transcript

Speaker 1:
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Speaker 2:
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Speaker 3:
[01:01] Hello. Welcome to that official Hacks Podcast from HBO Max and Same Boat Studios. I'm Jen Statsky, co-showrunner and co-creator of Hacks. Joining me today as always are my brothers from Other Mothers, Lucia Aniello and Paul W. Downs.

Speaker 4:
[01:20] Hello, I'm Paul.

Speaker 5:
[01:24] We're back to talk about episode three of season five, which is titled No New Tricks. It was written by Aisha Muharrar and directed by Paul William Downs. This episode kicks off with Deborah and Ava attending a cool party for Nico Hayes, where they both meet love interests, a sex worker and a rock star.

Speaker 3:
[01:40] You kissed a girly guy and you liked it.

Speaker 5:
[01:43] They both experienced the highs and lows of taking on the risk of new romance.

Speaker 6:
[01:48] He blocked me.

Speaker 7:
[01:49] Blocked you.

Speaker 6:
[01:51] I'll block him right back. I'll block him straight to hell.

Speaker 5:
[01:55] They're not the only ones.

Speaker 7:
[01:57] They're calling what she did to be elder fraud. It's peer-to-peer fraud.

Speaker 5:
[02:02] Along the way, everyone learns a lot about the pleasure and pain of taking risks.

Speaker 3:
[02:08] So important in life.

Speaker 4:
[02:09] To take risks.

Speaker 3:
[02:10] Yes.

Speaker 4:
[02:11] As Deborah says, if you don't take risks, you're as good as dead.

Speaker 3:
[02:14] You took a huge risk today with your outfit. I'm just thinking about if the podcast listeners heard that.

Speaker 4:
[02:23] I'm wearing a thong, but I have a see-through outfit over it. I have a sheer nightie.

Speaker 5:
[02:29] It's like a football jersey so you could see through it, but it's pants and you can see the thong underneath.

Speaker 4:
[02:34] The top is actually a football jersey, so you can also see through that.

Speaker 3:
[02:37] Honestly, we're joking. He's wearing khakis and a polo, but I think this sounds amazing. My mind was probably on outfits because of Deborah's outfit at the party.

Speaker 4:
[02:47] Oh, right.

Speaker 6:
[02:48] Practical doesn't get you press. I need something that gives Madison Square Garden a headliner and also timeless humble sex icon.

Speaker 3:
[02:56] Designed by Kathleen Felix Hager, KFH.

Speaker 5:
[02:59] The Queen, the Goat.

Speaker 3:
[03:00] The Queen, the Goat. This is a really interesting outfit.

Speaker 4:
[03:02] Should we also plug the topper?

Speaker 3:
[03:05] Oh, yes.

Speaker 4:
[03:06] Just for our listeners. So, our brilliant personal hairstylist for Deborah Vance is Jennifer Bell. Jennifer Bell came to us, she had one of her physics-defying updo's, and Jen Bell came to us and said, I also have this topper, which I think for the dress, because, you know, she wants to make a splash on the carpet, she wants to get pressed, right? She wants to get attention because she can't perform, but she can get a photograph out there in the world. And, you know, she wants to be in an Instagram discover. Deborah understands what it means to be sticky. So, Jen Bell said, well, I have this topper, it might go with the kind of loud attention-getting look.

Speaker 5:
[03:41] We were doing something, right?

Speaker 4:
[03:42] We were literally dealing with 300 extras outside of the Fontainebleau in Las Vegas on the Strip. It was a very hectic night. It was just a lot to...

Speaker 3:
[03:49] It was a crazy night.

Speaker 5:
[03:50] So she asked us this.

Speaker 4:
[03:52] So she runs over and she says, we have this topper, I could throw it on. And we were like, that looks cool. And it was in her hand. It was just a small, I guess, hairpiece, you'd call it, blonde hair and a braid.

Speaker 5:
[04:01] Well, it's a braid encircling a little dome.

Speaker 4:
[04:05] And so that was popped up on, yes, that was popped up on Deborah's updo. And it really wasn't maybe till, I don't know, editorial. I don't know when we were like, wow, it is the leaning tower of Herrsa. It's so tall. We actually had a line that's deleted. We're gonna play for you a deleted scene from Jimmy when he calls her later in the episode and refers to the hair. Here you go. There's a really cute photo of you guys online. It's breaking the internet. I mean, not literally, although my Wi-Fi is slow. Your hair is quite something, big and tall, given penis. And it was quite something.

Speaker 3:
[04:42] It was quite something. She made a splash.

Speaker 5:
[04:45] She made a splash.

Speaker 4:
[04:45] I do think, you know, like press tours nowadays where people go, you know, they're meta dressing for the movies they're in. Ends up very covered by the media. I think this would have, I think she's right. There would have been a secondary cycle just about her look.

Speaker 5:
[04:59] Absolutely.

