On the set of ‘Poker Face’ Season 2 with Natasha Lyonne
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Spoiler alert! The next story incorporates plot particulars of “The Sleazy Georgian” episode of “Poker Face” Season 2 (now streaming on Peacock).
NEW YORK –– It’s an overcast November morning on the set of “Poker Face,” and Natasha Lyonne can’t transfer her arms.
The flame-haired actress is hunched over on a Brooklyn soundstage, which has been changed into a seedy, cigarette-stained lodge. She’s taking pictures a scene from the homicide thriller collection’ second season, by which beginner detective Charlie Cale (Lyonne) whips out a stack of dough from a satchel and easily followers out the money. However the slick feat is tripping up Lyonne, 46, who’s hampered by her cosy, rust-colored jacket.
“That is perhaps the craziest jacket I’ve worn in my complete life,” Lyonne quips between takes. “It’s actual starchy, actual ‘70s. I really feel a bit like an Oompa Loompa that’s additionally Ray Liotta in ‘Goodfellas’ on this outfit.”
‘Poker Face’ star Natasha Lyonne has all the time had ‘a filmmaker’s mind’
The Peacock comedy is a revolving door of visitor stars, welcoming the likes of Cynthia Erivo, John Mulaney and Kumail Nanjiani this season. The most recent episode (new installments stream weekly on Thursday) follows Charlie as she outwits a gaggle of con artists led by the smarmy, double-crossing Man (John Cho), who acknowledges Charlie’s uncanny means for sniffing out lies and makes an attempt to recruit her. Melanie Lynskey pops in as Regina, an excitement-starved lady who will get swept up by Man’s self-righteous Robin Hood act.
Mimi Cave (“Holland”) directed this specific “howdunit,” though Lyonne did so for 2 different installments this season. The five-time Emmy nominee has directed a number of TV episodes since her career-revitalizing run in Netflix’s “Orange is the New Black,” and her eager instincts are on full show as she helps choreograph the cash bag sequence.
“These guys don’t fan in fairly the way in which I would love,” Lyonne bemoans. She provides suggestions on how finest to border a closeup of her arms, and asks the crew members on set how Charlie ought to react to seeing a lot foreign money. (“Salivating? Surprise and delight, even?”)
“She has a filmmaker’s mind,” says “Poker Face” creator Rian Johnson. “Her efficiency onscreen feels so off the cuff and breezy, the place it looks as if she’s simply riffing. However that’s the product of loads of concentrated work, which is why I like working with Natasha. She actually sweats the main points.”
Lyonne considers herself “a fairly for-real director at this level. Having now executed it a bunch, I undoubtedly perceive or see issues when it comes to the shot or the edit.” She wears a number of hats on “Poker Face” as an actress, director, author and producer – an expertise she likens to being a musician.
“I’m all the time listening to what the piece wants,” Lyonne says. “I feel the character I determine essentially the most with for the time being is Jughead from the ‘Archie’ comics. He was a one-man band, but in addition a good friend of the gang. He simply sort of frolicked and had devices round.”
The actress is recreation for ‘Poker Face’ Season 3 – or no matter comes subsequent
Not on the run from on line casino mobsters, Charlie has as a substitute turned to discovering her objective in Season 2. She hits the open highway in her beat-up Plymouth Barracuda, discovering group with everybody from college custodians to minor league baseball gamers. In contrast to Lyonne’s lone wolf Nadia in Netflix’s 2019-22 collection “Russian Doll,” Charlie has all the time been extra of a individuals individual, akin to Jeff Bridges’ The Dude in “The Massive Lebowski.”
“Charlie has rubbed off on me in a serious method,” Lyonne says. “She’s an optimist; she’s on the case of no matter comes subsequent. I feel that’s the fantastic thing about what Rian was capable of construct with Charlie: Now we’re letting the solar in.”
A former baby actress and fixture of Nineties impartial movie, Lyonne confronted offscreen setbacks within the early 2000s as she struggled with substance abuse and ensuing well being challenges. “Orange,” by which she co-starred as hard-edged however lovable Nicky, put her again on Hollywood’s radar in 2013, and he or she’s since fostered a close-knit circle of collaborators together with Johnson, Amy Poehler (“Russian Doll”) and Brit Marling (the upcoming “Uncanny Valley”).
“I feel the explanation individuals rediscovered me so late within the recreation is once I moved behind the scenes and began collaborating at inception to construct a world and a personality,” Lyonne says. “For me, the enjoyment of ‘Poker Face’ actually is my time spent with Rian. That’s the place the magic of it lives.”
In dialog, the raspy-voiced Manhattanite is susceptible to digressions, riffing on Charlie Chaplin, Elaine Stritch and the gentrification of her native New York. “I see the youth immediately and I’m like, ‘Wow, they actually do store on-line, huh?’” she laments. Then once more, “I’m too busy investigating circumstances on TV to actually examine the style aesthetics of Brooklyn.”
Lyonne hopes that she and Johnson will make a “Poker Face” Season 3, though if the pandemic and Hollywood strikes taught her something, it’s which you could’t plan too far forward.
“I’ve been doing this for 40 years, so I’ve by no means tried to play puppet grasp. What does Einstein say? ‘God doesn’t play cube?’” Lyonne says. “I by no means actually stress; it’s all the time a 3rd factor that happens. I could possibly be again on set with Rian tomorrow, or we might resolve to make a film spinoff of it. We’ll all uncover collectively what comes subsequent.”