Kathryn Hahn Breaks Down Her Career, from 'Bad Moms' to 'WandaVision'

It sounded so ambitious and so unlike

anything I had heard that Marvel had ever done.

I couldn't quite see it.

But, the artists involved were so incredible.

And I was like, Let's go.

Like, it just felt like a dive

into like an ocean of who knows.

[upbeat music]

I'm Kathryn Hahn and this is the timeline of my career.

Andie Anderson, Benjamin Barry, please come in.

Hi, welcome.

It was like a long audition process.

I was still in Crossing Jordan.

This was during the hiatus, I believe.

It worked out perfectly.

I had to do a couple auditions first

with the casting director, then with the producers.

And then finally, there was like a chemistry read with Kate.

I can't remember whose office it was,

but it was at Paramount, which was like a huge deal

to have to like go through those hallowed gates, for me.

I felt like I was in like, you know, one of The Player.

Like, I couldn't believe I was, like,

driving through with my, like, Honda.

Like, I found the space.

Like someone was like, Right here.

Like, there was a space like for me.

Like, the whole thing was like, this is bananas.

And I went in. I met Kate.

I was like, you know, when you first meet a star,

you're like, so out of body

because you're like, I've seen you so many times

so many other places, and you're like.

And she was so lovely.

Andie, that wasn't the Chinese.

It's Mike.

Mike.

Yeah, what do we do? What do I do?

Talk to him.

We started the audition and my cell phone rang,

and I was like, kind of ignored it.

And then I thought I had turned it off,

and then it happens again.

We were doing the therapist scene.

And I picked it up, it was my friend Patrick,

who was like, What the fuck is going on?

And I was like, I tried to like make a joke with him

about like, I'm sorry, I'm in the middle of a session.

And I like hung up the phone.

And they kind of like very politely laughed.

But, I tried to make it a part of the scene.

Oh my God.

But I guess it worked, I mean, clearly.

But that was like actor no-no 101.

The fact that my cell phone was, like,

on the couch next to me is like also an indication

of how out of body I was at that audition.

I think this whole plan sounds a little immature.

Oh God, I am so relieved.

Me too.

I was thinking that the whole time.

I mean, what kind of man is gonna sit around

in his bathrobe all day, picking his nose

while his wife goes

out and works? I don't know, Shep.

That was the dreamiest

because here was a big budget in Connecticut.

It was the detail and the crafts,

just on a production level, were just, I was in awe.

You would go into that house.

And you would, like, I just remember the feeling

of like opening up drawers and seeing, like,

period silverware in there,

and everything that you'd possibly want.

Like you, I just felt like enveloped in the experience

of being in that age,

and in that area, in that neighborhood.

And also, the actors that I was around,

I was so inspired by their choices.

Michael Shannon, Kate Winslet, David Harbour

who played my husband, Leonardo DiCaprio,

and then Sam Mendes, I just, he came from the theater.

So, it was a way of feeling like, Oh right,

I can bring my whole, there's not like my theater self,

and my film and TV self.

Like, I can have that experience as one.

That was the beginning of that learning process for me.

I didn't have to, like, tap dance and stand on my mark.

Like, I could connect the both.

And that was the same time I did Step Brothers,

which was like a complete tone shift.

But, it also felt the same in a different way.

Like muscularly, it felt like I was able

to have this kind of anarchic feeling

while on camera that I didn't think I was able

to have beforehand.

Hi, I'm Alice. I'm Derek's wife.

Hi.

Is it true that you struck Derek in the face

and he fell from the tree house?

Yeah, he asked me to.

Oh, that's the most amazing thing I've ever heard.

I want you to know that tonight I am gonna pleasure myself

to the image of you doing that to Derek.

Adam McKay wrote an incredible script.

And we would do it once as written

and then we would go off.

And sometimes it would have zero to do

with any story that was on the page.

And I mean, John C. Reilly and I,

our story could have been so much darker

than what was ultimately on camera.

Hi, my name is Jim.

Wanna suck my dick for money? No!

It's just me. Oh my God.

Hi.

This is the men's bathroom.

Happy anniversary.

It's our second date. What?

In our bathroom scene, we had planned a murder

and a coverup as a way to, you know,

it got real dark, some of those improvs.

But, Adam really did allow us to go there.

