‘Hacks:’ Leslie Bibb On Creating the Most Delicious Guest Performance of the Year

Leslie Bibb talks to The Contending about her stellar guest work on the final season of HBO Max’s Emmy-winning comedy Hacks.

Leslie Bibb’s exuberant passion for being part of HBO Max’s Hacks was infectious. She co-stars with on-screen lover Cherry Jones in “Montecito,” the undeniable highlight of Hacks‘ final season. Her infectious enthusiasm was fully warranted. Her love of playing the self-assured Monica and giving life to a happy but different kind of relationship meant so much to her. Being able to work with this team of actors and creators and crew also gave her the freedom to improvise some of the best moments of the episode. Bibb stood out in an episode full of great actresses. She appreciated all they did to help her and gave back to them just as much.

The Contending: Monica’s first appearance makes quite the impression. She comes in wearing that beekeeper outfit. She pulls off her mask and immediately you get a major sense of her presence in this household. How did get into her mindset?

Leslie Bibb: I think getting to walk in Monica’s shoes was really fun, though I made a choice with her to be barefoot a ton because I feel like she’s always got her feet so firmly planted in the ground. Wherever she looks, her body follows. She’s so empowered and it’s really fun to play somebody like that. I felt like she was almost male in her female energy because she’s so front-footed and she doesn’t really hear no. She was so alive and fun and I would leave work and I’d be buzzed from getting to be that person because I’m not that person.

When we were working on the beekeeper outfit and I was talking with the costume designer I asked, is it too cheeky if I’m naked underneath the beekeeper thing? I knew it didn’t make any sense because you need one more layer if you’re with bees, but I really felt Monica doesn’t think she’d ever get stung. She then told me, you’re not wearing any clothes underneath the bee keeper outfit. So it set the tone, but then I got a little nervous and, when Paul and I were talking about it, I said to him, “I’ve never been naked and I’ve never done that, never played that card before. And I am probably not gonna do that, and I hope that’s okay.” And he was like, yeah, it’s fine, it’s fine, it’s fine.

And then you get there, and the way that Paul and Lucia and Jen run a show, and then you’re with Hannah and Jean and they’re so supportive, and you’ve got Cherry and it just feels like I can do anything! And then I’m l taking my clothes off and I’m like, here’s my butt. Do you want to see my butt? I just felt so safe on that set and it didn’t feel gratuitous. Then later, when they were going to put me in pajamas I said, she doesn’t have bottoms. It just felt right for her. Any insecurities that I had were gone when I got to set and became this amazing character that Paul and Lucia and Jen came up with.

The Contending: I heard you improvised the line “makes me sick” when you think Deborah and Ava are “back in the closet.” What inspired that?

Leslie Bibb: I don’t know. I just, I don’t know. I don’t even remember doing it. I think what’s so interesting is even when they come clean, we think that we still know better than them. At the moment, I don’t remember what I’ve done. Like when Ava’s talking about shibari and she said something about a chandelier. Well, there was one draft where Sia is the one who introduced Cherry and me to each other and that was changed when Ava Deborah ties me up. I just improvised that we knew Sia because my brain connected the song Chandelier. These things came up because Hannah just improvised a whole thing about shibari. I was like, how do you know it’s called shibari? Her improv is so great. It was like a master class to work with all three women, but it was really fun to play cat and mouse with Hannah.

The Contending: That goes right into my next question. You and Hannah have an immediate erotic energy that you just want to jump on each other, and I’m curious how you prepared for that?

Leslie Bibb: You don’t, you just go in. That’s the thing with chemistry. You know, you meet somebody and it’s like it’s so easy to talk to them. I don’t know what makes chemistry, but for us the first scene we shot was me in the beekeeper outfit coming into the house and pretty much shot in order, and pretty quickly all four of us felt very comfortable with each other.

And I just knew I had to be ready because I was working with such great talent. It’s like joining the Knicks right now, like they’re just so incredible. So I psyched myself up to not drop the ball. You’re around greatness so it’s going to rub off on you.