Speaker 4:
[05:01] Little did she know she was going to have a foray into a big media storm by meeting Nico Hayes.

Speaker 5:
[05:06] I do believe, I actually like straight up believe that Nico Hayes would be into Deborah Vance. Like I believe it, I buy it, I think it's really real on camera.

Speaker 3:
[05:15] When you think about the outfit.

Speaker 4:
[05:18] But then you're like, wow, he's into this woman with this updo that is, I mean, look, Chris Briney, who played Nico and is brilliant in the episode is probably like six foot two.

Speaker 5:
[05:29] Maybe.

Speaker 4:
[05:29] He's tall. But I do think her hair stretched to the heavens and made him seem Lilliputian.

Speaker 3:
[05:35] Well, I think as we see in the episode, he understands secondary media cycles as well.

Speaker 8:
[05:40] He's very savvy.

Speaker 4:
[05:41] They have a lot in common as Deborah says.

Speaker 3:
[05:43] He wasn't looking at her going, that's a sexy outfit, he went, that's a smart outfit.

Speaker 4:
[05:47] That's a smart woman and I like a sexy brain. He likes more than just the body. He likes the brain, he likes the soul. Something we don't talk about in the press, but we can say on the podcast because it's just for us, right listeners?

Speaker 3:
[06:00] No one's listening to this.

Speaker 4:
[06:01] Sorry, Harry Styles sent Jean Smart a set of Pepper Shakers.

Speaker 3:
[06:06] Yes.

Speaker 4:
[06:07] Then she said it. It's been out there.

Speaker 3:
[06:09] Yes.

Speaker 4:
[06:09] Right?

Speaker 3:
[06:10] Yes.

Speaker 4:
[06:10] That was something that I will say influenced the work.

Speaker 3:
[06:13] Very sweetly, Harry sent Jean Pepper Shakers when he first watched the show and was a fan.

Speaker 4:
[06:19] Season one?

Speaker 3:
[06:20] I think season one. Or after season one? Maybe season two. Maybe didn't start till season two.

Speaker 5:
[06:26] He likes having a couple of episodes to look forward to.

Speaker 3:
[06:30] He loads them up.

Speaker 4:
[06:31] Well, it's hard on the road. Sure.

Speaker 5:
[06:32] It is.

Speaker 3:
[06:33] Then I think we can also speak about this because it's public.

Speaker 4:
[06:37] I hope so, Jen. What are you about to say?

Speaker 5:
[06:38] What are you about to say?

Speaker 3:
[06:41] No, but that we were very flattered that he used Deborah Vance as an alias to check into hotels.

Speaker 5:
[06:47] Cool.

Speaker 4:
[06:47] I believe it was changed after it became public.

Speaker 3:
[06:49] Of course. That's why I think it's okay to say.

Speaker 4:
[06:51] You're right. You're not endangering anyone.

Speaker 3:
[06:53] No.

Speaker 4:
[06:54] We don't do that on this podcast.

Speaker 5:
[06:55] We try not to endanger anyone.

Speaker 4:
[06:56] We keep the secrets we need to keep, but we share the dirt we want to share.

Speaker 3:
[06:58] We have a laundry list of celebrity aliases that we do not reveal on this podcast.

Speaker 4:
[07:03] That's right.

Speaker 5:
[07:04] So what else should we talk about?

Speaker 4:
[07:06] That's it. No, no, no. Hold on. I'm thinking we love having Johnny Sibley back. He plays Wilson, the on-again, off-again friend now and former lover of Marcus.

Speaker 5:
[07:15] We talk all the time about like we knew what the show is going to be. We knew the five seasons were just true. But Johnny wasn't really supposed to be somebody who continued on in our minds eye as the show continued.

Speaker 3:
[07:27] That's true.

Speaker 5:
[07:28] We just love Johnny and so we just were like, they're friends now and it just is around.

Speaker 3:
[07:33] Yeah. Johnny is such a great actor and so charismatic and has such good chemistry with Karl that it was like, let's keep him around. But yeah, you're right. It's one of those cases where an actor makes you want to write more for them.

Speaker 5:
[07:46] Which happens to us quite often, let's say.

Speaker 3:
[07:49] Yeah.

Speaker 4:
[07:49] Another highlight of this episode for me is my beautiful, talented wife, Lucia Aniello, playing Meredith, the real estate agent who is selling the Paradiso.

Speaker 5:
[07:58] And don't I look fabulous? Okay, well, one thing we should say is that there's mascara on my face because the line was that I had a wasabi pee in my bra that I thought was a lump. There was a line where I say I was crying the whole way here before I realized it was a wasabi pee. We cut that line, so that is why I have mascara running down my face.

