“I keep slipping into Valerie Cherish, don’t I?” Meredith Hagner has done plenty of press in her career, particularly for her breakout role in Search Party and the Vacation Friends franchise, but this is the first time she’s sat down for a meal and really rehashed her full biography with a recorder running. She’s concerned she’s trafficking in the same acting cliches as Lisa Kudrow’s famously deluded character in The Comeback.
But the cliches along the 37-year-old’s career path sound novel. They’re almost from another time. She moved to New York from North Carolina after graduating high school on the promise of an unpaid job in a Fringe Fest play. She slept on a hand-me-down hospice bed (with rollers!) that her grandmother had just died in. And, to pay rent on the railroad apartment she shared with a server at cringe tourist trap Jekyll & Hyde Club, she passed out fliers for screenings in Times Square. “I only got paid if they actually showed up to the movie,” she recalls. “I set the record for the quickest that the fliers were all taken — and the fewest people to follow through.”
Hagner’s struggles were brief. After scoring a role on As the World Turns, she’s notched ever more high-profile jobs. Now living on L.A.’s Westside, where she shares a home with husband Wyatt Russell and their two sons, she plays the foil to a former detective (Vince Vaughn) on Bill Lawrence’s Apple TV+ adaptation of Carl Hiaasen’s Bad Monkey (Aug. 14) before starring opposite Reese Witherspoon in Amazon MGM’s January rom-com You’re Cordially Invited.
There’s an episode of Bad Monkey that requires you to act like a bad actor. Any experiences that you channeled to pull that off?
I’ve been in many acting classes, and there’s nothing more devastating than watching someone try to cry. There’s just so much humor in watching an actor think that they have to have literal tears — just push them out. You see it in movies sometimes, and I think, “Just don’t cry! You can look sad without it.” So that’s what I thought of, that moment watching someone start to fake-cry but look constipated instead.
Crime shows have a tendency to be relentlessly dour: missing children, rape victims. Bad Monkey is not that. Was this part of the appeal?
Oh, the only parts I booked for so long were rape victims. I was the go-to for CSI-type shows. My lines were always, like, “You touched me with a glove!” What I love about the tone of this show is that Bill captured Carl’s comedy. It’s borderline satire in that each character feels like they’re kind of in a different show and then it all pieces together.
It’s not giving anything away to say that your character, Eve, is a villain — but the way in which she’s a foil to Vince’s character isn’t immediately revealed. How did you find playing that kind of character way?
Bill had seen me in Search Party and apparently had me in mind for the character. But this is almost the complete opposite of Portia. I do usually play weaker bleach blondes with insecurity. Eve only has one or two moments where she doubts her ability. She’s psychotically confident, and that was very fun for me.
It’s also a departure from the millennial narcissist you’ve played more than once, I imagine, thanks to Search Party. What roles do you want to be thought of for?
Anything where the audience is laughing and crying at the same time. Triangle of Sadness is my favorite. I’d kill to make a movie with Ruben Östlund or Alexander Payne. But my husband and I joke that we want to be in the shows and movies that make us fall asleep at night. Anything you start watching at 9:00 PM and think, “Oh, God, I can’t keep my eyes open, but I’d love to act in this.”
Speaking of your husband, your in-laws are Kurt Russell and Goldie Hawn, Goldie being an icon of comedic acting. What have you learned from her?
She’s mastered the art of subverting expectations, because she’s so sharp — sharp in a way that makes her comedically gifted. But she doesn’t care that people didn’t necessarily see her as this brilliant person. She’s right up there with Lucille Ball for me, one of a kind. We’re also just good friends, which is really a lucky thing to have with a mother-in-law.
You started on As The World Turns. Soaps seem like they can be a training ground for talent or a place where some actors get stuck. What was your experience?
The world of soaps has so much of what I love about the business, which is just actual machinery of making a show or a movie. There are so many pieces in making something, it’s a miracle that anything gets made. But there’s gossip at crafty. I love the culture of a set. When I was on the show, I started really watching people. And there were a handful, as you said, who were really good. They took this writing — writing that was sometimes not so good — and made you feel something. I learned a lot, because it was also a place to be bad and for that to be OK. I also realized how many amazing actors there are that are one opportunity away from having been a giant star.
Search Party lasted five seasons, but it only entered the zeitgeist during the last stretch. How did you feel about the reception?
Oh my God, nobody had seen it. In a way, that was special. Nobody got an ego. We were just making this fun thing for ourselves. Then on Max, it had this whole life. But it was after we had wrapped, so there was even no going back. I’m nostalgic for it because it already feels like this little time capsule.
Whose careers impress you?
Emma Stone is making such amazing career choices. There are so many women right now doing exciting work, as actors or producers, having these real artistic moments when they could be … Look, I love rom-coms, fucking love them. But I feel like a lot of the romantic comedies right now are bad. I jokingly call them “butthole comedies,” because they don’t feel real, in a way that makes my butthole clench.
Did your upcoming rom-com with Reese Witherspoon and Will Ferrell, You’re Cordially Invited, make your butthole clench?
No, quite the opposite! I’m talking about the people who you see finding themselves charming onscreen. Watching Reese and Will on the monitors, the reason they’re funny is because their acting is so grounded in reality. Also, working with Reese, wow. She is a crown straightener. She’d constantly pull me aside with pep talks and just make me feel confident.
What else is next for you?
I was supposed to play a stripper in a movie, but it just was so close to having literally delivered a baby. It was just going to be too demanding. Too much hoisting! So, I am available.
This story first appeared in the August 14 issue of The Hollywood Reporter magazine. Click here to subscribe.