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Kathleen Hanna talks “Myrna the Monster” and the new Julie Ruin album

If you’re a music lover, Kathleen Hanna has probably been on your radar for years as the dynamic singer for bands Bikini Kill, Le Tigre and The Julie Ruin and for her passionate work as a feminist activist. In 2013, out filmmaker Sini Anderson‘s acclaimed rock doc The Punk Singer introduced Hanna and her music to a whole new generation of fans and brought her legend to the big screen. Now, Hanna is back in the movies again, this time as the voice of the title character in Myrna the Monster, a short animated film that recently made its debut at Sundance.

Written and directed by Ian Samuels, the film tells the story of a brokenhearted alien (Myrna), grieving for her old life on the moon and trying to find herself among the actors, hipsters and fellow dreamers in Los Angeles.

AfterEllen.com recently chatted with Kathleen Hanna about giving voice to Myrna, the possibility of being an action movie star and what we can expect on the next album from The Julie Ruin.

AfterEllen.com: Congratulations on the premiere of Myrna the Monster at Sundance! Were you able to go to the festival?

Kathleen Hanna: I’m writing a record right now so I wasn’t able to attend, but I was definitely there in spirit and I followed Myrna on Instagram and she was being adorable.

I wore my hat in solidarity with everyone who was freezing cold at Sundance. The last time I went, I actually went with friends who were playing. They had a movie showing and I didn’t have to do anything. I didn’t have any press so I just skied the whole time. So I was like, “I don’t know. What if I go?” I just knew I’d want to ski the whole time because I like film, but sitting in a dark theater knowing there’s a mountain full of snow? It’s hard!

AE: How did you get the role of Myrna?

KH: Through my [Julie Ruin] bandmate and keyboard player, Kenny Melman. His fiancĂ©, Brendan Kennedy, brought the project to me and asked me if I would try to voice the character. I believe MTV is developing it and he works at MTV, so he just emailed me, “Hey, do you want to try to do this?” and I was like, “Yeah, that sounds like a crazy challenge, ’cause I’m terrible actor.” I warned him first, I said “I’m a really bad actor,” but when I got there Ian Samuels, the director, just coached me and helped me understand Myrna’s character and use things-I guess it’s method acting-but use things from my own experience to get what he wanted from me.

But it was a really awkward experience because I didn’t know if it was an audition or if I was actually working, you know? We only finished half of what we needed to do and I was like “Oh, was I too slow? Does this mean I didn’t get the job?” and then they were like “OK, see you tomorrow!”

When I filled out the paperwork to receive the check, then I knew I got the job. Or at least they’re gonna pay me for doing this, even if they replace me later!

AE: So you had the real actor’s experience of not knowing what the hell was going on and not knowing if you even had the job.

KH: Yeah, it’s totally awkward. You never know, especially with film and stuff, if later on they’re going to be editing and go, “Ooh. Sorry to waste your time, but-” I was like, Keira Knightley’s going to just come in and do this.

AE: Well, I guess if you have to be replaced, it could be worse! But I’m surprised you thought you were a bad actor. I thought you were great in it, and that your voicing of the character was so vulnerable and real. Where did you get the idea that you’re not a good actor?

KH: I don’t know! I mean, I guess it’s just because I laugh at really inappropriate moments and I can’t lie. [laughs] I should be kinder towards actors, but I’m always like “Oh, they must be really good liars. Like the must be able to lie to their partners and their friends.” [laughs] If I cheat on somebody, I start laughing! I can’t-they’ll call me on it. And this hasn’t happened in a very long time, but when it did when I was younger, and I was just like “Nothing happened! Ha ha ha!” [laughs] So I just assumed that I was bad at it, I don’t really know why.

One of my closest friends is an actor and I see what she goes through and stuff, and she’s a really good actor, and I’m always so blown away by how effortless she makes it seem, even when the other person’s really terrible. It’s like if you’re in a choir, and someone’s singing off-key in your ear and you still keep singing the right part. Watching her, I think I could never do that, it just seems so hard.

But now I’ve got the bug and I’m hoping I’ll get to do a big action movie.

AE: That’s what I was wondering: If you could find another part you could relate to, would you want to do it again?

KH: Definitely. I’d love to play someone who’s really different from me, too. With Myrna, I felt like I really, really related to a lot of that character, but there’s lots of differences between us, for sure.

To me, it’s like the whole reason I even did it was because it was a challenge, something out of my comfort zone. I thought I’d be bad at it, and that’s exactly why I did it. This friend of mine who’s a playwright says that every time she writes a play, she thinks of the thing she’s most afraid of and then that’s what she writes the play about. And it’s really inspired me. Anytime I get asked to do some super weird thing that I would never do, I always do it.

So I want to do an action movie! I want to be an action star. I want to be, like, a 46-year old woman who’s an action star!

AE: I’m your target audience for that. I’d see it! [laughs] When you went in to do the VO, had you already seen the puppet Myrna?

KH: No, I had no clue what it was gonna be and I was pleasantly surprised. The funny thing is that the puppet’s mouth, it was already all filmed. They had done scratch vocals with two different people. So I had to try to have the acting personality, but also have the inflection of two different people who had already done a scratch vocal. So that was really the hard part, matching what I was saying to her mouth. But luckily, the guy who does all of the audio puppet work for Sesame Street worked on the project and was fantastic. And he was able to manipulate my voice when I got a good performance but it didn’t exactly match up. He could move things around a little so they made my life easier.

AE: That sounds complicated!

