How in the heck did Hacks get Jesse McCartney to come and sing “Beautiful Soul” in the newest episode? Funny you should ask.
In Episode 2, “Number One Fan,” the musician appears as himself as Deborah Vance (Jean Smart) throws Ava (Hannah Einbinder) a 30th birthday party with a nostalgic element. At the end of the night, McCartney pops out as a last-minute surprise, singing his hit song to his own “Number One Fan” in honor of her birthday. According to McCartney, it all started with him pressing play on Season 1 of the HBO Max comedy.
“We binged the first season, and then somebody had to tell me, like, ‘You need to go back and watch, there’s an episode that your poster is in Ava’s bedroom wall, on Ava’s bedroom wall,’” he explained in an interview with DECIDER tied to his cameo. After going back and confirming that there is, in fact, a photo of himself from a Tiger Beat magazine on Ava’s bedroom wall, he reached out to Einbinder to ask about how that came to be. Over Instagram DM, the actress and comedian told McCartney that producers had asked who would be on Ava’s wall, and she had said it would be him, without a doubt.
“Anyway, I told her, ‘Listen, if there’s anything we could work on together, let me know. I think you’re super talented,’” McCartney said, sharing that his DM clearly kicked off the chain of events leading to his appearance. “Here we are five years later and the producers reached out and said, ‘We’re doing this bit where Ava has a birthday party and Deborah’s throwing her sort of this like nostalgia throwback party from her youth,’ and so here I am. It was such a full circle moment, I think, for both of us.”
For more on his guest-starring role and working with the cast and crew of Hacks, check out DECIDER’s full interview with McCartney below.
DECIDER: Let’s start at the beginning. How much did you know about this show before getting this call?
JESSE MCCARTNEY: It’s a really good story, actually. I watched Season 1 with my wife — it was just on my queue of things you might like — we’re big fans of comedy, and I had heard of Hannah, but I’d never seen her work. We binged the first season, and then somebody had to tell me, like, ‘You need to go back and watch, there’s an episode that your poster is in Ava’s bedroom wall, on Ava’s bedroom wall.’ So I went back and looked and there I am. This is like a Tiger Beat photo of me at 16 on Ava’s wall. I had to reach out to her — and I didn’t know her — so I DM’d her on Instagram and I was like, ‘Hannah, first of all, huge fan. Love the show. You’re hilarious. Also, is that me on your bedroom wall?’ And lik, ‘How did that happen?’ Apparently, she told the producers that if there was anybody on Ava’s bedroom wall, it would have been me. And she was just super gracious and said, like, ‘I grew up a huge fan.’ Anyway, I told her, ‘Listen, if there’s anything we could work on together, let me know. I think you’re super talented.’ And then here we are five years later and the producers reached out and said, ‘We’re doing this bit where Ava has a birthday party and Deborah’s throwing her sort of this like nostalgia throwback party from her youth,’ and so here I am. It was such a full circle moment, I think, for both of us. And as you can tell by Hannah’s reaction during the ‘Beautiful Soul’ performance, I think there was a little bit of acting, but I think some of that was actually genuine.
What was your reaction to getting that message from the producers?
I was excited and thrilled. Obviously, it’s a huge hit show. First of all, the pedigree of talent on that show is unmatched. I think they’re the funniest people right now on TV. And as somebody who’s a big fan of comedy and loves to write jokes and perform as well, I thought it’d be super fun. I jumped at the opportunity and there was like this three-day window, I was in the middle of touring, like between my tour and the Jonas Brothers tour, and so I flew into LA, I shot for a few hours, and then head went back out on the road. But I was so happy that it worked out because big fan of the show.
A big fan of comedy? Are you manifesting appearances on any other shows and what do you consider to be the comedies that raised you?
Oh man, there are so many good shows. There was actually a great comedy on HBO — to keep it in the family — I think it only did two seasons and I was so bummed about it. I’m blanking on the name, but it was with Mark Duplass [the show McCartney is referring to is Togetherness]. It’s sort of a dark comedy, but I thought it was just brilliant, such genius writing, and it had a serious tone, but underneath, the jokes were just incredible. Free Bert is like that new show about his [Bert Kreischer’s] life, and I think there’s actually a lot of like heavy stuff on that show for him. I just have never seen him in that light before. So I love the 30-minute comedies that are grounded and have some weight to them, but there’s just a ton of jokes sprinkled in. Growing up, I mean, I was a huge fan of SNL and In Living Color. I grew up watching and studying Jim Carrey and all of the physical comedy that he did. I’m a huge fan of the genre, and I would love to, at some point, be back on television making a comedy of my own. It’s a dream, for sure.
On the Hacks front, I talked with Jean and Hannah together, and Jean said she’s never seen Hannah so happy as to when you came on to the set. Did you get to talk with Jean at all, too?
We briefly chatted on set. She was pretty busy that day and then we had a chance to to say hi at the premiere. She just was so, so nice. And I think she was just so excited [for Hannah]. To be honest, I don’t think she really knew who I was until Hannah had to sort of give her the debrief, but she was super kind and so nice. She obviously is one of the greatest actors of this generation. It was an honor meeting her.
I mean, knowing that it is the final season, how does it feel to be immortalized in this Emmy-winning comedy, even if it’s a small part?
It’s a huge honor, obviously, that group is so talented, a high pedigree of talent. I wish I could have been a bigger part of it after performing there. It was just so much fun. And you can tell that cast, they’re just family, you know? Hopefully, it opens the door to working with some of those people again.
I asked about your reaction, but I know you said you and your wife watched together. What did your wife say about all of this?
She loved it. I think it was probably her idea to DM Hannah. She was like, ‘You know, you should reach out, that’s not just by accident, that had to have been some sort of connection. She had to have had something to do with that.’ And she was right… I’m glad that I did, because I think that’s what sort of stirred all of this up. My wife is pretty good about handling all of this, she’s definitely seen it all. She keeps me balanced, she keeps me grounded, she keeps me humble. She’s also sort of my biggest cheerleader and my biggest, you know, supporter, and couldn’t do it without her, that’s for sure.
The first two episodes of Hacks Season 5 are now streaming on HBO Max.
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