With Poker Face Season 2, Natasha Lyonne Gets Philosophical
I can hear Natasha Lyonne well before I see her. 'This jacket is maybe the craziest jacket I've ever worn in my life,' she shouts, her New York-accented rasp carrying over the din of the Poker Face set. 'I feel like an Oompa Loompa that is also Ray Liotta in Goodfellas in this outfit! Because of the starch!'
It's a drizzly day in late November, and Lyonne is filming the eighth episode in Poker Face's second season with John Cho on a cavernous Brooklyn soundstage. As the two reset for another take, Lyonne comments that she wishes a stack of prop money had more movement. 'They don't quite fan in the way I was hoping,' she says. From his director chair behind the monitor, Tony Tost, the season's showrunner, remarks that Lyonne 'thinks like a director.' (Indeed, the actor is involved on every level of the process, with executive producing, writing, and directing credits to her list of accomplishments.)
Poker Face is a collaboration between Lyonne and Knives Out impresario Rian Johnson. The weekly Colombo-esque whodunnit follows Lyonne as Charlie Cale, a woman whose uncanny ability to spot a lie routinely gets her in trouble. When we last saw Charlie, she'd solved her best friend's murder (which served as the first season's through line) and evaded the shady casino manager, played by Adrien Brody, who tried to have her killed. This season continues the murder-of-the-week format, with Charlie facing off with everyone from an evil quintuplet to a wicked elementary schooler—all while fleeing a crime syndicate called the Five Families.
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