With the first season of Hacks, which returned this week to HBO Max with its third installment, it won the Emmy, the Golden Globe and the Critics Choice for best comedy actress and repeated its triumphs with the second, although at the Globes he lost to Quinta Brunson. The fact is that Jean Smart’s characterization as the diva Deborah Vance is impeccable, like almost all the things that this 72-year-old actress does, who, as she herself says, once dreamed of being a stand-up comedian, but is equally effective in dramatic roles. . In this new season, Deborah reunites with Ava (Hannah Einbinder), the young screenwriter she hired to turn her career around in Las Vegas.
These two women have never been so far apart since the beginning of the series, as they have gone a year without contact. How do you think the experience has been for Deborah?
I love the way they reunite this season, because it’s exactly how it needed to be. The two behave with false politeness for five minutes and then start insulting each other. But I think it’s good that they were both able to enjoy their lives and achieve things they wanted to achieve. I’m sure that each of them was thinking about the other during that entire year away, believing that it was better not to call them. I think Deborah had a somewhat altruistic attitude, trying to do what she thought was best for Ava. It’s just that Deborah needs Ava more than Ava needs Deborah, and this is the first time the relationship has been raised in any way. that way. Deborah is at a point where she is considering what to do next in her career, whether to return to Las Vegas to work in a second-rate club or participate in another bad television comedy.
In what way do you feel the relationship between them has evolved?
It has evolved a lot. Deborah wouldn’t accept anyone telling her what Ava could tell her. Initially she didn’t like to admit that Ava was right. But now she does it easily and she even admits how much it bothers her that Ava has changed her way of being. She makes him angry that she forces him to think. I don’t think a husband of Deborah’s would have been able to tell her everything that Ava tells her.
Do you feel like Deborah is thinking about her legacy when making decisions?
It’s obviously something she’s been thinking about over the years, and that’s why there’s a bit of bitterness and disappointment in her. Deborah thought she had made peace with that. But she’s at a point where she’s paying a lot of attention to her own mortality and she suddenly finds herself with this opportunity that she’s excited about. Until that moment she had not realized how much she wanted something like that, because she had assumed that it is not something that was going to happen in her life.
She is a woman who has a hard time apologizing. What is her relationship with apologies?
It’s not a problem for me to apologize when I know I’m wrong, but I don’t do it until I’m totally convinced that I’m wrong. My dear late husband would probably not agree with what I just said. But it’s true, Deborah doesn’t apologize. I think that many comedians are like that, they feel that they are doing their job and that what they said was in jest. Although “I was just doing my job” is a famous Nazi phrase.
Do you enjoy the moments when Deborah allows herself to be vulnerable?
Clear. I think it helps to understand who she is. I also enjoy when she does stand-up. Being able to interpret both moments is a true luxury. That’s why I fell in love with the series when they sent me the script. He had it all, and I couldn’t ask for a character that was more complex or more detailed.
What was it like learning to do stand-up?
The truth is that the credit goes to the scriptwriters because it was all in the text. While I was reading it I could imagine how it was going to sound. If you ask anyone in my family, they will tell you that as a child I used to play pranks all the time. And in that sense this role has been incredible because in a way it has allowed me to live my fantasy of doing stand-up, but without taking any risks. The audience laughs at home and they pay me.
The series shows how the culture of yes works in Hollywood. Celebrities say yes to everything, even if they wear a dress that looks horrible on them. Is it really like that?
Of course. I know the story of an actor who usually arrives on set an hour and a half or two hours late. On the first day of filming, they should have told him that this was not the way to work, but they didn’t, so he continued to arrive late every day. Many times he would show up at lunchtime, when the technical team had been waiting for hours. It’s ridiculous that they tolerate something like that. Luckily I haven’t had to work with someone who was a nightmare. But I have heard many stories. I always say that if Meryl Streep can be nice to everyone, everyone should follow her example.
