Jean Smart Discloses She Went Directly from the HACKS Set to Undergo Triple Bypass Surgery

Jean Smart has revealed that she underwent triple bypass heart surgery during the filming of season 3 of Hacks, heading straight from the production set to the hospital.

“I had gotten used to feeling a little pressure, like if I'd go up a couple of flights of stairs. But it would always just go away,” the 74-year-old Golden Globe and Emmy winner shared with Variety. She recounted filming a keg stand scene during her character Deborah’s visit to a fraternity party in the 2023 episode titled "Yes, And." She said, “After several takes, I was like, ‘Did you get it? Was that enough?' I was feeling a little tired. But I didn't think anything of it.”

The actress — who had previously mentioned undergoing an undisclosed heart procedure — clarified to the publication that the situation was much more serious. When she returned to the Hacks set a few days later, she still felt unwell.

She revealed that she waited until she completed filming a scene, and immediately after getting into her car, she told her driver, "Flag on the play. We're not going back home. We're going to the hospital."

Hacks co-creator and co-star Paul W. Downs happened to be at the same hospital visiting his mother and went to support Smart. He told Variety, “I was there with her as she was talking to surgeons and hearing them say, ‘You can't get a stent. You have to get a triple bypass.’”

As she explained to the outlet, “I wasn't really scared until I woke up the next day, and I'm thinking about what they had to do,” she says. “You start to feel so fragile.”

However, as her co-star Hannah Einbinder told Variety, “She is the most durable woman in America ... I tell her this all the time.”