Tony Goldwyn on 'Hacks' Ava firing: 'Bob was just doing his job'
1 of 5 | Tony Goldwyn, seen at the 2023 premiere of "A Good Person" in New York City, guest stars on "Hacks." File Photo by John Angelillo/UPI | License Photo
LOS ANGELES, May 22 (UPI) -- Editor's note: This article contains spoilers for Hacks Season 4 Episode 9 "A Slippery Slope."
On Thursday's Hacks, studio executive Bob Lipka (Tony Goldwyn) ordered Deborah Vance (Jean Smart) to fire her talk show's head writer, Ava (Hannah Einbinder). Instead, Deborah told her audience on a live show she refused, knowing Bob would cancel her show.
In a recent phone interview with UPI, Goldwyn said he understood his character's position. Ava had told a reporter friend about the show cutting a joke about a controversial movie star, leading to a damaging exposé.
"It was fun to take a perspective that Bob was just doing his job," Goldwyn, 65, said. "In any company, that person would be let go immediately for doing what she did."
The episode uses Hacks' drama and comedy to explore the ethical dilemma. Deborah joked about Ethan Sommers' (Eric Balfour) alleged controversy, but did not resist when Sommers' publicist and the studio asked her to edit out the joke.
Ava disagreed with the decision but made it worse for herself when she vented to a reporter friend. Bob wanted to make an example of Ava, but Deborah gave up her entire talk show rather than let him.
Bob even tells Deborah her talk show is a supporting player to what he considered the "starting lineup" that includes Sommers' Shadow Soldier franchise and theme parks with attractions based on those films. Goldwyn said he understood Bob putting Deborah in her place.
"I think he needs Deborah to know that she's not getting too big for her britches," Goldwyn said. "He's telling her, 'Look, you're amazing but you do not make me the $5 billion that this franchise has made me and you have not made me the half a trillion dollars that my theme parks have made me.'"
As both an actor and director, Goldwyn acknowledges that he needs businessmen to allow him to do either job. He has been acting in film and television since the '80s with credits in Ghost, Oppenheimer, Scandal and Law & Order.
He made his directorial debut in 1999 with the film A Walk on the Moon, and is currently workshopping a theater revival of Pal Joey with Savion Glover.
"It's a constant tension of needing to do something that's very expensive to do, that people must buy tickets in order to consume what we're creating," Goldwyn said. "Yet, we're artists that want to express the thing we want to express."
Hacks takes place at a fictional studio but reflects the real entertainment industry where franchises like Marvel and legacy sequels to classics dominate the box office, and both Disney and Universal Studios have thriving theme parks.
Where executives of classic Hollywood would make a movie and then try to sell it, executives now try to anticipate which franchises people will pay to see.
"It costs so much to make it," Goldwyn said. "You've got to go make a multi, multi-million dollar investment just to get it in front of an audience to see if it's going to work or not. That's a big risk that financiers and studios take. I have a lot of respect for that but I wouldn't want to do that."
The ethical dilemmas Goldwyn has faced in his career tend to be "more of a creative battle where you're fighting for something and the studio or whatever wants you to do something different, not a personnel issue like this."
Still, Deborah and Ava had some leverage they didn't use against Bob. Both know that Deborah slept with Bob last season to get her late night talk show.
Had either woman threatened to expose Bob, Goldwyn suspects their short-term gains may have been outweighed by Bob's long-term wrath.
"Bob's a pretty ruthless person in business," Goldwyn said. "You don't get to be one of the Bob Lipkas of the world if you don't fight pretty rough."
Goldwyn got a chance to do physical comedy in the episode. When Deborah is making her speech on the live episode, Bob goes to the control room to pull the plug.
Deborah's manager, Jimmy (Paul W. Downs) wrestles the cell phone from Bob's hands and they have a comedic scuffle. Goldwyn said they only filmed two takes and the funnier one was in the show.
"It wasn't exactly choreographed but in rehearsal we decided to do that," he said. "It was very messy and fun."
The season finale of Hacks premieres Thursday, May 29 on Max.
