Natasha Lyonne and director Rian Johnson reveal ‘magic trick' behind Cynthia Erivo playing quintuplets in ‘Poker Face' Season 2 premiere
After the screening, Emmy nominee Aidy Bryant (Saturday Night Live, Shrill) hosted a fun Q&A panel featuring star, EP, director, and writer Natasha Lyonne, creator, writer, director, and EP Rian Johnson, director Clea DuVall, Season 1 guest star Judith Light (who won Peacock's first Emmy for her performance in 2023), and Season 2 guest stars GaTa, Haley Joel Osment, John Cho, Kumail Nanjiani, and Melanie Lynskey.
More from GoldDerby
'It's saving lives': 'Adolescence' stars Stephen Graham and Owen Cooper on the series' stunning success
Why Studio Ghibli is at the center of AI's latest controversy: A brief explainer
Seth Rogen explains how 'The Studio' pulled off its one-shot episode
Although Erivo wasn't in attendance, Bryant called out the Oscar nominee's "amazing" performance before introducing the all-star panel who will be featured throughout the rest of the season. They broke the ice with a quick round of "What's your favorite holiday?" (Thanksgiving edged out Christmas) before getting into all the juicy details about the upcoming season.
"I wanted to do what we did in Season 1, just more of it," Johnson said. "The idea was not to see where Charlie (Lyonne) goes with some bigger arc — the idea was, 'Let's make some kick-ass, wonderful episodes.'" He revealed they shot the complicated Season 2 premiere in just 10 days, "which is a very fast schedule for the amount of script it was."
Johnson, who directed the first episode, said there wasn't any "crazy camera technology" used to film Erivo's five characters (up to four appeared together in some scenes). "We would literally leave the camera, Cynthia would do half of her scene, she would go and change, and come back and do the other half. She somehow kept it all in her head and was the loveliest person in the world."
Lyonne said Johnson was being humble. "I've never seen Rian so in his element," she shared. "'The Game is a Foot' episode is possibly the most Rian Johnson episode to ever Rian Johnson. It took like 87 screens within screens to figure out how the whole magic trick would work. It was a delight to behold."
Johnson returned the love-fest, saying, "There's no recurring cast [in this show] except for Natasha. That means you get to have wonderful people coming in every episode, but it also means that to sustain that over the course of what it takes to shoot a TV season, and to be out there working every single week with a different cast, it's an incredible effort. The fact that she makes it look so effortless on screen, and creates a character that you want to travel across the United States with, is a massive [accomplishment]."
In a recent interview with Vanity Fair, Erivo said, 'I knew that my head would be split into many different spaces, but I was like, 'Well, if not now, then when?' I'm always open to trying things that I haven't done before, and I wanted to do this. I wanted to figure out what it would be like to compartmentalize and play different characters all at once, to challenge myself to see if it was possible...I'd play one side, and I'd have a lovely stand-in doing the other side. I would still have to remember what I did on one side so that my reaction would match the other way, so that it would make sense when speaking to each other.'
Other secrets spilled during the 36-minute gabfest included Nanjiani's upcoming performance as "Gator Joe." The actor recounted, "I got a text from Natasha and I said, 'Yea, sure.' The next text was the script. It was this [guy] in the Florida panhandle with tattoos and frosted hair. I texted back, 'Did you send this one to me by mistake?' Then, I immediately called my dialect coach and said, 'I have six days. I want to try and learn a Florida panhandle accent. Can we try and see if we can do it and, if we can't, I'll just speak like a Pakistani guy who has been in America for 20 years. As soon as we started working on it, it was just too fun and too exciting to not fully commit to it."
In what Lyonne describes as a "bonanza" episode based on David Mamet's 1987 film House of Games, Cho plays a "villainous swindler" opposite Lynskey. "It was a lot of dialogue," Lynskey recalls. "We had two days of talking, which is more fun than it sounds." Cho interjected, "It was such a treat to watch [Melanie] unpack it, dissect it, break it down into blocks, and meticulously attack each moment. It was one of the great thrills of my life."
