Hacks Season 4 Premiere: Variety Editors Cameo

Variety’s Michael Schneider and Kate Aurthur were both asked to play themselves-ish on the Season 4 premiere of “Hacks,” which premiered April 10 on Max. These are their stories.

MIKE: Mid-way through the Season 4 opener of the Emmy-winning comedy “Hacks,” Deborah Vance — played by national treasure Jean Smart, of course — is ready to hold a press conference to tout her new late-night show. She comes out awkwardly raising the roof to Bizarre Inc.’s 1992 dance pop gem “I’m Gonna Get You,” and then calls on her first reporter.

And it’s… me. I’m that reporter. (Not an actor!) It says so in the script: Instead of “Reporter 1,” the character asking the very first question is “Michael Schneider,” as spelled out on the blue shooting draft. This fictionalized version of “Michael Schneider,” played by the real Michael Schneider, even has a line. He/I kick off the press conference by asking a legit, albeit softball of a question: “So, Deborah, any pressure to live up to the legacy of hosts before you?” (Yes, I added that “so” to the line. Improv!)

Jeremy Strong would be proud: I was so method that I showed up to set driving my banged-up Honda CR-V and even wearing a cheap H&M suit jacket straight out of the real-life Michael Schneider’s closet. If I was going to play myself, I was going to play the most believable version.

But I’m not the only real-life reporter hack with face time in “Hacks” Episode 401. Sitting in front of me at Deborah’s press confab, ready to ask the follow-up question, was my Variety colleague Kate Aurthur! And Kate, what do you remember most from that October day when we filmed this pivotal, groundbreaking scene (For Your Consideration!) at the Skirball Center?

KATE: Mike, as you know, and as I kept announcing to anyone within earshot that day — including to “Hacks” creators Paul W. Downs, Jen Statsky and Lucia Aniello (who was also directing) — I’m not an actor! I was incredibly nervous in the lead up to the shoot, but also amused and delighted (and impressed, given how tiny our parts were) by the emails from the hair, makeup and costume departments asking me for photos and what “REPORTER KATE” might wear, as well as what my general “reporter looks” were. These questions flummoxed me. So I ended up sending a video interview I’d done with Lucia, Jen and Paul last spring, and they, to my relief, said, “great, wear that!”

At the Skirball, it was very fun hanging out with you, as well as fellow reporters Stacey Wilson Hunt (my honey wagon trailer neighbor), Pete Hammond and Denny Directo. When we ate lunch, there were tons of background actors in the room, but I didn’t think a thing about how very many of them there were — that is, until we walked into the room of the scene itself, and … there they all were. Fuck, it was a huge press conference for Deborah! I’m certainly not an actor, but “performing” in front of a large crowd? Dear God, no. NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO.

I’m getting nervous just reliving it, but another source of anxiety was that my line had evolved from the pithy “How does it feel to be the first woman to get 11:30?” to — for the sake of accuracy — “How does it feel to be the first woman on at 11:30 on one of the Big Three?” A mouthful! I went into a fugue state. Mike, how did you feel during the actual taping? You did great, every single time.

MIKE: Aw, thanks, and you may not be an actor, but you play a convincing “Kate.” For me, I felt a little underprepared, not knowing what they expected from our line reads. Maybe we were just that good that we didn’t need any notes? Maybe I should have given them different takes. Maybe I should have improvised beyond the “so”! But probably not.

I did find it amusing that besides you, me, Stacey, Pete and Denny, that an actual actor (Fred Cross) was embedded as a reporter among us. Early in the day, it was apparent that Fred’s wardrobe was a bit too stylish to fit in with us actual journos — something that even Jean Smart noticed. After that, the wardrobe team downgraded his look, and he blended in with the rest of us.

Also, I was impressed by how soon we wrapped. I’ve never been a fan of TV show set visits, because the whole “hurry up and wait” vibe makes me anxious (I have work to do!) — and the repetition of watching the same scene being filmed a dozen times gets monotonous. For our “Hacks” scene, we shot it numerous times as the cameras caught the action from several angles. But it didn’t feel like overkill. Maybe I just wanted to soak it all in — and also make sure they had enough decent takes that we weren’t left on the cutting room floor!

I was particularly tickled that in several takes (including the one that made it on the episode), Jean kicked off the press conference by calling on me by name (“Michael!”) That wasn’t in the script, Jean Smart just remembers my name! I’ve been writing about TV for 30 years and probably should be more jaded, but that’s still one of those “pinch me” moments.

Now, Kate, you’ve gotta be excited that people are going to watch “Hacks” this week and go,”Holy shit, Kate’s on my TV!”

KATE: Excited is one word, question mark? Obviously, people we work with knew this was happening at the time — we filmed in mid-October — so they haven’t been surprised. (And our friend and colleague Marc Malkin was in the premiere of “Hacks” Season 3, playing himself on a red carpet, so there’s a precedence for this at Variety!) But yes, it’s been funny as people who get screeners have started watching them, and getting in touch — one recent morning, I woke up to Alan Sepinwall, Rolling Stone’s TV critic, having texted me “HACKS PREMIERE” out of the blue. I’m just trying to put my self-hatred aside to enjoy this weird, fun ride. I just don’t want to turn into a meme, Mike!

