars Alia Shawat, John Reynolds, John Early, Meredith Hagner, and Brandon Michael Hall, and ran for five seasons. "Search Party" tells a story that quickly escalates from a simple case of a missing person, to a media frenzy involving murder, and finally to the main characters establishing a cult. The show is full of black humor and it proved to be a huge hit with critics, holding a 96% critic rating on Rotten Tomatoes.
According to IMDb, Harrison appears in Season 2 as the character of Renee. The episodes in which she appears are "Denial," "Hysteria," and "Psychosis." Acting as a worker in a political campaign office, Harrison's character isn't one of the major players of "Search Party," but her role is still memorable enough to have been remembered by people on Reddit.
In an interview with Oberlin Review, Harrison spoke about she got into comedy by saying, "When I started improv, it was just to have fun and meet people because I was in the fine art school at the time. And I wanted to do something with design or graphic design or something, but I wasn't really sure. Then I started taking film and theater classes. But I didn't necessarily know if comedy was the way to go. And then as I did improv comedy, I really loved performing and I was trying to figure out if improv was something that I could do as a career or at least to supplement a career."
Harrison's plays a snarky receptionist in Shrill
Appearing in 16 episodes of the Hulu-based comedy "Shrill," Patti Harrison lends her hilarious talents as a character known as Ruthie. "Shrill" predominately is about Annie Easton (Aidy Bryant), a young woman who gets her dream job as a journalist. It is quickly established that Annie feels self conscious about her weight, but she quickly steels herself to make some positive changes in her life, but she doesn't want to change the way she looks. Bubbly and optimistic, Annie's newfound outlook on life creates several waves of change that affect many of the people around her.
Harrison's character, Ruthie, acts as a receptionist at Annie's place of employment, and her biting comments form the basis of her personality. In an interview with Vanity Fair, Harrison was asked about a Ruthie-centric episode involving her character's birthday, and she said, "As someone who plays this character and is deeply embedded in the mythos of the show and knows almost everything there is to know about the show, I truly don't ******* know." Laughing, she continued, "My hypothesis is that she wanted to look like Cher and she wanted to have really long hair like Cher. I think she's kind of got the brain of a wasp. Not like, white Anglo-Saxon. I'm talking about an actual insect, a wasp. I don't think she thinks too far ahead."
Harrison stars in a movie opposite of Ed Helms called Together Together
Patti Harrison's next major role is in a movie alongside "The Daily Show" and "The Office" alumni Ed Helms — the 2021 film "Together Together." Yet another comedy outing for Harrison, this film is about the middle-aged Matt (Helms) wanting a baby without the entanglements of a relationship, while Anna (Harrison) is a young pregnant woman who doesn't want a kid — Anna would prefer going to college and establishing a high powered career. A deal is worked out that is satisfactory for both: Anna will get paid for carrying the baby to term, while Matt gets to start a family. However, their seemingly platonic relationship soon develops into something more.
Speaking with Vogue, Harrison was asked what it was like to work with Helms in "Together Together," and she replied, "It was the best. He's very, very smart and thoughtful and pensive. He's so good at really turning up those kind of absurd or slapstick reactions, so it was very surreal to be literally acting with him and doing, like, emotional scene work."
Harrison is a social media manager in The Lost City
Besides her most recent appearance in "She-Hulk: Attorney at Law," Patti Harrison was most recently featured in the 2022 movie "The Lost City." Starring Sandra Bullock, Channing Tatum, Brad Pitt, and Daniel Radcliffe, "The Lost City" is about the popular romance writer Loretta Sage (Bullock), who is essentially kidnapped by the erratic and obsessive billionaire Abigail Fairfax (Radcliffe) because he believes that Loretta's fictional series actually contains clues to a real life treasure. Harrison plays the role of Allison, who is the social media manager for Loretta.
In one of our exclusive interviews, Harrison let us know that her character in "The Lost City" was hard to play by saying, "Social media has distorted everything in our society and in our world. So, to play a character who so strongly believes in social media as a valuable tool was a very dark, emotionally violent experience for me — and I'll never do it again — I can never re-enter that character. It was very Joker-esque experience, very [Val] Kilmer playing the guy from 'The Doors.' It was really hard." Harrison definitely has a wheelhouse involving comedy, and chances are, we will be seeing much more of her in the future. Just don't go to one of her characters' weddings!