In the fifth and final season of Hacks, Deborah (Jean Smart) is forced to reach out to her sister Kathy (J. Smith-Cameron) since she has the rights to a classic show she wants to remake but isn’t willing to give Kathy the one thing she wants: treasured salt and pepper shakers from their mother.
Awards Buzz spoke to Smith-Cameron about whether she sees her character as antagonistic:
“I don’t think she’s that antagonistic. I think she’s more on the defensive. Her sister publicly called her out, and the season where we got to really reunite, I felt like I got to acquit myself very much. I was like, you weren’t sleeping in the same bed. We were raising your daughter together. You abandoned her. It naturally came about and then she did all these things to humiliate her publicly, and I think the story needs for Deborah to think I’m antagonistic, to be like, I’m a thorn in her side. With her first episode that I got, I was like, oh, that’s so funny that we hear all about what a nightmare Kathy is and then she’s actually nice and relatable. I thought that was a really fun choice for them to make as writers, but rather than stay dramatic and possibly veer into soapy, I’m really glad they went right back into quibbling and not getting along.”
“I don’t want any spoilers for people who haven’t seen it, but I’m ready to give her the rights to that show which could be very lucrative in exchange for some salt and pepper shakers, and then I get some fake ones and I’m completely happy with them. I don’t need to check out their veracity. I’m not that bad a foe. I just think it’s funny that we’re allergic to each other in company and so we squabble. But, it’s funny, I don’t think of her as an antagonist. I think of Deborah as being the really difficult one, but of course I would because I’m playing Kathy, so I have a bias.”
Watch the video above to hear her reflections on two other roles this Emmy season, in Elsbeth and Murdaugh: Death in the Family, as well as whether she’d like to do more Succession and how often she hears from fans of one of her more niche roles: Rectify.
Hacks is streaming on HBO Max.
