Emma Caulfield Ford on Dottie’s secrets and the brilliance of Kathryn Hahn in WandaVision
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There’s nothing quite like diving into the deep end of the MCU’s new flagship TV series to make a splash. After her stint as Anya on beloved series Buffy The Vampire Slayer came to an end, the actor carved out a solid career alternating between steady gigs in film (Darkness Falls, Timer) and TV series (Gigantic, Once Upon A Time). For the last few years, she’s taken a step back to focus on raising her now-4-year-old daughter, save for the odd guest appearance here and there. But with Marvel’s WandaVision, Caulfield Ford has returned to TV in a big way with the seemingly sinister role of Dottie, a type-A housewife in the old-school sitcoms that have currently been filling out the universe of Wanda Maximoff. But as with everything in the series, Dottie (or should we speculate… Mephisto?) is not all that she seems at first glance.
The actor can’t say much about her character’s eventual arc (yet, anyway), but she filled The A.V. Club in on the process of joining a top-secret Marvel series, learning to act for the retro style of old TV shows, and trying to jump back into Dottie’s shoes after months of pandemic-necessitated isolation.
The A.V. Club: One of the most fascinating things about this show is that you’re playing this character, Dottie, but she’s also playing a role right in the world of these old-school sitcoms. As an actor, did it feel like having to flex a new set of muscles to meet the rhythms and styles of these old formats of TV shows?
Emma Caulfield Ford: Yeah, definitely. I mean, it’s a style, it’s a way of speaking, of sitting—the tone of your voice, just all of that. In the early episodes, especially, just getting all the technical aspects down, making sure you get it right, because, as anything, when you’re portraying something you want it to be as authentic as possible. You don’t want to give any reason for anybody to start complaining right out of the gate, like, “What’s that accent?” or whatever. You definitely want to make sure it all comes together and is believable.
AVC: How much did they tell you going in? Did you get an overview or were you just sort of learning more about your character week to week?
ECF: I knew nothing when I got it. [Showrunner] Jac Schaeffer, who wrote it, she wrote and directed Timer, which I was in years ago. And then we stayed very close. And we’ve been trying to work together for years, but nothing really panned out. And then she asked if I wanted to come play on WandaVision, I said of course, and then Kevin Feige approved me and that was that. And I went to Atlanta and really had nothing. Jac was very limited as to what she could say—even though it was her show!—she said, “I just can’t talk about it; you gotta get hired and then you’ll know more.” So then when I got to Atlanta, and did the table read and got the full script, then I was like, “Okay, all right.” And then I had a million more questions, you know? So the prep for it was really just learning and research and understanding, not just the technical aspects of it, but getting the accent and working out the character from the outside in, and just understanding all the the shifts and variations within the show itself.
I really wanted to talk about it because I just thought the whole thing was so cool. I couldn’t say anything about it to anybody except my husband and my agent or whatever. No, forget my agent! I fired him. My manager. [Laughs.] I’m kidding.
AVC: Marvel’s famous for its secrecy. Did they blindfold you and take you to an underground bunker to read your pages, or…?
ECF: They might as well have. It wasn’t anything quite like that, but yeah, it was very intense. It’s a whole other level of, you know, double -spy intrigue.
AVC: Was it sort of a sequestered feeling once you were on set, shut off from the outside world?
ECF: Yeah. I mean you’re on a lot, you’re protected in that way, and everybody’s in the same boat. Everybody knows that it’s in everybody’s best interest to keep everything very quiet. And then COVID happened and we got shut down for a while. So everything just kind of went out of our sphere. For months, we all were focused on very different things. I was home-schooling my 4-year-old, or at that time she wasn’t 4 yet. So I was just wearing a teacher hat, you know? I was not even thinking about work.
And then got the order to go back. I was like, okay, time to put that on. And I literally told Jac, “I’ve got to have a talk with you before I go back to work. Like, I really kind of lost track of who Dottie is. I know, but I’ve been so removed from her that my brain just moved on. It’s just shifted.” Like, “Help. Bring me back again.” She just went, “Okay, so let’s recap, and blah blah blah, and then there’s this and there’s this. You remember all these emotions we were talking about?” and I said, “Right. Got it. Okay,” and then I was able to go back to work but I was really kind of freaked out. Thinking, “I don’t know if I’m going to remember what I did,” or how to recreate it or elaborate on it.
