There was no mystery as to who would be the first guest to hit the red carpet at the second season premiere of Peacock’s whodunnit series Poker Face: Creator Rian Johnson was guilty as charged.
“I’m the nerd who gets to the party early, and it’s a little awkward but then I help set up the snacks,” explained the multi-hyphenate whose duties on the critically acclaimed Peacock hit series include writing, directing and executive producing. “It’s a fucking mess, man. The upside is that I’m going to be in bed by 9:30 p.m.”
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Though we didn’t fact check his curfew, it’s likely Johnson stayed out a little later than that based on the after party photos that showed him living it up with partner-in-crime Natasha Lyonne, who just so happened to be the last bold-faced name to stroll down the press line. The length of time in between provided plenty of moments for her creative collaborators to gush about her talents on the show, which include starring, writing, directing and executive producing, as it heads into season two.
The Lyonne love started with Johnson: “We have so much fun making the show. I make it with one of my best friends, Natasha, and in this season in particular we pulled in a lot of amazing guest stars, a lot of whom are dear friends with Natasha for years and years.”
Johnson called the guest star roster “dazzling,” and he wasn’t lying: John Mulaney, Cynthia Erivo, Melanie Lynskey, Margo Martindale, Justin Theroux, Kumail Nanjiani, Awkwafina, Method Man, David Alan Grier, Simon Helberg, Richard Kind, Simon Rex, Taylor Schilling, Kevin Corrigan, GaTa, Patti Harrison, Sherry Cola, David Krumholtz, Natasha Leggero, B.J. Novak, Rhea Perlman, Jason Ritter, Lauren Tom, Corey Hawkins, Ego Nwodim, Sam Richardson, Giancarlo Esposito, Katie Holmes, Gaby Hoffman, Ben Marshall, Haley Joel Osment, John Cho, Alia Shawkat, Carol Kane, Lili Taylor, Geraldine Viswanathan, Adrienne Moore and more.
He credited the gravitational pull of Lyonne that helped reel many of them in while also complimenting how she applied her talents to the new batch of episodes. The mystery-of-the-week crime comedy series once again follows the adventures of Charlie Cale (Lyonne), a nomadic who has an extraordinary ability to determine when someone is lying, a skill she uses to crack various mysteries on a road trip in her Plymouth Barracuda.
“People watching the show might be surprised to learn how hard [Natasha] works,” Johnson explained. “She works incredibly hard and takes the craft really seriously to make it look effortless and breezy on the screen. The other thing that was a joy for me is that she directs two episodes this season. For me, that’s where she’s as good as she is in front of the camera — and she’s amazing in front of the camera. She’s really born to be behind the camera and she’s just got a brain that just absorbs details and references. It was really fun for me to see my friend thrive in the space that she was born to be in.”
Below is a roundup of all the love that flowed on the red carpet for Lyonne last Thursday night at Hollywood’s American Legion Post 43.
Taylor Schilling
“I’ll go anywhere Natasha asks me to go,” said the actress, who worked with Lyonne on Netflix’s Orange is the New Black. On Poker Face, she plays an FBI agent trailing Charlie who is “just, like, really on her ass.” “I’d go to Mars with her. I really would. There’s like probably three people in my life that I trust enough to just leap and she’s one of them. I have been in love with Natasha since I met her, and I’ve seen her brain working in so many different ways. And now I feel like the entire world understands what’s going on in there and it’s only going to keep rippling out. It’s one of the most wild, incredible psyches I’ve ever known.”
Simon Helberg
“For Natasha, finding a vehicle that can really help facilitate all of her insanely unique and singular talents is kind of a miracle because she has so many of them. She’s such a particular character and this does it. It’s like a [John Cassavetes] movie with Jonathan Winters as the star or something. It never happened and it should have happened. She’s just brilliant and fiery and the writing is ridiculously brilliant. They managed to get this top-tier pedigree of writers, actors, directors — all the directors are all insanely brilliant filmmakers, so it’s kind of a dream,” said the veteran actor who reprises his role as FBI agent Luca Clark who continues to “fumble his way up the ladder.”
Simon Rex
“I already knew Natasha, so [joining the cast] felt very comfortable,” explained the actor who plays a washed up baseball player. “It was cool to watch how involved she was in everything from decision-making to rewrites and setting up shots. She’s directed some episodes so it was inspiring to be like, oh, this is the dream job. She has her own show that she produces, writes and directs. It’s kind of the best gig in Hollywood if you ask me.”
Melanie Lynskey
“She’s just such a talent,” explained Lynskey, who plays a “nice lady working for a charity” that happens to meet a man (Cho) in a hotel bar only to return to his room with him for a bit of “double crossing” etc. “There’s a looseness to the performance that I really appreciate that she always has. It’s just perfect for her. She and Rian are such a great combination.”
GaTa
“Every role that you see her in, she’s funny. She has high energy, but to see her in action as far as when the camera’s not rolling, those are the magical moments. Like when she’s telling the directors what she wants or just guiding the actors and giving them that motivation.”
Natasha Leggero
“She has really great taste, more so than a lot of people in Hollywood. No offense, Hollywood can be a little basic,” said the actress, who plays a nurse married to Method Man’s character (“and let’s just say that we’re involved in some nefarious things”). “She has such cool influences and she’s really able to fuse them into her work. And she really knows what she wants and she gets it. It’s just really cool to be able to see that.”
Margo Martindale
“She’s so exciting to work with. She’s throws wild, wonderful things at you and it was a joy. She’s fun,” says the veteran star who plays the head of a religious academy who has a secret gambling problem.
Tony Tost
“She’s a force of nature,” praised the showrunner who joined for season two. “She is always thinking kind of three thoughts at the same time. She’s Charlie, obviously, but even when she’s playing Charlie, she’s got her director’s hat on and she’s got her producer’s hat on. She’s always thinking of ways to take a scene and make it surprising. But she’s thinking about it as a director and where she is in the frame and how the camera should capture it. She’s also thinking about locations and logistics. The culture on set is built around her personality, and so it’s a highly charged, creative environment. There’s never a day off on that in that kind of setting.”
