Words: Zach Collier @zachisatourist // Photos: Savanna Ruedy @savannarruedy // Makeup: Kendal Fedail @kendalfedail // Hair: Kat Thompson @kattthompson
Is Nikki Hahn one of the chillest people I’ve ever interviewed? Yes. Is she on a show that you should definitely watch this week leading up to Halloween? Also yes.
Nikki Hahn is a chill hang. When we linked up over Zoom, we were each others’ first appointment of the day. I caught her the week before her press junket for Peacock’s 2024 Halloween streaming sensation Hysteria! began.
The show is set in the heart of the late '80s as America wrestles with the chilling grip of the “Satanic Panic.” When a small-town varsity quarterback disappears without a trace, chaos ensues. With the town now fixated on all things occult, a teenage heavy metal band shamelessly leans into their image as a “Satanic metal” group, quickly gaining notoriety in the midst of a series of murders, kidnappings, and supernatural phenomenon.
As both a music journalist and a horror movie fan (#ShudderSubscriber), I fell head over heels in love with the premise of Hysteria! A dash of camp and humor, nostalgic nods to the golden age of ‘80s horror, some modern flair, and a talented cast made this a delightful watch.
Nikki Hahn is a musician herself. “I play guitar and I sing and I write,” she said a little bashfully. This interview wasn’t about her music career, but as tmrw’s music editor I couldn’t help asking about it. With a laugh she said: “My one solo that I can play is ‘Smells Like Teen Spirit.’ I learned it when I was 15.” When I checked out her song “Wish I Never Met U,” I was impressed at how heavy the harmonic progression hit. She’s got some solid alt rock sensibilities and a great voice, but I digress.
Nikki’s love for music and horror made the premise speak to her as well. “I’m a big horror fan. I have been since I was little,” she told me. When I asked her what her first horror movie was, she said Tim Burton’s The Nightmare Before Christmas was her gateway into the genre. “I wouldn't necessarily classify it as horror, but I guess it was my first kind of spooky that I was obsessed with. I had a Jack Skellington and Sally – like stuffed dolls. I don't know if I got them at the Disney store or Hot Topic, but I would carry them around the mall. It was like my thing. I always had to be watching The Nightmare Before Christmas. And I feel like a lot of my cousins who were younger at the time, they were all scared.”
As an actress, she had her first foray into the genre when she was cast as sociopath child killer Jenny Reynolds in Asylum – the second season of American Horror Story on FX. That story took place in the 1960s. Given Nikki’s horror favorites, she was really excited to do Hysteria!’s 80s theme.
“Very appropriately, I'm a big eighties horror fan. I have to watch all eighties horror movies. I love Pet Sematary, which came out in 1989 – the year our show was set in. I just love that niche of horror.”
Originally born in Texas, Nikki grew up in California. She began acting when she was around the age of 3, so being in California was a huge blessing. It provided a lot of access to opportunity. She’s a San Diego native, and has fond memories of the drive between San Diego and Los Angeles. She loves to travel abroad, she’s a black belt in karate, and she’s grateful that her catering experience in the film and television industry is far superior to my green room snack experience in the music industry.
“I think that's kind of a joke with everybody in the cast,” she laughed. “I'm always hitting up craft services every single day. I have to go see: what are the snacks for today? My cast chair is full of a bunch of snacks. All the time.”
Meanwhile us musicians are like: I’m going to go sleep in this basement and then have a nice deep breath of air and then I’ll have all the nutrients I need for a month-long tour. I’m admittedly very jealous of Nikki’s snack experience.
I can’t stress enough just how fun it was talking to Nikki. There have been interviews where my subjects have gotten really deep about personal tragedy; or psychology; or the mechanics of their craft. All of those are moving and intellectually stimulating in their own right, and stories that deserve to be told. But if there’s one thing I took away from my early morning conversation with Nikki Hahn, it’s that she’s the kind of person that’s good to have around.
You can feel that with the way she talks about her cast and crew. With her role as Faith in Hysteria!, she had to film a lot of scenes that portrayed various types of trauma. The kidnapping scenes especially required her to go to a very vulnerable place, both with her emotions and with her skills as an actress.
“There are a lot of different situations that I've never portrayed before. But I love those kinds of roles that allow me to step out of my comfort zone.”
“I had never worked so closely with a stunt coordinator before. That was a new experience for me. It’s very mental, too,” Nikki explained. “Obviously you have to be emotionally there, but there's so much going on stunt-wise that you also have to keep that in mind. So it was an interesting balance to kind of walk through for the first time.”
There was a point where she had an entire day of kidnapping stunts. “All night. Like in the middle of the night to five in the morning,” she recalled. “I got home and the next morning and my mom saw me and I still had makeup leftover – makeup bruises on my neck. And she thought that that was from the stunts I was doing!”
Even though Nikki Hahn could likely kick your ass with a roundhouse kick (her personal go-to), she was surprised at how effective her castmates were at inspiring fear in their roles. “The masked men were tall and very scary,” she said. “Something I learned while filming is that you can rehearse and you can imagine how the scene is going to go and kind of have it planned out in your head. But once you get there, your body does kind of go into fight or flight mode because you're not pretending that these guys are there. Like they're actually there in these masks, and that's scary. So would I run or actually fight if it were real life? I don't know, but I wanted to run. I think it's kind of funny, from an outside perspective. You're watching this kidnapping – all this traumatic stuff going on. Then they yell cut and everyone is like, are you okay? And they're being so sweet to me. They were great. They were lovely to talk to.”
She also loved her scenes with Anna Camp (who plays Tracy, Faith’s mom) and Garrett Dillahunt (who plays the Reverend).
“I work with them. I know them. They're so sweet. But as soon as the cameras would roll, they were so scary.”
“So that obviously changes how you're doing the scene,” she laughed. “I really learned a lot from them. They were amazing scene partners. Super collaborative. I knew that whatever they would do would bring out a different reaction in me than what I could imagine in my head.”
Nikki’s chill vibes also carry over into her acting philosophy. “I think since I was young, I've really kind of gone with my instinct. I think that's kind of the big thing for me,” she explained. “I really just kind of go with my instinct and do what feels best. Obviously you could plan it all out a certain way and you get to set and they have a different idea mapped out. So I think just adjusting to that in the moment is kind of my thing.”
Even though she’s a great conversationalist who acts on instinct, admires her co-workers, and enjoys banana cream pie and iced matcha lattes with oat milk and vanilla, she has a relentless work ethic. One does not simply become a black belt in a martial art; nor does one simply become a successful actress.
When I asked her what the secret to her growing success is, she initially credited the great writers she gets to work with (Classic Nikki. The chillest). But then she followed that up with this: “Honestly, this may be a cliche answer, but it's practice. When I'm working on a show or consistently having to memorize lines, I start to memorize quicker. But it really is something you have to put your mind to. There were times when I would work all day and get home at like midnight and I have to know what I'm filming the next morning and I still have to go over that. I think consistency, honestly, speeds up the process. It’s a muscle. My memorizing muscle is strong right now. I like when that happens.”
Doing an 80s-themed horror was a huge item on Nikki’s bucket list. In the near future, she hopes to do more in the horror genre and finish some more music. Longterm, she hopes an “old Hollywood biopic” is in the cards for her.
Regardless, you can count on Nikki Hahn to be freaking rad. You can catch her in the role of Faith on Peacock’s Hysteria! Make sure to follow Nikki Hahn on Instagram and stream the series here.