ARI SHAPIRO, HOST:
Every week, a famous guest draws a card from our Wild Card deck and answers a big question about their life. Kathryn Hahn often steals the show in supporting roles, like in "Step Brothers" or "Parks And Recreation." Now she's starring in the Disney+ series "Agatha All Along." She plays the witch Agatha Harkness. And Hahn says her character gives in to impulses that women don't always get to express.
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KATHRYN HAHN: You can just be big with your emotions. You can be angry. You can take up as much space as you need. You can be, like - not that I would be casually cruel, but to be able to play that is just, like, selfish - all the stuff.
SHAPIRO: Here's Wild Card host Rachel Martin.
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RACHEL MARTIN: OK. One, two or three?
HAHN: One.
MARTIN: One. What life transition has been challenging?
HAHN: Oof. Well, I was going to say the one I'm in right now. This particular chapter in a woman's life, into the next portal - like, through the next portal where, you know, she's not as fertile in the literal sense - is - has been a very unexpectedly challenging time, because, like...
MARTIN: We're talking about menopause.
HAHN: Yes.
MARTIN: Yeah.
HAHN: Pausing the moon. But, like, you know, and no one talks about it, so you kind of walk into it blind. So I was like, oof. Do I feel like myself? Like, who is this? Like, who's coming? Like, who's coming through right now? Like, I - my moods, my, like...
MARTIN: Right. And how much of it is you and how much of it is the thing?
HAHN: Is the hormones?
MARTIN: Yeah, you don't know.
HAHN: Yeah, I know. You know, now, and I think somewhat this show is also kind of a metaphor for that, of, like, you know, breaking through as a woman to find your power, looking for your power...
MARTIN: Yeah.
HAHN: ...At the end of the road. Not that this menopause is the end of the road, but the end of the road of what we have...
MARTIN: One version of you, yeah.
HAHN: One version.
MARTIN: I imagine for actors in Hollywood it is doubly complicated because you start getting people - the producers see you in a different light. And you're - to them, you're losing your power, you're losing your virility, your sexuality or charisma or something. And this doesn't feel like that. This feels like an affirmation. This role feels like an affirmation of those things.
HAHN: A hundred percent.
MARTIN: Yeah.
HAHN: And I, though, because my currency in this business wasn't my sex appeal, I feel like I've been able to just kind of walk into more complicated parts. And I am eternally grateful for that. Like, I really don't feel powerless. I feel, like, actually more powerful than I did in my 20s or early 30s in this business. I definitely feel - I have more control over my choices.
MARTIN: Yeah. Yeah.
HAHN: I have more say. I'm definitely not as afraid to say it (laughter), which is really freeing.
MARTIN: Yeah.
HAHN: And so it does. It feels like more - and I think that's why this part is so deep. Like, to be able to do this at this stage in my hopefully long career as a performer...
MARTIN: Yeah.
HAHN: ...Like, this is really exciting.
SHAPIRO: To hear more from that conversation with Kathryn Hahn, follow the Wild Card podcast.
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