Agatha All Along's Kathryn Hahn and Aubrey Plaza exchanged music and poems ahead of shooting their first "feisty" scene: "All of that coiled energy really worked in our favor"
Exclusive: The Marvel star discusses working with Plaza on their characters' shared deep history in Agatha All Along
In brand new Disney Plus show Agatha All Along, Kathryn Hahn's returning WandaVision breakout star Agatha Harkness recruits a not-so-merry band of misfit witches to undertake a journey with her along the infamous Witches' Road.
One of those members is Aubrey Plaza's newcomer Rio Vidal, who is simply described as being a "warrior witch" who joins Agatha's coven. To say anything more would spoil the surprises to come...
What we can say is that the pair have history, which comes out during a particularly fiery scene in episode one as the two butt heads once Agatha has been freed from Wanda's hex.
Speaking to 12DOVE and the Inside Total Film podcast, Hahn reveals that, ahead of shooting that scene, she and Plaza kept themselves apart from each other so that the energy would be unleashed upon meeting on set. The only thing they did do ahead of time was send each other music and poems.
As Hahn also tells us, this project was very different from the previous show she and Plaza had starred in together: "That scene was very, very feisty. We know each other through Parks and Rec, but we’ve never had a chance to work together. We were like ships in the night. The women from Parks and Rec, though, are some of my closest friends, so we’ve seen each other a bunch socially. But this was a whole other level to work on something like this with her.
"It was so fun! We didn’t really talk about it. We would send each other music and poems, but we kept to our own corners until it was time to shoot the scenes so all of that coiled energy really worked in our favor."
When we ask Hahn for further information on the type of music and poems the pair exchanged, she simply adds: "It was just stuff that subconsciously or consciously was the right vibe for the history of this relationship. They clearly have a very long and complicated history."
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Continuing, Hahn states that the pair's prior friendship meant that they didn't have to work hard to develop a relationship, since it already existed. She concludes: "We just didn’t really talk about it, it was just kinda there. There was a deep history from the second we did our first scene so we didn’t have to overthink it. It was just right there."
Agatha All Along debuts with a double episode premiere via Disney Plus on September 18 in the US and September 19 in the UK. You can listen to our full interview with Hahn in next week's episode of the Inside Total Film podcast which is available on various platforms.
For more from the world of the MCU, check out our guides to all the upcoming Marvel movies and shows. as well as how to watch the Marvel movies in order and what to watch to before Agatha All Along.
As Entertainment Editor at GamesRadar, I oversee all the online content for Total Film and SFX magazine. Previously I've worked for the BBC, Zavvi, UNILAD, Yahoo, Digital Spy and more.
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