How Cheryl Strayed's 'Tiny Beautiful Things' became a Kathryn Hahn Hulu series

"Tiny Beautiful Things" is an uncommon hybrid. The new Hulu series is adapted from a collection of essays that Cheryl Strayed composed anonymously for the "Dear Sugar" recommendations column on The Rumpus website, yet the letters are just part of the narrative thread..

The main arc focuses on Claire, a 49-year-old woman (played by Kathryn Hahn), who is one step beyond her wit's end. The series also flashes back to the younger version of Claire, whose life is overthrown at 22 when her mom all of a sudden finds she has terminal cancer.

< img alt=" In a scene from" tiny="" beautiful="" things,"="" james=""( roger="" aaron ..."="" class=" lazyload size-article_inline" data-sizes=" car" data-src=" https://www.pressenterprise.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/04/OCR-L-TV-TINY-0407-02.jpg?w=620" data-srcset=" https://www.pressenterprise.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/04/OCR-L-TV-TINY-0407-02.jpg?w=620 620w, https://www.pressenterprise.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/04/OCR-L-TV-TINY-0407-02.jpg?w=780 780w, https://www.pressenterprise.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/04/OCR-L-TV-TINY-0407-02.jpg?w=810 810w, https://www.pressenterprise.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/04/OCR-L-TV-TINY-0407-02.jpg?w=1280 1280w, https://www.pressenterprise.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/04/OCR-L-TV-TINY-0407-02.jpg?w=1860 1860w" > In a scene from" Tiny Beautiful Things," James( Roger Aaron Brown), Clare( Kathryn
Hahn ), and Sondra( Conni Marie Brazelton) are shown.< img alt=" Behind the scenes on" tiny ="" beautiful= "" things "="" with ="" liz="" tigelaar ..."="" class= "lazyload size-article_inline" data-sizes=" car" data-src=" https://www.pressenterprise.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/04/OCR-L-TV-TINY-0407-03.jpg?w=620" data-srcset=" https://www.pressenterprise.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/04/OCR-L-TV-TINY-0407-03.jpg?w=620 620w, https://www.pressenterprise.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/04/OCR-L-TV-TINY-0407-03.jpg?w=780 780w, https://www.pressenterprise.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/04/OCR-L-TV-TINY-0407-03.jpg?w=810 810w, https://www.pressenterprise.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/04/OCR-L-TV-TINY-0407-03.jpg?w=1280 1280w, https://www.pressenterprise.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/04/OCR-L-TV-TINY-0407-03.jpg?w=1860 1860w" > Behind the scenes on" Tiny Beautiful Things" with Liz Tigelaar.< img alt =" "tiny ="" stunning ="" things"="" stars="" clare=""( kathryn
="" hahn)="" and="" rae="" pierce-kincade ..."="" class=" lazyload size-article_inline" data-sizes=" autoAutomobile data-src=" https://www.pressenterprise.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/04/OCR-L-TV-TINY-0407-04-1.jpg?w=620" data-srcset=" https://www.pressenterprise.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/04/OCR-L-TV-TINY-0407-04-1.jpg?w=620 620w, https://www.pressenterprise.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/04/OCR-L-TV-TINY-0407-04-1.jpg?w=780 780w, https://www.pressenterprise.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/04/OCR-L-TV-TINY-0407-04-1.jpg?w=810 810w, https://www.pressenterprise.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/04/OCR-L-TV-TINY-0407-04-1.jpg?w=1280 1280w, https://www.pressenterprise.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/04/OCR-L-TV-TINY-0407-04-1.jpg?w=1860 1860w" >
" Tiny Beautiful Things" stars Clare (Kathryn Hahn) and Rae Pierce-Kincade (Tanzyn Crawford) in a scene from season 1.

Show Caption of.
Expand.
The framework of more youthful Claire's life-- growing up working class and estranged from her dad, losing her mom, marrying and separated young, diving into drugs-- is frequently taken straight from Strayed's life. The older Claire drifts away hugely, having had none of the success and stability that Strayed has attained..

