SmartLess

Noah Hawley

December 1, 2025

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  • Noah Hawley approaches adapting iconic films like *Fargo* and *Alien* for television by focusing on the core feelings and themes they evoke rather than direct imitation, allowing for new narrative explorations. 
  • Hawley views his creative process as fluid, preferring to 'side eye' new ideas in a soft focus until they clarify, contrasting with the intense, iterative development sometimes seen in other writers' rooms. 
  • The guest's career trajectory moved from paralegal work in family court, which influenced his thematic focus on parenting and morality in his writing, to becoming a multi-hyphenate creator who writes, produces, and directs his own projects. 
  • Noah Hawley adapts projects like "Lucy in the Sky" by shifting focus, such as turning a script into a Magic Realism exploration of a character's psychological state, even if the resulting film is not commercially successful. 
  • Hawley integrates his musical interests into his television work by having musicians record covers of Cohen Brothers movie songs for *Fargo* and creating score-like songs for *Legion*. 
  • The process of pitching creative projects in Hollywood remains heavily reliant on charismatic oral storytelling and the use of 'shiny objects' like sizzle reels to secure funding. 

Segments

Host Introductions and Banter
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(00:02:22)
  • Key Takeaway: The hosts of SmartLess introduce themselves before transitioning into the main interview segment.
  • Summary: Sean, Will, and Jason introduce themselves at the beginning of the episode. The initial banter includes a brief discussion about golf and the hosts’ current locations. The segment concludes with the formal welcome to the show.
Introducing Noah Hawley
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(00:07:08)
  • Key Takeaway: Noah Hawley is introduced as a highly accomplished writer, producer, and director known for creating singular television experiences like Bones, Legion, Fargo, and Alien Earth.
  • Summary: Jason praises Hawley for his significant contributions to television over the last two decades. Hawley is recognized for his credentials, awards, and ability to create specific, singular viewing experiences. The introduction highlights his major works, including the new series Alien Earth.
Hawley’s Location and Power
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(00:08:06)
  • Key Takeaway: Noah Hawley currently resides in Austin, Texas, having moved from New York City, San Francisco, and Los Angeles, and he values the ability to move between isolation for writing and leadership on set.
  • Summary: Hawley confirms he lives in Austin, Texas, having married a seventh-generation Texan. He contrasts the feeling of being ‘somebody’ in LA with feeling like ’nobody’ in Austin, appreciating the latter’s lack of status game pressure. He expresses satisfaction in balancing solitary writing with directing and leading production teams.
Children and Industry Interest
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(00:11:58)
  • Key Takeaway: Hawley’s children, aged 13 and 18, show different levels of engagement with his work, with his son enjoying set visits and asking for roles, while his daughter is more reserved.
  • Summary: Hawley’s 13-year-old son, whom he calls the ‘mayor of childhood,’ enjoys being on set and even had an improv role as the young Alex Lothar in Alien Earth. The daughter is described as more retiring regarding his career. Hawley notes that determining their long-term interest in the industry is still too early.
Developing Alien Earth
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(00:13:52)
  • Key Takeaway: The television series Alien Earth is set between the Prometheus and Covenant films, focusing on the realization that humanity is trapped between nature and technology, a theme Hawley felt was relevant to the current world.
  • Summary: Hawley felt the core of the show should explore the moment in the original film where humanity realizes both nature (the Xenomorph) and technology (the android) are hostile. Since a TV series requires long-term character investment, he introduced new creatures, like the one-eyed entity, to explore new aspects of the creature’s life cycle.
Writer’s Room and Creature Design
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(00:18:13)
  • Key Takeaway: Hawley uses the writer’s room primarily as a tool for thinking out loud and exploring themes, rather than letting the room dictate the story, and creature design for Alien Earth took four to five years from concept to screen.
  • Summary: He prefers to guide the room by assigning thematic explorations rather than collaborative storytelling. The development of the Alien Earth creatures involved a script process focused on function over form, followed by a design process with Weta. The entire process, including a year of post-production and delays due to the writers’ strike, spanned nearly five years.
Writing Origins and Influences
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(00:21:03)
  • Key Takeaway: Hawley is a third-generation writer whose early comedic influences included British radio shows like the Goon Show and Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy, shaping his preference for elevated genre work.
  • Summary: He views writing as something one calls oneself to do, without needing a specific degree, a liberating concept learned from his mother and grandmother. His first major writing realization came from an assignment to mimic Joseph Heller’s voice in Catch-22. His early exposure to absurdism came from his father bringing home British comedy records.
Transition to Television Production
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(00:42:05)