Speaker 4:
[08:17] For those who are unaware, which is, I'm going to say, a shame, and it's on you, Lucia and I started making videos together. We would make things for youtube.com. I think it's still around. And when I was in a video, Lucia would be directing it. And when I would be directing a video, Lucia would be in it because Lucia is a brilliant performer.

Speaker 6:
[08:34] That's sweet, babe.

Speaker 4:
[08:35] She is as talented a performer, if not more than a director. And I'm so glad that we got to see a brief glimpse of that with Meredith.

Speaker 6:
[08:43] We are on the same page. What is 6-2?

Speaker 7:
[08:48] 6-4. Oh my God.

Speaker 5:
[08:50] My ex, 5-5. It was like walking around with a minion.

Speaker 4:
[08:53] I will say this too. The game of Meredith being into Marcus and flirting was found on the day.

Speaker 3:
[09:00] Oh, yeah.

Speaker 4:
[09:00] And it was found by Lucia Aniello.

Speaker 3:
[09:01] That was all improvised by you. You know what it was?

Speaker 4:
[09:04] Which I think was a gift to give comedy to the scene. It was not padding her part.

Speaker 5:
[09:08] No, it was really like an expo scene to just get him there to be like, he's interested and now he's gonna go to Deborah. So it was fun to get in there. I was like, what if I hit on him? And then that was fun.

Speaker 4:
[09:18] It was really fun.

Speaker 5:
[09:19] And it was fun to improvise with Carl and Johnny was...

Speaker 4:
[09:22] Johnny and Carl really rolled with what you were up to, which was great.

Speaker 5:
[09:26] Also those nails, do you remember? So I had like nail polish gels underneath, but then we wanted to put nails on top, but we couldn't take the gels off in time. So there's like, you see underneath my nails.

Speaker 3:
[09:35] You see your nails under the, yes. Which is such a funny choice. Yes, of course. I love that she's like, ah, just put them on top of it.

Speaker 5:
[09:41] Yeah, it's fine.

Speaker 4:
[09:42] And I will say, Lucia had done her work as an actor on the show and Jean came to watch it.

Speaker 5:
[09:47] She was shooting the next scene.

Speaker 4:
[09:49] But she came early.

Speaker 3:
[09:50] Okay.

Speaker 4:
[09:50] And she does not often come early.

Speaker 3:
[09:52] That is true. She came to watch. I have a very good memory from that day in that old casino of like Jean and other actors being like so excited to watch you and coming to watch at Village and Jean tackling.

Speaker 5:
[10:03] Yes. Well, she had never seen me like that.

Speaker 3:
[10:05] No, she didn't realize.

Speaker 5:
[10:06] She didn't know I had ever acted. She'd never seen Broad City.

Speaker 4:
[10:09] So when we were setting up the shot of the paparazzi and Lucia kind of walked it for Jean and did a little spin. I think Jean appreciating her je ne sais quoi, her instincts, did the same thing. Did the same thing as Lucia.

Speaker 3:
[10:22] I do think it's a real game recognized, game situation. I think Jean, I realize, I was like, oh, Jean is a true actor in that she really admires the craft above all else. And so I think.

Speaker 4:
[10:35] Yeah, she saw you in a new light.

Speaker 3:
[10:37] She saw you in a new light. She's had many years of seeing Paul perform and now she's seen you perform. And she'll never see me perform. She'll never respect me.

Speaker 4:
[10:45] She's seen you direct. Oh my God.

Speaker 3:
[10:47] Sure, sure, sure, sure, sure. But that's okay. I was going to add to what Paul said, which is Lucia, a brilliant performer that I first knew from UCB and from making videos with her. But also the very first time Lucia and I ever worked together was Lucia directing, but I also you were performing in and I directed you.

Speaker 5:
[11:06] Yes.

Speaker 3:
[11:07] So I've also directed Lucia Aniello, Paul.

Speaker 5:
[11:10] Describe. Lay it out though. Just describe the feeling for these people.

Speaker 3:
[11:14] I actually had to retire from directing for 20 years after.

Speaker 5:
[11:17] Until this season.

Speaker 3:
[11:18] Because it was too fulfilling.

Speaker 4:
[11:20] I should have let you direct this episode so you could have directed Lucia because that would have been a great reunion.

Speaker 5:
[11:23] No.

Speaker 3:
[11:23] It's such a good full circle that you finally are directing Lucia. But we're not done. Maybe in the future I'll direct Lucia.

Speaker 5:
[11:30] I would love to. Honestly, I would prefer to act as a director.

Speaker 6:
[11:34] Sure. Yeah.

Speaker 4:
[11:35] Well, Barbara Streisand is a director. Maybe she'll pluck you up for something.

Speaker 5:
[11:39] If you guys are listening, it's just the amount of time put in for actors is for me preferable. Prep takes a long time and I need a break.

Speaker 4:
[11:47] Oh, you mean directing is a little bit more.

Speaker 5:
[11:49] Directing is a lot more.

