Interview with Miriam Shor - Star of ‘Magic Hour’

Editor's note: Miriam Shor is an acclaimed actress known for her roles in "Younger," "The Americans," and the cult musical "Hedwig and the Angry Inch." In "Magic Hour," she plays Harriet, a woman who secretly enrolls in film school while balancing family life. The following conversation has been edited for clarity.

ALI EL-SADANY: "Magic Hour" seems like a very personal performance, from my understanding. I'd love to hear about the overall resonance this project had for you.

MIRIAM SHOR: This "Magic Hour" project is actually really personal for me because I was on a show called "Younger," and I directed a couple of episodes of that show. I had directed my first episode, and then I received the script for "Magic Hour" almost immediately after. It was just mind-blowing, because it's a script about a woman who is struggling with deciding to be a director, and those were all the struggles I was sort of going through – this idea of asking myself for permission to try to do it, which is crazy, right? Like, you would have to ask yourself, "Is my voice worthy? Should I be in this space? Do I deserve it?"

What's so interesting to me is, why would you deserve it less later in your life? You have more experience, more knowledge, more understanding of the world. Why would you deserve it less later in your life? And yet that is a narrative that continues, like, "Well, in your 40s, you really can't pivot and suddenly do something else." And you're like, "Why not?"

So it was amazing to be able to exercise those demons in a script, and to know that's something a lot of people struggle with. To tell a story that maybe could help someone think – it doesn't have to be about being a filmmaker, but something that a voice in their head tells them they want to do can triumph over the voice that tells them they don't deserve it or don't deserve to try.

ALI EL-SADANY: I know you played Diana Trout in "Younger," and her character is someone who holds power confidently, whereas with Harriet, it's someone who's rediscovering that power. Could you talk about that juxtaposition, that journey, what interested you in exploring that level of strength?

MIRIAM SHOR: It's so great as an actor when you get to play roles that make you question how you walk through the world. Certainly playing Diana Trout, who is someone 100% confident in her capabilities in her job – and maybe in her capabilities as a human, feels very insecure – but to walk through your world feeling 100% confident in your capabilities is not how I walk through the world. I have a lot of insecurities, and that's pretty human, I think.

So to play someone where you have to inhabit the world where you're confident in yourself rubs off on you and impacts you. For me, in a great way, it's sort of why I felt the agency to direct. Being a boss taught me – pretending I was a boss taught me how to actually be a boss in some ways, or gave me the permission to try to feel what that's like.

And then to be able to go and play Harriet, who was on the opposite side of that spectrum, who had just given up on her capabilities and no longer believed in them, and listened to all the voices that told her she couldn't, instead of the voices that told her she could – it was really fun to explore those two different people and to come at leadership from two different ways.

Harriet was like, "Well, I'm someone who's kind and believes in people and wants to help lift them up. I guess that's not a leader," because that's the narrative we get, right? But it can be a leader. It should be a leader – that should be how we lead, with kindness and with lifting everyone up around you. So it was fun to get to have these very different people, both of whom had aspects of myself.

ALI EL-SADANY: There's this feeling of vulnerability in the film where Harriet's a student again and has to embrace a beginner's mindset. Can you talk about moments in your career where you felt you've had to embrace that beginner's mindset?

MIRIAM SHOR: I know that a lot of us struggle with admitting that we don't know how to do something, because it's scary. We think then people will discount us as humans. But in some ways, as an actor, every time you come into a role, you don't know how to do it, because it's new. So you're like, "Okay, here's a new role. I don't know if I'm gonna do it right. I have to figure it out."

So I'm lucky that that's part of what I do. But certainly, coming to directing later was 100% a moment where I thought, "What do I know about it?" And someone's like, "Well, you've been on film and television sets for decades. I think you know probably a lot more than many people." And that was true. And also, you can learn – that's the other part. You're like, "I'm not done. I can learn."

Right now I'm directing a documentary, and have been for a couple of years. That is a whole new space for me where I thought, "I don't know how to do this," but you always collaborate in film. You never do it alone. So you get the best collaborators you can and the people who you'll learn from and who you know you can work together with.

And certainly being a parent – what the hell! You have a kid and you're like, "I don't know what I'm doing." They're just letting me take this baby home. And every age that person gets to, you're like, "I don't know how to be the parent of a two-year-old, three-year-old." It's always new. I have to keep learning how to do it.

I think every day in life is a day where you're like, "I don't know how to do this," and it's okay to ask for help if you need to. It's not weakness. I hate it when people view you as being weak if you don't know how to do something. You can learn.

ALI EL-SADANY: In this movie, there's this tension between family expectations and personal ambition. When playing Harriet, where do you connect with her struggle, and what did you want to emphasize?

MIRIAM SHOR: There's so much of the struggle of being an artist and being someone who works and being a parent and feeling like I'm failing at all of it – like, if I give too much to this, I won't give enough to that, and I'll fail. If I give too much to this, I don't give enough to that, and I'll fail.

The moment when Harriet realizes that she actually failed her daughter by giving up on herself, because her daughter's like, "Well, you gave up, so I'm going to give up." And she's like, "You absolutely cannot give up. Why would you?" And she's like, "You did." So that moment is profound, and it struck me a lot as a parent, because I really struggle with trying to integrate it all together and be like, "I can give of myself to all of these things and still be enough for all of these things."

And the idea that you don't have to be an absolute asshole to be a boss and a leader – that you can delegate, and that's not weakness, that you can be kind, and that's not weakness – that really resonated. Modeling that for people allows them to do it back to you, and you'll be a better filmmaker, parent, whatever, for it.

ALI EL-SADANY: When Harriet goes into that student film world, she comes alive in a very special way. What helped you tap into that passion, and what are some of the pieces of Harriet that you really like or that are more challenging?

MIRIAM SHOR: It was really hard to watch some of myself. It's always hard to watch myself because I don't need to see that face, but there were aspects of the vulnerability that Harriet has, of feeling like a doormat and feeling like that's all she is, that I struggle with as a human in the world. Watching myself open up to that vulnerability and be honest about it on screen was very difficult to do and really hard to watch, because it was like, "Oh God, those are parts of who I am that feel really vulnerable that I'm just going to show to everyone, okay?"

And then the part of Harriet that exactly when she goes to film school, her enthusiasm for supporting others – that brings her to life. It's contagious. In the beginning of the movie, she's by herself in a movie theater, and she's like, "I'm here. I'm a person." And in the end, she's in that theater with a whole community of people that she lifted up and helped and who did the same thing back to her.

So that aspect of who she is – believing in other people and then them returning the favor – that is something that I was like, "Oh, that's a lesson to learn from this character and from the movie, from Jackie Christy, who wrote and directed it, because this really is sort of her story."