Julianne Nicholson Loved Going “Face Down, Ass Up” as Dance Mom on ‘Hacks’

This story contains spoilers for the ninth episode of Hacks season 4.

For decades, Julianne Nicholson has showcased her dramatic chops in projects that range from devastating (Mare of Easttown) to unsettling (Blonde) to archly imposing (this year’s Paradise). So it feels like something of a miracle she was even considered to play “Dance Mom”—yes, this is the only name she gets—in the fourth season of the Emmy-winning comedy Hacks. The wild role has Nicholson trying out broad physical comedy, a bizarre wardrobe, increasingly heavy drug use, and some truly ridiculous—or hell, maybe brilliantly avant-garde—dances.

“I never get a chance to do anything funny, and I’m always trying to do something different,” says Nicholson as we begin our conversation. That’s an understatement: Her bouncy, tragicomic TikTok star has been one of Hacks’ most delightful surprises this year. When she was first asked to appear on the new late-night show hosted by Deborah Vance (Jean Smart), Dance Mom was a true small-town fish out of water, all smiles and bewilderment.

But by the season’s penultimate episode, she’s passed out on a production lot, unable to perform unless she gets a bracing portion of fresh cocaine. “That song comes on, and you just have to go for it,” says Nicholson. “Go as big as you can. But also, she’s very serious. She’s still trying to do a good job.”

Vanity Fair: Did you have a sense of why they wanted you for Dance Mom? As far as I know, it’s unlike anything you’ve ever done.

Julianne Nicholson: Correct, that’s true. I think they were fans of my work and I remember them saying they wanted it grounded in a real person—bless them for having the imagination to think of me for that role.

You prepared for the role by going down a TikTok rabbit hole. Did you gain an understanding of who this person is and how to play her?

I felt like I did, yeah. It’s such an interesting mash-up of a woman in this time of her life and just how she’s dressing, how she’s moving, the joy that’s in there—but what else is going on? Of course, we take it to the extremes. [Laughs] But I felt like I didn’t have an understanding of who she was at first. I wrote to my agent, like, “Is there going to be a choreographer?” A lot of women who do this online, they were dancers or they do cheerleading or they had some past in choreography execution—I do not have that.

The Hacks production found two people in England, where I am living right now. One of them just popped out for me: this fantastic young choreographer named Corey Baker. I would go up to London twice a week, and it was like I was suddenly a dancer. I was like, “Is that my plan B? Is that my fallback plan?”

The first thing we did was just play a song, and I danced to it to get over the embarrassment or any self-consciousness or whatever. I pulled up a RuPaul song, I can’t remember which at the top of my mind, but I just danced. And Corey was like, “Great, now let’s go.”

Did you have a favorite wardrobe item?

There was a denim jacket with footballs on it. [Laughs] And I loved all her colors. I liked her lacy bobby socks. It’s also hard to beat the scrunchie, and in the end, that dress with those silver boots and the cowboy hats. I loved all the appliqués, and the bright colors, and all the way, way, way too tight jeans and maybe even the jeggings. They all had to have stretch. Of course, I still had to be moving.

Did you get to know Jean Smart at all on Mare of Easttown, before getting into Hacks?

We didn’t work together much, but we hung out, actually, in addition to when we were on set. I remember going to dinner with her one of the first times we met. I remember her talking about Hacks—she was going to go do the show. I was like, “That sounds great. Amazing. Hope it goes well!”

Dance Mom has a sweet innocence when we first meet her. But by this episode, she’s kind of a nightmare. How did you want to play that arc?

There’s a sweetness there, but I think there’s also a sadness there—something missing. One of the things that was really informative to me about the character was when Dance Mom is at the restaurant with Jimmy and Kayla, and she’s never been to Los Angeles, and she’s saying, “It’s been a great day, thank you so much, but I don’t think I can do this.” Lucia [Aniello] or somebody behind the camera changed one of the lines, and instead of being like, “This day was great”—I don’t even know if it made it into the show, it was just informative for me—she changed it to, “This was the best day of my life.” That actually made me so sad.

I think she’s really sweet. I think she’s really earnest. I think she’s brave. I think she’s a little cuckoo, but I felt I really cared about her and I wanted good things for her. These other things popped up along the way.

Right, you have to play her as a bit of a buffoon at a certain point.

It’s just so fun. It’s such a relief to be able to be silly and not judge the character. It’s a very physical role beyond just the dancing, which was totally exhausting, in a way that is not generally asked of me. Not having her faculties about her, not having control over her body, but still having lines—there’s some incoherence wherever that is. Like, when I’m face down, ass up on Wisteria Lane, all I can hear is, “Dance Mom! Dance Mom!” It starts and ends with the name for me. It is so ridiculous. Everything follows from there.

Did you ever learn her actual name?

No. I feel Paul [W. Downs] might’ve called me something at one point, but it was always Dance Mom. It was “Dance Mom” on my trailer door. It was “Dance Mom” on the call sheet. “We’re ready for Dance Mom.”

This episode finds Dance Mom asking for cocaine before she goes onstage. It gets crazier from there. Did it feel technical or wild to do?

That felt pretty technical. I had to be held up at a certain point because the camera’s there and has to catch specific moments. I guess the challenge is finding moments to let go within the technical stuff, within the blocking and all of that. But it was so funny—her face getting dumped in ice.

The surprise of you laughing as you come up was so great.

That was on the day, too, the laughing thing. You just keep going until something works.

Let’s talk about the last scene where you do make it to the stage. She’s not doing especially well. How did you approach that, knowing this is how we’re leaving Dance Mom this season?

It was completely surreal. For one, I’ve actually never been on a late-night talk show. It was a completely new experience. It was a little bit meta or trippy. There were very many levels. The actors that they have in the audience were also so sweet and supportive. It was so adorable. Eric Balfour and I worked together almost 18 years ago on the show Conviction, and our characters had an unrequited love story. It was so moving to be back with Eric. He had just almost lost his house in the Palisades.

You mentioned your recent move to England. Obviously, you’re keeping pretty busy with American projects—how have you found the transition?

Because I live in the Hampshire countryside, I feel a little bit like I fall off the face of the earth, work-wise, which is no bad thing. When the sun is shining here, there’s nowhere prettier. And the sun is shining today.

This interview has been edited and condensed for clarity.