No one needs to tell Lucia Aniello that she’s landed in the television version of nirvana. She gets to preside over the HBO Max hit “Hacks” as its co-showrunner alongside husband and fellow executive producer Paul W. Downs (along with Jen Statsky). She also writes and directs the edgy comedy series and has an opportunity daily to work with stars Jean Smart (herself a five-time Emmy winner) and three-time Emmy nominee Hannah Einbinder. “I get to make a show with my co-creators and best friends and our amazing cast. I really am the luckiest chick in town,” asserts Aniello, a two-time Emmy victor (in 2001) who has been nominated as producer, writer and director on all three seasons of “Hacks” – including this year. Aniello spoke to Gold Derby as part of our “Meet the Emmy Nominees” TV directors panel. Watch our exclusive video interview above.
As a triple-threat on “Hacks” who has directed 16 episodes over its trio of season, Aniello maintains that directing presents the biggest challenge of her three hats. Why? “Because it’s the most collaborative (involving) the most amount of people,” she replies. “Often, I’m spending so much time with so many different departments and actors – our regular actors as well as our guests – as well as our AD department. Directing presents a really interesting balance of technical (areas) and people management as well as creative. But I also find that sometimes you have to be paying a little bit more attention to one thing to make the other thing better. I might have to say as a producer, ‘Oh, let’s prioritize this scene,’ so that once I get into the scene as a director, I’m able to work with the actors, tweak the scene, work with our operators and cinematographers, to really mold it into the thing we want to do.”
While all three of her “Hacks” roles work in concert, Aniello admits that directing “sometimes feels like it’s taking my brain and wringing it out, to make sure that everybody feels like they’re on the same page. When that happens, that’s really when everybody’s able to do their job their best.”
(SEASON 3 FINALE SPOILERS IN THE FOLLOWING PARAGRAPH)
The “Hacks” episode for which Aniello was nominated for both comedy series directing and writing, the third season-ender “Bulletproof,” blends laughs with some agonizing moments of betrayal between Deborah (Smart) and Ava (Einbinder) – first when Ava is crushed to discover that Deborah has lied about the network vetoing her as head writer on Deborah’s forthcoming new late-night show. And then Ava strikes back hard with an act of breathtaking blackmail to get what she wants. “For us, Season 3, especially culminating in ‘Bulletproof,’ really felt like it was about power,” Aneillo explains, “the way that people give power and the way people take power. When their complicated relationship becomes less about the creativity and more about the power, it does flip the script.”
Yet at the same time, no matter the drama, Aniello insists that she and her cohorts are careful never to lose sight of the fact that their chief job is to make a show that’s funny. “It’s a comedy first,” she emphasizes, “a comedy about comedy. So if you’re not nailing the comedy in the show, it’s not going to work. That has to be first and foremose. In an episode like ‘Bulletproof,’ which also has some intense, dramatic moments, if they’re not balanced out with big comedy moments – like really laugh-out-loud scenes – then it feels off. That’s one of the gifts that the actors give me. They’re so good at both comedy and drama that it makes my job infinitely easier as a writer and a director.”
“Hacks” received 17 Emmy nominations this year in all. All three seasons stream over Max.
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