Speaker 4:
[11:50] There's a little bit more.

Speaker 5:
[11:51] There's a little bit more. Well, you do both. Tell me.

Speaker 4:
[11:54] A lot more.

Speaker 5:
[11:57] And truth be told, if I may, get on my damn soapbox for a second, I kind of started doing all of these things in a way around the same time writing, directing, acting. Obviously, I don't really act as much anymore, mostly because nobody asks me to and I don't have the time to audition. But I do believe that they're all in service of the same thing. Of course. I don't really think of myself as like, I am a director, I do this job, or I am a writer, this is the job I do. I'm like, it's all part of getting this idea out. And actually, I think in many ways, as an actor, I can help bring it farther.

Speaker 4:
[12:27] Right. It's all in service of telling a story.

Speaker 3:
[12:30] Yeah. Exactly. Which is what you did in the scene, in the way that you're like, oh, there's not really a game here. This needs to have a game.

Speaker 4:
[12:37] Which you might not have discovered had you been directing it.

Speaker 3:
[12:40] But yeah, it's interesting. I know you mean it's all a different muscle, but all of the same body?

Speaker 5:
[12:48] That's right. Exactly.

Speaker 4:
[12:49] I love that.

Speaker 5:
[12:50] That's literally true.

Speaker 3:
[12:52] Let's make that an exclusive.

Speaker 4:
[12:53] Because you're trying to make the soul come to life in Frankenstein way, Dr. Frankenstein way.

Speaker 5:
[12:58] You're trying to explain to the actor, help the actor get to that place.

Speaker 3:
[13:01] Exactly. Pam Brady who co-created Lady Dynamite, a show I worked on a while ago.

Speaker 4:
[13:07] Great show.

Speaker 3:
[13:07] Great show with the brilliant Maria Bamford. If you haven't seen her stand up, please go pause this and go watch all of it and then come back. Said that making a show is like there's a body on the table and we're all trying to save it. Which I thought was like kind of correct. It's like there's this thing that's like maybe like could slip out of your fingers if you're not all present, trying to save it and rescue it. And that is what it feels like. You're all just pitching in, trying to do it.

Speaker 4:
[13:34] Yes.

Speaker 3:
[13:34] Which is what you're-

Speaker 4:
[13:35] So writing the pit might be easy.

Speaker 3:
[13:37] Writing the pit, you're already in that mindset.

Speaker 4:
[13:39] Yeah.

Speaker 3:
[13:40] And yeah. Paul, was there, you know, you directed this one. Was there anything else we should speak to about it?

Speaker 4:
[13:46] One of the things that was the most fun and exciting to do is to watch Deborah and Ava in this gear where they're like girling out. You know, they're having like a slumber party. They're both having a date night. They're both screaming with glee in the kitchen.

Speaker 5:
[13:59] We made out.

Speaker 2:
[14:00] Ah! Oh my God!

Speaker 5:
[14:03] We had to bury the lead.

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Speaker 4:
[15:36] This episode is a little bit longer than some of our episodes. Yeah. Partly because we have a very solid A, B, and C story.

Speaker 3:
[15:42] Which we almost never do.

Speaker 4:
[15:43] Yes. We have Deborah and Nico on their journey. We have Ava and-

Speaker 3:
[15:48] Eli.

Speaker 4:
[15:49] Eli, the magician slash sex worker on theirs. Then we also have this story for Marcus about wanting to revitalize this casino and bring back an independent casino in Las Vegas. So we had three very solid A, B, and C stories which made it a little bit long. So we had to find things to trim like the end of that scene in the kitchen. They did this.

Speaker 7:
[16:11] Oh my god, we're gonna have so much fun!

Speaker 6:
[16:14] This is gonna be literally so fun.

Speaker 4:
[16:16] Hey, do you want to have ice cream?

Speaker 10:
[16:18] Yes! Woo!

Speaker 4:
[16:20] Oh my god.

Speaker 7:
[16:20] Can we have it upstairs?

Speaker 3:
[16:21] Yes!

Speaker 6:
[16:22] Grab two spoons.

Speaker 8:
[16:24] Is that the big spoons?

Speaker 6:
[16:27] Oh shit, we've got to lock the door.

Speaker 3:
[16:31] Let's go.

Speaker 6:
[16:32] Everyone lock up the dogs.

Speaker 3:
[16:35] It also probably feels cathartic. I think to write it felt cathartic, to be able to perform it and to watch it, because these two have been through so much, and they've had their trials, had their tribulations. So just to see them in a great place where they're girling out is very satisfying.

Speaker 4:
[16:50] And to see them both having great time on dates was great. I think Deborah initially thinks, and this was something we wanted to explore, was this publicity relationship that's set up through a manager. You hear about these things all the time. It's like, are these two really dating, or is this just for publicity? And Deborah thinks in the beginning it's just a stunt. She doesn't think that this guy could actually be into her. He's much, much younger than she is. He's a big rock star. But she comes to find he is genuinely interested in her, and that they have a lot in common. They're both self-made. They're both in charge of their business. He emancipated from his parents. They're both performers now doing residency in Vegas, or, you know, Nico is now.

