A veteran actress revealed she underwent triple bypass heart surgery while filming her current show, going straight from the set to the hospital.
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“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,” Hacks star Jean Smart recently told Variety.
The 74-year-old recalled filming a particularly strenuous scene for the 2023 episode of her hit HBO show, where her character, Deborah, does a keg stand at a frat party. “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,” she said.
However, the Designing Women star says she didn’t think much of her fatigue.
“I would always think, ‘Jean, you’re in such crappy shape.’ It didn’t ever occur to me that it might be anything other than the fact that I needed to exercise more,” Smart admitted.
The Fargo actress, who previously shared she had undergone an undisclosed heart procedure, explained to the outlet that the situation was far more serious. When she returned to the Hacks set a few days later, she still felt unwell.
Thinking of the Recent Death of Her Longtime Husband, Jean Smart Called Her Cardiologist
After the 2021 death of her husband of nearly 35 years, Richard Gilliland, Smart realized she needed to seek medical care.
“I thought, ‘You haven’t seen your cardiologist in a long time. Don’t be stupid. Your kids [sons Connor and Forrest] just lost their dad!'” she recalled thinking.
“So I left her a message, since it was after hours. I said, ‘I know I probably can’t get in to see you this week, but maybe I should do a stress test or something.’ Her service called back instantly and said, ‘Yeah, you’re gonna go to the nearest emergency room right now!’ “
Smart waited until she finished wrapping a scene before getting into her car and telling her driver, ” ‘Flag on the play. We’re not going back home. We’re going to the hospital.’ “
As it turned out, her Hacks co-creator and co-star, Paul W. Downs, was at the same hospital visiting his mother. He went to support Smart, later telling 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.’ ”
“I wasn’t really scared until I woke up the next day, and I’m thinking about what they had to do,” Smart added. “You start to feel so fragile.”
But her co-star Hannah Einbinder sees it differently. As she told the outlet, “She is the most durable woman in America … I tell her this all the time.”