After Jean Smart underwent a successful heart procedure last year, the Emmy-winning actor returned to the set of Hacks for her most physically grueling season yet. Granted, her character, Deborah Vance, is a legendary comedian and QVC queen—so it wasn’t like the now 72-year-old was performing a marathon so much as a strange medley of activities the character undertakes in her latest power grab.
These activities include driving a bulldozer (for a late-night prank Deborah pulls on Carrot Top), playing golf, hiking, and dancing the tango. And she had to do most of those shortly after injuring herself in a fall. “I just creamed my knee really bad,” Smart says on this week’s Little Gold Men, though that the injury didn’t stop her. The five-time Emmy winner just marched on. “That was right before we had to do two days of golf,” she adds.
This season of Hacks also required Smart to face a few unpleasant emotional truths about Deborah—about what she’s willing to do to get ahead, the jokes she used to tell, and the savage ways she sometimes treats the people she loves. Listen or read below for more on Deborah’s season-three journey, the character’s blindness to boundaries, and the real-life comedians who’ve endorsed her onscreen stand-up act.
Vanity Fair: When Deborah and Ava reunite in the first episode of the season, we realize that Deborah hasn’t reached out to Ava in a year. Were you surprised to hear that’s how Deborah handled the relationship?
Jean Smart: My gut reaction was sort of surprised, but then I thought, No, that’s kind of like her. Because she waits for people to reach out to her. And also she’s been on a whirlwind of positive things that’s been occupying her mind. But I have the feeling she probably had an ear out for what was going on with Ava. I think she knew that Ava was doing well and probably patted herself on the back for it.
It’s great to see Deborah at this place in her life. She’s on the Time 100 list. She’s Supreme streetwear royalty. She’s getting Tom Cruise cakes. What was it like to see her reclaim her pop-culture relevance?
It was wonderful, because when she decided to do a special, it was do or die time. It was like, “If this doesn’t work, this is the end. I am not going to go crawling back to Las Vegas and do a second-rate casino [show] off the strip.” To her, there was no plan B. It was going to work, come hell or high water.
But Deborah is not finished. She suddenly has a new goal this season that has to do with the late show. Were you surprised to learn that the special didn’t satisfy her ambitions?
Well, it made sense to me because when she got the chance to guest host The Late Show, it brought up all of that craving she’d had all those years ago that she’d tried to put away, but it came roaring back because she was in her element. That’s when she realized how much she regretted the fact that she never got that shot. So when she thinks there might be a shot, she goes into overdrive ambition.