Hashtags
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
22 minutes ago
‘How to Train Your Dragon' soars ahead of 'Elio,' '28 Years Later' in box office
NEW YORK -- Neither Pixar nor zombies were enough to topple 'How to Train Your Dragon" from the No. 1 slot at North American box offices over the weekend. The Universal Pictures live-action remake remained the top film, bringing in $37 million in ticket sales in its second weekend, despite the sizeable new releases of 'Elio' and '28 Years Later.', according to studio estimates Sunday. 'How To Train Your Dragon' has rapidly amassed $358.2 million worldwide. Six years after its last entry, the Dean DeBlois-directed 'How To Train Your Dragon' has proven a potent revival of the DreamWorks Animation franchise. A sequel is already in the works for the $150 million production, which remakes the 2010 animated tale about a Viking boy and his dragon. Pixar's 'Elio' had a particularly tough weekend. The Walt Disney Co. animation studio has often launched some of its biggest titles in June, including 'Cars,' 'WALL-E' and 'Toy Story 4.' But 'Elio,' a science fiction adventure about a boy who dreams of meeting aliens, notched a modest $21 million, the lowest opening ever for Pixar. 'This is a weak opening for a new Pixar movie,' said David A. Gross, who runs the movie consulting firm FranchiseRe. 'These would be solid numbers for another original animation film, but this is Pixar, and by Pixar's remarkable standard, the opening is well below average.' 'Elio,' originally set for release in early 2024, had a bumpy road to the screen. Adrian Molina — co-director of 'Coco' — was replaced mid-production by Domee Shi ('Turning Red') and Madeline Sharafian. Back at Disney's D23 conference in 2022, America Ferrera appeared to announce her role as Elio's mother, but the character doesn't even exist in the revamped film. Disney and Pixar spent at least $150 million making 'Elio,' which didn't fare any better internationally than it did in North America, bringing in just $14 million from 43 territories. Pixar stumbled coming out of the pandemic before stabilizing performance with 2023's 'Elemental' ($496.4 million worldwide) and 2024's 'Inside Out 2' ($1.7 billion), which was the company's biggest box office hit. 'Elemental' was Pixar's previously lowest earning film, launching with $29.6 million. It rallied in later weeks to collect nearly half a billion dollars at the box office. The company's first movie, 'Toy Story,' opened with $29.1 million in 1995, or $60 when adjusted for inflation. It remains to be seen whether 'Elio's' decent reviews and 'A' from CinemaScore audiences can lead it to repeat 'Elemental's' trajectory. With most schools on summer break, the competition for family audiences was stiff. Disney's own 'Lilo & Stitch,' another live-action remake, continued to pull in young moviegoers. It grossed $9.7 million in its fifth weekend, bringing its global tally to $910.3 million. . '28 Years Later' signaled the return of another, far gorier franchise. Director Danny Boyle reunited with screenwriter Alex Garland to resume their pandemic apocalypse thriller 25 years after '28 Days Later' and 18 years after its sequel, '28 Weeks Later.' The Sony Pictures release opened with $30 million. That was good enough to give Boyle, the filmmaker of 'Slumdog Millionaire' and 'Trainspotting,' the biggest opening weekend of his career. The film, which cost $60 million to make, jumps ahead nearly three decades from the outbreak of the so-called rage virus for a coming-of-age story about a 12-year-old (Alfie Williams) venturing out of his family's protected village. Aaron Taylor-Johnson, Jodie Comer and Ralph Fiennes co-star. Reviews have been good (90% fresh on Rotten Tomatoes) for '28 Years Later,' though audience reaction (a 'B' CinemaScore) is mixed. Boyle has more plans for the zombie franchise, which will next see the release of '28 Years Later: The Bone Temple' next year from director Nia DaCosta. '28 Years Later' added another $30 million in 59 overseas markets. After its strong start last weekend with $12 million, A24's 'Materialists' held well with $5.8 million in its second weekend. The romantic drama by writer-director Celine Song and starring Dakota Johnson, Pedro Pascal and Chris Evans has collected $24 million so far. Next weekend should also be a competitive one in movie theaters, with both 'F1,' from Apple and Warner Bros., and Universal's 'Megan 2.0' launching in cinemas. With final domestic figures being released Monday, this list factors in the estimated ticket sales for Friday through Sunday at U.S. and Canadian theaters, according to Comscore: 1. 'How to Train Your Dragon,' $37 million. 2. '28 Years Later,' $30 million. 3. 'Elio,' $21 million. 4. 'Lilo & Stitch,' $9.7 million. 5. 'Mission: Impossible — The Final Reckoning,' $6.6 million. 6. 'Materialists,' $5.8 million. 7. 'Ballerina,' $4.5 million. 8. 'Karate Kid: Legends,' $2.4 million. 9. 'Final Destination: Bloodlines," $1.9 million. 10. 'Kuberaa,' $1.7 million.
