FOR KATHRYN HAHN, WANDAVISION WAS ‘A SURPRISINGLY DEEP EXPERIENCE’

The actress, who has earned her second Emmy nomination for the Disney+ limited series, reflects on a career that has seen her onstage and on screen — and live in front of a studio audience

For Kathryn Hahn, WandaVision Was ‘A Surprisingly Deep Experience’

The actress, who earned her second Emmy nom for the Disney+ limited series, reflects on a career that has seen her onstage and on screen — and live in front of a studio audience.

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athryn Hahn has been a much-admired actor’s actor for years. The 48-year-old wife and mother of two has done standout work in art house indies (Afternoon Delight, Private Life), in bigstudio comedies (Step Brothers, Bad Moms) and on Peak TV (Transparent, I Love Dick). But nobody — least of all her — imagined that this would lead her to the Marvel Cinematic Universe, as it did when she was cast as the nosy neighbor Agnes — who turns out to be more than meets the eye — on the Disney+ limited series WandaVision, for which she has received some of the best reviews of her career and her second Emmy nomination (after her first nom for Transparent; this year, she’s favored to win best supporting actress in a limited/ anthology series). She recently sat down for THR’s Awards Chatter podcast and reflected on improvising with Hollywood’s comedy Frat Pack and landing the role she was meant to play … all along.

Where were you born and raised, and what did your folks do for a living?

I was born outside of Chicago but raised in Cleveland Heights, a suburb on the east side of Cleveland. My mom was a stay-at-home mom until she started working in a Montessori School in an administrative capacity. My dad was in advertising, and then he had his own business called Ohio Computer Ribbon and Supply.

I know you started acting professionally at a very early age. Do you remember how you realized that acting was something that appealed to you?

My uncle Paul, who recently died, was really my shepherd into this world. He took me to see my first opera, which was Hansel and Gretel, the Engelbert Humperdinck opera. We all remember — anyone that has anything to do with the performing arts — that first feeling of being transported. I remember being blown away that Hansel was played by a girl, and by the Wicked Witch. I couldn’t understand the language but I knew, of course,