Jean Smart Talks Family, Grief and Aging: ‘Every Day Is Precious Now’

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On the hit Max show Hacks, Jean Smart, 72, plays a veteran comedian, Deborah Vance, who develops a complicated relationship with a 20-something comedy writer, Ava, played by Hannah

Einbinder. When asked what viewers can expect from the characters in Season 3 of the show, out May 2, Smart teases that “It’s the season of sex and ambition.” The Emmy-winning actress tells

AARP why she feels the show resonates with different generations, plus she reveals how she’s dealing with the sudden loss of her husband and how his death changed her perspective on aging.

This interview has been edited for length and clarity.

Any insights into why fans are loving your show?

A lot of it is they enjoy that headbutting of the generations, and that dynamic between those two characters [Deborah and Ava] because they’re both slightly neurotic. So it’s fun, but

[there’s] also the generational thing everybody can relate to, whether it’s with their parents or a coworker. I was very pleasantly surprised and pleased that [the show is] continuing, [and]

that men love the show. At the very first, I thought, I don’t know, are guys gonna say, “Oh, it’s a chick show”? But men love it. I hear all the time … ‘Oh, my husband loves the show.’ I

love that.

While you were filming the first season of Hacks, you unexpectedly lost your husband [actor Richard Gilliland died in March 2021 from a heart condition]. How are you doing?

Both my sons [Connor, 34, and Forrest, 15] live with me right now, which has been great. Since we lost their dad, my oldest son has been so helpful. I don’t know how I would have done it

without him. I don’t know how single working mothers do it — I really, really truly don’t — without the kind of support and resources and everything that I have. It’s still so, so hard

sometimes.

What else has helped you get through this difficult time?

We all miss him still so much, but it’s getting a little easier only in the sense that now it’s very real and part of our life. For so long, it literally just did not seem real. It was the

strangest feeling. It just didn’t seem possible. Laurie Burrows [Grad] wrote a book after her husband passed away very suddenly from a heart attack. The title of the book — it’s a wonderful

book — is Joke’s Over, You Can Come Back Now [How This Widow Plowed Through Grief and Survived]. And that is exactly how it felt. It’s bizarre. Work — as much as I felt like I should be home

all the time — it helped a great deal.

When you’re home with your kids, do you spend time together watching TV? Any guilty pleasures?

Well, our guilty pleasure is watching South Park. My oldest and I were watching The Crown together, which we both love. [Forest] had his spring break recently, and so we decided to go to New

York for a week and see some shows. So the three of us went, and we had a really good time. … We saw some old friends, which was really nice.