  • Key Takeaway: Hawley staffed on Bones specifically to learn the mechanics of producing television shows, which was crucial for transitioning from feature writing to showrunning his own developed pilots.
  • Summary: After selling feature scripts, TV agents encouraged him to try television, leading him to staff on Bones to understand production beyond just writing. He developed a pilot for ABC that was rejected because it lacked a clear broadcast genre, prompting him to pitch a more conventional cop show the following year.
Directing Confidence and Process
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(00:44:39)
  • Key Takeaway: Hawley gained directing confidence by recognizing that his vision for tone and comedic timing often differed from that of hired directors, making it more efficient to direct the first episode of his own shows.
  • Summary: He learned filmmaking by being involved in the editing room, where he could enforce his preference for low melodrama and specific comedic beats. He found that directing the pilot episode of his series is efficient because he is already required to be present for the world creation.
Adapting Expensive Drama Projects
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(00:57:50)
  • Key Takeaway: Noah Hawley prefers adapting expensive drama thrillers into limited series rather than waiting years for full series production.
  • Summary: A $70 million drama thriller is currently difficult to get made as a full series. Hawley opts to convert such projects into limited series to avoid prolonged development struggles. This strategy allows him to move forward rather than ‘beat his head against a wall for five years.’
Adapting Others’ Source Material
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(00:58:06)
  • Key Takeaway: Hawley initially passed on the ‘Lucy in the Sky’ script because the first draft focused too heavily on tabloid elements and jokes.
  • Summary: Fox Searchlight brought the ‘Lucy in the Sky’ project, involving Reese Witherspoon, to Hawley. He only signed on after the script evolved to use Magic Realism to explore the protagonist’s psychological state. Hawley noted that when adapting a script, it is difficult to see past the existing material if he had originated the idea himself.
Stage Work and Musical Integration
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(00:59:38)
  • Key Takeaway: Hawley grew up around theater due to his actor father but has not yet attempted writing for the stage.
  • Summary: Hawley confirmed he sings and has performed on some of his shows, viewing it as a workaround since a professional music career was not feasible. For Fargo season two, he initiated the concept of having covers of songs from Coen Brothers movies featured. He and composer Jeff Russo recorded a cover of “Go to Sleep, You Little Baby” from O Brother, Where Art Thou?.
The Art of Pitching
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(01:01:56)
  • Key Takeaway: Effective pitches must embody the tone and style of the final product, sometimes using the pitch itself as a demonstration.
  • Summary: Pitching is rooted in oral storytelling, where charisma and timing can sway executives into funding a project. Hawley once used the structure of his pitch—discussing the ‘segue’ from small talk into the pitch—to mirror the anti-hero crime story he was selling. He emphasizes that any presentation, whether an outline or a pitch, must feel like the show itself.
Pre-Production Sizzle Reels
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(01:03:26)
  • Key Takeaway: Hawley conducts elaborate hair and makeup tests, cutting them with music to create sizzle reels that define the show’s language for actors and studios.
  • Summary: These tests involve bringing key actors together to capture the dynamic, which is then edited with music to show executives the intended feel of the production. This process allows actors to ‘put the skin on without any pressure’ and wakes up the crew by showing them the real production commitment. Bradley Cooper similarly cut together camera tests for a film to teach the team the movie’s language before principal photography began.
Star Trek Project Cancellation
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(01:05:07)
  • Key Takeaway: Hawley’s original Star Trek movie idea, focused on exploration rather than war, was killed by new studio leadership.
  • Summary: After Lucy in the Sky, Hawley wanted a larger film project and chose Star Trek because it emphasizes problem-solving through intelligence over conflict like Star Wars or Marvel. He sold an original concept to Paramount, wrote it, and was preparing to shoot in Australia before studio executive changes led to its cancellation. He suggests that in Hollywood, one must declare a project as their singular focus to move mountains.
Hawley’s Work Ethic and Future
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(01:08:15)
  • Key Takeaway: Hawley develops multiple projects simultaneously, citing Ridley Scott’s strategy of developing three movies at once to create leverage with studios.
  • Summary: The hosts praise Hawley’s diverse and high-difficulty body of work, including his novels. Hawley mentioned he has more Alien Earth and Fargo content he could make. He noted that he is older than 40, despite the hosts’ surprise at his extensive output.
Podcast Wrap-up and Live Shows
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(01:09:18)
  • Key Takeaway: The hosts plan to discuss scheduling future live shows for SmartLess after Sean Hayes finishes his current theater commitment.
  • Summary: The hosts expressed admiration for Noah Hawley’s work ethic compared to their own schedules, which involve frequent golf games. They agreed to revisit the idea of doing live shows on the road, potentially toward the end of the next year or before summer, depending on Sean Hayes’s schedule.