Helen Hunt Thinks Her ‘Hacks’ Character’s Shocking Exit Was “Surprising and Inevitable”

Warning: Spoilers ahead for the eighth episode of season four of Hacks.

Helen Hunt is a large fan of late-night talk shows. “I’m very plugged into that world and how it’s shifted,” she says. “It’s helped the whole country metabolize a lot of really hard things when they go to bed.”

That’s why it’s so demanding for her to believe that the fourth season of Hacks, in which Jean Smart’s Deborah Vance becomes the first woman to host a major late-night show, is highlighting a glass ceiling that still exists in the real world. All of the major broadcast networks’ longest-running late-night shows are still hosted by men; the last time a woman hosted one was when Joan Rivers had a short-lived stint behind the desk of The Late Show in 1986. And even beyond the large networks, women remain underrepresented in this genre.

On Hacks, Hunt plays Winnie Landell, the network executive responsible for helping Deborah land her late-night gig. “That my character would take it on as her mission to put this woman in that position—I had fun taking that really personally,” she says. But sadly for Winnie, Deborah’s success is what leads to Winnie’s demise. In the eighth episode of season four, which aired May 15, Deborah’s show becomes the number one late-night show. While congratulating Deborah, Winnie reminds her that they also need to be pursuing a spin-off series. Deborah complains about Winnie to her media-mogul boss, played by Tony Goldwyn. Winnie is then fired, sending shockwaves through Hollywood. Deborah’s cutthroat move reminds Ava (Hannah Einbinder) that even now, her boss is looking out for number one.

Hunt, who won four Emmys for Mad About You and has starred in iconic films such as Twister and As Good as It Gets, spoke to Vanity Fair about the power dynamics at play in the episode, what she’ll miss about Winnie, and the never-ending battle between art and commerce in Hollywood.

Vanity Fair: What did you think when you learned that Winnie would be fired?

Helen Hunt: I think these writers are so great and so astute. They know that Jean’s character has to be incredibly likable and fierce and ruthless again and again, unpredictably. What you want good writing to be is surprising and inevitable.

There’s a power shift from Winnie to Deborah after Deborah’s show is a hit. How accurately does that represent Hollywood?

The thing that I found the most fun—I just watched it last night in preparation for this—is that she doesn’t say “fire her.” She says, “Tell her to back off.” She has more power than she thinks, and so she sort of passively aggressively asks for a slight course correction, and then Tony Goldwyn’s character just lops my character’s head off. And you see Jean’s shock when she hears the news. That goes back to their good writing. It’s much better than Jean diabolically planning my demise. She just complains, and then somebody’s head gets cut off for it, which seems very true to life about that moment of hubris that comes with success—when you don’t realize the power you have, and you don’t realize what you’ve lost touch with.

What did you enjoy about playing Winnie over these last two seasons?

Jean and Hannah are so good, so good together. They hold their own with each other. They let each other win. They love each other in real life, and it’s a love story, in the way that Breaking Bad was a love story. So getting to step in with good writing underneath me to that lovely pair of actors was amazing.