I think that's why I keep using the word anarchy,

because it really felt that way.

And the pleasure, and the trust,

and the faith that he gave us as performers

to be able to, like, jump off that cliff was so thrilling,

and that feeling of like, like I just wanted it,

I just felt very greedy for it and the work to come.

Like, that was the feeling that I really wanted more of,

was that feeling that like you could do takes that were,

like, oh.

And then, but that was

because then you knew that there was something maybe

on the other side that was gonna be, like,

you had to get through that thing that was shit city

to find something that was like magic on the other side.

And that was a real, real thrill.

Do you know Joe Biden?

He's on my celebrity sex list.

Well, he is my celebrity sex list.

Trust me, you can do better than Joe.

No, I don't think- It's crazy to think

about Jen Barkley now,

or at least like years after that show wrapped,

and like who we got to see in Washington emerge

during that last administration.

Yeah, she was kind of modeled

on a bunch of different humans,

but I would say it would be the person

that just didn't even give a shit about any party.

It's just about money and power.

So, her loyalty was nowhere but just winning.

Mike Schur and those writers were pretty prescient,

if that's the word, in terms of what was around the corner,

just so crazy.

They're still some of my dearest pals

in the world are those women.

And I think Mike and that writing staff, like,

were able to write so brilliantly

to each character strength.

It was like you would open it up and it was like, of course.

Like, it was so perfect for each person.

And I remember the dance parties that would take place

in the hair and makeup trailer after every lunch,

before hair and makeup touch-ups,

that Amy would spearhead.

She was such a fabulous number one on a call sheet.

Yeah, the fact that like we're still dear pals is such

a testament to that group of humans.

They made me feel so welcome.

Still no sex.

I've lost count, six months?

That's a long time.

You know, I feel like there's

a lot of couples that probably go through dry spells.

Not healthy couples, no.

First of all, I saw myself so deeply in Rachel.

And the making of it, which was kind of like a,

I think a three-week period, six-day weeks,

we shot it maybe a couple blocks

from where I lived in Silver Lake.

We ended up using my minivan

because the car that they had rented couldn't fit

the camera equipment.

So like, I would find like PowerBar rappers

and like crinkled water bottles in my back,

you know, the trunk for weeks after.

And I'd be like, like it was just such,

it felt the closest I had felt

to like the magic of doing theater

with an ensemble that I had felt since school.

Like, it was the deepest dive

in the shortest amount of time.

Like, we just dove right into it.

And it just felt like play.

It was like this,

it was the smallest, like, Jimmy Frohna, our DP

who went on to do Transparent and I Love Dick,

he just was there to catch it.

Like, we weren't there for him. He was there for us.

So, it just felt like it was so performance first.

Like it was like, just felt like a shift.

It was just a new way of working on camera.

So it just, all the crew and the cast felt like we were,

the intention was set all together.

And it was a beautiful, beautiful filmmaking experience.

They're the ones that tell you things like,

Oh baby, I'm gonna be the one that gets to see for real.

I'm gonna help get you down off of this pole.

Blah, blah, blah.

We call them Captain Save Us.

Captain Save Us, that's hilarious.

Internally, as an actor, it was a game changer for me

as to what I could do on camera

and what I was like capable of, I think.

So now, I've got just crunchy, crispy, old lady eggs.

Just, it's like a-

Yes, I definitely needed a guide

since I was raised Catholic.

I was a recovering Catholic.

She hooked me up with a rabbi,

Susan Goldberg, who is incredible and still a friend,

and a special, magical, brilliant being.

And we, you know, I knew I never would be able

to become a rabbi or know all of the knowledge.

Like, I never would even pretend to be able to do that.

But, Rabbi Susan was a dancer.

She's a mother.

She's like a lot of other things besides rabbi.

And so, I was able to kind of absorb her stillness,

and her eye contact, and her centeredness,

which is like not my natural rhythm or my motor.

♪ So listen up, bubbies, 'cause I've got news ♪

♪ You can't run away from your sadness ♪

♪ It'll find you ♪

♪ It's always right behind you ♪

It was presented to all of us as like a workshop

over the summer in New York City,

just to see like, as an experiment, if it was possible,

like what it would feel like.

We started hearing the music that Faith had written

and it was like, okay, there is something here

that feels right, because after all that

the show had gone through.