Speaker 5:
[17:26] They both were Versace.

Speaker 4:
[17:28] They both were Versace. They have a lot in common style-wise. It's so funny to me when she comes back to the kitchen, she says, oh my god, we have so much in common. He has a great sense of style, because he just has her sense of style.

Speaker 3:
[17:37] We have so much in common, and then she just compliments him.

Speaker 5:
[17:39] And then she's like, he's sexy.

Speaker 3:
[17:41] He's smart, he's funny.

Speaker 5:
[17:43] I also love the way there's this one line, do you really think, where Deborah takes her hair and pushes it to the side.

Speaker 4:
[17:51] Oh yeah, she brushes a bang out of her face.

Speaker 5:
[17:53] Yeah, in a flirty way. It's so funny. Jean is so funny. They both are.

Speaker 4:
[17:57] Yeah, we got to see them in a new gear, which was really cool. Oh, and you know what I really love about this episode? It is such a classic comedy set piece that Ava would date someone who she's so excited does sex work because Ava being progressive thinks this is very important. She's one of the first thousand people to say sex work is work.

Speaker 5:
[18:14] I can't imagine she thinks that.

Speaker 4:
[18:16] But I think she adopted it in a way that was so full-throated that she does feel like some ownership around it, even if she wasn't one of the first thousand. Because let's be honest, it's the older profession. So some people have been saying it for a long time. But I love that the thing that makes her cringe is actually his aspirations of magic, being a magician. It's so funny.

Speaker 5:
[18:37] And of course, this comes to a head with our favorite guest star, Lauren Weidman, Mayor Joe Pezzamenti.

Speaker 4:
[18:44] Oh my goodness.

Speaker 7:
[18:45] This is so fucked up. Looking down on me for being a magician is just as bad as looking down on me for being a sex worker.

Speaker 1:
[18:52] No, it's not.

Speaker 6:
[18:53] Magicians aren't marginalized.

Speaker 7:
[18:55] The name one magician who's ever served on the Supreme Court. Whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa.

Speaker 1:
[19:00] Okay, okay.

Speaker 2:
[19:00] Listen, it's getting a little heated here.

Speaker 1:
[19:02] Let's relax. Let's go to my room, have a little nightcap. You can come too, if you haven't been patty.

Speaker 9:
[19:07] That's the gay one, right?

Speaker 5:
[19:09] She is so funny in this scene.

Speaker 3:
[19:11] She's another Johnny Sibley where we always knew the mayor of Las Vegas would be a character in the show, but I don't think we knew we would write to it quite so much until Lauren Weidman brought it to life and just gave it something otherworldly.

Speaker 4:
[19:25] It is otherworldly.

Speaker 5:
[19:27] It is.

Speaker 4:
[19:27] It is so funny.

Speaker 5:
[19:28] I'm going to talk a quick second about falling in love with her originally. She was so good in Five Year Engagement, a movie I love and I don't think is long enough. Also, she's great in Looking, the Andrew Hay HBO show.

Speaker 4:
[19:44] We only came to know this I think after we had cast her. We watched a little bit of Hung, which we had never seen, and she and Jane Adams are in that together.

Speaker 5:
[19:51] Yes.

Speaker 4:
[19:52] Which is so wild because they're, as you all know, on the show, Jane Adams plays Nina, Ava's mother. We got the gang back together in a way, inadvertently. We hadn't seen the show before.

Speaker 5:
[20:02] We didn't know they were together. I think they play like Office Mates.

Speaker 4:
[20:04] They do.

Speaker 3:
[20:05] They're both so funny.

Speaker 5:
[20:07] So funny.

Speaker 3:
[20:08] There's a couple of original songs in this episode, as you would expect in an episode about Nico Hayes. The first, you hear Deborah listening to in her office as she's become enamored with Nico Hayes. And that is Chris Briney singing that song. That original song written for the show.

Speaker 4:
[20:26] Written for Hacks. And then later we hear Funny Girl, which is an acoustic song. Nico is riffing on, doing a little Instagram live, which most everybody, his army and Ava and Deborah realize is about her. We wrote those lyrics.

Speaker 3:
[20:39] That's right.

Speaker 4:
[20:39] Carlos Rafael Rivera and David Stahl, our composers, wrote the music. And as you hear and see, Chris Briney performs that as well. Another original song for the episode.

Speaker 3:
[20:49] And then, now this is really exciting, Deborah says, call Diane Warren when she decides she needs to clap back and write a song of her own. And the song you hear come in over the credits is an original song written by Miss Diane Warren.

