Warning: This article contains spoilers from the season 1 finale ofHacks.
“It was actually a scripted element,” says Carlos of the EW covers on Ava’s wall.
One of the scenes read that she opened up her eyes to the cast ofTrue Bloodstaring back at her.
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Then as the camera pulls back, the wall is littered withEntertainment Weeklycovers."
So what would those covers be?
“Knowing that Ava’s 25, we kind of backtracked,” says Carlos.
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“What would her high school years have been when she was still living at the house?
What would her interests have been?
We basically came up with the theme of each cover.”
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“A lot of that was mimicking covers of the past,” adds Ratliff.
So I instantly knew, ‘Okay, I know what they’re going for here.'"
Here, the 12 fake EW covers that made it into the episode, along with notes on each.
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“I think there was the briefest discussion of ‘are we going to use real ones?'”
So how did they find the majority of their cover stars?
“We have a subscription to I-stock,” Ratliff says.
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“It has different images that we know are free and clear to use.”
“It just seems like a CW show, doesn’t it?”
“I liked this one quite a bit.
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I would watch that.”
“This one was supposed to look like Lady Gaga,” says Ratliff.
Andwesay: Mission accomplished.
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“Thematically, each character had a color palette.
Then as the season progressed, Deborah’s colors were pink and green when you see her environments.
As we get towards other parts of the season, we started fusing the colors together.
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“So in Ava’s room, it was a baby-blue wallpaper.
But then there were little pink roses, and you see parts of Deborah popping in.
Behold your new favorite Swedish pop duo that doesn’t actually exist: Tva Sangare!
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And what does that band name translate to, you may ask?
Says Ratliff with a laugh: “That’s Swedish for ‘two singers.'”
“So we knew there had to be a superhero cover in there somewhere.
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It’s like the reveal of Captain America and the first photos ofChris Evansin his suit.
And the color palette worked really well with what Jon was going for.
I just needed to pull the reds out slightly and it was perfect.”
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And who exactly is Rachel Aguirre, the woman cast as Captain Dynama?
“She’s one of our art directors,” reveals Carlos.
“We tend to like to honor the whole crew subtly whenever there’s a use of names.
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They’re the unspoken heroes.
We’ve done it throughout the season.
But, says Ratliff, “Sadly, she did not end up winning.
So, that’s a bummer for her.”
“‘So let’s see if we can get a spy-bang out thing.'”
And that’s the point.
“Jesse McCartney was a funny one the writers were tickled by,” says Ratliff.
“That one actually had to do with the actress, Hannah,” adds Carlos.
“That was a gift to her.”
Does that mean Einbinder is a hard-core Jesse McCartney stan?
“I will neither confirm nor deny,” says Carlos.
“I’ll just take the dagger onMean Girls,” says Carlos.
“That was all me.
I felt that if someone cannot relate toMean Girls, then they’re lying.
So if a viewer can’t relate to that, then they probably haven’t seen it.”
“[Co-creator] Jen Statsky threw out the LMFAO idea,” says Carlos.
“Entertainment Weeklyalways puts the subject over the actual masthead,” says Ratliff.
“The writers gave us a list of things they thought Ava would be into,” says Ratliff.
“But everything comes down to time and budget.
It was like picking the ones that we thought, ‘Okay, this will read easiest.
‘Twilightis something that would read almost instantly.
You’re going to recognize Edward and Bella.”