Also Paul and Lucia and Jen as showrunners, producers, and writers, with Paul directing, created a warm atmosphere on set. I don’t know how they did it, how they’re able to do it in such a constructive way that you never felt shut down. You just constantly feel inspired and like, they were always stoking a creative fire in everybody. You saw it within the crew from the DP, to the camera operators, that if I might move a little and immediately they’re like, we’ve got you. For a guest actor coming on to have a camera operator be like, I got you, don’t worry. For the costume designer to hear me saying I was thinking about this and then the designer saying, I have an idea for that. It’s these small gestures that really help to create an environment where everybody excels.

I felt very safe with those three women. First I was like, Oh my God, Oh my God, Oh my God. Then very quickly I was like, oh, this is f****** fantastic to get to be this empowered, and to be on a show where these are very different women and each one is empowered in their own right. Hannah, it’s so easy to fall in love with her. She’s just so funny and she is always ready to pass the ball back and forth.

The Contending: That sounds awesome!

Leslie Bibb: It was. I’m so grateful for just the experience of getting to breathe that air for that week. I was saying to Paul, it was like when Laura Dern said to me once on Palm Royale: your voice matters. And that stuck with me. Then watching the way they run a show. This is how it must be done all, all the time. It was really exciting.

The Contending: You and Cherry Jones have a sense of being a very loving couple, but very open to letting other people in as well. How did you guys create that mood?

Leslie Bibb: Sometimes people say less is more; Cherry and I say more is more. When I first came in in that beekeeper outfit I just remembered I kissed her and she was surprised, and I said I am sorry I should have asked first. And she said no, you should not have, and let’s go.

It was so easy to fall in love with Cherry Jones. She’s just the warmest person and such a giving actor. I felt it was really important to show two women that really loved each other. Yes, it’s not your typical relationship because they’re open, but it doesn’t mean that it’s any less loving. It was really important to me that you saw that I really love this woman.

I also loved that they added that she came from her own money. So she’s not a gold digger. She really loves her and she loves this relationship and she loves this life. And, you know, relationships are complicated and you cannot judge them, and what works for one doesn’t work for the other. Let everybody live their bliss. I was so happy that they said that she comes from her own money because it does change how we see it, even though it shouldn’t but it does.

I think they do really love each other and it really works for them. They have like 27 disabled dogs and there’s s*** everywhere. And her bees are giving them some honey. They’re really just a hoot!

The Contending: What was it like working with Jean Smart?

Leslie Bibb: I grew up in the South, loving Designing Women, and I’ve gotten the pleasure of working with Annie Potts and Delta Burke. And so to get to work with Jean, I just think what Jean does is extraordinary. I had said to Jean when I got there, it’s so weird, I just watched you in Mare of Easttown because I was doing research for something else. And the costume designer had told me that you went from that show to this. And she said, I did.

To think that she went from playing this grandma in this intense drama and then going straight to Deborah Vance, who’s this empowered, sexual force of nature who’s anything but weak, was just extraordinary. She is one of our greatest actresses. I know everyone says Meryl Streep, but like, don’t you f****** sleep on Jean Smart because that woman is a craftsman. What she does is so effortless.

I was just watching the finale and it was so good! What Paul, Lucia, and Jen wrote, and being able to walk that line between great pain and great humor, which is where great humor always comes from, something dark. And they didn’t dumb anything down into how they talked about death or made it simple, not unlike how they showed the complexity of me and Cherry Jones’ relationship. It’s not what we typically root for but I still root for them.

Sometimes I find that people write shows and they feel like, oh, we have to really spoon feed it because the audience won’t get it. And I’m always like, people are smarter, people are really smart. Like Mike White is so incredible at taking f***** up situations and putting them in your face, and making you think like you’re watching a show about rich people on vacation. And then it’s like, no, it’s really about this.

And Paul and Lucia and Jen do the same thing. They take really complicated situations and they give them to you and they’re making you laugh and they’re giving you flawed characters, but they’re really talking about intimacy and vulnerability and friendship, platonic love, being seen. And to me, it’s so human. Like Cherry and Deborah are so competitive with each other, but also Deborah hurt her and Cherry wants to be seen, and Monica wants to be seen for who she is as well.