Robby Hoffman On ‘Hacks’ Season 5 And Steve Carell’s New Series

This year has been packed with successes for Robby Hoffman. She’s Emmy-nominated for her guest role in HBO Max series Hacks, appeared in Emmy-nominated Hulu show Dying For Sex opposite Michelle Williams, sold her autobiographical show Unentitled to HBO Max and is currently at work on Steve Carell’s new comedy series. “I’m truly having one of the greatest lives I’ve heard about in recent history and it’s happening to me,” she tells Deadline. Hoffman, who began in stand-up, is no stranger to awards — she’s been nominated multiple times and won a Daytime Emmy for writing Odd Squad. In the conversation below, she describes the experience of playing a version of herself as Randi the assistant in Hacks and what she’d like to see happen next season.

DEADLINE: Congratulations on your Emmy nomination.

ROBBY HOFFMAN: You know what I feel like? I’ve been saying this, but it’s like when you see literally Meryl Streep, or Helen Mirren, and they’re like, “It’s an honor to be to even nominated,” but you’re like, “Helen, Meryl, come on, come on. It’s your 19th …” I really feel like I’m the epitome of that phrase. It really is an honor for me. It’s honestly a shock for me to be nominated.

DEADLINE: Your role of Randi in Hacks was written with you in mind. How did the showrunners describe Randi to you?

HOFFMAN: They just called me and they said, “We wrote a part for you based on you, and you have to audition for it,” and I said, “No. I simply don’t have the temperament. No. I wish I never knew this.” I don’t have the temperament to audition for me, a version of me, a nerdier, eager-

DEADLINE: Imagine failing that audition to play yourself.

HOFFMAN: Literally, this is my whole thing. I was like, “Why do I have to do this?” I ended up sending the casting director Linda [Lowy] flowers because I was like, “Honestly, it was harder for me to audition for me.” Suddenly, it’s like when you have to be you, I’m like, “Am I being me?” But then you are you, but it’s like you want a Twilight Zone you. You have to be you but a little bit off. I’d rather be somebody totally different. Let me play Shrek. It’s like you almost want to do a total different dress-up part. But she was like, “No, no, you have to do it. Robby, we wrote this for you.” Really, she was like, “It is you.” There would’ve been no Randi if the showrunners didn’t see Robby. They were somehow fans of mine, a gift from god, and so they wrote Randi based on me. Thank god it worked out and I got the part. I remember when I got the part, because I was waiting for the bus.

DEADLINE: You were riding the bus like Randi does in the show.

HOFFMAN: Yes. I was riding the bus in New York. I was taking the bus from LaGuardia into the city. I take the bus when I land typically, because the cabs are so crazy priced. They say it’s every 10 minutes, it’s really every 30, and I had my luggage and I was trying to bum a smoke waiting for the bus and just have something to do. And then my managers called me and I found out about it. And I couldn’t believe I got the part. We were all pretty shocked. And then it was supposed to be maybe one or two episodes, and I think we ended up filming five and maybe I was only in four, something like that. We shot more. It ended up being best-case scenario.

DEADLINE: If you hadn’t gotten the part, you’d have to have a full-on existential crisis.

HOFFMAN: The thing is I’m fine with acting. I like acting. I’ve seen it go the other way on the writer’s side of things, and I’ve been part of casting before. I think it’s surprising to people who aren’t in this, like, “Oh, he’s a comedian. He can’t act?” But that does happen. Jennifer Aniston, she’s an amazing comedic actress, I think one of the greatest talents ever, but she’s always playing a version of herself. It’s not 100% [her], but she gets to bring her heart and her core. You look at the difference of Along Came Polly and The Morning Show, and it’s unbelievable, but the right parts let really let her shine. And they started writing parts, the right parts, for me obviously, where I could have those different vibes. It’s like that old quote: “Whatever you do, do it with your whole heart.” That’s the way I am, and this let me do that. I also told casting, “The acting of this, I’ll be good at. I have a good feeling. Obviously, you can’t trust me. You haven’t seen me much. I just did that one other thing.” But it’s the audition. The audition is a total different thing, because you have somebody reading like this, you don’t have the person right around you. You don’t have the other characters. To me, it’s like the interview for a job. It’s like the interview is totally different than the job you’re going to be doing. It’s a whole different skill.

DEADLINE: How fun is it working with Paul W. Downs and Megan Stalter as Jimmy and Kayla in all those office scenes?

HOFFMAN: You know what? It really mimics reality, because Jimmy is my boss on the show and Paul is my boss in real life on this. We have a real similar dynamic IRL because Paul decides if I work or not. I am trying to be good and play it cool with Paul, but Randi, she doesn’t play cool at all. She’s not even trying. She’s eager, she will die for him, she will do whatever, but we’re both like, “This is our boss any which way you look at it.” And Meg, who’s obviously so funny and talented, we get to just… almost it’s like she hired somebody to have a friend. It’s almost like she’s not that serious. It’s like I remember my grandfather was able to get my mother a cleaning lady — I’m one of 10 kids — twice a week. But I remember this lady was always just sitting chatting with my mother, and I think part of it was that my grandfather wanted my mother to have a friend. Our house was still a sty, nothing really got done, and she was always snacking and just chatting and riling up my mother. I’m like, “Is anything getting done here?” And Megan has that quality. I feel like Megan is my mother running this huge house in a way, but she just brought in someone to chat with.

