Jean Smart is holding onto optimism ... crying to Whitney Houston helps

LOS ANGELES — Jean Smart just pulled her car over to the side of the road. She needed a moment. Whitney Houston's soaring power ballad "I Have Nothing" is playing on KOST-FM ("love songs on the Cooooast "), a song that ranks as Smart's "all-time singalong if you want to cry," and she had to call and tell me this because a couple of days earlier we had been talking about singing in cars, which she loves to do — always to what's on the radio, because "then the song catches you by surprise and it's more intense."

The day before, it was Pat Benatar's "Hit Me With Your Best Shot," a rocker about self-confidence that could easily double as an anthem for Deborah Vance, the legendary stand-up comedian Smart plays on "Hacks." Tomorrow it could be Dusty Springfield's "I Only Want to Be With You" ("Dusty Springfield always makes me so very happy and definitely inspires a high-decibel singalong") or maybe Dolly Parton's "9 to 5" or "Cold Heart," the Elton John and Dua Lipa mashup, or anything by Hall & Oates ("Omigod!"), but right now, it's Whitney.

"You have to put that on right now, and you have to crank it!" Smart tells me. "And then you have to let me know ... if you don't cry, you have no heart. I'm sorry."

Smart has a heart, a big, generous, thoughtful, open heart. When we were trying to remember how many Emmy nominations "Hacks" had earned this year (was it 20? 17? "17 thousand," Smart cracks), she called later, thinking that the "17 thousand" quip might have been a little flip, and then went into great detail to sing the praises of each and every one of those 17 Emmy nominees.

Such small, deliberate acts of kindness are a rule of thumb with Smart. When they were screen testing women to play Ava, Deborah's protégée and comedy co-conspirator on "Hacks," Smart called each of the actors to introduce herself and get to know them before they read together.

Our most recent call found Smart embarking on her "millionth" drive from her rental house to her L.A. home of two decades, which she's selling so she can be closer to work and closer to her young son's new school. It's the house she shared with her late husband, actor Richard Gilliland, who died from a heart condition last year, and the house she raised her children in. (She also has a 32-year-old son with Gilliland.)

Moving isn't easy. ("I've got to clear out 20 years of crap," Smart says, "pardon the expression.") Moving while raising a teenager and after unexpectedly losing your partner of more than three decades can sometimes be overwhelming. Smart, 70, has enjoyed some of the greatest triumphs of her long career in the past couple of years — an acclaimed turn on "Hacks" that won her another Emmy, her first as a lead actress, and a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame — but there have been rough stretches, too, some of the hardest in her life.

Smart pauses, reflecting for a moment and then affirming that she's holding onto optimism and believes that being an actor pushes her to maintain that outlook, saying it helps her "take people as they first present themselves."

When magic regularly finds you, how can you not believe that almost anything is possible? "Hacks" has won many fans during its two brilliant seasons on the air, among them Harry Styles, who, after enjoying the episode in which Deborah tasks Ava with buying an antique pepper shaker from a reluctant seller, sent Smart a bouquet of flowers along with a beautiful Old World salt shaker.

"Harry and I are thick as thieves," Smart says with a laugh. She took her young son, Forrest, to a Styles concert late last year and had a great time, grooving on the energy that the singer put out. "I've never seen anybody look more like he was just having the time of his life," Smart says.

We talk some more, touching on the powerful gossip columnist she plays in "Babylon," Damien Chazelle's upcoming drama about Hollywood's transition from silent movies to talkies ("It's going to blow people away"), her anxiety about getting a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame ("it's so permanent") and her hope that, now that Deborah Vance has found redemption, she might realize her dream of hosting a late-night talk show when "Hacks" resumes for a third season.

Later, she leans into the wistful jazz standard "Some of These Days," reminding her of the days she taught both her children when they were toddlers to be able to identify which legend — Frank Sinatra, Tony Bennett, Ella Fitzgerald and the like — was singing a particular song.