The complex world of therapist-patient relationships uncovered in The Shrink Next Door
Starring Kathryn Hahn, The Shrink Next Door lays bare just how easily the boundaries between doctor and patient can blur.
Nobody delivers a line quite like Kathryn Hahn. In the first episode of her new miniseries The Shrink Next Door, Hahn’s character Phyllis casually tells the insufferable ex-girlfriend of her beloved older brother Marty (Will Ferrell) that if she continues to darken his door, Phyllis will rip her trachea out.
“What are you, his guard dog?” the ex sneers at her. Hahn crosses her arms. “Worse,” she drawls. “I’m his sister.”
It’s an instantly iconic line for sisters everywhere, of which Hahn is one twice over. But it’s also the platonic ideal of a Kathryn Hahn scene: an already perfectly calibrated moment that is elevated by her presence, her timing, her mannerisms, hell, even her hair makes whatever project she’s flipping it around in – from Step Brothers and Bad Moms to Transparent and WandaVision – exponentially superior.
The New York Times once described Paul Rudd – Hahn’s friend and her co-star in The Shrink Next Door, but more on that shortly – as the “MSG of actors”.
“You can add Rudd to any movie, and the movie will taste better,” it wrote.
Well, the same is true of Hahn. She’s an old Céline find buried on eBay (more on that shortly, too); she’s chilli oil on everything. Hahn makes things better. And god bless her for it.
VOGUE AUSTRALIA: Let’s talk about The Shrink Next Door. It’s fantastic, juicy television, based on a true-crime podcast. You play Phyllis, sister to Will Ferrell’s Marty Markowitz, whose life is slowly enmeshed with his therapist Dr Isaac Herschkopf (Paul Rudd). How did the series come to you?
KATHRYN HAHN: “I had listened to the podcast years before. It really is a shocking, shocking tale … The therapist-patient relationship is such a taut one, that line is so fragile, because you are just really giving your soul to a stranger … That a therapist could exert that much control over a vulnerable soul, that they would give themselves over to him, reminded me of a cult leader. I had obviously worked with Will before, and Paul multiple times. I’m going to start crying just thinking about this, but to be able to work with Will in this capacity … I will hold this experience to my heart for the rest of my days. To be able to be witness to, and have this kind of connection to him, and just to see his vulnerability at this age, with such beautiful work – he was at the beginning of my career, he was a god, he was all of it! And to come full circle and to play his sister was very moving.”
VA: You’ve known them both for a long time. What do you admire about them?
KH: “I really learned a shit ton from the both of them. I remember on Anchorman, I’d always been a stand-on-your-mark, say-your-line and try to get a good grade [type], in terms of acting on film … I felt a lack of that freedom on camera, and I was like, will I ever feel that again, that feeling of why I wanted to get into this business in the first place, that falling into the fever dream of being in a scene with somebody? And when I was doing Anchorman, and this was [director] Adam McKay too, watching those guys work and falling into that improvised fever … It was the first time I saw the permission to fuck it! And fall into the unknown. And not just step and repeat.”
VA: You’ve worked with Paul a lot …
KH: “I love that jerk.”
VA: But in this show you really had to hate him.
KH: “Yeah, it was not hard. No, I’m kidding. It was very hard to hate him! Very, very hard. But I mean, it’s funny because I think we both thought we were going to break so much: he’s an easy break, I’m an easy break. But we just got to work and did it. He’s just such a good actor. I was like: ‘Oh, he’s not here to play.’ There was no fucking around.”
VA: The dynamic between Phyllis and Marty is so fascinating. She’s not his older sister, but she behaves like she is. What were you trying to tap into?
KH: “Everybody is the hero of their own story. I don’t think Phyllis realised how she had been treating Marty all those years. I don’t think she’s completely innocent. She certainly infantilised him and treated him like one of her own kids … but we talked a lot, too, that they’re each other’s spouses at this point. Not in a romantic way, but they’re each other’s everything. Everything, everything, everything, everything. She takes him completely for granted.”
VA: What’s your relationship with therapy?
KH: “I think it’s so personal for every single person. But I’ve been married almost 30 years and – no, I have not been married, we’ve been together for almost 30 years. He’s going to be like: ‘Oh my god, Kathryn!’ But after that long you just forget! We’ve been married 20-something [years], but in therapy we call it a ‘tune-up’. Like every once in a while, even if nothing’s happening, it’s just a good way to re-meet each other and figure out anything communication-wise, if we’re in any ruts that are getting in the way of us communicating. Because we met as kids. We want to know if we’ve been growing past the way we originally communicated. And personally, it’s good to have accountability for your behaviour. Or sometimes, we tell ourselves stories that aren’t true, and we can get ahead of ourselves anxiety-wise, or worry-wise, or anger-wise, and it’s simply about something that we’re making up. So it’s sometimes helpful to have someone clearly objective tell us that we’re making it up.”
VA: Have you ever had one therapist over a long stretch of time, like Marty does with Dr Herschkopf on the show?
KH: “Yes, I did, for a very, very long time. We had a relationship but there were also boundaries attached to it. Our time was our time, and that’s it. Of course, there was familiarity, we knew how to make each other laugh … but I would never go out to dinner with a therapist.”
VA: The fashion in the show is so good. You wear a lot of that gorgeous late 1980s tailoring, great glasses, shell suits and mohair cardigans.
KH: “Isn’t it genius? I wanted everything from my wardrobe, and I wanted my hair! That was my dream hair. I loved it. All of it, the browns, the autumnal [palette] – [costume designer Helen Huang] was amazing.”
VA: I read somewhere that you have a collection of old Céline?
KH: “Yes, I have a really good collection. When I can’t sleep, that’s what I’m doing. I’m looking for whatever I can find. eBay still has a lot of good stuff. You can find it, you really can, if you dig around. Vestiaire Collective, The Real Real, Re-See. If I can only wear that, or things that look like that, for the rest of my life, I would be happy. I never feel more like myself.”
VA: You must be excited for Phoebe Philo’s new brand?
KH: “Oh my god. I’m going to have to take a second mortgage out on my home. There’s going to be no way I can afford it, but I’m going to be very excited to look at it.”
VA: What’s a go-to, everyday Kathryn Hahn outfit?
KH: “Okay, like right now, I am wearing some New Balance, army cargo pants and a really old chequered Balenciaga shirt buttoned up to the very top. My hair is a moppy disaster. I don’t own a brush, much to my daughter’s chagrin. I never wear make-up unless I’m working. I feel like a really bushy brow is my secret.”
The Shrink Next Door is streaming now on AppleTV+.
This article appears in the December issue of Vogue Australia, on sale November 29.