Speaker 4:
[21:04] Diane Warren, the 17 time Academy Award nominated songwriter, who is a Hacksanista herself.

Speaker 3:
[21:11] Yeah, fan of the show. I believe her and Jean are friends.

Speaker 4:
[21:14] Yes, she's a rock star.

Speaker 3:
[21:15] And Paul, you met her.

Speaker 4:
[21:16] I did meet her at Man-Dulgence, which was a fantastic event and I had a blast. And she was so lovely about the show. She literally said...

Speaker 5:
[21:24] You can't drop Man-Dulgence and not explain Man-Dulgence.

Speaker 4:
[21:27] Man-Dulgence is a hospitality and gifting suite that's done before the Emmy Awards and is something that just like, you know, as people are flying into town or here in LA getting ready to attend the event, they can go have a little pampering or maybe go home with some shwag. And it was a fabulous event.

Speaker 3:
[21:49] And you think, you hear Man-Dulgence, you think Diane Warren.

Speaker 5:
[21:51] But weirdly, some women pop by.

Speaker 4:
[21:54] Well, it's kind of open for all. It's a place to mingle. It's a place to network. And guess what? Diane came up, said, hi, I love the show. We should work together. Take my number. I did. And guess what? That's how it came about. I texted Diane Warren.

Speaker 3:
[22:06] That's right.

Speaker 4:
[22:06] Sorry to make it about me, but I texted Diane.

Speaker 5:
[22:10] I prompted the story.

Speaker 4:
[22:11] And Diane texted right back and was immediately engaged and was great.

Speaker 3:
[22:16] Can you imagine if you hadn't gone to Mandulgence?

Speaker 4:
[22:19] A lot of things wouldn't have happened in my life. That was it. I'm not kidding. It doesn't happen every year and I needed to come back. That's a real fork in the road for you. A day of indulgence is what the original is called. Barbara, you know what I'm talking about. You've been invited. Don't know if you're gone. And then they made one for men and it was called the Day of Mandulgence. Let's be honest, I came home with a suitcase of stuff. It was crazy. And honestly, we gave it out to a lot of people. It was just that everyone was so generous. It was so lovely.

Speaker 5:
[22:49] And fabulous products as well.

Speaker 3:
[22:50] Yeah, it was man-dulgent.

Speaker 4:
[22:52] Unfortunately, Deb and Nico don't last because Deborah, thinking it was publicity, called her paparazzo friend who lets her retouch before he sells the photos to make sure that he gets good angles of their date. Deborah comes to learn that Nico isn't in this for publicity. He really loves her or really is interested in her. So she stops calling it paparazzi, but unfortunately they reveal because they're so interested in this new couple, Nicura, that it was actually Deb who initiated the photos. You know, Nicura is so funny and it was something that Lucia pitched, I believe, the night of the scene where Nico Hayes finds out about the paparazzi.

Speaker 6:
[23:28] Nico, don't let a little mistake ruin us. What us? Us, us, Nicura.

Speaker 7:
[23:37] I'd like to go home now.

Speaker 4:
[23:39] Nicura, I loved how she said Nicura. That really tickled Jean.

Speaker 3:
[23:42] It's interesting, we don't get a lot of the age of the celebrity couple name is kind of. Yeah, what's that about?

Speaker 4:
[23:49] Is it?

Speaker 3:
[23:49] When was the last time, you know, we had Bennifer, we had.

Speaker 5:
[23:54] There's no like Tom Zendaya, Tomcat.

Speaker 3:
[23:58] Who's Tomcat? I believe Tom Cruise and Katie Holmes.

Speaker 5:
[24:01] Oh, well, you would know.

Speaker 3:
[24:03] Sure.

Speaker 5:
[24:04] She loves Katie Holmes.

Speaker 3:
[24:06] Katie, if you're listening, give me one shot. I love Katie Holmes. I love really Joey Potter.

Speaker 5:
[24:17] Oh, it's more the character.

Speaker 3:
[24:19] I mean, I just don't know Katie as well as I know Joey.

Speaker 5:
[24:22] And you ride hard for Joey.

Speaker 3:
[24:24] I ride hard and I rode hard for Joey and Pacey, but only in retrospect, I realize how much I was in love with Joey Potter.

Speaker 4:
[24:33] Joey Potter from Dawson's Creek. I thought you were talking about the children's author, Peter Rabbit, but that's Beatrice Potter, not Joey Potter.

Speaker 5:
[24:39] Don't know if that's a bit.

Speaker 3:
[24:41] But yeah, Nikara is a great celeb couple name.

Speaker 4:
[24:45] There must be ones like, is there like Selena Gomez in somebody or, you know, like we don't do celebrity names anymore?

Speaker 5:
[24:50] We're not really doing that, which is weird because we're reading it actually more than ever with the internet.

Speaker 3:
[24:55] Polly Lou is kind of a.