In another upcoming episode, Osment plays a social media influencer who is sponsoring his wedding with an energy drink. "It was a tough conversation with my fiancé," he laughed. "That energy drink is called 'Ball-Zilla.'"
Closing out the event, Bryant joked that the number of guest stars on Season 2 of Poker Face would take her "four hours to list." Still, she wanted to know if there was a "wish list" of actors that Johnson and Lyonne could "level up with" next year. When Lyonne responded, "Aidy Bryant," the moderator quickly responded, "Finally we've gotten to where I wanted to start. I'm hurtin' bad for cash. I'm not being paid for this — they said I could take home some cookies."
Poker Face is a mystery-of-the-week series following Lyonne's Charlie, who has an extraordinary ability to determine when someone is lying. This season, Charlie continues her cross-country odyssey, encountering a new cast of characters and investigating crimes along the way.
Season 2 of Poker Face premieres May 8, 2025 with three episodes, followed by a new episode streaming every Thursday.
SIGN UP for Gold Derby's free newsletter with latest predictions
Best of GoldDerby
Is 'SNL' new tonight? Host, musical guest details
'Mid-Century Modern' stars Nathan Lane, Matt Bomer, and Nathan Lee Graham say they're not 'The Golden Girls,' but a 'spiritual sister'
Why 'The White Lotus' features all those 'Survivor' cameos — and who might be next
Click here to read the full article.
Hashtags
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
UPI
15 minutes ago
- UPI
MSNBC to chanbe name to MS NOW amid Comcast spinoff
MSNBC morning talkshow hosts Joe Scarborough (L) and Mika Brzezinski (R) seen arriving to a December 2022 State Dinner at the White House in Washington, D.C. On Monday, Scarborough took note of MSNBC's change to MS NOW. He called Versant "entrepreneurial" and said he was "excited" about the new changes. Photo by Sarah Silbiger/UPI | License Photo Aug. 18 (UPI) -- MSNBC will soon be known as "My Source News Opinion World" as it exits Comcast's family into the newly created media company Versant. The company-wide reorganization and rebranding effort to MS NOW arrived as media giant Comcast first announced its plan in November to spin off some of its most well-known cable-oriented outlets from NBCUniversal. MSNBC President Rebecca Kutler said Monday that NBCU execs decided the MSNBC's brand required a "new, separate identity." "This decision now allows us to set our own course and assert our independence as we continue to build our own modern news-gathering operation," Kutler wrote in a memo to network employees. MSNBC's partnership with NBC News will end but creates competition as it builds out its own news division in Versant's new operation led by its founding CEO Mark Lazarus. Initially, the plan was for MSNBC to retain its name but plans changed when NBCU opted to keep its branded peacock logo. "This gives us the opportunity to chart our own path forward, create distinct brand identities and establish an independent news organization following the spin," Lazarus told Variety. Comcast officials previously said the move will allow NBCUniversal programming to consolidate behind its Peacock streaming service. On Monday, Kutler said the future of the network's success was "not tied to remaining within the NBC family and using the peacock as part of our identity." She added the re-branding was rather tied to a "broad-based marketing campaign," which she claimed was "unlike anything we have done in recent memory." "While our name will be changing, who we are and what we do will not," she said. The Golf Channel and USA Network are to be under a new "USA Sports" brand as part of Versant's new changes. "Our commitment to our work and our audiences will not waiver from what the brand promise has been for three decades," Kutler added. MSNBC anchor Joe Scarborough took note of the changes on Monday during his daily morning talkshow. He called Versant "entrepreneurial" and said he was "excited" about the new changes in a video clip posted to Bluesky.
