Kathryn Hahn is back in the Emmys hunt this year, nominated for her supporting turn as an overly on-trend marketing executive in Seth Rogen and Evan Goldberg’s comedy The Studio. It’s the kind of loud, big-swing comic performance that Hahn honed in the Adam McKay comedies of the 2000s, like Anchorman and Step Brothers—and then, as new opportunities cropped up, started moving away from. When she first stepped onto the set of The Studio, she quickly realized what she’d been missing: “This feeling is the best.”
Oh, David, listen: I’m not sick of it at all, because I am also really chomping at the bit. Obviously, I hope.
So we’re where we’ve been.
We’re literally where we’ve been. Definitely nothing has been forwarded to me, so who knows? I love that part, and I love Jac [Schaeffer] so much.
You’ve talked about the prime of your career arriving after you had your children. When I think of my favorite performances of yours—and what I feel like are the gutsiest, like Private Life or Tiny Beautiful Things—motherhood is so core to those texts. I have to imagine there’s some interweaving of life and work there, right?
I had been asked to do things with mostly women creator-filmmakers, with authorship about these projects. I felt that they saw it in me, what that moment in my life was. I hadn’t really felt like I was seen in those ways before. You really want to play with the people that want to play with you, and so whatever they saw in me that they recognized in themselves and in their work, it allowed for this emotional thinking that was essential.
For those projects, there was no other way to do them. Those parts and the juiciest time of my career happened after having kids, and now as my kids are much older, I look back at that, and I miss them. It’s weird. I miss that. I’m so grateful for it, but that was a lot of emotional time. It is an interesting thing for a mother to look back at the most successful time happening when her kids were that young. I have a lot of conflicting thoughts about it.
I couldn’t wait to throw my whole self into these parts. It was like the way I felt in school. The material seemed not of the mainstream, not what you would think a young mother would be doing. It is definitely not lost on me that that period of time happened to be when my kids were really young. It was very acutely raw.
It’s something you can feel watching those performances.
Yeah, for sure. Private Life, and also those incredible filmmakers, to be able to go through those journeys, which were so personal to them—I don’t want to say it’s a duty to fulfill, but it felt like, because that material was so raw, there was no choice. I love being able to ask those questions and live in that kind of uncertainty at a moment when I was feeling the same thing. That’s probably the answer to your question at the very beginning. [Laughs]
In these projects and others, you’ve so convincingly played filmmakers and writers—do you think about directing?
Yeah, for sure. I’ve felt very much like an actor for hire my whole life, David. I love acting. I couldn’t imagine, from the time I was born—there was never another option. Just like, I was an actor. I didn’t know how it was going to turn out. I didn’t know what it was going to look like. I certainly didn’t have whatever brand deals, anything. I just knew I was an actor. So the fact that this career has swung so wildly around is beyond my wildest dreams.
So a yes to directing, in short?
Oh, yeah. Oh my God, I forgot you asked. [Laughs] Yes, I would love to, if the right thing came along. Because I’m so inspired by these writer-directors, if it was something that I also could have written, that would be amazing.
I did want to ask you a little bit about David O. Russell’s Madden, which you just shot. There were some reports of on-set strife. What can you share about your experience on that film?
My experience was fantastic. I mean, just not knowing whatever, whatever—in the bubble of working with those incredible actors, it was like a dream. I loved working with Nic Cage.
How was David as a director? He’s known as a great actors’ director, but also an intense guy.
I would say both, yeah.
Got it. Are there other filmmakers you’d love to work again with?
I would love to work with Joey [Soloway] again. I would love to work with Tamara [Jenkins] again. My friend Lisa Cholodenko is incredible, and I’d love to work with her.
All people I’ve been eager for new stuff from!
I know! But you know what? So many of these humans won’t say anything unless they need to say it. And I agree with that.
This interview has been edited and condensed for clarity.
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The post Kathryn Hahn on Going Big for ‘The Studio’ and “Chomping at the Bit” for More ‘Agatha All Along’ appeared first on Vanity Fair.