Speaker 5:
[24:57] Yeah, but that's a Robuff Desi Lou.

Speaker 4:
[24:59] Yes.

Speaker 5:
[24:59] And also nobody, we're not famous like that.

Speaker 3:
[25:03] Well, I'm trying to help you. Oh, sorry, thank you.

Speaker 5:
[25:04] That's so nice.

Speaker 4:
[25:06] Thank you.

Speaker 3:
[25:06] But yes, it's a great celeb couple name and they're a great couple. And perhaps you haven't seen the last of Chris Briney.

Speaker 4:
[25:13] Oh, my goodness. Oh, is that titillating? Well, I guess we have to keep watching.

Speaker 5:
[25:19] You have to, please, please watch.

Speaker 4:
[25:24] Let's talk about Marty. That was actually even a fourth story in this episode, is Marty's wedding, which we've been building towards since season two when we meet Victoria, his older or should I say his age appropriate fiance played by Carol Raphael Davis so beautifully. And this episode we get to their wedding. But it goes awry.

Speaker 7:
[25:45] Eleanor Guillaume, you're under arrest. Victoria? What the hell? Who's Eleanor? What's going on?

Speaker 1:
[25:50] Miss Guillaume is one of her fraud.

Speaker 4:
[25:51] We've actually known for a long time that she was going to be defrauding him.

Speaker 7:
[25:56] Yes.

Speaker 4:
[25:56] And that it would be really fun. We thought we toyed with it being in France, the wedding, we toyed with it being in a couple places. But ultimately it made so much sense. We shot that at Caesars, which is, as you know, part of the Palmetto family we established in Season 3 when they installed the Debra Vance slot machine. And Chris and Debra, after this heartbreaking incident, have a very sweet scene in the bridal suite.

Speaker 6:
[26:18] If it makes you feel any better, I was just dumped and blocked by an international rock star.

Speaker 7:
[26:23] Okay. Sounds like you still got the day to rock star.

Speaker 6:
[26:27] Yeah, but I got my heart broken. I've been very sad about it. But I mean, I should actually be thrilled. I mean, what a gift to still be taking risks. Come on. We both got our hearts broken. Aren't you glad that you're still putting yourself out there like that?

Speaker 4:
[26:44] Bed cover and rose petals.

Speaker 5:
[26:46] That was all last minute did, and I think it was really great.

Speaker 4:
[26:48] Thank you. I was like, this should have rose petals, I think.

Speaker 5:
[26:51] Just signify.

Speaker 4:
[26:52] I should give a shout out to our props department who ran around to find, I mean, we didn't have that prepared, but they truly stole roses from the hotel and threw them on the bed, which was great.

Speaker 5:
[27:02] Really beautifully done. Great work.

Speaker 4:
[27:03] Great hustle. We experimented with it being in the shape of a heart or just being scattered. We like the scattered more, which is what you see in the final cut. Anyway, I do think Jean Smart and Chris McDonald, who plays Marty, are so wonderful in scenes together. They make me tear up whenever they're together. I really loved that scene. The situation, as we pitched it, when we pitched the show, is that she and Marty slept together between his wives, because Deborah would never want to be the other woman, even though we've seen her unfortunately fall into that with Bob Lipka. But I think that their arrangement really works. They both admire each other. They're both self-made moguls. They're both very independent. I think there's an element of game respect game. Anyway, Marty proposes, she says no. But then Deborah walks out and has a different kind of proposal. She proposes to Marcus that they work together again. And he says, I do.

Speaker 3:
[27:52] Sweet.

Speaker 4:
[27:53] In the shadow of the altar.

Speaker 3:
[27:56] So beautiful.

Speaker 5:
[27:57] We watched it with Hannah the other day. She cried.

Speaker 4:
[27:58] She did weep at that moment.

Speaker 3:
[28:00] She did weep.

Speaker 4:
[28:00] It is a very sweet moment. It makes me choked up a little bit.

Speaker 3:
[28:02] Yeah, it's really sweet. It's so nice to see Marty and Deborah have that moment and then Marcus and Deborah get back together. It's lovely.

Speaker 5:
[28:13] It's beautiful. Beautiful framing, Paul, in that.

Speaker 3:
[28:17] Oh, yeah.

Speaker 5:
[28:17] Saving the alter shot for that moment.

Speaker 3:
[28:20] Smart.

Speaker 5:
[28:20] Really hidden it home visually.

Speaker 3:
[28:22] Well, I had it. Smart. This episode was, of course, directed by Mr. Paul W. Downs, but it was- Me. Me. It was written by Aisha Moharr, one of our brilliant writer producers. I've actually worked with Aisha since the days of Parks and Recreation.

Speaker 4:
[28:43] Wow. 1998.

Speaker 3:
[28:47] Aisha is a wonderful, brilliant writer, and we should say author.

Speaker 4:
[28:52] That's right.