And it felt very joyful.

And it felt like words weren't possible.

And it felt like there was

the only way out was through singing.

It just made sense.

Like there was, like, talking wasn't possible.

Like, words or just language wasn't gonna cut it.

And so, we all just followed Joey and Faith's lead

in diving into this grand experiment.

And wanted to leave it on this beautiful, you know,

high note, no pun intended,

but just like with a big number,

rather than like a down beat chord.

I will forever be so proud that this show was able

to somewhat normalize, and make visible,

and humanize the trans community

for people that maybe had never had a chance to meet,

or see, or just have an experience with a trans person.

And that to me is just like, you know,

always storytelling is an empathy machine.

I will forever ever be proud

to have been a part of something that did that.

So, where are they now?

Outside by the chicken coops.

How are they? Don't answer that, I don't care.

I love horror as a genre. I'm a huge horror fan.

I loved the scale of this movie.

I knew it was so teeny tiny.

I also felt like the emotional story

in it so loud and clear.

I love that it was like a Hansel and Gretel type fairy tale.

It was really cold, though, in Philadelphia.

Felt like a very family, in-house production.

Like, he's a fiercely loyal person.

So like, that crew, like a lot of those people,

like he'd worked with like since Sixth Sense.

Like, it felt like I was walking into a family

that he'd worked with for years, and years,

and years, and years.

Barely any sets, like it was like basically that house

and then a couple of other scenes in a townhouse.

And then the cruise ship, which was hilarious.

We had a couple of scenes that we had to shoot of me

on a cruise ship where we had to do it

while it was deboarding and before it was boarded again.

So we had, like, a very short amount of time

to do it before it took off.

So fun.

I mean, I really wanted to,

that was always a bucket list thing

to be in a horror movie.

♪ Did she find some marijuana ♪

I don't want any.

I Love Dick came about because Joey and I,

I think between seasons of Transparent,

were thinking of something to do together.

And there were a couple things

on the table that seemed really interesting.

And this one had been in the adaptation process

with a amazing playwright from Chicago named Sarah Gubbins.

The source material by Chris Kraus is so gorgeous

and such required reading, I think.

I was so turned on by the idea of jumping into this

because I knew it would feel so uncomfortable to jump

into a woman whose whole being is just want,

unapologetically, without shame, you know, without any sort

of pause, or like embarrassment, or like, you know.

She embarrasses herself over and over again.

Like it's, you know, from the outside, it's like, oh.

But like from the inside, she's just going for it.

And I was excited about jumping into that,

and to work with Kevin Bacon,

and the delicious Griffin Dunne,

this amazing cast in Marfa.

It was a really hard place to be in as an actor.

And it was a real thrilling creative endeavor.

Is it fun being a single mom?

Yes! I go to the casino. Yeah.

You know, I'm learning karate now.

Plus, I have like a stable of hot dudes.

Call right up whenever I want some D in my V.

I mean, I think any actor would say this

is there is a part of every part that's aspirational,

every single one of them.

Like all of these, I wish I had her chutzpah.

Carla was just fabulous to play.

I mean, we would always joke,

I felt like I was in Avatar getting ready for Carla,

in the hair and makeup trailer.

Like it took so long, but it was so fun.

And to have that amount of confidence felt very powerful.

It was really, really fun.

It's because we love our kids,

because we love our stupid, selfish,

ungrateful, little shit faces, that's why.

We love them so much that we would do literally anything

for them.

You know, I feel like it was like, again,

like it was like an aspirational thing,

like to have that amount of like fuck you

as like a mom was like, who gets to do that?

So, it felt very much like for the mothers.

And that was really fun.

Having a baby's an immoral act,

overpopulation, climate change, rise of neo-fascism.

Did you take your Valium? Yes. Why?

I loved this part so much.

I wanted it with all of my heart.

It was a big leap of faith for her to cast me because,

you know, I didn't have a lot of big,

huge stuff under my belt.

And I knew this part, I just knew her,

and I knew I could, I just knew her.

I flew to New York and back in the same day to meet Tamara.

We had rosé and a cheese and charcuterie plate.

Wine was definitely spilled. We just chattered nonstop.

I fell madly in love.

I'm forever grateful for being able to be a part of it

because this was one of the most special of my career,

for sure.

