Tracy Letts says she’s more ‘hopeful’ in her relationship with Carrie Coon

Tracy Letts and Carrie Coon are giving rare insight into their relationship.

When Ms. Letts, 60, and Ms. Kuhn, 44, spoke to the New York Times about their play “Bug,” which will be produced on Broadway, Ms. Kuhn revealed how she felt on bad days.

“On my best days, I don’t think about the future or the past. I stay in the present,” she said. “That’s what kids are good at. And on my worst days, I’m thinking about opening the bug and after Tracy’s death, the kids are going to be burned for water in the future and running away from cannibals. So I feel very dark when I think about that. That’s where I land.”

The couple has a son, Haskell, and a daughter, whose names have not yet been released.

“I’m more hopeful,” Letts added. “I have two children, ages 2 and 4. I can’t have two doomsayers in the house.”

Kuhn and Letts have announced that they will return to Broadway in August in Letts’ play “Bug,” starring Kuhn. The two first met and fell in love while starring in the 2012 revival of “Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf?” and Kuhn made her Broadway debut. She was nominated for a Tony Award, and Letts won a Tony Award for her performance in the play. (The two married in 2013.)

“We were in different relationships with each other and it didn’t work out, so we realized we hit it off. And, I don’t know, we fell in love,” Letts said.

“Talent is very attractive to me,” he said. “She’s sexy. And oh my god, she’s powerful.”

“I got to the point where no one would believe what I thought were my complications,” Kuhn added. “And I learned from the jump that Tracy has the ability to hold all of that. It’s in his writing, his ability to write women.”

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When Coon chatted with PEOPLE on the red carpet at The Gilded Age’s Television Academy for Your Consideration event in November, she said the secret to marriage is communication.

“It’s always communication,” Kuhn says. “I have to be honest. I mean, we have really attractive, charismatic people all year round. We have to talk about something, and it’s not just when you have kids. You can’t just talk about logistics. You have to try to look for points of connection and when you ask how someone is doing, make sure it’s really serious.”