KH: Yeah! I was like, “Oh my god, I have to match the inflection of this other person PLUS act? Oh no…” That’s why I thought they were gonna fire me, and it took me a long time. I wondered, “Is this longer than it takes normal people?” Because I have no clue about the voiceover world. Am I going too fast? Too slow? Am I doing well? I just knew that I was having fun. I would see the piece, just like 30 seconds of it, right before I performed it. I didn’t even know what story was going. I didn’t even see the whole thing put together until long after I’d done the voice. And then I was like, “Oh, that’s why she said that!”

AE: What did you think when you finally saw the finished product?

KH: I was really, really happy. I felt like her awkwardness really came through, and I really loved the scenes with her best friend, Shelly [Heidi Niedermeyer]. I totally want to go to LA just to meet and hang out with the girl who plays Shelly. I just thought she was so funny and such a kind of like hipster LA girl, the kind you wanna be best friends with. As an awkward person, you’re like “Oh, I wish that person would think I was cool…” or whatever. She had a quiet humor about her that I thought was interesting and the live-action stuff with the puppet was great. It has a built in humor to it, so she didn’t have to do a bunch of funny shit to make it funny and that’s what makes the tragic part of her story more intense, that there is that humor right next to that tragic-ness. I think it makes it more poignant to have the tragedy right under the humor.

AE: What’s next for you? You mentioned that you’re writing the new Julie Ruin album now.

KH: Yeah, we’re writing our second record. We’re practicing and demo-ing and all that stuff. It’s more than showing up to practice, it’s like coming home and taking the practice tapes and figuring out vocal melodies and tempos and arrangements.

I’m working with real musicians, who say things like, “Let’s change this from the key of C to the key of A” and I’m like,”Whaattt?” And they talk about minor chords… You know, I’ve always been in a punk band, whether it was electronic or not, and we were always just sort of making stuff up on the fly. So this is, interestingly enough, a little more work when working with people who really love playing guitar, really love playing keyboards, who are really into arranging. I was always like, “First chord, first chorus, break…” [laughs] It’s like playing basketball with someone who’s better than you. It raises your level.

AE: What is the new material like?

KH: It’s kinda all over the place. Before this call, I was just listening to this sort of Go-Go’s-esque song that we’re trying to figure out if we want to make it really weird or keep the pop punk sound that it just naturally has. And some of the other songs are just super bizarre. They’re like dance-y but the vocals are really weird. I’m not really sure what’s happening with it! [laughs] It’s kind of all over the map, but I like a lot of it. And I really like that Kenny (our keyboard player), will say, “That part is good but it’s not really a chorus, it’s a pre-chorus, so let’s write a chorus.” I think something is perfect just how it is, and he’s like “No, go back to the drawing board.”

AE: Do you like co-writing?

KH: Yeah, I love it. I’ve always been in bands-especially in Le Tigre-the co-writing process was great because we were able to be like, “Hmm, that’s not working, but this is working..” It was my first taste of being more mature and being able to step away and look at things honestly and say “that songs sucks” or “that song is good.”

And in this band we definitely do a lot of listening back to the different ways we play a song in rehearsal and then the next rehearsal listening to it together and then picking the best one and working from there. I love that process of hearing other people’s opinions and I always feel that the more outside opinions besides mine on a song, the better the song’s gonna be. And I’m usually terrified of listening back to my own voice. I’ve never been somebody who’s shared songs with friends before they’re complete and I’m still not like that. But the four people in my band are friends, and I can bring the weirdest stuff in to them without feeling like I’m going to be judged. If they don’t like it, then they don’t like it. We can write a different song, and we can write it really fast.

AE: At your Julie Ruin show in Los Angeles this past November, you mentioned that you’ll be re-releasing your solo Julie Ruin record this year on Dischord. Is that still on track to happen?

KH: Yes, I actually just spoke to Ian [MacKaye] about it a couple of days ago and we’re just working on doing a couple of re-edits and getting the artwork together, which is taking longer than I thought because there’s also Bikini Kill records. We’re re-releasing our demo record in April and I have to work on that.

And then Bikini Kill records is doing a Punk Singer soundtrack on vinyl and on iTunes. So people who watch the movie will be able to go buy every track that was in the movie. So a couple of Julie Ruin songs will be on that, and once that comes out then I want to be able to re-release the original solo project. This is why I didn’t go to Sundance!

AE: That’s so smart to have that Punk Singer soundtrack available. I think a lot of people got to know you and your music from that film and it could be a good entry point to your whole catalogue of music.

KH: Oh definitely. I mean, I wish I would have done it a year ago!

AE: But there’s still so much momentum that’s been created by The Punk Singer, and even you doing this short, your name is out there again. I saw the new Fifth Column documentary She Said Boom a couple of months ago-

KH: I love that documentary!

AE: It was great! And I’d really only barely heard of that band and had to wonder why I don’t know more about them. So the ripple effect from The Punk Singer is still happening. A lot of other bands from the ’90s, like Babes in Toyland, Sleater-Kinney, L7 are now doing reunion tours or releasing new records and I feel like The Punk Singer created an awareness that there’s an audience that wants to hear and see material like that.

KH: Well if I can ever be of help to draw attention to G.B. Jones’s art-I mean she did so much for me in my twenties in terms of informing my identity as a writer and musician and performer, I really could never repay her. So the more people can learn about her, the happier I am. [laughs] They were ahead of their time, really ahead of their time.

AE: It would be great if She Said Boom could be widely distributed, so more people could see it. Maybe you can work your magic…

KH: Yeah, I’ll just find a way to insert something into every interview, “Myrna the Monster… and Fifth Column!” [laughs]

Follow Kathleen Hanna on Twitter and “Myrna the Monster” on Instagram and Twitter.

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