Kathryn Hahn

Episode notes

Photo Credit: Frazer Harrison/Getty Images

Kathryn Hahn on creating complex characters for women

Kathryn Hahn makes everything better.

Take your favorite television series or movie. Add Kathryn Hahn. Instantly better. Boom, you’re welcome!

She’s appeared in 2004’s Anchorman: The Legend of Ron Burgundy, in 2008’s hilarious Step Brothers as well as the HBO comedy miniseries Mrs. Fletcher. She played political whiz Jennifer Barkley in NBC’s Parks and Recreation as well as Rabbi Raquel Fein in the Amazon Prime comedy-drama Transparent. Be it comedy, drama or somewhere in between, she pretty much does it all!

She recently stole the show in the Marvel hit WandaVision on Disney+ as nosy neighbor Agnes. In fact, her character as well as her mysterious origin story was so popular that it sparked not only a meme that broke the internet but an entire theme song!

Marvel Studios

But growing up, Kathryn had no idea she wanted to be a comedic actor. A devout Catholic girl, she was more interested in benediction and the blood of Christ than punchlines and the dreaded “yes, and.” She landed her first television role as Lily Lebowski on the NBC series Crossing Jordan. The role was created specifically for her!

When she joined us in 2017 she was starring opposite Kevin Bacon in the Joey Soloway adaptation of the Chris Kraus novel, I Love Dick. The show is about a woman who moves from New York with her husband to small-town Texas and soon finds herself infatuated with a man named “Dick” played by Bacon. The series is an intimate look at female desire and a complex examination of womanhood.

Kathryn talks to Bullseye about tapping into her own obsessions to get into character, playing complicated women and how her children helped strengthen her creativity. Plus, she’ll tell us about that time she had a crush on Jesus Christ!

This interview originally aired in 2017.

In this episode...

Jesse Thorn

Host

Kevin Ferguson

Senior Producer

Jesus Ambrosio

Producer

Richard Robey

Maximum Fun Producer

Daniel Huecias

Maximum Fun Production Fellow

About the show

Bullseye is a celebration of the best of arts and culture in public radio form. Host Jesse Thorn sifts the wheat from the chaff to bring you in-depth interviews with the most revered and revolutionary minds in our culture.

Bullseye has been featured in Time, The New York Times, GQ and McSweeney’s, which called it “the kind of show people listen to in a more perfect world.” Since April 2013, the show has been distributed by NPR.

If you would like to pitch a guest for Bullseye, please CLICK HERE. You can also follow Bullseye on Twitter, YouTube, and Facebook. For more about Bullseye and to see a list of stations that carry it, please click here.