The adaptation of Cheryl Strayed’s collection of essays, Tiny Beautiful Things’ starring Kathryn Hahn is currently streaming on Disney+ Hotstar. In 2014, her best selling memoir, Wild was adapted into a critically-acclaimed film starring Reese Witherspoon.
To turn a book into a film (Wild) is one thing, and to turn a whole collection of advice columns (Tiny Beautiful Things) into a limited series another. What, according to you, is the difference between the two processes?
It was definitely more complex to imagine how Tiny Beautiful Things might be adapted for the screen than it was for Wild. Wild is a more traditional adaptation because the film — which was written by Nick Hornby — is a faithful depiction of what I wrote in the book. Because Tiny Beautiful Things is a collection of unorthodox advice columns, we had to take a different, more outside-the-box approach.
The showrunner Liz Tigelaar and I knew we had to create a narrative arc where there really isn’t one. I tell many stories about my life in the ‘Dear Sugar’ letters, but it isn’t a continuous narrative with plot that moves forward like a TV show must.
We knew from the beginning that the character of Clare aka Sugar, played by the spectacular Kathryn Hahn, would be, to a great extent, a fictional creation — not me. We also knew that her character would share my past. Because I tell stories about my life in the letters, Kathryn’s Sugar had to have had some of the same seminal experiences as me. She had to have a mother who died young. She had to be estranged from her father. She had to have grown up working class in a rural environment. Those are the things that formed me, so they formed Kathryn’s character too, though from there we took her in directions I didn’t go. The wonderful actress Sarah Pidgeon plays the younger Clare/Sugar and almost of all of her scenes are straight from my life. I was very involved in both projects — as a consultant on Wild and as writer and executive producer on Tiny Beautiful Things. Both experiences were among the most moving of my life.
{{/usCountry}}We knew from the beginning that the character of Clare aka Sugar, played by the spectacular Kathryn Hahn, would be, to a great extent, a fictional creation — not me. We also knew that her character would share my past. Because I tell stories about my life in the letters, Kathryn’s Sugar had to have had some of the same seminal experiences as me. She had to have a mother who died young. She had to be estranged from her father. She had to have grown up working class in a rural environment. Those are the things that formed me, so they formed Kathryn’s character too, though from there we took her in directions I didn’t go. The wonderful actress Sarah Pidgeon plays the younger Clare/Sugar and almost of all of her scenes are straight from my life. I was very involved in both projects — as a consultant on Wild and as writer and executive producer on Tiny Beautiful Things. Both experiences were among the most moving of my life.
{{/usCountry}}This show was more personal than Wild (2014). It was more vulnerable, more invasive. How did it feel when you watched the deepest moments of your life playing out on the big screen?
Both of them depict some of the hardest, saddest moments of my life and I felt equally vulnerable as I watched them. I would say that being played in a film and a television show are truly the most surreal experiences of my life. Of course, I’m moved as I watch because those stories are particular to me, but what I think moves me most of all is that I know so many viewers and readers out there see themselves too. So many of our most difficult and most beautiful experiences are universal, though we experience them individually. I love how art in all of its forms reminds us that we are not alone, that people through all time have loved and lost and triumphed in very similar ways.
What was it like to work with Kathryn Hahn?
Wonderful! She’s so funny and smart. One of the great pleasures of making film and television is you inevitably end up making a lot of new friends and I count Kathryn among them. I feel so lucky she is our Sugar. She has this astonishing ability to capture such a range of emotions in a single expression or tone of voice. She’s been nominated for an Emmy for her performance and she is so deserving of it.
In 2020, you revived your columns as a podcast and, more recently, as a Substack newsletter. Over the years, have you noticed a change in the kind of trauma people come to you with?
To some degree, but not really. I’ve been giving advice as Sugar in one form or another since 2011 and I’ve learned that there’s a uniformity to the problems people have. So many letters I receive are like many other letters I’ve received. I think this speaks to the point I just made about how universal our lives are. We have the same struggles. The problems people have, tend to fall into fairly predictable categories — love, sex, and romance, grief and loss, marriage and divorce, money and career, family difficulties and dysfunctions, parenting challenges, and friendship troubles. Having said that, I did start getting a lot of letters in the years when Donald Trump was president in the US from people who were having conflict with family members and friends because they were on opposite sides politically. That has died down a bit since he’s been out of office, but I do think overall, at least in America, the deep political divides in our country right now are impacting people on a personal level.
As someone who gives personal advice to people, what is your take on professional therapy for mental wellbeing?
I think therapy is great. It’s an opportunity to gain insight into who you are. In therapy, you get to consider your life through a perspective you might not have on your own. It’s a great way to learn how to release yourself from the things that might be holding you back and keeping you from thriving.
You wrote advice columns for so long and comforted people who were in pain. Who do you turn to when you find yourself facing a problem?
My husband Brian is the first person I turn to — he’s wonderful and he gives me so much support every day and advice when I ask for it. I also have great friends and I feel so lucky to have them in my life. Another source of wisdom is books. I’m true believer that literature can save us. In books, I’ve seen myself in characters who, on the surface, have nothing in common with me. Books have helped me many times feel less alone and adrift. They’ve made me cry when I needed to cry and laugh when I needed to laugh.
Arunima Mazumdar is an independent writer. She is @sermoninstone on Twitter and @sermonsinstone on Instagram.