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Tiny Beautiful Things: Sarah Pidgeon on Clare's Journey, Hahn & More

Sarah Pidgeon (The Wilds) spoke with Bleeding Cool about her role as young Clare in Hulu's Tiny Beautiful Things, Kathryn Hahn, and more.

Sarah Pidgeon is grateful for the opportunities presented in her young career since her debut in the 2014 short Nowhere I'd Rather Be. She's since been a regular presence on television, appearing in a guest capacity in the Paramount+ series One Dollar and Fox's Gotham before landing her big break as Leah Rilke in the Amazon Prime Video series The Wilds. She currently stars in the Hulu series Tiny Beautiful Things, playing the younger counterpart of Kathryn Hahn's Clare, a struggling writer who becomes a reluctant advice columnist taking over Dear Sugar while her own life is falling apart. The series is based on the book of the same name by Cheryl Strayed (also serving as executive producer with Reese Witherspoon and Laura Dern), who still writes Dear Sugar online. Pidgeon spoke with Bleeding Cool about diving into her character's traumatic moments, syncing with Hahn in the role, and taking advantage of her new opportunities.

Tiny Beautiful Things: Sarah Pidgeon on Being Young Clare

Bleeding Cool: What intrigued you about 'Tiny Beautiful Things?'

Pidgeon: It was a story about very human and shared experiences. Everyone knows what it's like to grieve the loss of someone close to you. To have relationships falter and struggle. Put your best effort into trying to save them. It was just an honest portrayal of those events. It felt human, and it excited me that Clare wasn't this perfect person who's like, "Life has just handed her these impossible tasks, and she's a real person having to juggle her strengths and weaknesses while life is continuing along and trying to maneuver that.

Did you coordinate with Kathryn Hahn on portraying Clare, and did you exchange notes, or did you work off the script?

Kathryn and I had conversations about who Clare is, how her heart beats, and what energy she brings. A lot of that is in the writing as well. There's the way that [Clare] responds to things like how she's defensive, how she gets to a certain point, how she breaks down, and how she can be deceitful. Even in her deception, she's quite honest, which is what hopefully draws the connection between my and her versions of Clare together. It's that there is this reaction and instinctual energy that comes out of Claire, and she's good with words, and she uses them. That's true of when she was 20 and at 49. Trying to find out with Kathryn how this person deals with these events and trusting that [my incarnation of] Clare I was exploring is experiencing these events into Kathryn's Clare. She is the sum of these events, how time has allowed her to reflect on them differently, and how that has evolved or how it hasn't.

Has there been any personal experiences or anyone in your life that helped mold what your Clare up being like?

I've suffered loss, and the feeling of losing someone felt very…I understood how Claire could spin out after that, and I felt a lot of empathy and understanding for what happened. Post losing her mom, there are moments where I could see some of my friends' aspects of them in Clare, like how they fight, and how they have relationships with their siblings. I have an older sister, so I brought a lot of that relationship into figuring out this bond between Lucas, played by Owen Painter, and myself. There were some aspects I drew on. Then there's Cheryl [Strayed], there's a lot of material to draw from and being able to talk to her and how grateful I am for her openness and experience, whether that be in Dear Sugar, 'Tiny Beautiful Things' or real life.

This is the second series that you're taking a leading role in an ensemble cast after 'The Wilds' Can you me how that feels the opportunity 'Tiny Beautiful Things' provides?

I'm so grateful and lucky I've been able to work on projects that resonate with me and feel important like something that there is no risk to putting my heart in myself into them because it's something that feels important to me. It's something that I want to not even necessarily watch, but I want to be a part of putting out into the world. I don't know how much charge I take, but I've enjoyed being able to be on sets to find a shorthand with directors and with other actors because we're able to work together so much. Day after day, we find these characters and live in this world so consistently. At the end of the day, I'm lucky I've been able to work on things that I have enjoyed putting so much of my time and thought into. Both have been great opportunities to explore so much and the breadth of these characters and experiences. I've been lucky that the cast has been so incredible, that I have formed amazing friendships, and that these projects are so pivotal in my life. Not only the projects are, but the people that I've met alongside experiencing them.

Tiny Beautiful Things, which also stars Quentin Plair, Tanzyn Crawford, Merritt Wever, Elizabeth Hinkler, and Michaela Watkins, is available on Hulu.

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