This post contains mild spoilers for Shrill season two.

Never turn your back on Ruthie, the deliciously malevolent character Patti Harrison plays in the Hulu dramedy Shrill. She might steal your things, or go through your trash, or sneak up on you simply because “scaring people makes me horny,” as she declares in an episode of the show’s second season, which premiered Friday.

In the series, based on Lindy West’s memoir, Ruthie is the cruel office assistant to Gabe (John Cameron Mitchell)—and an all-around agent of chaos. She’s played with incredible deadpan panache by Harrison, a comedic rising star who’s written for Big Mouth and landed roles in every hip dramedy of note, from Search Party to High Maintenance. She’s also set to star in the upcoming film Togetherish as a surrogate for a single guy (Ed Helms) who wants to have a child.

Though Ruthie is a supporting player in Shrill, the role was written specifically with Harrison in mind—and starts to expand in season two, with more of the character’s backstory coming to the fore. In an interview with Vanity Fair, Harrison, who is trans, spoke about why Ruthie formally decides to come out this season, as well as her outré wardrobe dreams and why Shrill is actually just like Mr. & Mrs. Smith.

Vanity Fair: We learned so much about Ruthie’s backstory this season. Like, that detail about her being a veteran has become canon.

Patti Harrison: That was truly a line I ad-libbed in the first season. I thought it would be funny if she was a veteran, and they were like, yeah, love that.

Even though she’s kind of a chaotic coworker, she has really keen perceptive abilities. She has these skills.

It’s like in Mr. & Mrs. Smith, when they’re trying to figure out if [they’re both spies]. And then he [Brad Pitt] knocks a bottle of wine off the table, and she [Angelina Jolie] catches it. And that’s what triggers their big gun fight in the house.

A legendary scene. Shrill is like Mr. & Mrs. Smith, absolutely.

The show is actually plagiarized, completely plagiarized—which I think is morally wrong. But that’s what [Alexandra Rushfield, the show producer] and Lindy West wanted.

I know this is a tangent, but where do you fall on the whole Brad and Jen thing?

The more I get involved in this industry, the more I realize how evil the world is for wanting any involvement in the lives of these crazy, crazy people. Everyone’s crazy. It’s just, like, hot people! I truly don’t care.

That’s a good cultural critique. We shouldn’t care!

Well, I think it’s fun to care. It’s fun to gossip and stuff. But once it’s millions of people—the scale of that, I think, is more damaging to the health of the people that are getting speculated about. And also, I guess, the health of the people who are speculating. [But] I mean honestly, if they didn’t like being famous, sometimes I think they would have stopped doing it a long time ago. If they really didn’t like it, they could have us all killed by Amazon drones in like 20 seconds, I’m sure. We owe them our lives.

Back to Ruthie. The closest thing we get to a full-on Ruthie episode is the one with her birthday party. Why does Ruthie want a ’70s-themed party?