Season 4 of Lucia Aniello, Paul W. Downs, and Jen Statsky’s HBO Max show “Hacks” really put Hannah Einbinder through it. As comedy writer Ava Daniels, she weathered the cruelest barbs yet from boss Deborah Vance (Jean Smart), managed an unruly writer’s room, and navigated a throuple—and yet, she always landed the punchlines.
Ava’s personal and professional lives got turned upside down. How did you approach her reactions to all that change?
Her stepping up and taking power feels, if anything, overdue. Because the writing is so good, and because Ava’s arc feels so justified, it’s just a matter of approaching it the way I always do, which is from a place of empathy for her.
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Also, it’s not a solitary practice. I work off of Jean. I work off of the rest of the cast. There’s only so much preparation that I can do, because I know that when I come to set, so much of what will eventually end up onscreen is a product of what is coming toward me.
You let out some memorable screams this season. Tell us about that choice.
During the [writers’] strike, I saw a Reiki healer. She was basically like, “Your throat chakra is blocked.” She did this work on me, this energy work. It was very, very emotional. Then, she asked me to scream at the top of my lungs, and I couldn’t. She asked me to scream at the top of my lungs again, and I couldn’t. Then she was like, “I’ll scream with you.” And I screamed, and I just cried. It was this very powerful, emotional, and painful experience.
Shortly after, we went back to shoot the scene where Ava confronts Deborah at the end of Season 3. From then on, there was a leveling up. I was able to access more of that totally unbridled mania, or raw emotion. We saw that that was a tool that could be used.
Frankly, after that point in the story, it makes sense that there is a lot more rage. Ava has been pushed to a point of no return, emotionally. It’s not just Deborah’s slapping her, or firing her, or any of those things that happened in the earlier seasons. The grave betrayal—there’s a before and after that moment.
What’s one of the best acting lessons you ever learned?
The other day, Jean was waking up from a nightmare [in a scene]. I found myself examining Jean going from REM sleep, waking up, wrestling around. Then she starts to make noises and ultimately starts to scream. It’s hard to say, “This is what I learned.” I am just breaking down exactly each phase of what she is doing in real time, and how it comes across as one swift experience.
I always joke that, because I have no formal acting training, I went to the Jean Smart school of acting. She really is my greatest teacher. I’m just MacGyver, with a little piece of chewing gum and a paper clip. It’s very helpful to have one of the best actresses to absorb, to observe, to watch.
Who gave one of your favorite 2025 screen performances?
Jesse Plemons in “Bugonia.” He is one of our finest strawberry blond actors. He’s just a master, to me.
This interview has been edited for clarity and length.