Kathryn Hahn hadn’t read Cheryl Strayed’s “Tiny Beautiful Things” book before signing on for the Hulu limited series. But she knew from the moment she got to know the main character that she wanted the role.
Clare is a writer whose life is in shambles – her marriage is in the wrong place, she’s still mourning the death of her mother, and she’s struggling to connect with her teenage daughter. When a former colleague offers her to become Sugar, a popular and anonymous columnist, she reluctantly takes a chance.
“Clare doesn’t know all the answers and is herself a work in progress, as we all are. It’s through her shame, her grief, and her depths of unworthiness that she finds that surprisingly awake and honest voice she doesn’t know she has. But I think it’s so pure and hilarious,” Hahn says. “It was impossible to say no.”
The series was filmed in Los Angeles, allowing Hahn to be close to his family — something that now goes into all of his choices. Now she can fully trust her instincts. But this has not always been the case.
“I couldn’t afford not to say no. I was auditioning for everything and it was like a game or a pinball machine – whatever ball went into whatever hole, that was the part I did,” she says. “There was no rhyme or reason. It was just like I was thrown into it, it was a yes… If it fits, I wear it. And it was just like, I’ll do it, I can’t pay for the edits.
She adds that “it was only very recently” that she found the luxury of being more picky. With ‘Agatha: Coven of Chaos’ around the corner, she knew she would be out of town for a while, so it’s important to stay close to home when she can.
Plus, Clare in “Tiny Beautiful Things” was a character she could tap into.
“I identify 100% with Clare and I think that’s why she was so difficult to play in so many ways,” she says. “It’s that feeling of trying to put a face to something that’s been really, really painful for so long. Everyone told her ‘she’s the right girl’ or ‘smile through it, smile through it. That’. At some point, the dam will inevitably break. The Jekyll and Hyde of it, being a woman, becomes impossible. For Clare, she gave this incredible outlet, which is this gift from this colleague that she had by asking him to write that anonymous letter. She manages to channel some of that and not many women have that opportunity.
Hahn feels blessed to have been given the opportunities she has — and there’s still a lot she wants to do as an actress. Moreover, she hopes to direct.
“I’m so inspired by the passion of young actors, especially in theater, that I can’t believe kids are going through school to become theater artists in this post-pandemic world. I want to do something with all these young humans who want to tell stories like that,” she said.
There are also “so many genres” Hahn wants to dive into: “I would love to do straight-up horror one way or another.”
A question posed in Hulu’s new series is “What would you say to yourself at 22?” For Hahn, the answer is quite simple: “I thought I was meant to be something – I was trying to be something this company of Hollywoodland wanted me to be, instead of just who I was. was. Not realizing that your authentic self is the thing that’s going to be the most attractive, that’s going to interest people the most. Don’t play with any frames. Just tell your story.
All episodes of “Tiny Beautiful Things” are now streaming on Hulu.