UPI
37 minutes ago
- UPI
Lauren Cohan: Maggie-Hershel relationship is complex, sad in 'Dead City' S2
1 of 3 | Lauren Cohan (R) and Logan Kim star in "The Walking Dead: Dead City." Season 2 wraps up Sunday. Photo by Robert Clark/AMC NEW YORK, June 22 (UPI) -- Lauren Cohan says she thinks Maggie's strained relationship with her teen son Hershel (Logan Kim) in Season 2 of the zombie-apocalypse drama, The Walking Dead: Dead City, resonates with viewers because it is such a common parent-child dynamic. "That part of the story-line has been really complex and real and sad, and we get to unpack all of this, but mostly because he is a teenage boy and it is his responsibility to NOT do what's best for himself," Cohan told reporters during a recent New York Comic Con press conference. "No," she laughed. "It just comes with the territory that there's going to be a push and pull between he and I, and I think that's what makes the season really relatable for me. We've all been teenagers, and we've all known that nothing our parents say or do, can ever be right, and the rub for Maggie is that the influences that aren't her -- she's not a perfect parent either -- but the influences that aren't her are particularly dire." The Walking Dead spin-off, Dead City, shows Maggie teaming up with Negan (Jeffrey Dean Morgan), her husband's baseball-bat-wielding murderer, for an unlikely mission in New York to rescue Hershel from the clutches of the Croat (Zelijko Ivanek), a power-hungry mad man who just happens to idolize Negan and to whom Hershel has become devoted. Taking the story back. The season finale of #DeadCity premieres TONIGHT at 9pm on AMC or stream it early on AMC+. The Walking Dead (@WalkingDead_AMC) June 22, 2025 "The people that he came in contact with in Season 1 are going to have a lot of influence on him," Cohan said about Hersehel. "You always want to protect your child from danger and the danger here is maybe a little more potent than [what real kids encounter] -- or not, because the dangers of social media and the dangers of mental illness for children are potent. So, I like the fact that we do this on the scale of the apocalypse, but it's issues that are close to the heart." Playing resourceful and loyal community leader Maggie for two seasons on Dead City and 10 seasons on the flagship series, The Walking Dead, has taught the actress the importance of perseverance and leaving one's comfort zone. "You could rest on your laurels or not look for a challenge within yourself as a performer or as a teammate," Cohan said. "I do find myself to be very different from [Maggie] in many ways and I'm always looking for ways that I'm similar," she added. "Knowing the best way to swing a hammer [is one]. One of the things that we, in this world, have more of a luxury to do is self-reflection and there will be more of that in our show and, so, I guess it's just art informing life, informing art." Season 2 wraps up Sunday on AMC and AMC+. Anxiety levels right now. Catch up on the penultimate episode of #DeadCity on AMC+. The Walking Dead (@WalkingDead_AMC) June 16, 2025
San Francisco Chronicle
41 minutes ago
- San Francisco Chronicle
‘How to Train Your Dragon' tops the US box office as ‘Elio' marks a new low for Pixar
NEW YORK (AP) — Neither Pixar nor zombies were enough to topple 'How to Train Your Dragon" from the No. 1 slot at North American box offices over the weekend. The Universal Pictures live-action remake remained the top film, bringing in $37 million in ticket sales in its second weekend, despite the sizeable new releases of 'Elio' and '28 Years Later.' , according to studio estimates Sunday. 'How To Train Your Dragon' has rapidly amassed $358.2 million worldwide. Six years after its last entry, the Dean DeBlois-directed 'How To Train Your Dragon' has proven a potent revival of the DreamWorks Animation franchise. A sequel is already in the works for the $150 million production, which remakes the 2010 animated tale about a Viking boy and his dragon. Pixar's 'Elio' had a particularly tough weekend. The Walt Disney Co. animation studio has often launched some of its biggest titles in June, including 'Cars,' 'WALL-E' and 'Toy Story 4.' But 'Elio,' a science fiction adventure about a boy who dreams of meeting aliens, notched a modest $21 million, the lowest opening ever for Pixar. 