JUANA SUMMERS, HOST:
If you don't immediately know Robby Hoffman's name, you might recognize her - intentionally androgynous and sometimes next to her wife, reality star Gabby Windey. Or maybe you know that voice.
(SOUNDBITE OF TV SHOW, "HACKS")
ROBBY HOFFMAN: (As Randi) Last week, I was a Hasidic Lubavitch Jew living in Crown Heights, New York. Now I'm in LA, I'm gay and probably an atheist.
SUMMERS: Those details partially reflect Hoffman's real life, but it's a line from the breakout role she played on HBO's "Hacks," which is up for a number of Emmys this month. Hoffman's also had scene-stealing roles in "Rooster," "Dying For Sex" and fronted a Netflix special, "Wake Up."
(SOUNDBITE OF TV SHOW, "WAKE UP")
HOFFMAN: When I'm in gridlock traffic, I'm going to need a pile-up at the end of that.
SUMMERS: She's comfortable enough to stop an interview cold, like she did when we met at the comedy store in LA last week to take a phone call.
(SOUNDBITE OF BELL RINGING)
HOFFMAN: Sorry, sorry, sorry. My landlord. You want me - let me pick up because what if it is something crazy? Hello.
SUMMERS: All I'll say is this - it was a pretty wild call. You can watch the whole thing on the latest episode of NPR's Newsmakers podcast. And despite her bravado, Hoffman does have these moments of vulnerability. Her life has seen these big shifts from poverty to having money, being in the closet to a very public queer relationship, being unknown to being famous and sometimes criticized for her words. We talked about all of that, including her memories of her very first stand-up performance in Montreal.
HOFFMAN: It was very bad, brutal. I went to a club where I was living. I said, where's the best place to bomb? There was this loft, this comedy loft. I went there. I thought at the time that everybody was like 1,000. They were like 30, 35. It was very smoky. I got up. I was OK for, like, 1 minute, and then I felt dizzy, nauseous, nervous, all of it. So I went up to the host, and I said to him, can I finish? He's like, no. I said, why? I only did 1 minute of my time. I (ph) was like, no, it's not how it works. Like, you just come back next week. And I kept going back. And it was great from that second week on.
SUMMERS: What was it that made you keep coming back? 'Cause I can imagine a lot of people only doing that 1 minute, not getting to finish the 4. They don't come back to that stage. What brought you back?
HOFFMAN: I just - it was good, even the 1 minute I did. I didn't, yeah, think to quit.
SUMMERS: I want to shift gears a bit and ask you about something that happened a while ago. It was back in 2023, and this was at that Writers Guild of America meeting.
HOFFMAN: Ah.
SUMMERS: And you, at the time, described this as traumatizing. So I wonder if you can just briefly tell us what happened, and then I've got a question for you.
HOFFMAN: (Laughter) I can't be brief. You see that I can't be brief. The Writers Guild is a mini government, OK? Initially started with very good intention. But what I'm skeptical of is it getting corrupted, just like we've seen every other system. I don't know. I was a new...
SUMMERS: Yeah.
HOFFMAN: ...Writer to Writers Guild. I'm paying these dues, 1.5% on everything. I have a little accounting experience from my stint as an accountant. They had a Q&A. I attend the Q&A. I go, I do have some questions. I have a lot of skepticism, and that's because of the world that I grew up in. There - a lot of things aren't what they say they are.
SUMMERS: What was the reaction when you started kind of peppering them with these questions about these things that you'd observed?
HOFFMAN: Oh, my God. How dare you question our supreme leader. People know there - a millionaire, he was like the head. I don't know the name, even. I was so new.
SUMMERS: Sure.
HOFFMAN: And he was standing there. And he's like a white rich dude, and he's like, you need to sit down. Like, as if I'm a child. Of course, I started crying inside because I really cared about the writers. I wanted to know where our money was going. And I could be wrong. You could answer the question. I wish I would have said something like, you mean to tell me a rich cis white straight man is telling a young, queer girl to sit down when she's got a question? But I didn't have the wherewithal for all those - you know what I mean?
