Megan Stalter and Paul W. Downs on ‘Hacks’ duo, pay parity and more
In 2021, when HBO Max’s “Hacks” first introduced us to fading Vegas comic Deborah Vance (Jean Smart), we briefly met Vance’s hyper-devoted young talent manager Jimmy LuSaque Jr. (Paul W. Downs) and Kayla Schaeffer (Megan Stalter), the braying, inept assistant foisted upon him. Over the years this turbulent pairing found its groove, opening their own agency while Kayla discovered boundaries (sort of). By “Hacks’” fifth and final season, which concluded this spring, a growing Jimmy-Kayla fan base was clamoring for a spinoff. “We’re not doing it, but I wish,” says Stalter as she sits beside Downs during a video call from Hudson Yards in Midtown Manhattan. “I think it would work.”
These days, Stalter, who is nominated for supporting actress in a comedy, is making her Broadway debut as the campily reimagined Mary Todd Lincoln in Cole Escola’s “Oh, Mary!” Meanwhile, Downs, who is also co-creator, co-showrunner, writer and director on “Hacks,” is nominated for supporting actor, writing and comedy series (as executive producer). Is there a dream of a future project in which he wears just one hat? “I love doing all the jobs,” says Downs, who started out as a writer-performer. “But I’d love to do a superhero so that I could just work on my nutrition, my fitness and my lines.”
Paul, one early Megan sighting was her stand-up act at Echo Park’s Little Joy. What about her made you think you’d found your Kayla?
Downs: She’s so singular and funny. It’s like stream of consciousness and yet also material. We’d written the part before we’d seen Meg, but [after seeing] her in person, I came back to my co-creator, Jen Statsky, and I said, “It’s hers to lose.” There’s something about her that’s fearless, uninhibited.
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Meg, correct me if I’m wrong, but your first “Hacks” audition involved a dark, blurry self-tape.
Stalter: It wasn’t that well shot. My brother was filming, and he does a good job, but his apartment in New York was really slanted and there’s lots of dogs running around. I was in a weird outfit. And that’s where I did my self-tape.
Was submitting a bad self-tape part of a strategy to land the role?
Stalter: I didn’t know [the tape] was bad until years later when I watched it. [Laughs] I was a really experienced performer — I’d done stand-up and improv for nine, eight years. But I wasn’t experienced with auditioning. This part was the first thing I ever read where I was like, “I can see myself in this.” I really, really wanted it. I really tried hard to prepare for the audition.
When did it become clear that a Kayla/Jimmy scene has its own oscillating frequency?
Downs: Even before we started, there was just inherent chemistry. I think we just really tickled each other. But, not, I mean, physically.
Stalter and Downs with Earl Brown, right, in “Hacks.”
When Jimmy is passionately advocating for something and Kayla is in the same frame, she’s often gesticulating, scrunching up her face or emitting noises like “pffffft.” But it never comes off as scene-stealing. How? Why?
Stalter: I can’t help but do it. Kayla’s so expressive. Even if I’m not talking, my face is doing a lot. Kayla can’t hide her feelings.
Downs: To know when not to derail something is a very hard thing to do. But Meg is a true comedian in that she understands not only how to improvise within the lane of the scene, but also the give and take.
Stalter: You’re going to make me cry.
Downs: She gets the comedy, the music of it. It’s like Mozart.
Stalter: [sob-choked voice] Stop. I’m not Mozart. You’re Mozart. And if I’m Mozart, then you’re Beethoven. And I don’t know why I’m crying.
Megan Stalter. (David Urbanke / For The Times)
In comedies, personal reps are always outrageous hustlers. Why take on the challenge of finding laughs in a manager who instead is sensitive, kindhearted?
Downs: We wanted to subvert what you’ve seen on TV before in terms of a manager. There’s also so many big personalities on the show. You need a counterbalance to that. One of the reasons we started to lean more and more into Jimmy working hard, being earnest, doing the right thing, is because he was in some moments the voice of the audience, the person that was grounded [amid] the chaos around him.
Was there a specific moment when it dawned on the “Hacks” team that Jimmy and Kayla deserved more airtime?
Downs: It was certainly something we felt. There was so much feedback. At a certain point, we were seeing people online saying, “Where are Jimmy and Kayla in this episode?” “Hacks” is about duos, but it was this particular duo that people really responded to. And then executives started to come and visit on days we were shooting. There were those kinds of little signals that happened.
True or false? When Meg graduated to series regular in Season 3, Paul insisted she be paid the same amount of money as him.
Stalter: [Surprised] Who told you that? Who told you that? [leans over and puts her head on Downs’ shoulder] That’s so nice. Thank you!
Downs: I’ve never said this before, but it was important to me that Meg and I had parity. So I said, “I don’t want to be paid more than her.” You can’t have Jimmy without Kayla. Or you can. But it won’t be as funny.
Stalter: Well, the first season I was paying to be on the show. [Laughs]
Downs: Yeah, we charged. So I felt bad.
Paul W. Downs. (David Urbanke / For The Times)
Who came up with the idea of using your red carpet appearances to send up celebrity culture? The costumes alone!
Downs: I’ll speak for myself, but [near the end of our final season] I started to get scared about not performing with Meg. And it was thrilling and exciting. It’s like doing improv and sketch when you first started. It’s so fun.
A highlight: Striking poses in orange leather ensembles identical to the matching attire worn by Timothée Chalamet and Kylie Jenner at the “Marty Supreme” premiere.
Stalter: It’s my favorite idea, but it wasn’t mine.
Downs: [“Hacks” producer] Genevieve Aniello said, “You guys should do something ‘Marty Supreme.’ Look at these outfits.’” And Meg was bold enough to be like, “We should do it at the Critics Choice Awards.” And I was like, “That’s in six days. That’s insane.” And Meg was like, “We’re going to get it done.”
Was there any blowback?
Stalter: We were at the SAG Awards and we walked past Timothée and I said, [singsongy voice] “Hey, it’s us…” And he goes, “Oh, should we get a picture?” He was so nice. But I then realized that he thought we came up for a picture.
Downs: But we weren’t, we were just walking to our seats. [Laughs] That night his publicist came over and showed us her phone. She’d sent him a photograph of us and he’d written back “incredible.”
Stalter: It was in lowercase.
Downs: It wasn’t screaming “INCREDIBLE,” just “incredible.” I said, “Oh good, he’s not upset.” And she was like, “No, he loves it.”
Stalter: I think he probably never does all caps.
Downs: That’s real star power.
(David Urbanke / For The Times)