AVC: Dottie is introduced like she’s being set up as this villain in the reality of the sitcom world. But then you start to see the ways that it’s almost this red herring, that she might be playing a role as much as everyone else seems to be. For all the secrecy or intensity of this project, was there a sense of playfulness for you as an actor, knowing that you’re getting to portray these different levels of the characters’ awareness and teasing out these little clues?
ECF: It was always fun—and really important to keep track of where I am all the time. You know, “Wait. Where are we right now?” Because we didn’t shoot in order, obviously. So you’re doing things, and you’re thinking, “Wait a minute, I just want to make sure. What do I know? What does the audience know?” Obviously, if I as an actor know something—which always happens, you read a script, you know something your character doesn’t—you have to forget that. So it feels spontaneous… With the added pressure of keeping quiet. [Laughs.] You just don’t want to be responsible for anything coming out. It would be so bad.
AVC: You don’t want to be the Mark Ruffalo of WandaVision.
ECF: You really don’t want to be the one that shot it in the leg before it had a chance to start off. So, I’m glad we’re talking about it now.
AVC: I know there are still things you can’t talk about—
ECF: There’s so much! I can’t. There’s really nothing I can say. It’s so funny.
AVC: Is there an example of a moment, maybe during these early episodes we’ve seen, that stood out for you while shooting? Whether it was your character or somebody else’s that you were watching, where it really felt noteworthy in terms of, “Oh, there are multiple levels of things happening here that are hiding so much to come.”
ECF: I don’t think so, Really, watching Lizzie [Elizabeth Olsen, Wanda] or Paul [Bettany, Vision] or Kathryn [Hahn, Agnes] just be these people, it was just such a joy. They’re all so good. The way one of them would choose to say a line, or if they brought a question to the director like, “Hey, was this a reference to Blank?” Like, I didn’t even think about that. “That is such a clever… Is it? That is so smart. My god, you’re so smart. Can we just be best friends? I just really want to, like, know you forever. Can I just follow you around and observe you in your mind for a little while?” [Laughs.] I’m so impressed.
AVC: Dottie and Kathryn Hahn’s character, Agnes, immediately became these fan favorites for theories about the plot—
ECF: She’s so good. I could just go on. I can literally spend an entire interview talking about the brilliance of Kathryn Hahn. Oh, my god.
AVC: Have people been sending you memes and fan theories and do you have a favorite one yet?
ECF: [Thinking.] I don’t think I have seen a meme! I’ve seen little, you know, what do you call them, I can’t even think of the word right now—not a collage—a bunch of images put together… What’s that called? [Laughs.] Oh, god, I’m so sorry. Really, my brain is totally fried. Let’s just say I haven’t seen them. But I have heard theories. Maybe I’ve seen memes, maybe I haven’t. I don’t know. Whatever I have seen, I really enjoyed that.
AVC: Fair enough. Thanks so much for talking to us—
ECF: Compilation! Compilation.
AVC: You got to it!
ECF: Compilation. [Laughs.] Thank you.
45 Comments
I look forward to when Billy and Tommy lend Master Pandemonium a hand…
John Byrne can’t draw kids. At all.
at the very least, we can say John Byrne can’t draw demonic child-arms.
Nope. He can’t draw kids of any kind.
This is from Legends number 6 1987They look like shrunken adults. If they were the same height as the heroes or if Captain Marvel didn’t call Lisa a kid or Godfrey calling her “Dear child”, would you think these were children?
What an odd deficiency. And, yes, I very much want pancakes.
their top halves look like demon arms
I love his 70s/80s stuff, but his drawings of kids has always been weird. It wasn’t a real drawback to his MTU and X-Men stuff, but F4 features Franklin a lot, and I stared in bafflement a lot at panels featuring him. I think the big problem is his faces, which even on his adults look slightly off and samey. He draws the same exact faces on kids, and then doesn’t quite get the proportions of their bodies right.
sighYet another artist who’ll go to any lengths to avoid drawing feet…
They must have had some killer LSD in the Marvel artists’ lounge.
Wait till you see the shit they had at DC…
Because I don’t want to get Disney+ I’ve been trying to convince myself that this show probably isn’t actually good. But now I find out that Caulfield Ford is in it! Dangit, I guess I’ll have to throw in a month sometime.
It’s too early to say it’s good but I’m willing to see where it goes.
It’s fucking great.