Juggling those aspects is difficult. Strayed and hubby Brian Lindstrom attempted developing a "Tiny Beautiful Things" series for HBO back in 2015 however the show never got off the ground. This time, Strayed and fellow executive producers Reese Witherspoon and Laura Dern (both of whom starred in the movie variation of Strayed's smash hit narrative, "Wild") generated Liz Tigelaar as the showrunner..

Tigelaar, who was the showrunner on "Little Fires Everywhere" (which starred Witherspoon), excused being tired during our current video interview by saying, "I definitely have a great deal of Claire in me," though she stumbles upon as warmer and more together than Claire. This interview has been edited for length and clarity.

Q. Were you a fan of Cheryl Strayed prior to this task?

I read "Tiny Beautiful Things" when it came out. I liked it and check out "Wild" and saw the motion picture and check out Cheryl's first novel, "Torch." When I was dealing with "Casual," Michaela Watkins told me she was listening to the most remarkable podcast called "Dear Sugar," which Cheryl was co-hosting. So I invested years driving to work listening to the entire podcast. I was all-in on all things Cheryl.

I satisfied Reese while we were dealing with "Little Fires Everywhere" and her producing partner Lauren Neustadter asked me, "Do you know who Cheryl Strayed is?".

I said, "My kid is named Wilder.".

Q. Really?

Yes. There's a Mary Oliver quote in the start of "Wild" speaking about the word "wild," and so it was my preferred writer quoting my favorite poet. So I named my kid Wilder.

Q. When Lauren and Reese asked you to adjust this book were you nervous about creating something so various from a book you treasured?

In some cases you just say, "Yes, of course" without even thinking, which I did. It was just after that I began believing, "How do you make a recommendations column a program?".

There's the television logline idea: A woman who's a mess giving guidance to others. It can get whittled down to that, but I wanted it to be a deeper exploration of how we are all messes however still capable of assisting others, and in assisting others we can help ourselves..

I likewise wanted to explore how you can be any ages of yourself at the exact same time-- I'm 47, however I can also be 32 or 13 and sometimes I'm 8 and simply want to have a tantrum. And there's likewise the concept that Claire's volatility at 49 is not almost being a woman growing older-- this isn't about aesthetic appeals or "How does my neck appearance"-- but about heading into a years that her mother never got to live into..

Q. Do you compose a story and pick a letter or write a story around the letter you've picked?

That was one of the hardest parts of the program. You can't actually choose one thing and retrofit the other; they have to move in tandem. It was structurally and narratively enthusiastic for a half-hour show.

Q. How included was Cheryl?

In the start, I would speak with her and then go off and bring something back for a creative conversation between the two of us. Then she wanted to remain in the authors' space and we believed she'll most likely lessen and do the important Cheryl Strayed things she needs to do, however she never left. If she had actually tried, I would not have let her..

Q. The more youthful Claire areas are explicitly autobiographical, however the present is not. Was it strange charting a life for somebody with Strayed's background but such a different life?.

We knew the story was going to center around this middle-aged character but Cheryl didn't desire it to be her in today and an assessment of her marriage and her kids. It really required to feel like a different individual. However that person had the same basic shaping things and those was essential for Claire.

What Cheryl says is that there's this "ghost ship" version of her-- who might she have actually been if she had the exact same past however never ever hiked the Pacific Crest Trail and never ever wrote "Wild." The something they share is this confidential recommendations column falling under her lap however it occurs much later for Claire. The story has to do with her developing as a writer from there.

Q. Is there a "ghost ship" variation of you in your life?

There are a million things for many people-- if you remained in this or that relationship-- but the first thing that popped into my head was when I was dealing with "Dawson's Creek" a million years back and Mike White was leaving to deal with "Freaks and Geeks" and I also talked to with Judd Apatow and I don't remember the task I was offered but at the time I decided not to leave "Dawson" and I frequently think, "What would have taken place if I 'd gone to work for Judd?".

With every choice you make, you have a gain and a loss.

Q. Is that line from one of the letters in the book and on the show?

Oh, absolutely. I'm simply internalizing Cheryl and believing, "What a deep quote of mine, somebody needs to write this down" but actually I'm simply regurgitating her.