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‘Hacks’ Season 4: Jean Smart & Hannah Einbinder Want Elton John To Guest Star; Showrunner Jen Statsky On What’s Coming Next

By Antonia Blyth and Matt Grobar,

30 days ago

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On Wednesday morning the hit Max comedy show Hacks celebrated a total of 17 Emmy nominations — among them, Best Comedy Series, Lead Comedy Actress for Jean Smart, Comedy Supporting Actress for Hannah Einbinder and Comedy Supporting Actor for showrunner and star Paul W. Downs.

Speaking to Deadline following the announcement , Smart, who stars as comedy icon Deborah Vance on the show, said she was “so excited” for the entire team, making special mention of her “absolutely brilliant” nominated makeup artist Keith Sayer and guest star Kaitlin Olsen, who plays Deborah’s daughter.

Speaking of guest stars, Hacks has a history of booking some juicy picks, like Emmy-nominated Christopher Lloyd, Helen Hunt and Christina Hendricks, to name a few from Season 3. And lately, Smart and Einbinder have been chatting about a dream guest star they’d love to see in Season 4: Elton John.

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“I would think I’d died and gone to heaven if he came on the show,” Smart said. “I mean, we’ve gotten to use two of his songs on the show. Season 2, “The Bitch is Back” was perfect, and then this [season] was, “I’m Still Standing”, which was perfect. And so I think that he likes the show, so maybe we could write an incredible part for him that would be awesome. I have this funny feeling about him, I don’t know why. Every once in a while I’ll see somebody, or I’ll be a fan of someone, and I just think that if I met that person, we’d be friends. And that’s how I’ve always felt about him. Always. I don’t know why. I have nothing to base that on.”

Smart, who says she is also working on a “very exciting” one-woman show, threw out another name as a dream Hacks guest star: Carol Burnett. “I worked with her once very briefly, and I just adore her, and I just think she’s incredible,” she said.

Einbinder, who added that having Elton John on the show “would be sick”, said she couldn’t yet reveal any official details of the new Season 4, but she has a “sense of where we will pick back up.”

In the show, Deborah (Smart) and her comedy writing protege Ava (Einbinder) left off Season 3 with a head-to-head conflict over who would be Deborah’s head writer on her new show. “It was really great to get to see Ava break some of those patterns she’s fallen into with Jean,” Einbinder said, following her nomination announcement. And we can expect that powerful turn to continue, as showrunner Jen Satsky added, “Certainly, you will see all of what Hannah has shown before and even more going forward.”

Smart also said she is “really curious to see how she and Ava negotiate this new relationship they have,” and she would love to see more of the relationship between Deborah and her estranged sister Kathy (J. Smith-Cameron). “I loved working with J. so, so much.”

“We’re full steam ahead on Season 4,” Statsky said, “and just trying to focus on that and write that. So we are taking a moment to celebrate today, but also getting back from the writers’ room in an hour.”

For now, until Season 4 production kicks off in September, Einbinder said she is deep into her gymnastics practice, since she was reminded of her previous stint as a competitive cheerleader and inspired by the docuseries America’s Sweethearts: Dallas Cowboys Cheerleaders . However, she laughingly admits the “humbling” activity is probably peformed best “by someone who doesn’t wake up with joint pain every day”.

‘Hacks’ Season 4: Jean Smart & Hannah Einbinder Want Elton John To Guest Star; Showrunner Jen Statsky On What’s Coming Next

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