SUMMERS: You have noted elsewhere how different identities and communities have claimed you - Jewish, the LGBTQ community, women, New Yorkers, Canadians. Do you feel a responsibility in how you represent any particular identity?
HOFFMAN: No. I just feel like I have to be me. When I look at the purpose of my life or whatever, I feel like it's my responsibility to figure out this person and to get this person to be the best version that it could be. I take it very seriously. I always look back at the little kid in me who's, you know, got roaches and is really impatient and wants to get out of here and how are we going to figure out money? And how are we going to figure out - and I go, like, Lil Rob, I'm trying to get you there. Hey, Lil Rob, I see you. You got to trust me, I am getting us there as fast as humanly possible. You don't know what I'm dealing with out here. You don't know the systems and the rich and the nepos and everything. It is crazy. But I'm trying to get you there.
SUMMERS: I do want to ask you about one specific piece...
HOFFMAN: Yeah.
SUMMERS: ...Of criticism. Despite your own queer identity, you've been criticized for using remarks that joke about people who use nonbinary they/them pronouns.
HOFFMAN: Right.
SUMMERS: And for some of those critics, when I see the discourse, it's not that they're just offended. Some people say they feel like those kinds of comments are dangerous. Do you see it that way?
HOFFMAN: Well, I have a different definition of dangerous. I consider dangerous, like, violence. But I think, yeah, they could be dangerous, and maybe there is a more philosophical interpretation of dangerous. So maybe I'm open to that. I just feel like as somebody who's clearly in that space...
SUMMERS: Yeah.
HOFFMAN: ...In the queer space, who could be they/them drop of a hat, I like to cope and explore through jokes, and I feel like I should be more able to do that than, say, some of my counterparts. And shoutout, you know, to Joe Rogan and people who - it's no dig, you know, but lots of people who talk about it and have no experience what it is to, you know, be whatever the hell I am (laughter). So, I don't know. I feel like if I can't talk about it, who can? I think it's fair if they're mad about it, and I also think it's fair for many of us who laugh at it.
SUMMERS: I mean, Robby, your life has changed so much since you were growing up in that Hasidic community, living in Crown Heights. I wonder - we've been talking about Little Rob a little bit - what do you think that younger self would say if Little Rob could see who you are today?
HOFFMAN: Honestly, that question could make me cry. By the grace of God and all of you, everybody who's - this has been a tremendous group effort. I take it seriously that you guys have propped me. When - just your prior question about me getting in trouble with this. I'm also the same me. That was the same me in third grade. You know, peers getting in trouble 'cause I said something that I shouldn't say. And you know what, baby? We've monetized it. And we actually are not getting in trouble as much for it anymore, and we're, like, being embraced for who we are.
Like, I used to always say something, oh my God, I didn't mean to say that. I'm so - I didn't mean to say that. Ma, oh my God. This has been my whole life. Like the principal and then this, and you got to raise your hand to talk. No, I don't have to raise my hand to talk. I am called on stage. It is just me talking. OK? So I don't know. I've been getting in trouble my whole life. I'm very comfortable getting in trouble. It's never my intention. I think people come around to me. I've seen this cycle a lot, and it's happening just on a larger scale, and I'm so, so grateful. It honestly makes me cry. I wasn't sure that we would get here, but I had a feeling.
SUMMERS: Robby Hoffman, thank you so much. It's been such a pleasure.
HOFFMAN: Thank you.
(SOUNDBITE OF CALVIN HARRIS SONG, "ROLLIN FT. FUTURE, KHALID")
SUMMERS: And you can watch our full conversation on NPR's Newsmakers podcast, on YouTube and the NPR app.
(SOUNDBITE OF CALVIN HARRIS SONG, "ROLLIN FT. FUTURE, KHALID") Transcript provided by NPR, Copyright NPR.
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