'Tiny Beautiful Things': Kathryn Hahn proves 'a woman's age is still powerful'

In Liz Tigelaar's adaptation of Cheryl Strayed's book "Tiny Beautiful Things" (on Disney+ April 7), there's a commitment to not diminishing the woman lead Clare, played Kathryn Hahn, to just judgement about her age.

"It's interesting how people normally describe women, female characters in scripts and so when I described [Clare's] husband, I wrote, like, early 40s, [still f-ckable,]" Tigelaar revealed to Yahoo Canada. "I was like, let's put that on the guy because .... it's Kathryn Hahn, she's sexy as sh-t. She's completely aspirational and everything you would want to be."

"I wanted to explore a real person. She's hitting her stride in so many ways, but also isn't in so many ways. She's checked all the boxes of society's ideals. She's a breadwinner of her family. She's raising a really wonderful teenage daughter, she's been in a marriage for a long time to a guy who's amazing, ... but she's not happy."

Tiny Beautiful Things is about a woman named Clare (Hahn) in her 40s, dealing with a struggling marriage to her husband Danny (Quentin Plair) and a teenage daughter, played by Tanzyn Crawford, who essentially, wants very little to do with her. Clare was once on the path to a promising career as a writer but things took a turn after her mother passed away from cancer. In the midst of her slump, she finds out that an old friend is the person behind an anonymous advice column called Dear Sugar, but he suggests that the people writing in are actually looking for her voice for advice.

The series is set in two different time periods, with flashbacks to the years before Clare's mom died. The younger Clare of the past is played by Sarah Pidgeon and her mother Frankie is played by Merritt Wever. Throughout the story, Clare reflects on her life, where she was, where she thought she would be and where she wants to be, with personal exploration prompted by the Dear Sugar readers.

For Hahn, she stressed that she had conversations with Tigelaar about making sure that the show is steadfast in its commitment to showing that "a woman's age is still powerful."

“[She] doesn't have to be the butt of a joke," Hahn said. “There’s power in growing older, there's power in her sexuality, … there's not an invisibility shield, there's more and more and more and more depth the older we get."

"Because I feel like it's so important, especially to the beautiful women, younger women, to know that it just gets harder and just more deep, and more powerful. That’s something that I certainly didn't know … When I was in my 20s or 30s I was so afraid of getting older, but it's like, no. ... Let's just not be afraid of it.”

'I'm not alone in that story'

Much of the young Clare's story, including her mother's death, is pulled from Strayed's personal life, and Pidgeon had the opportunity to collaborate with the author on her portrayal of the character.

"I'm just so thankful for what she was willing to share with me," Pidgeon said. "Understanding how to bring my own experience to the details and the understanding of what she was going through during this time."

"I think it's a pretty universal feeling to suffer a great loss. Some of us have been lucky, up until this point, to not, but part of life is that we will lose someone close to us. ... Understanding what that's like, ... emotionally hearing it and how can I bring my own experience to match that was a huge part of it. I'm just very thankful to Cheryl for her story and her time."

From Strayed's perspective, she stressed that it was a "surreal" experience to see her life transformed for the screen.

"I would say most of [Sarah Pidgeon's] scenes are ripped straight from my life," the author said. "The last word my mother said to me was 'love,' as we see also in the show, and it's incredibly moving and personal."

"And yet what I know, having written personally about my life in all of my books, is that I'm not alone in that story. That's there are thousands of people out there who will say, yes I know what that moment feels like. I think that's why I am always, as a writer, struggling to be the most vulnerable, the most transparent as I can be. Not because I'm like, listen world I've got to tell you about me, but because when we tell the truth about who we are, other people will say, I am that too."

Shared playlists and car rides helped build this family unit

Tiny Beautiful Things also doesn't sugarcoat the very real, oftentimes tense relationships between teenagers and their parents, particularly between a teenage daughter and her mom. Both Hahn and Quentin Plair highlight that the family dynamic between them and Crawford came quite easily.

“We just fell into this family so fast,” Hahn said. “We had the cutest text chain going, ... Tanzyn and I have a playlist and she introduced me to a lot of music, and I introduced her to the Pixies, which I was very excited about.”

“I just think they're both just phenomenal performers and it just felt really real and very easy very fast. That is also just a rare thing. Especially when you don't have a sh-t ton of … rehearsal time. That was a real gift."

Plair echoed his co-star's comments, saying that the familial connection happened "pretty naturally," but he also spent a lot of time with Crawford, in particular.

“[Tanzyn Crawford] is from Australia, she was living here pretty much by herself,” Plair said. “I was driving her to set and just talking to her, and getting to know her.”

“Then I think … your on-screen mirrors or off-screen. I just felt like it was just such a good, connected, close energy with the entire cast.”