JEAN SMART

The Designing Women star, 69, costars in the gritty crime series Mare of Easttown (April 18 on HBO) alongside Kate Winslet, who plays a small-town Pennsylvania detective investigating a local murder. In May, she returns to comedy in the series Hacks (HBO Max) as a legendary Las Vegas comic who forms a bitter mentorship with an ambitious younger woman.

You play Helen, the mom of Kate Winslet’s character, Mare. What was it like working together? I fell in love with Kate. She’s just amazing—a humble, sweet, down-to-earth, adorable, brilliant woman. And it’s great to see women in traditionally male roles.

Tell us about Helen. She’s fun. Even though she’s a curmudgeonly old bird, she is kind of the comic relief, because there are parts that are very dark. For instance, every Sunday she plays cards and drinks with the priest in her kitchen, things like that. That was a great time.

Then you shift gears from detective drama for the stand-up comedy of Hacks. I told the writer-producers before we closed the deal, “You have no way of knowing, but when I was a kid, I fantasized about being a stand-up comic.” I wanted to be Phyllis Diller. I was only slightly intimidated by the fact that there are more than a couple people in the movie who are actually stand-ups—they’re not playing stand-ups; I am.

You also recently starred in the movie romance Senior Moment with William Shatner. There’s a real connection between their characters. The thing is, when people fall for somebody, it feels exactly the same as it did when you were 16. It doesn’t feel any different physically or mentally. People sometimes need to be reminded of that.