This is an insane day for people who got into theatre by randomly coming across bootlegs of this show called wicked on a then-emerging video sharing site called YouTube in like 2006-2007 and were compelled by the lesbianism between the leads
An incredibly thoughtful and intelligent interview with Kathryn Hahn! Here's a bunch of my highlights under the cut - this interview was definitely done after episode 6.
Shout-out to @isagrimorie and @the-ominous-owl for finding this first
Happy to see someone complimenting Hahn on how well she's embodying the character right down to her fingertips. The interviewer asked the thing I've been dying to know: how it was like working with her movement coach Jennifer White.
Turns out she didn't work with her much for AAA, since Agatha doesn't have her powers, but she worked closely with her for WV where White would propose specific movements for the different spells she had to do, giving her options.
Hahn lets it slip at around 6:11 that Agatha gets her powers back at the very end. Which yeah if you've been watching trailers seems kinda obvious but there you go.
I love how Hahn naturally slips in and out of character in her answers to these questions – she's clearly spent so much time and easily gets into that headspace. It also shows how good these questions are in exploring the character.
Yes, Agatha's whole trauma with her mom did of course make it difficult for her to trust other witches or anybody. "Centuries of survival mechanisms, she just makes a joke."
Interesting: Not only does Rio understand and see parts of Agatha she doesn't want others to see, Agatha "sees things in [Rio] that she's trying to conceal."
Hahn describes their very long and complicated history as one that is "filled with love and respect and hate", with Hahn saying that Rio has really been the only one whose energy has felt equal to Agatha, "someone to spar with and be shocked by".
Agatha's default mask / shell is to be mean. That's always an available option.
Agatha surprises herself with the empathy she's finding for this coven the more time she spends with them, because it is a coven of outcasts. It's new and weird and unexpected for her.
Hahn aligning with Schaeffer's interpretation that Agatha has limited control over her siphoning power: "It's like something takes over and she just absorbs people's power... When she find herself doing it, it's like she can't help it. She just takes."
Hilarious based on Hahn's reaction that she never unpacked the episode 5 aftermath scenes consciously until now. "Oh Agatha." Yep she is a real mess when you actually look at her lol.
Happy that Hahn's perspective is aligning with my meta of how complicated Agatha's relationship with Billy is: It's "an echo of something", Agatha's happy and proud that he's dropped the ruse and is embracing his witch identity, and that he's capable of murder. And she remembers the little kid she babysat.
You can tell how much Hahn cares for and is protective of the character when she talks about how vulnerable Agatha was under the spell and how she was brought low.
Hahn did say "foreplay" when responding to the question about the Episode 1 physical fight, and Rio and Agatha going at each other despite not being able to kill each other.
"I think it's a testament to how strong their bond is that it could reach through a spell and find each other there. And she was really responsible – and Teen – for getting me out of the spell."
"So it felt familiar, like we've done this again, a million times over the years. And it always kinda ends like that. 'Not this time!' but you know what I mean? We keep it going."
Agatha hates Rio for reaping Nicholas rather than giving him another chance at life.
Rio hates Agatha for accidentally killing young Nicholas in the first place, and giving her no choice but to do her job too soon before he could live his life.
I don’t feel the need to actually compare them but my personal experience is that I like Agatha All Along miles more than WandaVision
And I loved WandaVision
I feel like it’s a combination of it feeling more separated from the MCU, the witchy theme, the almost all female cast (and older actresses too), feeling genuinely queer, and the low budget practical sets over CGI and greenscreen
Can’t believe I actually called it. I told my wife last week I thought Lilia cast the sygil because … well… take a closer look at the AAA tarot cards :)
so @sapphostistocking linked me to a couple of the wandavision scripts, including the salem flashback, and i just wanted to dig into a few bits...
salient point here: this is agatha at eighteen. she's a teenager! being executed for pushing boundaries. okay, maybe pushing boundaries in a very dark magic way, but still.
i welcome corrections to my latin, but unam vitam pro vitis multis - one life for many lives - is basically the coven saying they are sacrificing agatha in order to save themselves. they are doing the very thing she gets vilifed for! and mortem prodigio et monstro is more awkward to translate directly but something like 'death for the monstrous prodigy,' with a gloss on 'monstro' to connote literally something that was born wrong. (thanks to @tarenferry and @fuel-prices for latin support.)
and here, already, agatha is saying: i cannot control it. help me.
but no, the coven have decided she is beyond help.
it's a surprise. it's a reflex. it's instinctual. it's self-defence. she doesn't expect to be able to save herself - she is afraid.
'unchecked power.'
and after this - after she became a witch-killer - who would ever help her learn to control her power? who would believe that she wasn't exactly what the stories said? if her own coven - her own mother - was willing to destroy her... how could agatha ever truly trust again either?
Marvel women, written by men: 🧍♀️I can’t have babies 👶🏻😫😢 I’m a monster 😢😢 yes this is the deepest my backstory can get btw 😉😨 isn’t it harrowing 😱
Marvel women, written by women: I will subject an entire town to my will if it means the chance to see you again. I will drink my grief, knowing I am damned and that I cannot protect you, and will still sing out my heart to crowds of thousands in the hopes they will keep you safe when I’m gone. I crave power so intensely that it has overpowered any sense of loyalty to anyone, and I will betray again and again and again, but I will still be wounded when you betray me because it was you. It was you.
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