‘Hacks’ Team Celebrates Sophomore Run, Talks “Living Legend” Guest Stars

Coming off three Emmys and two Golden Globes in their triumphant 2021 awards run, the team behind HBO Max’s Hacks finally gathered Monday to celebrate the second season of the pandemic smash hit.

Led by its three co-creators, co-showrunners, co-EPs and co-writers — Paul W. Downs, Lucia Aniello and Jen Statsky — the Hacks family is a tight-knit group with an extensive ensemble cast. This time around, the show brought on a star-studded group of guest stars to join the series.

A self-proclaimed “massive Hacks fan,” guest star Ming-Na Wen said she “was jumping for joy” at the opportunity to join season two. “To have an opportunity to break out of this mold that I’ve been playing — these badass, assassin-type characters, and just to be back on Earth and doing some comedy with this kind of writing and this caliber of directing and [producing]. And then the cast — oh, my goodness, forget it!” Wen told The Hollywood Reporter at the show’s season two premiere in Los Angeles. “I was going to work my schedule around anything to be on this show.”

“I think being a woman of a certain age and feeling, for a while there, that my career is nearing the end, but to feel it accelerate and having hit all these amazing landmarks of my dreams as a child, [like] to be in a Star Wars project,” Wen said, referencing her role as Fennec Shand in Disney+’s The Mandalorian and The Book of Boba Fett. “And I see [Jean Smart] and man, she’s just hitting her stride. It’s such an inspiration. Pure inspiration.”

Wen continued, “[Smart] is not just the sweetest and the most generous actress, but she is genuinely just a joy to watch. There is nothing that you won’t learn just from observing what she does in a scene. She’s an icon.”

This past year, Smart won the Emmy for best lead actress in a comedy series for her Hacks performance as legendary stand-up comedy diva Deborah Vance.

Among the list of guest stars this year includes Wen, Laurie Metcalf, Martha Kelly and Margaret Cho.

“I worked with Laurie a lot this season, and I mean, it’s exactly how you would imagine it to be, working with a living legend, with a veteran of the industry,” said Mark Indelicato, who plays Damien on the show. “She was just incredible. And similarly to Jean, watching them spar with each other onscreen.” He continued, “I would lose myself in the scene. Sometimes I would be like, ‘Oh, shit, I have a line. I have to say something. I’m on camera.’”

As for Smart’s own excitement of the guest appearances, the Emmy-winning actress called the group “an embarrassment of riches.”

“It was really nice because apparently people are asking to be on the show,” Smart said. “It’s not like they had to go beg people, which is always a really nice feeling. I’ve worked with Laurie before. In fact, we have the same agent. I love her. She’s fantastic. She’s a brilliant actress.”

“It was so much fun because everyone just kind of fell right in,” added Carl Clemons-Hopkins, who plays Marcus. “It was a testament to everyone’s talent.” Clemons-Hopkins was especially excited for the guest appearance of comedian Margaret Cho on-set. “I hate that I didn’t have any scenes with her. If it wasn’t for COVID, I would have been on that set, like ‘Can you sign my tapes?’ It was really great. And it just added more wonderful flavor.”

As for the future of Hacks post-season two, the co-creators and showrunners couldn’t reveal anything quite yet. Picking up after a major season one cliffhanger, Downs promises audiences an exciting start. “The first episode is called ‘There Will Be Blood,’ so they can expect blood,” the showrunner said. “We’d like to think of the show as an erotic thriller, and there’s a lot of thrill, especially for Ava, who’s dealing with this email in the first few episodes.”

And how long do they anticipate Deborah Vance’s story continuing on? “40 years,” Aniello joked. “Forty glorious years.”

“You’ll find out this season that Deborah Vance plans to live until she’s 109,” added Downs.

When asked how far she she hopes to see Hacks continue on, Hannah Einbinder, who plays Ava, is along for the ride for “as many [seasons] as Jean will allow.” The actress shared, “This is my dream job, so as many as Jean wants to do, I want to do.”

“It was such an amazing blueprint that we had going into this season,” Einbinder added of her working relationship with Smart. “The groundwork was already all there. And it’s always felt effortless — the connections and all of the beautiful ensemble characters, everyone interacting with each other among the cast. So it’s just so exciting to be able to do it again.”

Hacks season two premieres on HBO Max on May 12.