'This is a weak opening for a new Pixar movie,' said David A. Gross, who runs the movie consulting firm FranchiseRe. 'These would be solid numbers for another original animation film, but this is Pixar, and by Pixar's remarkable standard, the opening is well below average.' 'Elio,' originally set for release in early 2024, had a bumpy road to the screen. Adrian Molina — co-director of 'Coco' — was replaced mid-production by Domee Shi ('Turning Red') and Madeline Sharafian. Back at Disney's D23 conference in 2022, America Ferrera appeared to announce her role as Elio's mother, but the character doesn't even exist in the revamped film. Disney and Pixar spent at least $150 million making 'Elio,' which didn't fare any better internationally than it did in North America, bringing in just $14 million from 43 territories. Pixar stumbled coming out of the pandemic before stabilizing performance with 2023's 'Elemental' ($496.4 million worldwide) and 2024's 'Inside Out 2' ($1.7 billion), which was the company's biggest box office hit. 'Elemental' was Pixar's previously lowest earning film, launching with $29.6 million. It rallied in later weeks to collect nearly half a billion dollars at the box office. The company's first movie, 'Toy Story,' opened with $29.1 million in 1995, or $60 when adjusted for inflation. It remains to be seen whether 'Elio's' decent reviews and 'A' from CinemaScore audiences can lead it to repeat 'Elemental's' trajectory. With most schools on summer break, the competition for family audiences was stiff. Disney's own 'Lilo & Stitch,' another live-action remake, continued to pull in young moviegoers. It grossed $9.7 million in its fifth weekend, bringing its global tally to $910.3 million. . '28 Years Later' signaled the return of another, far gorier franchise. Director Danny Boyle reunited with screenwriter Alex Garland to resume their pandemic apocalypse thriller 25 years after '28 Days Later' and 18 years after its sequel, '28 Weeks Later.' The Sony Pictures release opened with $30 million. That was good enough to give Boyle, the filmmaker of 'Slumdog Millionaire' and 'Trainspotting,' the biggest opening weekend of his career. The film, which cost $60 million to make, jumps ahead nearly three decades from the outbreak of the so-called rage virus for a coming-of-age story about a 12-year-old (Alfie Williams) venturing out of his family's protected village. Aaron Taylor-Johnson, Jodie Comer and Ralph Fiennes co-star. Reviews have been good (90% fresh on Rotten Tomatoes) for '28 Years Later,' though audience reaction (a 'B' CinemaScore) is mixed. Boyle has more plans for the zombie franchise, which will next see the release of '28 Years Later: The Bone Temple' next year from director Nia DaCosta. '28 Years Later' added another $30 million in 59 overseas markets. After its strong start last weekend with $12 million, A24's 'Materialists' held well with $5.8 million in its second weekend. The romantic drama by writer-director Celine Song and starring Dakota Johnson, Pedro Pascal and Chris Evans has collected $24 million so far. With final domestic figures being released Monday, this list factors in the estimated ticket sales for Friday through Sunday at U.S. and Canadian theaters, according to Comscore: 1. 'How to Train Your Dragon,' $37 million. 2. '28 Years Later,' $30 million. 3. 'Elio,' $21 million. 4. 'Lilo & Stitch,' $9.7 million. 5. 'Mission: Impossible — The Final Reckoning,' $6.6 million. 6. 'Materialists,' $5.8 million. 7. 'Ballerina,' $4.5 million. 8. 'Karate Kid: Legends,' $2.4 million. 9. 'Final Destination: Bloodlines," $1.9 million. 10. 'Kuberaa,' $1.7 million.
