Editor’s Note: The following contains minor spoilers for Tiny Beautiful Things.Though a relative newcomer in Hollywood, Sarah Pidgeon’s star has been steadily on the rise ever since her turn as the creative and observant loner Leah Rilke in Prime Video’s The Wilds. The series allowed her to flex her immense talent and range, frequently requiring her to go to some dark, emotional places.

It’s an experience that surely helped her prepare for her new project: playing the younger version of Kathryn Hahn’s Clare in Tiny Beautiful Things. Based on Cheryl Strayed’s novel of the same name, the series follows Clare as she ironically becomes a revered advice columnist despite her own life falling apart. Pidgeon plays the best-selling author throughout her twenties and has the challenging task of portraying some of her most devastating and formative experiences, such as the illness and death of her mother. Despite the heavy subject matter, Pidgeon brings a refreshing amount of humor and heart to the role.
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I got a chance to speak with Pidgeon about working with Merritt Wever, how she and Hahn collaborated to nail Clare’s mannerisms, the (surprising) scene she found most difficult to film, and more.

TAYLOR GATES: You’re so great in the show — I love it so much. I especially really love the scenes between you and Merritt Wever. You guys are so magnetic together. Can you talk a little bit about working with her and how you developed that bond? The chemistry was so intense and great to watch.

SARAH PIDGEON: Oh, thank you. I feel so lucky to have worked with her. I mean, she’s incredible onscreen and off as a person. I think the bond was aided by the commitment of everyone in the cast to recognize what we were doing and honor it and really bring ourselves to it. Just looking at her…we didn’t have to act, you know? Just looking at Merritt in the eyes, there’s such an openness and kindness. And then I also really admire her, you know, as I think Clare did to Frankie. I think, in some ways, we got lucky. And then I think a lot of it, I just have to credit to Merritt’s openness and kindness and the overall cast’s willingness to really know the show that we were trying to make and to show up every day with that sort of heart.

Image via Hulu

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Another relationship I really loved was the one that Clare has with her younger brother. And there are just so many layers and complexities to that because she kind of does have to step up and be a mother figure to him really young. Can you speak on that relationship and how that sort of affects her?

Yeah, Owen Painter is incredible. I really, really love Owen. And we were able to hang out and buzz around LA together. We would hang out and just run the scenes back and forth while we were preparing. And I personally have an older sister, and I have been lucky that my sister and I have an amazing mother. But, you know, I sort of understand the dynamic of like, “Why is my sibling parenting me?” but from the other side. But trying to understand it in Clare, I think it’s this need to try to control some aspect of the family and recognize that Frankie can’t do that anymore. I really think a lot of it is motivated by what she thinks is best for her brother: protecting him from the relationship with her father, making sure he finishes school, trying to maintain Frankie’s life even after she’s no longer with us — what she would want. And so much of it is in the writing. It was just such a wonderful script to be able to sit down and think like, “Oh, right — of course, that’s what they say.” I think what’s awesome about sibling relationships is that there’s this incredible amount of comfort, so you can cuss them out at dinner and then be sitting on the couch watching TV and laughing, you know? Because they just know you so unfiltered, and they still love you. I guess that’s how I was looking at it.

I feel like that kind of brings up the dichotomy of there being a lot of humor but you also having to dig deep and portray so much trauma. What was the hardest scene to film emotionally?

I think the scene where Frankie tells Clare and Lucas that she has cancer and then Clare sorting out the change and trying to figure out a way to fix it. I think was the most difficult for me because it’s Sarah Pigeon having to forget the end of this story. Clare thinks that there’s a lot of hope, and it’s not breaking down and saying goodbye like she is later in the series. And it’s not fighting over whether or not she’s gonna get engaged. It’s not knowing whether or not her mother is going to live and having to believe that she will. And I think sort of fighting against that — trying to find where that was. Because I think Clare also operates in a lot of extremes — extremely volatile and destructive. She’s very sure of what she says and how she feels. And I think that’s one of the moments where you see where she just doesn’t know. She doesn’t know, so she’s sort of grasping at straws — “I’m gonna count every single quarter. I’m gonna call all of these people.” And then, the next time you see her, which is when she walks out of the house, she breaks down next to the horse. I had to remember that that’s where she was gonna go just moments later. So I think it’s what’s really hard are those in-between scenes.

That’s so interesting. You think it’d be, like, the sobbing one, but that makes so much sense. We’ve spoken a bit about how this show has such an amazing cast. Who do you think would make the best advice columnist out of everyone?

Maybe Tanzyn Crawford. Or maybe Owen. I think it’s a tie. They would be very different advice columns.

What would one be, and what would the other be?

I think that Tanzyn’s would be a little more cut-and-dry. And maybe Owen’s would be sort of more holistic? Holistic maybe isn’t the right word. More suggestive, I guess. You know, “This is an option.” You’d have to ask them, but I think both would be great reads and would gain the popularity potentially of a Dear Sugar column.

Image via Hulu

I love that. I need these. You and Kathryn do an insanely good job of making Clare feel like one consistent person, down to the mannerisms. It’s really very surreal. And then there’s also an even younger Clare that comes in sometimes with Marlow Barkley. How did you all work together to develop those little mannerisms and the way she carries herself?

You might have seen it: There’s a hand on the heart sometimes, and that’s taken from an action that Merritt would do. I forget which director — it might have been Desiree [Akhavan], or it might have been [showrunner] Liz [Tigelaar]. I’m not sure who it was, but there was a talk about that – of, you know, a sort of calming way to self-soothe for Clare. And so there were some elements like that you could say were choreographed or incorporated. And then other than that, I was able to go to set the first week and watch Kathryn inhabit her Clare and get that sense. I don’t know — I mean, it makes me feel really happy that you said that. I think there’s just sort of the way that Clare is and how she’s written. It’s so zero to sixty. She’s just in it, and it comes out of her mouth, comes out of her eyes, comes out of her body — she’s reactive. So I think just keeping that in mind and then also reminding myself that, you know, the Clare at 20-something is different than the Clare at 50. Half of my story — I think more than half of my Clare — she hasn’t had a baby yet. And that’s such a huge change. You see her from, like, 18 to 31, and I know I’m not talking like I did when I was like 16. Thank god.

Yeah, let’s hope none of us are. [Laughs]

Oh, god. Yeah. I think that also was able to take the pressure off. There was room for freedom and expression, and then I think we were able to somehow find the connection.

All episodes of Tiny Beautiful Things will be available to stream on Hulu April 7.