{"id":814393,"date":"2026-08-15T10:52:12","date_gmt":"2026-08-15T10:52:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/814393\/"},"modified":"2026-08-15T10:52:12","modified_gmt":"2026-08-15T10:52:12","slug":"hacks-star-lauren-weedman-on-how-bells-palsy-changed-her-career","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/814393\/","title":{"rendered":"‘Hacks’ Star Lauren Weedman on How Bell’s Palsy Changed Her Career"},"content":{"rendered":"

\n\tLauren Weedman<\/a> could never really let loose on stage.<\/p>\n

\n\t\u201cI remember I was doing other people\u2019s plays when I was younger, and I never got to fully get my yayas out,\u201d she tells Variety. \u201cI always felt like I had more energy or more stuff going on in me that I had to kind of control, and I couldn\u2019t bring to characters, because I was supposed to be a certain thing to fit into the story.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tDon\u2019t get her wrong. The actress and writer is happy to serve a story. As a playwright herself, she knows what it\u2019s like to wrangle all the elements of the creative process. But purely from an acting standpoint, the stage didn\u2019t offer her that boundless outlet she expected. A few decades later, she looks back on an on-screen career largely defined by recognizable and always entertaining character work, and she can point to a handful of roles where she was able to channel that energy.<\/p>\n

\n\tBut few have been as freeing as her recurring turn as unpredictable Las Vegas mayor Jo Pezzimenti, who often crosses paths with comedy legend Deborah Vance (Jean Smart) on HBO Max\u2019s \u201cHacks<\/a>.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tShe credits series creators Lucia Aniello, Jen Statsky and Paul W. Downs with encouraging improvisation from day one and for giving her the breathing room to fuel her best work.<\/p>\n

\n\t\u201cWe\u2019ve had a pretty magical relationship because what I really dream of is people letting me play and be excited about it,\u201d she says. \u201cThey\u2019re so good about giving me a chance to [try something] \u2026 They just gave me this room around me and it\u2019s what I want. It\u2019s so what I crave.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tAppearing at least once in each of the comedy\u2019s five seasons, Weedman did what she\u2019s always done \u2014 made her mark, left people in stitches and then moved on. Despite returning, she never dreamed up what might await the zany, often copiously inebriated mayor. \u201cWhen you are a guest star, you don\u2019t hope,\u201d she says. \u201cReally, I was just hoping I\u2019d be included.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tFor the final season, she appears in more episodes than any previous season, including the series finale. More Mayor Jo, on top of her fan-favorite appearances across the series\u2019 run, earned Weedman her first Emmy nomination. On the morning of the nominations, she was inundated with so many messages from fans claiming this was long overdue and retroactive for all the previous roles they felt she was overlooked for, specifically HBO\u2019s dramedy series \u201cLooking.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\t\u201cI don\u2019t think that\u2019s true, but it\u2019s so sweet that people say that,\u201d she says of the chorus of support. \u201cThe day I found out, they were [people] whose names I recognized because they\u2019ve followed me forever, and they were like, \u2018You did it! We knew you would do it!\u2019 I\u2019ve never experienced that feeling that there are people really supporting me like that.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\t\u201cLooking,\u201d which still boasts a mighty fanbase within the queer community, allowed Weedman to blur the line between comedy and drama, letting some of her more self-deprecating humor expose deeper layers of her character, Doris, than just drawing a well-deserved laugh. Weedman always wants more of that, and she found it on \u201cHacks.\u201d During a scene in Season 4, when a scandal-ridden Mayor Jo appears on Deborah\u2019s talk show, the emotion of her character\u2019s precarious predicament overcame Weedman and she leaned into it \u2014 with the full-throated support of Smart.<\/p>\n

\n\t\u201cI remember Jean was like, \u2018She\u2019s crying. Don\u2019t cut her off. Let her go. She\u2019s feeling something,\u2019\u201d Weedman says. \u201cI was like, \u2018Isn\u2019t that part of it? Aren\u2019t we all supposed to do that?\u2019 But it\u2019s not always a given in comedy environments. It\u2019s definitely why I loved working with HBO back in the day. This was the one place you were allowed to do both.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tBut in its final season, \u201cHacks\u201d also became deeply personal for Weedman, who was diagnosed with Bell\u2019s palsy in 2024, which causes facial paralysis on her right side, among other effects. With a better handle on how it impacts her life, she no longer minces words about the diagnosis and how tough it was, on \u201cHacks\u201d specifically, to work through the early stages of it.<\/p>\n