Anya is one of my top favorite Buffy characters, so when I saw Dottie in WandaVision, I didn’t even realize it was Caufield Ford.The show is interesting, but I will grant that I have a high respect for old school sitcom formats, and I look forward to this Friday’s episode to unravel more of the mystery. I will own that I’m much more familiar with DC comics, so I can’t speak to much about the actual Marvel-ness of it.
Same! I had that “I know I’ve seen her before …” feeling, the penny only dropped when I saw the headline for this post.
I didn’t want to get Disney+, but we got a year for free when we moved and signed up for Verizon Fios, so I figured I would create an account to at least check out The Mandalorian. I thought The Mandalorian was totally fine, but not necessarily worth the hype or worth keeping Disney+ for on its own. But if the Marvel shows are going to be as good as Wandavision is so far, I might end up keeping it.
i don’t think yet you can rightly say she’s “in” it. This interview was the first indication i’d seen that her character is more than a one-time background type.
do i want to scream SPOILERS? Maybe, but i won’t
I was hoping for a Marvel show with some hackey sitcom elements and I got a hackey sitcom with some Marvel elements.That said, it SEEMS like that page is starting to turn. We’ll see what the next episode brings.
Yeah, I’ve liked what we’ve seen through Ep 3, but they’ve really got to get to the fireworks factory soon.
Same here. I don’t know if all of the episodes are available to binge. If not, I’ll wait until they are and hope for a free trial.
Do we really need a new article about this show every other day? Let it finish first.
It’s the AVClub. If it is new, it is the most important thing that has ever existed and must be treated as holy writ.
I’m not sure why you guys are interviewing her about a mystery that hasn’t been revealed on the show yet.
Emma’s recurring role on Wandavision has stirred a powerful urge to go back and watch Buffy.
i’ve only seen her the once so far, was she recurring?
She had the extended scene in episode 2, and a very quick gag in episode 3.
Where was she in Episode 3? I can’t even remember.
I can’t help wondering how Emma and Sarah got along on set because whenever Anya took a jab at Buffy it almost felt like the 4th wall had been cracked a bit. Very funny.
I was so excited when I realized she was playing Dottie. Loved her as Anya, and I thought TiMER was a great film that didn’t get enough attention, and she was fantastic in it. I’m hoping Caroline covers it eventually in her romcom column.
Maaaaan. I follow her on Instagram and she made a post of her in full makeup with the caption of “I can’t wait for you to meet Dottie” or something like that, and then I saw the show and I still simply failed to put those things together – the photo was in color, the episode in bw, which probably addled me a bit – and I’m watching the whole episode thinking”god she looks familiar! Where do I know her from?” It finally clicked about 3/4 of the way through the episode and I literally got up and started yelling “OMG IT’S ANYA! IT’S ANYA!” at the TV.
My wife just looked at me and calmly said “oh, so it is. Neat! Could you please sit down now?”
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I had no idea she was in this. Now I’ll check it out. Could the long-awaited Anyaissance finally be here?
She seems as nice as I always thought she’d be when she was Anya. I was really pleased when I saw her in Wanda Vision, she deserves to be a much bigger star.
So, the big villain of WandaVision?It’s probably bunnies.
Senor Scratchy!
Its….actually a decent chance. In the comics there is a very powerful witch named Agatha Harkness, she used the Salem Witch trials to kill off members of her own coven and consolidate her power. She had an unknown and unseen husband and together they had a son, Nicholas Scratch. Scratch is an evil little asshole who his own mother frequently helped keep imprisoned.
Nick Scratch is a common folklore name for the Devil (or devil-like being) in human form.
Agnes’ anniversary date with her unseen husband is June 2nd. June 2nd is the date of the first trial (and conviction) of the Salem Witch Trials.
So in all likelihood Senor Scratchy is an evil sorcerer, or possibly a full minion of Mephisto (who is sometimes actual Satan, sometimes just an evil dick who people mistake for Satan but still buys souls) who has been transformed by his mother.
There’s nothing we can’t face… except for bunnies.
I’m tickled that this is the second sinister “Dottie” Marvel tv has given us.
I remember when she dated Brandon Walsh.
I am going to guess she’s Clea.
What gets me about Dottie is that Wanda designed her to bully herself.
It probably has nothing to do with the overall plot, but the “For The Children” monotone chant was the perfect level of ominous.
I think I hate WandaVision but it’s something new on Disney+ that isn’t a reality show about fandoms so I’m watching it regardless. That said I knew she looked familiar but had no clue that was Anya from Buffy.