About five years ago, when Meredith Hagner (whose characters range from clueless to maniacal in “Search Party,” “Vacation Friends” and “Bad Monkey,” to name just a few) fully committed to giving up her rent-controlled Williamsburg apartment in Brooklyn, N.Y., to make a home on the West Coast, she thought she knew exactly where she wanted to live.
“I told my husband [actor Wyatt Russell, son of Kurt Russell and Goldie Hawn] I’d try out L.A., but I’ll only do the Eastside because that’s the closest to [where I lived in New York City]. And he was like, ‘When we have kids, you’re probably going to want to move to the Westside.’ And I was like, ‘No,no, no.’”
Now, as the Westside-dwelling mom to sons who are 11 months and 3½, she’s sold. “I can’t believe I thought I was taking one for the team by moving to the Westside,” she said. “It’s great over here, and we’re just a two-minute drive from [Wyatt’s] family.”
Before digging into her ideal (and Westside-centered) Sunday itinerary, I asked which of the characters she’s played might have an L.A. weekend to rival her own. She immediately pointed to her latest role as Neve, sister to Reese Witherspoon’s Margot in the Nicholas Stoller film (also starring Will Ferrell) “You’re Cordially Invited,” which started streaming Jan. 30 on Prime Video .
“Oh, God. I’ve played so many tragic, messed-up people,” Hagner said “[Neve] is the first mentally stable person I think I’ve ever played. I’d be making these kind of bizarre performance choices, and our director, Nick Stoller, would be like, ‘No, she’s really a together, healthy person.’ So I think she would probably have the most lovely Sunday. She has a wonderful relationship, and she’d probably do something classy and incredible. And I would probably want to have her Sunday.”
Editors’ note: This interview took place before the L.A. fires. In publishing it now, we hope to bring attention to the many small businesses that could use support during this time. Check with each business for modified hours and explore the city safely.
This interview has been lightly edited and condensed for length and clarity.
7:30 a.m.: Quaff coffee from Canada
In my perfect day, my very, very small baby and my toddler would sleep until the blissful hour of 7:30 a.m. They like to wake up very early, but in my hypothetical day, my husband and I get up earlier than them, which has literally never happened, but we’re gonna go with it, and we have coffee. We’re very obsessed with our morning coffee. It’s from a coffee shop that we love so much that we found when we were working in Calgary, Canada. It’s called Monogram [Coffee]. We’re coffee snobs, so we have the beans shipped down and we have a little Breville espresso machine. And Wyatt makes me my coffee in the morning. Then I open all the doors and the windows and put a record on and we have a little quiet coffee. Then the kids get up.
9 a.m.: Grab some griddle cakes
We used to go to Patrick’s Roadhouse for breakfast, but sadly, it’s closed, which is devastating because it’s always been a staple. So we’d go to either Breakfast by Salt’s Cure for pancakes — which is one of my favorite spots — or Huckleberry in Santa Monica. At Salt’s Cure, I get the OG griddle cakes. They’re my favorite thing in the whole world, and they’re ridiculously good. That with a side of sausage is the universal order.
10:30 a.m.: Find some flowers, crank some tunes
I love to do flower arrangements, so I’ll go to [a local] flower vendor and get a ton of flowers. And then I go home and lay them all out, and then put on some really loud music while my kiddo helps me [arrange them]. I listen to a lot of Gillian Welch, and I love Mazzy Star — I can’t play enough Mazzy Star. And I always have the doors open. We’ll do this for about an hour or so while the baby takes a nap.
1 p.m.: Make a meal, play with the boys
I like to do some kind of big meal, like a long-cooking roast — I recently did braised short ribs — or I’ll do this really yummy Thai coconut meatball soup. I’ll do something like that, and when I’m done, I’ll put it in the fridge. And we’ll eat it later or the next day. Then we’ll all go out and play, maybe bring some tennis rackets, just hang out. And I’ll have a little [outdoors] moment with the boys.
3 p.m.: Sip at sunset
In my hypothetical Sunday, my in-laws are coming over to babysit, and they will be babysitting while we get ready. Then my husband and I will put some white wine in our Yeti [wine tumblers] and go back to the beach. A couple blocks from our house, there’s an underpass under [Pacific Coast Highway] where you can go to the beach. Then we’ll sit on the beach and watch the sunset and have a little cocktail.
5 p.m.: Wander to dinner
Then we would awkwardly put our Yetis somewhere and go have dinner at either Muse or the Golden Bull. Muse is one of the best meals I’ve had. They just opened, and it’s like this little jewel box [of a] restaurant where everything you eat is the best thing you’ve ever had in your life. The rack of lamb is insane. And the Golden Bull is one of those staple neighborhood restaurants. There’s a fire going in the winter, so it’s the best cozy place. If you go there, you have to sit at the bar and get the prime rib and the Yorkshire pudding and a mezcal margarita. I highly recommend [it].
7 p.m.: Gather the family around the fire
We’d be home in time to do bedtime [for the kids] and have family time hanging out with my in-laws, which is usually what we do on a Sunday evening. The dudes will put the boys to bed, and then we’ll hang out in front of the fire.
9:30 p.m.: Take in a little TV before lights out
I never go to bed past 9:30 unless I really want to feel like dog [crap] the next day. In my hypothetical, I wouldn’t fall asleep within two minutes, which I think I’ve done every time I’ve tried to watch something for the last two years. Last night, we started watching this new documentary about the Stanford Prison Experiment [“The Stanford Prison Experiment: Unlocking the Truth”] that a friend of ours, Juliette Eisner, directed, and it was so good and so creepy. We’re also watching [the Netflix series] “Nobody Wants This,” which I really like. A shout-out to my friend Justine Lupe, who plays the sister. She’s so good, and it’s fun to watch your friends.
