Jean Smart and ‘Hacks’ Team Tease a ‘Totally Unexpected’ Season 3 Twist at SXSW Premiere
09.03.2024 - 21:55
/ variety.com
Selome Hailu SXSW can’t get enough of Jean Smart. The crowd at Austin’s Paramount theater erupted as Smart walked down the aisle to find her seat at the Saturday morning world premiere of “Hacks” Season 3, in which she plays aging comedian Deborah Vance. The Max comedy series has been off the air for two years, during which Smart suffered a health scare and underwent a heart procedure that delayed production.
“We love you, Jean!” an attendee screamed as the applause began to die down. “Love you back!” she called out. The theater went wild again when Smart first appeared on screen during the premiere, and again —this time with a standing ovation — when she took the stage alongside co-star Hannah Einbinder and series creators Lucia Aniello, Paul W.
Downs and Jen Statsky for a post-screening Q&A. “This show, kind of like Deborah Vance, gets knocked down a thousand times and gets back up a thousand and one,” Downs said. “We started the show in the pandemic, pre-vaccine.
We made Season 2, and Lucia gave birth early during during production. This season, there was the writers strike, the actors strike and we had a health scare.” Downs also shouted out the below-the-line workers on “Hacks,” members of IATSE who may end up on a strike of their own later this year. “There was a lot of time that we took, but it’s really a testament to the cast and crew — especially the crew,” he said.
“Crew people are so vital to making the show, and in a lot of instances when you have to take that time, they may find other gigs. But everybody waited. Every single person.” Later, when the moderator suggested that Deborah’s on-again-off-again employment of millennial comedy writer Ava (Einbinder) feels like a romance, both actors made faces and
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