Aubrey Plaza Controlled Her Own Narrative Thanks to ‘Good Hang With Amy Poehler’

You could kind of tell what was going on from the jump when Amy Poehler opened her podcast this week by saying that her guest, Aubrey Plaza, was someone “who many of you have wanted to hear from.” Plaza’s husband, director Jeff Baena, passed away in January, and other than the initial statement she released, Plaza has largely remained silent in the months since his suicide (as she had every right to). This week, however, her new movie, Honey Don’t!, hits theaters, which means Plaza is making the promotional rounds. She’s going to be interviewed, and even if the topic of her personal tragedy remained untouched, it would still be on everyone’s minds. So Plaza got there first, with a brilliant assist from her good pal Amy.

Poehler doesn’t waste time addressing the topic of Baena’s death before launching into her first real question: “On behalf of all the people who feel like they know you and the people who do know you, how are you feeling today?” She smartly grounds the question in the immediate now, and Plaza follows her lead. “Right in this very, very present moment, I feel happy to be with you,” Plaza starts. “Overall, I’m here and I’m functioning and I feel really grateful to be moving through the world. I’m OK. But, you know, it’s a daily struggle, obviously.”

Then she gives what is both a painfully accurate, poignant account of what grief is like, and also exactly the sort of answer you’d expect from Aubrey Plaza: She compares it to the AppleTV+ movie The Gorge:

“This is like a really dumb analogy, and it was kind of a joke, but I actually mean it. Did you see that movie The Gorge? It’s like an alien movie with Miles Teller. In the movie, there’s, like, a cliff on one side and then there’s a cliff on the other side and then there’s a gorge in between and it’s filled with all these monster people that are trying to get them. And I swear, when I watched it, I was, like, ‘That feels like what my grief is like” — or what grief could be like. At all times, there’s, like, a giant ocean of awfulness that’s, like, right there, and I can see it. And sometimes, I just want to, like, dive into it and be in it. And then sometimes, I just look at it. And then sometimes, I’m just trying to get away from it. But it’s always there. It’s just always there. And the monster people are trying to get me like Miles Teller and Anya Taylor-Joy.”

Despite being visibly uncomfortable, Plaza lands her answer with a joke, and Poehler immediately riffs on Anya Taylor-Joy being an example of how “the more beautiful you are, the more spaced out your eyes are,” thus guiding the pair onto safer conversation topics like a pro. The rest of the episode is more of what you expect from Good Hang; They discuss mutual friends, Parks and Recreation, and the early days of Plaza’s career. And that’s fine; that’s the Good Hang schtick. It’s a cozy podcast where Amy Poehler just interviews her friends. They have fun together, they joke around, and while fans may hear some unexpected anecdotes here and there, nothing of import usually happens. Until now.

Already, countless websites are quoting Plaza’s statements with headlines about how she finally “opened up” about her husband’s death, and that’s fine. I guess that’s what I’m doing too. That’s the news of it all. Still, I’m more interested in the tactical play here. On the one hand, Plaza controlled her narrative by choosing this moment, in an interview with a friendly face, to open up. She’d obviously rehearsed her answer, saying something genuine woven into a silly analogy. It’s enough to satisfy the fans and provide soundbites to the media while still maintaining a careful distance, and there’ll be no need to answer any other questions about it for a while. And Poehler handled the moment gracefully, teeing Plaza up to say her piece with a low-pressure question and then smoothly pivoting the conversation away again. The pair came to the table with one agenda item, and they ticked the box and moved on.

I’ve been a bit frustrated of late with Poehler’s podcast because it’s almost too indulgent. It’s just the right amount of off-the-cuff and insidery to feel like we’re getting a peek behind the curtains of the celebrities, but because she’s mostly just riffing with her friends, the glimpses we get aren’t actually that insightful. Here, however, the cozy platform she’s created was put to wonderful use, and the best part is that, despite the clear tactical purpose of Plaza’s visit, the moment felt truly genuine. I can’t imagine her talking about her grief anywhere else, and now she doesn’t have to. That’s a credit to Good Hang and to Amy Poehler.