Hannah Einbinder On Channeling Jim Carrey and Blowing Past Her Own Boundaries

Reported by Harper's Bazaar.

Hannah Einbinder cried so hard at the Hacks finale screening at the Academy Museum that she literally fell out of her chair. Five seasons, one Emmy, and a career-defining role later, the 31-year-old is closing the Ava Daniels chapter — and she's not pretending it's easy.

The parallels between Einbinder and her character are almost too neat to be coincidental. Ava went from broke screenwriter to running a late-night writer's room; Einbinder went from grinding pay-to-play "bringer shows" — predatory gigs where comics must bring ten paying guests just to perform for free — to becoming one of Hollywood's most compelling comedic voices. According to Harper's Bazaar, it was Hacks that first made her believe in herself, not just as an actress but as a person. Her first industry friend, comedian Mike Falzone, spotted her at one of those exploitative early shows and told her flat out: "You don't need to do this shit." She didn't forget it.

From Ava Daniels to Camp Miasma

What's next looks deliberately unlike anything she's done before. Einbinder is heading to the big screen in Jane Schoenbrun's queer slasher Teenage Sex and Death at Camp Miasma — a Cannes favorite shot at a real camp in rural Vancouver, where the intimacy of the location pushed the cast into genuinely vulnerable territory. She describes the set as unexpectedly emotional and "light," crediting Schoenbrun's mellow energy for creating the same kind of purposeful, fun-but-focused atmosphere she got used to on Hacks. The work ethic she absorbed from showrunners Paul W. Downs, Jen Statsky, and Lucia Aniello, she says, travels with her now — she frames it as being "raised right."

Off-set, her aesthetic is exactly as specific as you'd expect: stolen-from-set green-and-blue-stripe shirt, vintage Levi's, The Row boots, a wallet chain, "gay jewelry," a Wayne's World hat, and a Louis Vuitton messenger bag. Her last splurge was a pair of Saint Laurent frames impulse-bought at the Paris airport after losing her Ray-Bans at Cannes — zero regrets. Her dream collaborators are Susan Sarandon and Julianne Moore ("I know I've named two redheaded women"). Her comedy origin story? Watching Jim Carrey in Ace Ventura at age seven and finally seeing her own frantic, physical energy reflected back at her. She modeled her entire bodily expression after him.

Asked what she's saying yes to and no to right now, she gave the same answer for both: "Overwhelming myself and blowing past my own boundaries." She admitted she's not doing a great job at either — and somehow, that's the most Ava Daniels thing she's ever said.

Einbinder is proof that the messiest version of self-awareness — the kind that doesn't resolve neatly — is exactly what makes a career worth watching.

Read the original at Harper's Bazaar.