Actress Kathryn Hahn has had a fascinating career. “I think I was the best friend first, then the randy crazy lady,” she told the Guardian in 2015. And perhaps in another alternate universe, Hahn is still the go-to girl gal pal bestie in romantic comedies (2003’s “How to Lose a Guy in 10 Days,” 2004’s “Win a Date with Tad Hamilton!,”) or the outrageous supporting character, in breakthrough comedy roles in Adam McKay films like “Anchorman: The Legend of Ron Burgundy,” “Step Brothers,” or David Wain’s “Wanderlust.” But along the way, stealing scenes in films like Sam Mendes‘ “Revolutionary Road” or Lena Dunham’s “Girls,” Hahn’s potential started to flourish and filmmakers took notice of her humanity and innate vulnerability. The ridiculous screwball comedy roles began to transition to lead turns, and they became a career now replete with complex, sensual and funny portrayals of female desire, identity, and longing.
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The breakthrough was her first lead performance in 2013’s underrated and overlooked Sundance dramedy, “Afternoon Delight” by director Jill Soloway. And as much as the film was mildly received at the time (its genius still holds up), its ideas of a deep-rooted yearning to be seen, loved, wanted, desired, and more than just a wife, mother, or supporting character in a man’s story, have inadvertently become the kind of blueprint for her second act golden age of sophisticated lead roles.
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Hahn became something of a muse for Soloway, who brought her on board to the critically acclaimed, “Transparent” on Amazon (2014–2019). The supporting role, however brimming with life, was almost unable to contain Hahn’s crackling moment and so Soloway quickly created the short-lived “I Love Dick” (2017) series for her, once again giving Hahn the spotlight in the star turn of a woman on the verge of either a nervous breakdown or the precipice of wondrous discovery (sadly, “I Love Dick” was canceled after one season which remains one of the biggest tragedies in the history of Amazon’s TV programming; we named it one of the Best TV Series Of The Last Decade).
Since then, she’s been given much room to play around in with similarly contradictory and complicated characters: one half of a middle-aged married desperate to get pregnant in Tamara Jenkins‘ “Private Life,” and last fall, the lead in HBO’s “Mrs. Fletcher” from writer Tom Perrotta (“Election,” “Little Children“) and director Nicole Holofcener, about an empty nester mom who discovers pornography and her burgeoning second-wind sexuality once her son goes off to college. She’s also been able to dip her toe back into the “randy crazy lady” genre with the “Bad Moms” franchise too.
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But Hahn’s moment seems to be being the muse for many female filmmakers and a conduit slash proxy for their complex perspectives of female agency for women in their forties and struggling with the identity and role society wants to shackle them in.
Hahn’s latest two roles are as disparate as can be. One, as the ex-wife of Mark Ruffalo in Derek Cianfrance’s aching portrayal of broken families and family legacy, “I Know This Much Is True,” and Apple TV+’s animated show, “Central Park” from the same team that brought you “Bob’s Burgers.” Our hour-long Deep Focus podcast chat weaved through all of the above, but also discussed things like some of her favorite genres and films (movies by David Lynch, Krzysztof Kieslowski, Bruno Dumont, and more), her comedy to drama transition, the children’s book she wrote and even a little tease about Marvel’s “WandaVision,” a Disney+ series that she’s hoping will resume shooting later this summer. This one was a deep dive into the career and I hope you enjoy the conversation.
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