‘Poker Face': Natasha Lyonne teases existential Season 2, Cynthia Erivo's myriad roles

USA Today

25-02-2025

'Poker Face': Natasha Lyonne teases existential Season 2, Cynthia Erivo's myriad roles
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'Wicked' star Cynthia Erivo arrives at SAG Awards 2025 red carpet
"Wicked" star Cynthia Erivo said this moment is "everything and more" as she arrived at the SAG Awards red carpet.
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Cynthia Erivo is seeing green.
In Peacock dramedy 'Poker Face,' which returns for Season 2 this spring, the 'Wicked' star plays a bevy of estranged sisters as they tussle over their spiteful late mother's will. Natasha Lyonne, who's back as shaggy amateur detective Charlie Cale, was floored watching Erivo dip in and out of so many roles, which include a DJ, a professor, an artist, and an apple-picker.
'Every time she'd appear with a new character, it was just so funny,' Lyonne recalls. 'She's completely dialed in and brilliant. There's a buoyancy and lightness to her, but also a perfectionism and precision. All the sisters are so clearly delineated, it's absurd.'
Erivo's comedic high-wire act is the pièce de résistance of the Season 2 premiere, which finds Charlie drawn into the siblings' lethal double dealing. The twisty episode is the brainchild of writer Laura Deeley, who was inspired by the door-slamming screwball comedy of 1972's 'What's Up, Doc?'
'I just loved the audaciousness and pure showmanship of it,' says Tony Tost, who takes over as showrunner, replacing Nora and Lilla Zuckerman (they continue as executive producers). 'It felt like a really strong way to reannounce, 'The show is back, and we're going to take some swings.''
'Poker Face' Season 2 is an 'existential road trip' for Natasha Lyonne's Charlie Cale
Co-created by Lyonne and Rian Johnson ('Star Wars: The Last Jedi'), 'Poker Face' is less a 'whodunnit' than it is a 'how to catch 'em.' Viewers meet the killer in the first act of each hourlong episode; then it's up to Charlie to track them down. The show is heavily influenced by case-of-the-week network TV classics 'Murder, She Wrote,' 'Columbo' and 'Magnum P.I.,' but also draws from NBC's 'Quantum Leap' and 'Highway to Heaven' in Season 2. (There's even a cheeky homage to 'Baywatch Nights' in the first episode.)
'Each one of these episodes are really their own little movies,' says Johnson, who also directed the Season 2 premiere. 'The goal was to just keep having fun and surprising audiences. This season was unique because it directly overlapped with me making 'Wake Up Dead Man,'' the third of his 'Knives Out' murder-mystery movies, with Daniel Craig. 'It kind of felt like doing double sets at the gym. Even though it's a different muscle, it's in the same family.'
Charlie bounces from town to town and job to job, and audiences know very little about where she comes from, save for the introduction of her long-lost sister, Emily (Clea DuVall), in the Season 1 finale. But the second season shies away from revealing much more about the savvy ex-cocktail waitress, who has a gift for sniffing out lies.
'What's fun is finding little ways to learn more about Charlie through how she engages with each of these crimes,' Johnson says. 'There are some glimpses into what her life was like before, but I'm very conscious of wanting to avoid it being about some kind of backstory or mythology. Being light on its feet is one of the benefits of the format.'
Tost compares the new season to a three-part play, teasing that Charlie goes on an 'existential road trip' midway through: 'It's very much that question of, 'What is my place in the world? What's it like to put down roots? Is this actually the life I want to lead?''
Lyonne describes Charlie as a 'grittier lone wolf' in Season 2, having spent so much time on the run from ruthless casino mobsters and traversing the country in her sky-blue 1969 Plymouth Barracuda.
'It's a long time to not have any real contact with anyone,' Lyonne says. 'This season has such an extraordinary back half. She's on the hunt to try and settle down, but keeps getting waylaid.'
John Mulaney, Katie Holmes, Kumail Nanjiani top a 'dizzying' list of Season 2 guest stars
Like Season 1, which premiered in early 2023, the new installments are packed with guest stars including Giancarlo Esposito, Haley Joel Osment, Melanie Lynskey, Carol Kane, Justin Theroux, Method Man, Alia Shawkat, Patti Harrison, John Cho, Gaby Hoffmann, Shiloh Fernandez, and Ego Nwodim.
John Mulaney, one of Lyonne's longtime friends, pops in as an FBI agent ('I'm so grateful that he showed up on his birthday – he was supposed to go to Hawaii!' she recalls). Katie Holmes is featured in an episode directed by Lyonne, who 'gave her permission to try something strange and not typical for her as an actress,' Tost says. 'They really enjoyed working together.'
Johnson's favorite episodes include a 'hilarious' story involving Simon Rex and a minor-league baseball team and another 'totally gonzo' outing featuring Kumail Nanjiani and an alligator.
"I look over the cast names, and it's dizzying to me," Johnson says. 'There's a bunch of new things we introduce this season, but empathy is still at the heart of it. That's what drives the character of Charlie, and what ultimately makes this show work: her central relationship in each episode between the victim, or the killer ― or the alligator.'