Over the course of her uniquely unpredictable three-decade career, Kathryn Hahn has brought her trademark wit to a host of genres: crime procedurals (“Crossing Jordan”), horror (“The Visit”), ensemble comedies (“Step Brothers”). , “Bad Moms”) and existential dramas (“Tiny Beautiful Things,” “Mrs. Fletcher”).
But in the Disney+ series “Agatha All Along,” Hahn draws on all the disparate threads of her work to play the perfidious, power-hungry witch Agatha Harkness. It's a role that finds Hahn, lately known for playing messy anti-heroines, at the peak of her powers.
“At the end of the show, I was doing hair and makeup at the end of the day and saying, 'Well, this is my last job as an actor,' because I felt like I had the opportunity to do it all. But it really reopened my hunger and my love for acting,” Hahn says in a recent interview. “I feel like this is exactly the role I'm supposed to play in this period of my life.”
Although he had watched live-action Marvel movies with his two children and voiced Doc Ock in “Spider-Man: Into the Spiderverse,” Hahn never expected to join the MCU full time. But in 2019, shortly after an all-hands meeting with Marvel executives, Hahn was approached about the high-concept limited series “WandaVision,” a predecessor to “Agatha All Along.” In “WandaVision,” she would play Agatha, the nosy neighbor of Wanda Maximoff (Elizabeth Olsen) and Vision (Paul Bettany). It is eventually revealed that Agatha has a secret identity.
Kathryn Hahn says she and “Agatha All Along” creator Jac Schaeffer wanted to maintain the “biting, sarcastic and self-centered” demeanor of her “WandaVision” character in the Disney+ spinoff series.
(Chuck Zlotnick/Marvel)
“WandaVision” creator Jac Schaeffer’s desire to pay homage to classic sitcoms in a meditation on grief intrigued Hahn, who recognized parts of her naturally performative younger self in Agatha. And who wouldn't want to play a centuries-old shape-shifting witch?
Like his character, Hahn has gained power over time. When she was in her 20s and 30s, Hahn remembers being told that the roles she was offered would gradually diminish, if not when she became a mother, then at least when she reached middle age. That attitude toward female artists has begun to change in recent years, and Hahn has joined a growing number of women who now produce and star in their own projects.
“I feel that the work I have been able to do after having children and after my 40s has been the most satisfying since I did theater in the past. “I've felt more relaxed and excited and not so afraid of doing something wrong, but very confident in the decisions I'm making,” says Hahn, who believes that women's lives actually get richer with age. “I think audiences want to see juicy, complicated, not-young women all the time — no offense to the amazing young women in our business.”
In the summer of 2021, a few months after the successful premiere of “WandaVision,” Hahn learned that Schaeffer was developing a continuation of Agatha's story. In their early conversations, Hahn and Schaeffer knew they wanted to maintain the character's “biting, sarcastic, and self-absorbed” demeanor while also placing her in a position where she reluctantly needs to form a coven to walk the legendary “Walk.” of Witches” and claim their rights. the power that Wanda had stripped from him at the end of “WandaVision.”
(Emil Ravelo/For The Times)
In the process, “Agatha” serves as a sort of origin story for the evil witch. The show reveals that Agatha's nihilistic malevolence stems from her tortured relationship with her mother, who told her she was inherently and irredeemably evil and tried to kill her with her own coven. She also feels tremendous shame and guilt for not being able to save her son, Nicky, whose life she had tried to prolong by killing other witches. A master at communicating inner turmoil with a single charged glance, Hahn is able to offer gripping, if fleeting, windows into Agatha's vulnerability.
Recently persuaded by her teenage daughter, Mae, to join social media, Hahn refrains from reading the comments. So aside from posts sent to her or that she finds on her timeline, she “fortunately” doesn't know how fans have reacted. “But I do know how proud we are of it and how subversive and radical it feels to have an ending, especially a big Marvel show, to be so small and cute and have this little beating heart,” he says.
Speaking again on the phone a few days after the end of “Agatha,” which ends with Agatha sacrificing her life and agreeing to act as a sort of spiritual guide for Wanda’s son, Billy aka Wiccan (Joe Locke), as he searches for his twin. missing. brother: Hahn insists he hasn't had conversations yet about his future in the MCU.
“Even though Billy/Wiccan is obviously not her son now, there is some kind of hope for her that maybe she can do for him what she couldn't do for Nicky. I think they make a great team. Of course, I love this part and I love Joe Locke so much, and we'll see what the future holds,” Hahn says. “In my opinion, this was a beautiful and satisfying way to say goodbye to this incredible character that I got to play.”
