{"id":182620,"date":"2025-06-14T02:14:10","date_gmt":"2025-06-14T02:14:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/182620\/"},"modified":"2025-06-14T02:14:10","modified_gmt":"2025-06-14T02:14:10","slug":"julianne-nicholson-explains-her-dance-mom-character-on-hacks","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/182620\/","title":{"rendered":"Julianne Nicholson Explains Her Dance Mom Character on Hacks"},"content":{"rendered":"

\n\tAnyone who\u2019s accustomed to seeing Julianne Nicholson<\/a> in melancholy roles like Ivy Weston from August: Osage County or Lori Ross from Mare of Easttown were no doubt shocked \u2014 albeit delightfully \u2014 to see her cutting the rug as a quirky influencer this season on Hacks<\/a>. <\/p>\n

\n\tAffectionately named Dance Mom, Nicholson\u2019s character is recruited by Jimmy (Paul W. Downs) and Kayla (Megan Stalter) to perform on Deborah\u2019s (Jean Smart) fledgling late-night show. The hope is that her big presence on social media \u2014 where Dance Mom posts bubbly videos of herself performing wacky, old-school choreography \u2014 could help juice ratings.<\/p>\n

\n\t\u201cI\u2019m more than just heartbreak,\u201d Nicholson jokes about transitioning from heavy, dramatic roles like the one she currently plays on Hulu\u2019s Paradise<\/a> to the slapstick of Hacks. \u201cThat\u2019s been one of the most fun things about it, just flipping the script in that way when people are expecting a certain thing and you can still surprise them. Like, what a gift.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tThe Hacks creators wanted Nicholson for an earlier season but she couldn\u2019t work out the timing. Fortunately, for the UK-based Nicholson \u2014 who\u2019s a self-described \u201chuge fan\u201d of the Max show \u2014 the team reached out again and pitched this \u201cchunkier\u201d arc that could be filmed in one week in Los Angeles.<\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t\t\t\"\"<\/p>\n

\n\tBefore production began, however, Nicholson studied with London-based choreographer Corey Baker to pick up some mad skills for her breakout performance.<\/p>\n

\n\t\u201cYou can go onto the internet to the TikTok, the Instagram, and there are people out there who are committed to these dances,\u201d explains Nicholson. \u201cDance Mom has a very loose history with dance, but it\u2019s more about creating a TikTok dance for a middle-aged woman. It\u2019s sort of like bringing old school dance class into the moment.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\t\u201cI love dancing, but I don\u2019t fancy myself a good dancer, to be clear,\u201d continues Nicholson. \u201cCorey is the goofiest, silliest guy, so it felt so effortless. We always laughed. On one of the short little TikTok bursts, I put my thumb up and nod. That was another one that really cracked us up every time.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tHacks has already been picked up for a fifth season, but it seems unlikely that Dance Mom will return \u2014 at least to Nicholson. \u201cI don\u2019t know. I wonder if Dance Mom shouldn\u2019t just live where she lives now in our memories and our imaginations.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tIn the meantime, Nicholson is halfway through production on the second season of Paradise, in which she plays a mastermind named Sinatra who\u2019s behind the mysterious underground city that saw its president [James Marsden] assassinated in the first episode. By the end of the first season, Sinatra is shot by Jane [Nicole Brydon Bloom] but survives to live another day to potentially torment Xavier [Sterling K. Brown].<\/p>\n

\n\t\u201cLet\u2019s just say more will be revealed, some of which I don\u2019t even know yet,\u201d teases Nicholson of the upcoming season. \u201cI haven\u2019t read the last episode of this season, but I\u2019m not ready. I\u2019m not ready to sign off on Sinatra as a baddie just yet. I mean, she makes some despicable choices, but I feel, in my heart of hearts, I feel like she\u2019s playing a long game.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tWhat\u2019s been eye-opening for Nicholson is the reaction to her role as Sinatra, especially compared to what people say after seeing her on Hacks. <\/p>\n

\n\t\u201cI get a lot of people smiling at me and telling me they hate me,\u201d she says of Sinatra, whereas \u201cI have people calling me Dance Mom as I\u2019m walking down the street, so it brings me a lot of joy.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tAnd spoiler alert! Dance Mom may have an actual name. Nicholson believes it\u2019s Mary Alice, which Jimmy exclaims when he tries to wake up her character from an alcohol-induced stupor. (Yup, there\u2019s more to Dance Mom than meets the eye). But for the rest of her short but memorable time on the Max comedy, Nicholson was only known by one name.<\/p>\n

\n\t\u201cAs I read my lines, it said, dance mom, dance mom, dance mom. On my trailer door, it said Dance Mom,\u201d recalls Nicholson. \u201cOn the call sheet, it said Dance Mom. If it was time for me to come to set, they were like, \u2018ready for Dance Mom.’\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Anyone who\u2019s accustomed to seeing Julianne Nicholson in melancholy roles like Ivy Weston from August: Osage County or…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":182621,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3940],"tags":[4080,77,28944,74977,74978,16,15],"class_list":{"0":"post-182620","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-celebrities","8":"tag-celebrities","9":"tag-entertainment","10":"tag-hacks","11":"tag-julianne-nicholson","12":"tag-paradise","13":"tag-uk","14":"tag-united-kingdom"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@uk\/114679307566607832","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/182620","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=182620"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/182620\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/182621"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=182620"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=182620"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=182620"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}