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The curtain has closed on another season of “Hacks.”
Dan Bucatinsky, who plays Rob, the executive producer of “Late Night with Deborah Vance,” on the comedy/drama, is getting candid on wrapping Season 4 — and the best part of filming the Max series.
“It was the relationship that I was able to form with Jean Smart and Hannah Einbinder,” the actor, 59, exclusively told The Post at the 2025 Astra Awards. “That friendship is one that I will cherish. Being able to get to know them off camera, then get to play with them on camera, was a dream.”
“So much of my job on that show was playing the guy whose job it was to wrangle these two forces,” Bucatinsky explained. “I’m a dad of two, so I was playing dad a little bit on the show as well. But the gift really was being part of that community that felt very strong both behind the scenes and in front of the camera.”
The show follows the friendship between Smart, 73, who stars as legendary Las Vegas comic Deborah Vance, and comedy writer Ava Daniels, who is played by Einbinder, 30.
“They move very, very fast, and there is so much material being shot, and they are shooting multiple episodes at the same time,” he explained to the Post.
As for their downtime, the “Scandal” alum and his costars “would hang out in this little greenroom area” by their chairs.
“We would talk. We would keep each other warm,” he recalled. “We would go get tea. We would go get snacks. We would ask each other advice about everything. Recommendations of movies and documentaries and doctors. And talk about our kids and our pets. And it was really an opportunity in between scenes to really get to know one another.”
“Hacks” has been renewed for Season 5, with Smart recently expressing why she thinks it’s a good time to wrap up Deborah Vance’s story.
“I think we’ve pretty much decided that five seasons is [it], and I think that would feel right,” she told E! News earlier this month. “You never want to overstay your welcome.”
Smart’s portrayal earned her three consecutive Emmys for Outstanding Lead Actress in a Comedy Series, two Golden Globe Awards for Best Actress in a Television Series Musical or Comedy and three SAG Awards for Outstanding Performance by a Female Actor in a Comedy Series.
Bucatinsky, meanwhile, also has another onscreen role in mind.
“I want to play a villain,” he told The Post. “I want to play a criminal, a villain or a cop. Maybe not a cop that is a criminal or a villain, but why not?”
For “The Comeback” alum, he would love to star opposite in a criminal cop thriller with a handful of A-listers.
“I loved working with Corey Hawkins so much on ’24: Legacy.’ I’d love to work with him again. But Lisa Kudrow has been a friend and partner of mine for 20 years, so I always love working with her again,” Bucatinsky detailed. “I’ve really been lucky to work with a lot of great, strong women, and I really hope that continues because I am a fan of so many. Kristen Bell. I’d love to work with Kristen.”
Top-notch craft service tables are important to him, too. And his favorite was on “The Post,” which was directed by Steven Spielberg.
“I think that he managed to make an unbelievable craft service that I had never seen before,” he said of Spielberg on set of the 2017 film that told the story of The Washington Post exposing the Pentagon Papers. “It was like being in a restaurant every single night and every single day and at lunch! It was exciting. And you’d expect nothing less from Spielberg and Meryl Streep and Tom Hanks. It better be good.”
These days, when Bucatinksy isn’t acting in a hit television show, he’s watching Bravo’s “Housewives” franchise.
The “Under the Tuscan Sun” vet weighed in on Garcelle Beauvais leaving “The Real Housewives of Beverly Hills” after five seasons and Rachel Zoe announcing she is joining the cast for Season 15.
“Every season is an opportunity for a new piece of chemistry that either will work or it will explode and I’m sure they are hoping it will explode,” he stated.
“I’m a big fan. I’ve watched for years, and years, and years. I’m friends with some of them. I’m friends with Garcelle. So, I’m rooting for the franchise, and I’m rooting for all the women.”
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