Well, this experience and working with Giamatti.

Giamatts, I love him so madly, and Kayli Carter.

Yeah, this was a really special one for me.

It really is a biological bummer that we are told

over and over again that it's possible to have kids,

to have babies later and later,

when it's actually like quite difficult,

and that our most fertile years are,

like, our most money-making years.

It's sucks.

I just kept thinking of all the women that had

to go through it.

And that Tamara was able to tell that story with humor

and grace, it was like a real tiny thread hole in a needle.

So, I was very impressed

with the writing of it and all of it.

Hey, do you remember we used

to use to drive this way every Saturday morning

on the way to hockey practice?

Do you remember? Remember how freezing it was?

And it would always still be dark when we got there.

You hated that.

Remember you were so happy when I quit.

Oh God. I was thrilled.

First of all, it's Tom Perrotta.

You know, I think his work always lends itself

to such incredible adaptations.

And I was curious that he was curious about this.

There is something about this chapter

of a woman's life being always kind of like shrouded

in this invisibility.

Like, you know, once she has kids

and once like the kids leave the house,

that like her life just becomes kind of like over.

And I was excited about exploring that it's not,

like that there's so much more life,

and that a lot of that life includes her sexuality.

I was excited about that

and the duality of trying to raise a son

in this age of internet porn.

And that a kid is learning so much about sex and intimacy

from their devices is also something that's like.

And then you throw that kid in a college

and then you expect them to know

about consent and what sex looks like.

And all that stuff was just like, felt very fertile,

no pun intended, as material.

Look, it's the star of the show.

Agnes!

I'm sorry, what did you say?

Oh, I brought my pet rabbit for your magic act.

This is something I never saw coming.

I went in for a general, like,

I had no idea what it was for.

Like, it was just to kind of say hi and with no expectation.

And those usually lead to nothing,

or something like years down the line.

Like, I had no idea.

But I always knew that if I were ever

to be in a Marvel stitch,

the best thing would be to be a villain.

You know, those are always like, in my mind,

the coolest parts.

And I had played Doc Ock, Into the Spider-Verse,

which I love that movie.

For this, they call me back like two or three days later

with an offer for this show, this series,

to meet with Matt Shakman, the director,

and Jac Schaeffer, the writer,

and Mary Livanos, the producer.

They had the whole series laid out.

They had Agatha Harkness, the comics of her.

So, I knew then that what I was being pitched was

a centuries-old witch that touches on a lot of,

in a lot of different places in the Marvel universe.

And she had been so many things to Wanda,

and to a lot of other people in the Marvel universe.

But in this case, she would be like the antagonist

to Wanda and would have her own theme song.

And I was like, What?

And that it would take place over different decades

as Wanda was kind of working through her grief.

And once we got to see to, like, the rehearsal process,

and starting to work on the 50s episode,

which we shot in front of a live audience,

and we started to dig into the old sitcoms together.

And then, I started to have the fittings,

and I started to, then it started to feel

like something was being made that felt very singular

and very special.

Because even the like integrity of each decade,

there was something that was boiling underneath

which felt like so fun.

Like I knew, like, because I knew where I was going,

we all knew where we were headed, like, that made

the integrity of each decade so much more fun.

Like, it was really a special ride.

And that Kevin Feige really did give us,

like, such free rein, and that this was his idea.

Like, it was a very unexpected and like an incredible ride.

So hard, so worth it.

You have no idea how dangerous you are.

You're supposed to be a myth,

a being capable of spontaneous creation.

Here you are using it to make breakfast for dinner.

We shot that episode full-on pandemic,

like a hundred-and-something degrees.

And it was a whole team that built her, you know.

Like that was like costumes, you know,

my amazing wardrobe person, Beth.

She would have to type to my kids

because I couldn't deal with my phone.

Like, it was so ironic that this is the moment

in which I'm supposed to feel like the most powerful.

And I felt so helpless because it couldn't do anything.

But, it was actually like the first time I was like

lifted up on those wires,

saw all the humans that were like responsible

for like getting it together,

like I really almost burst into tears

because it was such a journey.

And I was filled with such gratitude of the collaboration.

It was such a metaphor for making movies and making TV.

It's like, doesn't happen in a vacuum.

It just really does take a whole circus,

like, to put it together.

So, it was a really moving day actually.