SPOILERS: This post contains details about the first three episodes of Poker Face, Season 2
If the first season of Poker Face was about Natasha Lyonne‘s Charlie outrunning her past, its sophomore season finds her looking for a place to belong.
Ahead of the Season 2 premiere, returning to Peacock on May 8 with the first three episodes, Lyonne and series creator Rian Johnson spoke to Deadline about how they “dig in deeper to the character” after she gets the mafia off her back.
“The episodes where there’s this personal stake and driver to tether to like that are really fun,” explained Lyonne. “But she has that kind of driver in a weird way that she did from Natalie (Dascha Polanco) in the pilot. ‘I guess I’m gonna hit the road for a while until I feel safe to call another person home again,’ is the underbelly of that.”
While Charlie goes on more of an internal journey this season, she still manages to come across plenty of murders that need solving, which is where they had fun.
“Having done the first season and feeling like the engine really does work on this show, it kind of gave us permission to say, ‘OK, what else can we do with it? What can we try?’” explained Johnson. “And so, doing [‘Sloppy Joseph’], which is conceptually a little bit more out there, or the ‘Gator Joe’ episode, which goes completely gonzo bonkers, I feel like we gave ourselves permission to kind of have fun like that.”
Natasha Lyonne as Charlie Cale in ‘Poker Face’ (Sarah Shatz/Peacock)
And with the weekly anthology format that practically stands as its own mystery short, the star-studded guest roster for Season 2 is even longer than its predecessor, featuring reunions with Lyonne’s co-stars from Slums of Beverly Hills (1998), But I’m a Cheerleader (1999) and Orange Is the New Black (2013-’19).
Lyonne also offered up another guest star idea for Season 3. “Jennifer Coolidge! Does she wanna be in Poker Face? Because she should be!” she said after realizing they were both in American Pie (1999) with Season 2 guest star John Cho.
Read on for Deadline’s interview with Natasha Lyonne and Rian Johnson about Season 2 of Poker Face.
DEADLINE: In the first few episodes of season two, Charlie has the mob off of her back. So tell me about this existential road trip that she goes on after that.
RIAN JOHNSON: Well, it struck us in the writers’ room that it felt like kind of the most challenging thing for that character to actually take away this external pressure of being chased and to put it back on her. Where does she want to be? And why can’t she settle down any place? And why does she, by her nature, kind of keep moving? And also, every time she settles in a place now, for an episode, she’s kind of interrogating it to see, “is this where I belong” in a deeper way. And that seemed like that was going to give us more ammunition for each episode to have her dig in a little deeper, and we knew the format could support it. I don’t think the audience genuinely cares that there are people chasing her with guns. I think she moves to a different place each week and they go with it. So, for a lot of reasons, it made sense and it felt like a way to dig in deeper to the character.
Natasha Lyonne as Charlie Cale in ‘Poker Face’ (Sarah Shatz/Peacock)
DEADLINE: And can you tell me about playing with the format this season and having more fun with episodes, like ‘Sloppy Joseph’?
JOHNSON: That came out of Kate Thulon, who wrote that episode. She just has a brilliant, demented mind.
NATASHA LYONNE: Kate is great.
JOHNSON: And that came out of us thinking, “OK, what are the lowest stakes we can possibly build a Poker Face episode on and have it work?” And of course, I think it’s a real nail-biter of an episode, because it feels very intense. Even though the stakes seem low, when you’re in grade school politics, the stakes feel very elevated. But that’s a good example of how, having done the first season and feeling like the engine really does work on this show, it kind of gave us permission to say, “OK, what else can we do with it? What can we try?” And so, doing that episode, which is conceptually a little bit more out there, or the ‘Gator Joe’ episode, which goes completely gonzo bonkers, I feel like we gave ourselves permission to kind of have fun like that.
DEADLINE: You both have directed several episodes this season and last season. Tell me about what it’s like getting to step into the director’s chair of specifically this show where each episode is kind of like its own little movie.
LYONNE: Well, I don’t know if that’s really fair. I would say I’ve stepped in and directed it some. Last season, an episode, and this season, two. And I guess, Rian has directed … but just to say that I mean, it really is from the mind of Rian Johnson. and what that means is something pretty highly specific. It means that, even though we came about this show kind of kicking around the diner together, it’s a real Rian Johnson bonanza. So, any sort of guest director is directing it in a nod to a style that is so defined and buoyant and effective, that there’s things embedded into the DNA. For example, any sort of insert shot on Poker Face is a real Rian Johnson special. That’s not just, any insert will do ya. So, I think that it’s really on you, sir, to talk about all that, delighted though I am to have directed a bunch.
JOHNSON: Also, though, to kick it back, I feel like because each of the episodes is so distinct in its style, we always wanna empower the directors and give them the feeling that, we don’t give them a visual bible, we don’t give them rules in terms of how the show is shot. They know the show from having seen it, and we just tell them, “You shoot it in whatever style you think is best going to serve this episode.”
Cynthia Erivo as Sextuplets and Natasha Lyonne as Charlie Cale in ‘Poker Face’ (Peacock)
LYONNE: Rian, Rian, Rian. Real talk. At the end of the day, Rian, you’re a genius. You’re a clear genius, you’re my friend and I adore you. You’re one of our great auteurs, and simply put, any great master of the form does have a complete mind’s eye, vision in mind for every episode. So I think that there is—speaking as a Salvador Dali to this Alfred Hitchcock operation, which is my code name—it’s just not true. You can’t just put a melting clock in a desert and put it any which way you want. You can shoot a melting clock in the desert in a way that is in a fashion that builds on story for a perfect Rian Johnson puzzle box episode of Poker Face. So, I just think that it’s worth mentioning. And I think it’s a joy for all of us, whether that’s Mimi Cave or Janicza Bravo or myself or Clea DuVall or Ti West, I think it’s so fun for us that it gets to be that way, because there is kind of a template. And I think that they are all kind of in a way, love letters to you. … I think that the goal is to really feel like, as a guest director on Poker Face, the goal is to make you happy.
JOHNSON: Well, I’m happy.
DEADLINE: And there’s also even more amazing guest stars this season. Can you tell me about some of those reunions like, But I’m a Cheerleader, Orange Is the New Black, Slums of Beverly Hills? But also were there any actors you hadn’t worked with yet that you were excited to work with?
JOHNSON: It’s a combination of us texting friends, but also taking swings of people that we’ve always kind of admired and wanted to be on the set with. Had you worked with John Cho before?
LYONNE: I think that he’s maybe in some of the American Pies. I’ll be honest, I haven’t seen those. I did see the first one at the premiere. I do love Chris and Paul Weitz. I do talk a lot of shit about that movie, it’s mostly just because I don’t understand high school or proms or suburbia. But I think that John’s in those movies. Because whenever I see John around town or something, we’re always like, “American Pie!” And then, when he got to set, we were like, “American Pie!” But I was sort of playing along, if I’m honest, because I was just like, we’ve been doing that bit for over a decade, and so I kind of had to commit to the bit. He is in the movies, right?
DEADLINE: Yeah, he’s the one who comes up with “MILF.” He calls Jennifer Coolidge “MILF.”
LYONNE: Jennifer Coolidge! Does she wanna be in Poker Face? Because she should be!
JOHNSON: Let’s bring her in. But Cynthia [Erivo], I wanted to work with Cynthia for years and never got to work with her. So to me, it’s a combination of bringing in good friends and taking wild swings.
