Actress Kathryn Hahn plays a game of Wild Card

SCOTT DETROW, HOST:

Kathryn Hahn loves being a witch. She gets to play one as Agatha Harkness in the Disney+ show "Agatha All Along." She says the role allows her to portray a ton of impulses that women don't always get to express.

KATHRYN HAHN: You can 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.

DETROW: Hahn has spent her career playing characters whose Agatha-like impulses are usually just under the surface fighting to come out. You can see it in her roles in everything from "Step Brothers" to "Transparent" to "Mrs. Fletcher." Hahn joined NPR's Rachel Martin on Wild Card, the game where cards control the conversation. Here's Rachel.

RACHEL MARTIN: What period of your life do you often daydream about?

HAHN: Well, I guess it depends on the chapter I'm in. Like, right now, as my son is turning 18 on Friday, I think it is that period of, like, his preschool and, like, before. Like the - I just - I'm so back in that place of just playing with him until dinner, like that, like, weird post-nap...

MARTIN: Yeah.

HAHN: ...Before dinner. Like, the sun's kind of going down. You're trying to find things to do. What if I start crying? But, like, you also can't believe it's another night you have to go through. Like, it's the same.

MARTIN: No, I know. That - those hours were really hard for me - and, when I think about them, beautiful. Yeah.

HAHN: Yeah. Literally the witching - yeah, the witching hour. Like, the sun would go down and we'd be like, no, no, we have to do it again. But, like, that little time before dinner that was always, like, sometimes you would walk into it, like, dreading it, but then it's still - now, of course, I'm so nostalgic.

MARTIN: What was the thing that you would do? What was your go to?

HAHN: Oh, we would look for bugs in the front yard. We made, like, a little, you know, fairy village by the tree in the back. Like, we would try to play and just - like, just taking a little walk sometimes, like, and just chatting.

MARTIN: Yeah, yeah.

HAHN: It was the best, the best.

MARTIN: Right.

HAHN: Like, what I wouldn't give now to have those, like - and again, like, in the - when you're in the middle of it, you're like, ugh. But those moments now are, like, coming to the surface, and I daydream about them.

MARTIN: Yeah.

HAHN: To know that those, like, running down the stairs late in the morning and like, all that stuff - it's like, it's just that noise is going to become, like, memory, which is - you can't believe it.

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MARTIN: Three more cards.

HAHN: I'm going to do that first card.

MARTIN: This one?

HAHN: Mm-hmm.

MARTIN: No. 1 - have you ever had a premonition about something that came true?

HAHN: Oh, I don't even want to say it out loud. I'm going to think of another one.

MARTIN: Yeah, you don't have to tell me that one. But you've had them?

HAHN: Yeah, I definitely have had them. Yeah, yeah. You know, when - I can - there have been times where the phone rings and I know what it's about before I pick it up. Like, my dad passed away this spring and the...

MARTIN: I'm sorry.

HAHN: ...It was like a - but it was, like, a random phone call on, like, a Monday night. And I saw a 216 number, which is the area code from Cleveland. I didn't recognize it. It was my uncle's, and I was like, OK. And he'd been doing OK. Like, so, you know, it was - it wasn't like I was always expecting this call. I mean, I guess you are - in a sense always do when your parents are getting up there and you're not living with them. But I just had a feeling.

MARTIN: Yeah. It's definitely happened to me before. And...

HAHN: Yeah.

MARTIN: ...Some of them are things you don't want to say out loud because they were so...

HAHN: I know.

MARTIN: ...Fragile and precious and maybe sad.

HAHN: Yes. Yes.

MARTIN: But it always - strangely, even when they're hard things, it makes me feel, I don't know, more connected.

HAHN: That is exactly the word I was going to say. Like, that we were - are, like, higher powers were connected.

MARTIN: Yeah.

HAHN: You know, I was able to be there when he passed, which meant so much, and he passed away, like, three hours after we got there.

MARTIN: Yeah, yeah.

HAHN: Like, so it was all supposed to unfold exactly - it was. But it did - I think those moments do reveal that subconscious connection you have to a loved one.

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MARTIN: Three more cards.

HAHN: OK, great.

MARTIN: One, two, three.

HAHN: Two.

MARTIN: Two - what life transition has been challenging?

HAHN: Ooh. Well, I was going to say that 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.

MARTIN: We're talking about menopause.

HAHN: Yes.

MARTIN: Yeah.

HAHN: Pause in the moon - but, like, you know, no one talks about it. So you kind of walk into it blind. So I was like, ooh, do I feel like myself? Like, who is this? Like, who's coming - like, who's coming through right now? Like, my moods, my, like...

MARTIN: Right. And how much of it is you and how much of it is the thing...

HAHN: It's the hormones.

MARTIN: Yeah, you don't know. Yeah, I know.

HAHN: 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 at the end of the road.

MARTIN: Yeah. I imagine for actors in Hollywood, it is doubly complicated because you start getting people - the producers see you in a different light, and 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: 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 say. I'm definitely not as afraid to say it, which is really freeing.

MARTIN: Kathryn Hahn - she stars as Agatha Harkness in the new Disney+ show "Agatha All Along." Kathryn, thank you for doing this.

HAHN: Oh, thank you so much. This was, like, so rich and so fun.

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DETROW: Follow NPR's Wild Card podcast to hear a longer version of that conversation.

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