Carl Clemons-Hopkins sees the Prince poster behind me. “He’s not my guardian angel—he’s one of them,” they say, nodding at the purple specter on the wall. It’s oddly fitting for a conversation about Hacks, a show haunted by the ghosts of bad decisions, fading stardom, and repressed meltdowns. We’re here to talk about Season 3—finally back after a long delay, a Hollywood strike, and a near-unbearable stretch without Jean Smart in our lives.
“It’s like the Christmas we’ve been waiting on forever,” Clemons-Hopkins says, and if anyone deserves a gift this season, it’s their character Marcus. The buttoned-up COO of Team Deborah Vance is finally getting his spiral. “Episode 8 was like, ‘Okay, we’re doing this.’ I was over the moon,” they say. “And also had to be like—alright, how would Marcus handle this? The answer is… barely.”
Marcus has always been the steady one, the guy holding it all together while chaos raged in designer heels and trauma wigs. But this season, he’s cracking. “He’s been going to therapy. He’s been working on boundaries,” Clemons-Hopkins says. “Which is hilarious when you work for Deborah Vance, the queen of ignoring boundaries.”
The real twist? Marcus doesn’t even want Hollywood. He’s the rare character not chasing the glow. “He built this world with Deborah,” they explain, “but now that she’s finally being accepted by the system that rejected her? He’s like… what the hell do I do now?”
And that’s where Episode 8 comes in—Palm Springs, emotional reckoning, and Marcus finally getting his own It Moment. “He’s been gay and Black this entire time,” Clemons-Hopkins says bluntly. “So how’s he been getting along in that world? What’s he had to swallow to survive?”
The answer is: a lot. And the cracks are finally showing.
But don’t mistake Marcus’s restraint for passivity. “He’s bout it, but he’s not gonna talk about it too much,” they say. “He’s subtle. He’s surgical. He shows up, he gets it done, and then he holds his face while someone else spirals in the next room.”
Clemons-Hopkins doesn’t hold a straight face as easily. “That’s the craft of acting!” they joke, before turning thoughtful again. “I love how this show takes huge conversations—identity, power, generational divides—and doesn’t make it a lecture. You get the Spoonful of Sugar, but the medicine’s still there.”
And sometimes, that medicine comes from the most unexpected mouths. “Deborah wins those arguments sometimes,” they say, “and she should. You don’t get to be her without knowing a thing or two.”
Off-screen, Clemons-Hopkins has been tackling big topics too—like channeling James Baldwin’s words in a staged performance built on listening, absorbing, and letting someone else speak through you. That experience, they admit, shares a surprising thread with Marcus: measured rage.
“Baldwin had a lot to say. Marcus might not say as much, but he feels it,” they explain. “And I’m fascinated by how characters dose that out. Is it a drop at a time? Or is it a bucket?”
This season, Marcus brings the bucket. About damn time.
Watch the interview above and then check out the trailer below.
