Today (Sunday) the comedy series "Hacks" airs on HOT and yesVOD, which aired last May on the HBO Max streaming service in the USA, and has already managed to garner an impressive number of 15 nominations for the Emmy Awards at next month's ceremony.
"Hacks" is an English term that describes a professional who fails in his job, or alternatively, an action that causes far-reaching change.
The series follows two women who are engaged in the field of comedy, one on her way up and the other in a declining trend, whose paths intersect.
Rising actress Hannah Einbinder plays Eva Daniels, a young screenwriter who promises in the Hollywood skies that the industry will turn her back on her one day following a pointless joke on Twitter. To recover and continue working in the industry, she is sent by her agent to his other client, Debra Vance, a veteran entertainer who has been performing in Las Vegas for decades and is already with one leg out of show business. The goal: to help Deborah write jokes and refresh the materials for the young audience. The character of Debra, a comedian at the end of her professional days, is played by actress Gene Smart.
Smart, who will celebrate her 70th birthday next month, began her career as an actress on Off Broadway until she landed a role in the sitcom "Designs," about four women in Atlanta with a private interior design business.
The sitcom came out in 1986 and ran for seven seasons.
She later starred in the comedy series "Frazier" as the love interest of Dr. Frazier Crane (Kelsey Grammer) and twice won the Emmy Award. She also starred in the drama series "24" and "Harriet's Law". The acclaimed "Fargo" in the HBO mini-series "The Guardians" and the "Easton Secrets" series, in which she played Kate Winslet's mother.
Smart is nominated for Emmy this year in two categories simultaneously: in the lead actress category on "Hacks" and in the supporting actress category on "Easton's Secrets."
In an online panel promoting the "Hacks" series, Smart said that "the well-known phenomenon of the difficulties adolescent actresses are experiencing in Hollywood is in a gradual and slow decline, but it still exists. I have personally received some of the biggest opportunities of my life in recent years. Even so, I would not push my daughter to become an actress. "
"Hacks has a significant burden on me as the lead actress in the series, but I do not have time to attach importance to it because I am busy having fun. We have enormous creative freedom, and we are backed by great writers and producers, who also allow us to improvise here and there."
Smart further said that she does not take inspiration from a specific comedian in the character portrayal. "In preparation for the role I bought a book called 'We Did It' that contains interviews with 30-40 comedians, but I haven't had time to start reading it by now," she said with a smile. "There were times when we filmed show scenes of the character that made me suddenly remember names like Phyllis Diller or Joan Rivers, but I did not base the character on any of them. I admire women who do comedy. "Usually, when the script is good, it's not bad for me."