Since breaking onto the scene as the sad-sack sidekick in How to Lose a Guy in 10 Days, Kathryn Hahn has been making a name for herself as the stock “best friend” character. “I found a really happy niche for myself off in character world as the one with the wig and glasses basically,” Hahn told us by phone. In the past year, however, Hahn has had her own ugly-duckling transformation with a major arc on Amazon’s hit show Transparent and her upcoming turn in the new Showtime series Happyish. Created by This American Life contributor Shalom Auslander, Happyish follows Thom Payne (Steve Coogan), a 44-year-old ad exec who is facing his obsolescence in the age of the Internet. Hahn stars as Coogan’s wife, Lee, who struggles with her own pursuit of happiness. In episode two, she curses Carol Brady and unapologetically asks that no one, especially her nagging Jewish mother, intrude on her life (or as she puts it, “fucks with her bubble”). Ahead of Sunday’s premiere of Happyish, Hahn spoke with us about breaking out of the best-friend role, the surprise success of Transparent, and how getting older has helped her career.
You’ve played the sidekick many times over your career, but now your roles are becoming more prominent. What do you think brought about that shift?
Certainly when I was in my twenties, and in my thirties even, I didn’t feel—it’s probably an issue of self-esteem—I certainly didn’t feel like I could in any way compete with the beautiful faces [of Hollywood]. I was so grateful to just even be able to call myself a working actor at that point—like, I had been working at a hair salon before then—it was all fantastic but it certainly didn’t feel like I could bring my whole self to the table. It’s so weird, having kids, like, just gives you a big case of the fuck-its. . . . You just don’t think in the present [when you’re younger]. And now it just feels, like, I’m 41, I just want to spend my time doing work that asks more of me.
Do you feel like you’re breaking free of that character mold now?
Yeah, kind of, I am. And it doesn’t mean that I’m not so excited to go back and do big, awesome, dumb, studio comedy, but I think also, culturally, we seem to be asking for more. The quality is getting higher and higher, especially on television, and I feel like I’m just starting out, weirdly enough, in a place that is accepting of individuals and people with character. . . . You see the two big male comedy stars in a movie now and it seems a little tired.
Do you relate to Lee more than your other roles?
Yeah, I do. In the pilot, in the original draft I had read—which is no longer in there—there’s a flashback where she’s trying to nurse on an airplane and the baby can’t stop crying, and passengers are looking and she has just like a freak out. I was like, “god, yes.” It’s everything I’ve always ever wanted to do in real life and I have not been able to—and that was my way into Lee.
Philip Seymour Hoffman originally played the part of Thom in Happyish; did you film the pilot with him?
Yeah, we redid the whole thing. . . . It was as awful as you can imagine and time was on our side because it was a year later that we shot the second pilot and it was enough time to kind of let it go completely and still feel as turned on by the writing and the material and see it fresh and new again. I couldn’t have done it right away; we needed this amount of time.
In Transparent you play a female rabbi, and in Happyish you’re kind of running away from your Jewish heritage. But you yourself are not Jewish, how have those characters been to play?
I think in my first movie role I played Michelle Rubin in How to Lose a Guy in 10 Days, I should have known it was in my future. . . . It was interesting even working on Transparent and Afternoon Delight, too, being in **Jill [Soloway]’**s world, I was able to sit down with this amazing rabbi, Susan Goldberg, and she was a huge inspiration and help. I think women rabbis are just rad.
Have you started filming season two of Transparent?
No. I think they start in May or June.
Are you at all surprised about the reception of the show and how well it’s done?
Yes, because Jill makes it seem like we’re literally just putting on a show at a bar. Like, it just feels so small and the work is so deep and intimate—it just felt so tiny and incredibly special.
Did Jill have you pegged for the role since the beginning?
I think so. She told me I was going to play the rabbi and I was, like, “Yes!” Just so excited. It’s really amazing to be able to be this behind your work. It’s a really new and great feeling for me.
This interview has been condensed and edited.