Hypebeast
36 minutes ago
- Hypebeast
Day in the Life: NASCAR Driver Denny Hamlin Takes Us Through His Off-The-Track Routine
A day in the life ofNASCARdrivers is almost just as thrilling as their time behind the wheel —Denny Hamlin's schedule proves it. The NASCAR champ, a three-time Daytona 500 winner, brought us along for an inside view into his routine when he isn't behind the wheel. Hamlin has 56 NASCAR Cup Series victories under his belt and takes his other endeavors just as seriously as racing, while also making some time to decompress between high-stakes contests. On a Monday morning, post-race, he headed to record his Actions Detrimental podcast on set. The series releases new episodes every Sunday and is a one-stop destination for all things NASCAR, which includes race recaps and exclusive insider perspectives for fans. After wrapping up on set, Hamlin showed off his Daytona 500-winning cars. He's won the prestigious race three times and kept the cars in the same condition since the celebrations — some even had confetti still scattered across the windshield. After a view of his garage, he headed to his closet, where he presented his expansive sneaker collection, which includes numerous past Jordan releases. It became a full-circle moment for Hamlin when he became co-owner of a NASCAR team alongside Michael Jordan. The two partnered up to start23XI Racingin 2020, and Hamlin brought Hypebeast along to check out Airspeed, the team's headquarters. What began over a shared love of both basketball and racing kicked off in 2021 with Bubba Wallace driving the No. 23 Toyota in the NASCAR Cup Series. 23XI Racing HQ boasts massive workout rooms, a Jordan 11 collection on the wall and other state-of-the-art features. Hamlin and Jordan have some big plans to continue innovating on and off the track in the future. Our day with Hamlin ended at the 23XI headquarters, but his story continues on the track — catch him at his next race. You can tune in and watch Denny compete at the upcoming Coke Zero Sugar 400 race at the Daytona International Speedway. With 31 degrees of banking in the turns and 18 degrees in the tri-oval, the track always brings the excitement. The action kicks off on Saturday, August 24 at 730pm EST on NBC with streaming on Peacock.
Gizmodo
an hour ago
- Gizmodo
We Finally Know When Guillermo del Toro's ‘Frankenstein' Will Hit Theaters and Netflix
It takes a very special Netflix movie to get a theatrical release before hitting the streamer, and Guillermo del Toro's Frankenstein is certainly that. Netflix just announced it'll release the monster movie in select theaters on October 17 before debuting on the platform November 7. Now, there's no word yet on just how 'select' the 'select theaters' will be. Is it two screens? Is it 2,000? If we look back at Rian Johnson's Glass Onion: A Knives Out Mystery, another major film to get a similar treatment, we can make an educated guess, though. That film debuted in about 600 theaters across North America. This could be more, it could be less, but either way, that's still about five times less than a traditional wide release. What that means for you is that the film probably won't only play in major metropolitan areas, but it probably also won't be at every theater in the neighborhood. We'd suggest checking your local theaters in the next month or so as we get closer to the date. To commemorate the news, Netflix also released two teaser posters, one that features Oscar Isaac's iconic Dr. Frankenstein and the other giving us our best look yet at the menacing form of Frankenstein's monster, played by Jacob Elordi. 'Only Monsters Play God' is such a good tagline and obviously speaks to the familiar story of the film. It follows 'a brilliant but egotistical scientist who brings a creature to life in a monstrous experiment that ultimately leads to the undoing of both the creator and his tragic creation.' Mia Goth co-stars as Frankenstein's soon-to-be sister-in-law, who draws the eye of both him and his monster. Multiple Oscar winner Christoph Waltz plays an arms dealer. Felix Kammerer plays Frankenstein's brother and Goth's fiancé, and Christian Convery, best known for his work on Sweet Tooth, is young Frankenstein (no, not that one). This is a story that del Toro has been dreaming about adapting his entire life, and with each passing day, we get increasingly excited to see just how good this movie can be. Are we talking Best Picture nominee? Now we know we'll find out very, very soon. Want more io9 news? Check out when to expect the latest Marvel, Star Wars, and Star Trek releases, what's next for the DC Universe on film and TV, and everything you need to know about the future of Doctor Who.