And yes, as a journalist who covers television, and has done set visits (and mostly found them to be pretty useless from a reporting standpoint), “Hacks” seems to have it down. In the scene, Deborah is facing the crowd, and answering questions that start to become increasingly pointed. (Wait, an aside! I was so thankful to have one of the softball questions, and not have to ask Deborah Vance about how young people don’t watch late-night talk shows, or whether she has the stamina to do five nights a week — Mike, I would have wilted under Jean Smart’s withering gaze!)

But back to their efficiency. The scene is about Deborah flaming out in front of the press, so we did a ton of setups with the cameras facing her. Lucia Aniello would sometimes give Jean Smart alts, shouting different responses to the reporters’ questions from the back of the room, so it took a while. But always at the end, Helen Hunt’s character, Winnie, who plays the head of the network, would drag Deborah off the stage after the answer that will come back to haunt her later, in which she professes, “I’m not a woman, I’m a comedian. GOT IT?” Then, they announced that they needed to turn the scene around — I’m sure there’s a term for this, ha — so the cameras were on us, and filmed the gaggle of press. It was then that I thought my dinner with friends in my neighborhood — all the way in Silver Lake — was doomed, but no, they were so quick that I made it!

But this is how dumb I am, Mike. We’d already shot the scene so many times, so I didn’t somehow clock that the few takes we did with the cameras on the podium facing us would of course be the ones they used of us! I thought … who knows what I thought, in retrospect? I guess I thought that maybe you wouldn’t really see us asking, that it would be all Deborah. But of course, there we are, asking away — at least I went Method too, and have my phone in my hand, as if I’d written my question on it. Oh well, next time, I’ll know! [Narrator voice: There won’t be a next time.] What was surprising to you about this whole process?

MIKE: Can I be honest and say the… luxury of it all? I’m sure most actors would scoff at the closet-sized dressing rooms we got in the honey wagon – but we still got a little space, with our names on them, and that was amazing! (Granted, it was with dry-erase marker and the sign would have been reused the next day with some other guest star’s name … had I not taken it as a keepsake.) The catering was top-notch, and it can’t be cheap to feed the entire crew and army of extras. I’m always wowed at how much goes into shooting one scene in one location — the miles of cables, well-populated video village, rows of trailers — and the fact that someone is there early enough to build this little production town overnight, and others are there into the wee hours packing it up, long after we’ve headed home. And then they would immediately do it again, the next day, in an entirely different location.

Like I said, I’ve been doing this for 30 years, so I’m not new to the process. But somehow, being in the middle of the action gave me an entirely new appreciation for the amount of work that goes into production, and the artisans who do it. The makeup artist working her magic so that I looked better than I ever have at a press conference. The sound person making sure I was properly mic’ed, and that it always looked natural. The producers sending us to a comfortable holding area rather than making us dawdle in our chairs as they switch the cameras. Lucia, effortlessly and deftly directing icons like Jean Smart and Helen Hunt.

And then, we come to the most luxurious, and kind of ridiculous, element of the entire day. Kate, you and I, and all of our colleagues, had actual, physical stand-ins. That’s right. Even though we each had one line and our scene is over in an instant, it was long enough that a handful of extras had to play us — sitting in our seats, wearing nametags with our names! — while the cameras were swapped. That’s kind of amazing, but I also felt a bit embarrassed. Like, are we too good to be sitting there, bored out of our minds as the stage is reset, but they’re not? Yeah, a lot was going through my head.

But nothing more than the fact that the actor who was hired as my stand-in, who I’m sure is lovely, was a few years older than me. I think? I assume they find people who look approximately like us, so maybe that’s how you all see me? I guess what I’m asking is, did “Hacks” smack me with the cold, hard truth that I am now an aged (maybe let’s say “seasoned”) reporter?

But again, he also seemed happy to be there, as did most of the background actors. I mean, why not — you get an insider’s look at TV’s comedy Emmy champ, while getting a master class in acting from the show’s stars and you’re fed too! (Again, I know, with the food.) Speaking of that, has this experience given you any more food for thought?

KATE: Yes, seeing one’s stand-in is not for the weak. I think mine was alarmed as well.

My nervousness aside, as well as my concerns about being memed — am I increasing the likelihood of being memed by expressing this fear publicly?! — being on “Hacks” was a total blast. And yes, it was also a learning experience for our jobs, for all the reasons you detail. So much collective effort goes into every single day of production; the scale is astonishing. And Jean Smart has now won three Emmys for playing Deborah Vance, and watching her deliver the same lines again and again, while also trying new things for each take, was just so instructive, not to mention enjoyable. It’s a tiny scene within the premiere, so viewers may not even notice it’s there (possibly my preference, ha)! But it meant something to us, and I’ll always remember this experience. I do think I’ll pass on the inevitable “Hacks” spinoff focusing on the reporters who cover television, but Mike, I think you have a real shot!

“Hacks” Season 4 will continue dropping new episodes Thursdays on Max.