Hacks’ Hannah Einbinder Looks Back on Testing for SNL 4 Decades After Mom Laraine Newman Was a Cast Member (Exclusive)

Before Hannah Einbinder became the Emmy-nominated breakout star of Hacks, she almost followed in her mother’s footsteps by joining the cast of Saturday Night Live.

While speaking to PEOPLE about season 4 of Hacks, which kicked off with two new episodes on Thursday, April 10, the actress reflected on auditioning for the long-running sketch comedy series over four decades after her mom, Laraine Newman, made her debut as one of the original cast members of the show in 1975. 

Newman, now 73, went on to appear in 106 episodes during the first five seasons of SNL before leaving in 1980. In September 2024, she made headlines when she slammed The Bear for being nominated in the Emmy Awards’ comedy categories alongside Hacks. More recently, she returned to Studio 8H for SNL50: The Anniversary Special, appearing alongside Pete Davidson for a nostalgic sketch about the early days of SNL.

“So they saw me at Just for Laughs in Montreal in 2019, where I was in the ‘New Faces of Comedy,’ and I just kind of went through the process from there,” Einbinder, 29, tells PEOPLE of the screen test, which took place during the summer of 2019, before she eventually went on to audition for Hacks.

According to a conversation she had with SNL‘s Chloe Fineman for Variety, Einbinder “auditioned for Hacks maybe three days before the initial COVID stay-at-home orders. The rest of the process was over Zoom, and then there was one very high-risk screen test. We had a screen between us, just me and Jean [Smart] talking through it on a dark, empty soundstage.”

Looking back on the SNL screen test, Einbinder tells PEOPLE she wasn’t intimidated by the process despite her mother’s own legacy on the NBC series. “I don’t know if it was daunting. But maybe that’s because I’m a standup comedian and my job is inherently that most people would rather die than do,” she says. 

“So, you know, it doesn’t really scare me,” the Hacks star continues. 

While she never joined the ensemble of SNL, Einbinder did make a welcomed cameo on the show when Smart hosted the season 50 premiere on Sept. 28, 2024. The two appeared on-screen together arm-in-arm in Studio 8H to introduce musical guest Jelly Roll. 

“It was so fun,” Einbinder says of that brief appearance, explaining that she as well as Hacks co-creators and co-showrunners Lucia Aniello, Paul W. Downs and Jen Statsky, all attended Smart’s SNL debut. “We — me, myself, Paul, Jen and Lucia — came to support Jean and it was just like a cute little moment.”  

As for season 4 of Hacks, Einbinder teases what it’s like for her and Smart to film scenes with their respective characters, writer Ava Daniels and comedian Deborah Vance, really going at it amid a tumultuous transition into late-night TV. 

“It’s a lot of fun, especially because some of our more intense moments have a witty humor brawl element to them and that is very fun to play,” she says. “I really do enjoy working with Jean across all spectrum of emotions. It is really a unique joy playing all over the map with her.” 

Despite their characters fighting on screen, Einbinder says she’s taken it upon herself to make sure they maintain a happy set for the cast and crew. “We have an unusually joyous set, I would say,” she notes. “I have appointed myself the mayor of set and I’m kind of going, ‘Hey Jim, how are you? How’s it going? Hey Joel, looking sharp.’ ”

“We play around at all times. We have fostered a really comfortable positive energy. We’re always laughing, messing around. Like, that’s just the vibe,” Einbinder concludes.  

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New episodes of Hacks season 4 debut Thursdays at 9 p.m. ET/6 p.m. PT on Max.