Lauren Weedman could never really let loose on stage.
“I remember I was doing other people’s plays when I was younger, and I never got to fully get my yayas out,” she tells Variety. “I always felt like I had more energy or more stuff going on in me that I had to kind of control, and I couldn’t bring to characters, because I was supposed to be a certain thing to fit into the story.”
Don’t get her wrong. The actress and writer is happy to serve a story. As a playwright herself, she knows what it’s like to wrangle all the elements of the creative process. But purely from an acting standpoint, the stage didn’t 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.
But 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’s “Hacks.”
She 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.
