Paul W. Downs and Lucia Aniello On How They Make the ‘ Hacks’ Magic
The “Hacks” co-creators and real-life couple look ahead to the Emmys and preview season three. BY LEIGH NORDSTROM
“We’re going to be snacking,” Paul W. Downs warns at the beginning of a Zoom call, sitting beside his wife and “Hacks” co-creator Lucia Aniello. The Emmywinning pair, who will once again be taking their hit show to the awards in a few short weeks, are at home in Los Angeles, juggling interviews with working on season three and the responsibilities of their fivemonth-old son. How do they do it all? With the help of some snacks, to start.
Downs and Aniello are deep in the writers' room for season three of “Hacks,” a little show that could on HBO Max that they first dreamed up seven years ago, with co-creator Jen Statsky.
“We were all working on other stuff at the time, and the thing that we would always [talk about], during the lunch break or when we would just hang out as friends, where a couple ideas would come, or somebody would be stoned in a bathtub and send an idea that they had for it,” Aniello says. “We would loosely talk about who would be good casting for it, but it really took until 2019 for us to actually get to pitch the show, when the stars finally aligned for the availability. We really just wanted to make this, and it felt like it was the moment.”
“Hacks,” which stars Jean Smart as comedic legend Deborah Vance and Hannah Einbinder as Ava, a young struggling writer brought on to help revive Vance's career, was created entirely over Zoom calls, and even now as they work on season three it's largely done online. Downs, Aniello and Statsky are in a longterm bubble and work in person near daily, but they don't mind the digital-first approach, which allows them to have writers in other cities on board.
“We kept talking about the show, because we wanted to watch it,” Downs says. “We were like, ‘This could be a fun world,' and obviously to write, to make, but it just felt like a fun world to watch. But you never know. You just don't know, because there are so many amazing shows, especially now there's so many amazing shows out there, it's hard to breakthrough. You just don't know if it will connect with people, that it will resonate, but it has certainly far exceeded our expectations, and it's something that we've been considering a lot lately, especially in light of the recognition the show has gotten,” he continues. “This is a show about a 70-year-old woman, and a 25-year-old queer woman. It's been watched by a lot of people and recognized. It is very meaningful, not only to us, but the people in our show — Jean, obviously, and a lot of members of the cast, who feel like their stories aren't always front and center on TV. The fact that not only are their friends, family and people that they don't know watching it, but to even get recognized in the way that we have has been pretty meaningful.”
Downs and Aniello also direct most of the episodes, in addition to writing, and Downs of course stars as Jimmy LuSaque, manager to both Deborah and Ava.
“Basically, we write and then we prepare to shoot while, usually, we're still writing,” Downs explains of their process. “Then sometimes, we'll be shooting, and we haven't quite finished the season, but we're close to it. We'll be doing rewrites as we're shooting. There isn't really a hard [deadline].”
As for the Emmys night itself, Sept.
12, Downs and Aniello don't have a ritual per se — this is only their second time attending. Last year's Emmys was especially hectic for them because not only was it their first but they'd just flown back days before from getting married in Italy, where Aniello was born.
“We got as much sleep as we could, so we weren't jet lagged, then got dressed,”
Downs remembers.
“What happened last year was we pushed back our writer's room by one hour,” he adds. “We did not take the day off. We did not do much more than celebrate with our writer's room.”
“I was 13 weeks pregnant. I wasn't really partying or drinking too much,” Aniello adds. “I am not pregnant so I will be partying.”
“Honestly, the tradition will be set this year, because we've only done it once before,” Downs says. “Things that stick, we'll let you know.”