Sarah Pidgeon and Kathryn Hahn Shared a “Heartbeat” to Play Clare in “Tiny Beautiful Things”

Sarah Pidgeon had a big job when it came to Hulu’s “Tiny Beautiful Things.” The actor, who previously starred in Amazon Prime Video’s “The Wilds,” plays Clare, a college student dealing with the sudden loss of her mother. Kathryn Hahn also inhabits the character – an older version of Clare, dealing with that childhood trauma and trying to move forward for her own family. They are joined by Merrit Weaver as Frankie, Clare’s mother. Pidgeon tells POPSUGAR, “I’m still pinching myself” about working with such great actors. “I’m very, very thankful that I was able to get my name even close to those people on a credits list.”

She admits she was “really nervous” but the veteran actors were “so reassuring and kind”. Before filming began, she says: “[Hahn and I] had worked together, with really the entire main cast, to find out what the heartbeat of this show was. “In the first few weeks of filming, Pidgeon watched Hahn’s performance to try and get an even clearer picture of who Clare is.

“Kathryn said, ‘The heart that beats in you is the heart that beats in Clare,'” she says. “We share the same heart. It was just that opening up and trusting that we both brought everything we could and that we would find the connection.”

So she wasn’t directly trying to copy Hahn. “There was obviously pressure I was putting on myself,” explains Pidgeon. “I want to make sure that someone can believe that this person will be this person in 20 years, but also recognize that Kathryn’s Clare is a sum of these experiences and what’s important is to focus on these experiences so that you understand why this influenced them. decades later.”

Weaver, says Pidgeon, had “so much openness, so much kindness” in their scenes together. She explains: “She was so committed to the story and it was just so inspiring and I feel so lucky to get to work opposite her and just see someone who is so good at what they do, doing it every day. We were able to create a bond unique to Frankie and Claire I’m lucky.”

“Tiny Beautiful Things”, the series is based on Cheryl Strayed’s book of advice columns of the same name. Pidgeon hadn’t read the book before learning about the part, but she downloaded the audiobook for her final audition. “I was really afraid I was going to fool myself. It’s like, ‘Sarah, you’re going to fall even more in love with this and then you’re not going to get the job.'” Luckily things are clear did train.

Another tangible takeaway? Strayed’s advice, which she was blown away by. “You read some of these letters and you think, ‘Okay, that’s an interesting letter, but it’s not me. It’s not my life.’ [Then you read] Cheryl’s reaction, and you’re like, ‘Whoa.'”

“Tiny Beautiful Things” is now streaming on Hulu.