In many ways, Kathryn Hahn has been preparing for years to play Wandavision’s nosy neighbor. She’s played busybodies and know-it-alls, characters with lots of bluster and characters who get it done. And as Agnes, supposed wife of Ralph and pushy neighbor of the Vision family, she pulls from all of those roles, smooshes in some classic sitcom tropes, and mixes it all together, coming out on the other side perfectly formed and perfectly annoying. C’est magnifique.
But that’s Kathryn Hahn. She’s always great in whatever she’s in, and rarely gets the recognition for it that she so richly deserves. Hopefully, with Wandavision, that could change. The A.V. Club talked to Hahn about her nosy neighbor research process, what we don’t know about Agnes, and her past as a child actor starring opposite somewhat mangy looking squirrel puppets. That and more in the video above.
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I mean, it’s pretty obvious she’s meant to have some connection to Wanda’s mentor Agatha Harkness.
West Coast Avengers! I have that book…
The interview finally clued me in to what has been bothering my about the previews. The Dick van Dyke show is not from the 50s. It’s very much of the Kennedy era of the 60s. It was still on the air when Bewitched started. That’s why seeing Wanda in 50s style house dresses while standing in the Petrie kitchen struck me weird. I know it’s not important at all, but it was just one of those mental itches that I couldn’t quite scratch.
I didn’t get from the interview that Hahn appeared on the children’s show; I only learned it from reading the blurb below the video. I’d love if it were longer, though this must be the WandaVision Pandemic Publicity Tour and it really can’t be. I spent summers in Cuyahoga Falls at my grandparents’ but these mangy squirrel puppets must have infested TVs after my adolescence. I just love Hahn and everything she does, and I hope you can speak with her again, Clevelander to Clevelander.