\n\t\u201cWhen I first had Bell\u2019s palsy, working with that on that show, that changed things,\u201d she says. \u201cThat shifted a bit for me. Like all the shows that I worked on when I was sick, I\u2019ve never experienced being that vulnerable in a working environment.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tShe worried, initially, that she wouldn\u2019t work at all. When she was diagnosed, she immediately informed the \u201cHacks\u201d creative team about what was happening, as well as Quinta Brunson, the creator of \u201cAbbott Elementary,\u201d on which Weedman has appeared as a recurring character for years.<\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t\t\t\"\"<\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t\tAbbott Elementary<\/p>\n

\n\t\u201cI just imagined everybody hanging up the phone and going, \u2018I can\u2019t fire her, but you go on and fire her,\u2019\u201d she says with a laugh.<\/p>\n

\n\tThat didn\u2019t happen. Both shows not only assured her it wouldn\u2019t affect her recurring status, but both incorporated the Bell\u2019s palsy into Weedman\u2019s respective characters.<\/p>\n

\n\tStill, the diagnosis exposed something unexpected to Weedman about herself. She admits that she has always taken roles that interested her, even if she feels like her Hollywood-prescribed brand as a character actor included some less-than-flattering traits.<\/p>\n

\n\t\u201cIf there was ever a character ‘Hacks’ Star Lauren Weedman on How Bell’s Palsy Changed Her Career<\/a>  Variety<\/font>See more headlines & perspectives on Google News<\/a><\/strong> that says she\u2019s been beaten with a brick and she owns a trucking company and her nickname is Gorilla, they\u2019d be like, \u2018Lauren, that\u2019s you,\u2019\u201d she says.<\/p>\n

\n\tBut she wanted to work, she wanted to find the outlet for her energy, so she took the roles that had any substance she could play with and internalized the physical appearance box in which she had been placed. After her diagnosis, though, she found liberation in embracing the things Hollywood had previously defined her by.<\/p>\n

\n\t\u201cI\u2019m a hyperactive person who just wants to keep playing and playing, and then I\u2019ll do whatever,\u201d she says. \u201cBut it felt really freeing to go, \u2018Now I look like shit. This is not on purpose. I cannot control it, and I don\u2019t feel good, and this is really tough.\u2019 Now I get to really act. Now, I\u2019m not going to hold on to anything. That\u2019s pretty great.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tAll of it, especially the \u201cHacks\u201d experience, has reinforced why Weedman has stuck with a business that has never been easy. \u201c\u2018Looking\u2019 felt meaningful, and it connected me to people that I care about and allowed me to be part of stories that I care about,\u201d she says. \u201cI was really needing that kind of community, and I can\u2019t believe \u2018Hacks\u2019 turned into that, too, where I was like, \u201cOh, my God, I\u2019m back home in this environment.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tEven beyond \u201cHacks,\u201d Weedman\u2019s recent body of work will be well represented at the Emmys<\/a> this year. Four series she appeared in this year garnered nominations: \u201cHacks,\u201d \u201cAbbott Elementary,\u201d \u201cNobody Wants This\u201d and \u201cWonder Man.\u201d It\u2019s not the first time she\u2019s been close to recognition, but finally being welcomed as a nominee herself has her violating her own rule about wishing and hoping.<\/p>\n

\n\t\u201cI\u2019ve touched some glory, as they say, with the mayor,\u201d she says. \u201cI would love to be able to continue to work with creators who are really into the art form, who just want to create and let me play. Who believe in me.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Lauren Weedman could never really let loose on stage. \u201cI remember I was doing other people\u2019s plays when…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":814394,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[57],"tags":[236,10549,88,1065,109250],"class_list":["post-814393","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-celebrities","tag-celebrities","tag-emmys","tag-entertainment","tag-hacks","tag-lauren-weedman"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/814393","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=814393"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/814393\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/814394"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=814393"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=814393"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=814393"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}