Speaker 3:
[28:52] Wrote a wonderful book, Loved One, which honestly, you have to read it.

Speaker 5:
[28:57] It's so good. It's so moving. It's like, you know what? Not that it's hacks in tone, but it has really funny moments and dramatic moments. It's got great character evolution, a really great relationship between these two women. It's just so good.

Speaker 3:
[29:12] She's an excellent, true writer, which makes sense, of course. She wrote a novel.

Speaker 4:
[29:16] It's so funny. Some of our writers aren't writers. They're singers, some of them are stand-ups.

Speaker 3:
[29:21] Some of our writers cannot write.

Speaker 4:
[29:22] All of our writers can write.

Speaker 3:
[29:23] Never put pen to paper. Just joking.

Speaker 4:
[29:25] She is actually an author as well.

Speaker 3:
[29:26] Yeah.

Speaker 4:
[29:27] An author is like...

Speaker 3:
[29:28] Real.

Speaker 4:
[29:29] Like next level writer.

Speaker 3:
[29:31] When I think of writing a book, I get sweaty.

Speaker 4:
[29:34] I know. I can write a screenplay. I can write, but to write an actual novel, that's great. I couldn't do it. I mean, I guess if you gave me 50 years, I could do it.

Speaker 5:
[29:46] Well, I just don't believe that's true. I'm like, it's not so different from a screenplay in a lot of ways.

Speaker 3:
[29:52] It's less about... I'm going to do it. Oh, my God, he's starting. He's taking out a bit of paper. It's less about, of course, yes, Paul and I are writers. We could do it. It's really the sitting alone with my thoughts and having to discipline and do that.

Speaker 4:
[30:08] I will say I think I could more likely do a book of short stories, a la David Sedaris, a la anyone else has ever done it.

Speaker 3:
[30:17] You have good stories.

Speaker 4:
[30:18] That I could do.

Speaker 3:
[30:19] Sure.

Speaker 4:
[30:19] That I could do.

Speaker 3:
[30:20] Well, stay tuned, listeners, for our novels.

Speaker 4:
[30:23] Stay tuned. If you hear the clacking of a keyboard or a typewriter in the background.

Speaker 3:
[30:27] You say, wait a second, the podcast, they stopped after episode three. You know it's because we're all working on our novels. No, we'll be back next week.

Speaker 5:
[30:35] I don't know what I'm saying like that. I'm like, I could do it, but I'm just like, I think that there's like a world where any of us could.

Speaker 4:
[30:40] I think you're right, but we should return to how beautifully Ayesha did in her debut motmeble. Oh my God, I cried. I wept.

Speaker 5:
[30:46] I openly wept. I actually laughed out loud and I actually wept out loud.

Speaker 4:
[30:52] She is very, very talented.

Speaker 3:
[30:53] Very talented. Wrote the Galentine's Day episode of Parks and Recreation, a famous episode.

Speaker 4:
[30:58] Graduate of Harvard, that's why she's talented, but it didn't hurt to be well-educated. Was she president of the Lampoon?

Speaker 3:
[31:04] I don't know if she was president, but she was definitely on the Lampoon.

Speaker 4:
[31:06] She was in that Lampoon.

Speaker 5:
[31:06] She's my president of the Lampoon. If she's in a group, she's gonna be leading that group.

Speaker 3:
[31:11] She actually also, wow, we're really, I hope she hears this, she was a child author. Do you remember this?

Speaker 4:
[31:16] What?

Speaker 3:
[31:17] She wrote a book when she was in high school about teen bullying, like an anti, connection to Niko Hayes. She was kind of the original anti-bullying advocate.

Speaker 4:
[31:27] Wow, that was a quick synapse, Jen. You seem like you've gotten sleep. That was really good.

Speaker 3:
[31:32] Oh no. I didn't get much sleep last night, dear listener. Barbara.

Speaker 4:
[31:36] Jen's in her nightgown.

Speaker 5:
[31:39] Paul's in a C-3 football outfit. Jen's in a nightgown.

Speaker 4:
[31:44] That's it for episode three. Thank you for joining us. This has been the Official Hacks Podcast with Lucia Aniello, Jen Statsky and me, Paul W. Downs. Hacks Podcast is produced by HBO Max in collaboration with Same Boat Studios. Our executive producers are Gabrielle Lewis and Barry Finkel. Our senior producer is Emanuel Hapsis. The show is mixed by Hannes Brown and our technical director is In Sung Hwang. Special thanks to Michael Gluckstadt, Alison Cohen, Sorokoch and Kenya Reyes from the HBO Max podcast team. You can watch all of Hacks on HBO Max and we'll be back next week to dig into episode four. Until then.

Speaker 6:
[32:19] That looks like something that my grandson would wear so that he could poop out the back. God, I wish.

Speaker 3:
[32:24] It'd be so convenient.