On this episode of Show Your Work, Duana and I actually begin on… Bennifer. Duana, of course, has a question about staffing, in particular Ben Affleck’s staff, and whether or not there was any staffing contribution in bringing back that watch.

 

Our main topic on this episode though focuses on two women, Kathryn Hahn and Renée Elise Goldsberry, and “breaking through” in Hollywood after the age of 40, which before, not only in this industry, but in many other industries, is the age when work actually starts to dry up. 

As we have seen, especially after the success of WandaVision, everything is coming up Kathryn Hahn. She won an MTV Movie Award recently, people want to cast her in everything, and she was just profiled in Vanity Fair this week where it’s mentioned that there are those who smugly have always known about Kathryn Hahn and those who are just coming around to her now. Whatever category you fall under, the point is, Kathryn Hahn, now in her 40s, has been this good for a long time – she has been showing her work. 

Renée Elise Goldsberry was also showing her work well before Hamilton and now stars in the upcoming Girls5Eva. She was profiled by the New York Times this week. Her talent is undeniable. But the industry is just now figuring out that she should be at the top of the list of consideration – for any project, musical or not. 

 

What, then, is the experience of a person who has been there but has been waiting for everyone else to catch up? But also, is there an advantage of “arriving” not as an ingenue but in your 40s or later? In addition to Kathryn and Reneé, Olivia Colman also comes up in our conversation. And it’s a conversation that, I think, surprised us both. That we are actually talking about the fact that it’s possible – when not too long ago it wasn't – that women who are past the ingenue phase can become “sought after”, that work is actually increasing in this time as opposed to waning. This is not to say that, clap clap, we’re done, we’ve done it, everything’s fine! But that these two women are examples that it is possible…and what can we learn from them? 

As always, thank you for listening and for talking about work!