DEADLINE: In Dying for Sex, your role of Molly (Michelle Williams)’s friend G seems like maybe another version of you, as it’s very real to your humor and the way you talk, and your sensibility. Was that written with you in mind too, or did you bring that to it?

HOFFMAN: No. That was a wide audition. That was you could bring what you want to the character. I obviously will always bring my core and my heart, but it let me be sexy. To me, I feel obviously so blessed to have two parts in the same year that were different versions, kind of that Along Came Polly or Friends and then The Morning Show, because, yeah, I got to be more in touch with my sexuality and those things that [for] Randi would be sacrilegious. You don’t see that in Randi necessarily, but this got my swaggier side, which I could really lean into. That character leads with that, leads with her sexuality.

DEADLINE: That role feels more aligned with some of your stand-up to me.

HOFFMAN: Yeah, there’s always going to be some elements. Listen, it’s Robby Hoffman playing this, playing that, just like it’s Adam Sandler, it’s always going to be him, whether he’s in Happy Gilmore or he’s in Uncut Gems. There’s still an essence of who you are, and that’s what I try and do for anything I do, whether it’s writing; whether it’s writing on somebody else’s show. I always bring me into that, obviously in the framework of that show. My stand-up is the place where I get to be the most me. I get to exaggerate me. There’s no stifling of me. I could be the most exaggerated, biggest, no-rules me, you’re not in society, you’re on-stage me.

DEADLINE: How old were you when you first realized you wanted to do stand-up and write and perform?

HOFFMAN: As soon as I heard of it, I thought that made sense to me. I was in Montreal, where I mostly grew up, and we had the Just for Laughs festival. I think, when I heard about stand-up. I was just marinating in culture, growing up with great movies and books and arts and all of it, but I didn’t know of it separately. I don’t think I registered that this is stand-up. I don’t know. But as soon as I heard of it I thought, “Oh. Yeah, why not?” It was natural… And then I had the luxury of falling in love with stand-up while I was doing it. Then I was like, “Oh, Seinfeld was a stand-up.” And then it’s like, “Oh, Ellen, who had her daytime show, was a stand-up.” I started watching stand-up for the first time, so I really had no preconceived what it should be, what it really is. I just started doing it with me.

DEADLINE: I’m really curious as to what’s going to happen with Randi next season.

HOFFMAN: I know nothing. You know what I know. I don’t even know if Randi’s earned her keep. I think she’s done enough. I think she did a really good job. On the flip side, I think Robby did a good job. Randi and I both were in a very similar boat, where Randi wants to make it at the agency, is going to do it, and Robby is getting into acting and hopefully is doing an OK job acting. We’re both in the same boat, me and Randi.

I could see her really blowing out the office, not just the two sinks, but different. Slowly, but surely, it becomes Randi’s world, but from beneath them. She gets it done, but how she gets it done is not like anyone else.

DEADLINE: What can you tell me about your upcoming autobiographical show Unentitled?

HOFFMAN: I can tell you nothing about that, but you can ask.

DEADLINE: I know you’re writing and starring in it and it’s a version of you again, but what inspired you to come up with that idea as your next project?

HOFFMAN: No comment. I’ll talk about it when it comes out. I hope you request an interview with me. Slow and steady wins the race. All in due time, and that’s the way it should be.

DEADLINE: How is the new untitled Steve Carell show going? We know it’s ten episodes set on a college campus with Steve playing an author and it’s created by Bill Lawrence (Ted Lasso) and Matt Tarses (Scrubs).

HOFFMAN: We’ve been shooting that for a few months. I’m back on set. We’ve been on set a bunch for that. Acting has really just felt natural and pushing different versions of myself and having different circumstances and different stories, it’s all been great. Something I do, when you asked me about Unentitled or acting, it’s no frills, no gimmicks. It’s just try and make it good. All that interests me is just good work. And this show is just another example of that. I’m just thrilled that the whole show is good. The actors are good. I get to be a part of it. I’m going to show up good and just [am] making good things again.

DEADLINE: How is working with Steve Carell?

HOFFMAN: It’s very intimidating and it’s very amazing. He’s so good. Again, he’s just good. It’s almost refreshing, when we’re so used to being inundated in all directions, I’m just very drawn to that simple good. I don’t need the big action movies, the building falls and the guys in the cape and they’re doing so much. I’m like, “You could do so much less if it was just good.” That’s fine to have VFX and there’s the time and a place, but also just good is a lot cheaper and it goes far, I feel like.