Natasha Lyonne bets on ‘Poker Face’ season 2 with her Rolodex of famous friends

Detective Root Beer is on the case.

When Entertainment Weekly rolls up to the Hollywood set of its Poker Face season 2 cover shoot on a gray April day, it’s not a rep or a director or star Natasha Lyonne that greets us — it’s her pint-sized pup. 

She’s suspicious at first — like Lyonne’s character, Charlie Cale, it’s almost as if 15-year-old maltipoo Root Beer can sniff out any lies or shady characters — but her guard drops after an abundant amount of back rubs and ear scratches.

Lyonne later tells us that Root Beer was just 5 months old when the Orange Is the New Black alum “kidnapped her” and started bringing the dog to the set of the Netflix hit. As for her pup’s antics on this set, “That makes me so happy,” Lyonne says. “Root Beer is what you call a nepo baby. I’ve never had that joy, but I’m glad that she does by proxy. She does a real good job, Root Beer.”

Root Beer isn’t the only four-legged investigator EW must contend with today: There’s also doggy actors Ozzie (a Labrador retriever), Jackie (a collie mix), Mater (a St. Bernard mix), Harvey (a terrier mix), bulldog Frank, and beagle June, as well as a bevy of backup pooches, taking turns being fitted with visors and plush cigar toys and doing their best imitation of a… well, poker face.

Like this muttley crew assembled here, Poker Face has been playing with a full deck from the start. The Peacock series — which follows Lyonne’s Charlie, a woman with an innate ability to flawlessly determine when someone is lying, who, while on the run, gets caught up in a bizarre new mystery at every stop — debuted in 2023 to wide acclaim, receiving a season 2 order just weeks into its run. Last year, it earned four Emmy noms (including lead comedy actress for Lyonne), ultimately giving Peacock its first-ever Emmy win for Judith Light’s bonkers guest actress stint.

At the shoot, even as Lyonne — who also serves as an executive producer, director, and writer on Poker Face — ups the ante of each take with her signature improv chops, the dogs remain steadfast, focusing on their handlers (and okay, yes, also the treats) to nail every shot. It gets to the point where the five-time Emmy nominee feels inclined to tell her canine costars, “You guys have been so great at calm, don’t be afraid of chaos.”

She even makes EW promise that if we get the shot in time, we’ll do one take where we let “the dogs go rogue.”

Chaos is a good word to describe the situation human lie detector Charlie finds herself in over the first three episodes of season 2, which debuted May 8.

The first, directed by series creator Rian Johnson, features Charlie sussing out the lies of devious quintuplets played by Cynthia Erivo. Episode 2 is set in a funeral home run by an unhappy couple played by Giancarlo Esposito and Katie Holmes. And the third — which stars John Mulaney as a corrupt FBI agent, Rhea Perlman as mob boss Beatrix Hasp, and Richard Kind as her hapless husband who just wants to make his panino in peace thank you very much — ends in a game-changing shocker.

To recap, at the end of season 1, Charlie wrapped up her ongoing conflict with the Frost Casino and its boss… only to find herself in the crosshairs of a different crime syndicate, run by Beatrix. An ominous phone call from the mob boss ended with Charlie chucking her phone and going on the run once more in her vintage sky blue 1969 Plymouth Barracuda, presumably setting the stage for a season 2 Beatrix vs. Charlie showdown.

But that’s all been buttoned up by the fourth episode of season 2 (streaming May 15, when the series goes to dropping weekly). After Beatrix helps the FBI nab Mulaney’s character, and agrees to testify against the other four mob families mentioned briefly in season 1, Perlman’s crime lord seemingly exits stage left by going into federal witness protection in exchange for calling off her hit on Charlie. That gives the amateur road sleuth a fresh start for the first time in the series.

Perlman says she “had a ton of fun” filming her big episode, but it did present some unique challenges for the veteran actor.

“I had never shot or even held a gun before, aside from a cap gun when I was a kid, so this wonderful armorer named Jeremy gave me lessons. He had his hands full, but I think I ended up looking like I knew what I was doing,” she says with a chuckle.

“I also had to practice throwing a dummy gun at Simon Helberg’s head, which I did,” she continues, pausing for effect before gleefully adding, “with joy.” (For his part, Helberg, whose FBI agent character Luca is the only recurring role in both seasons, admits: “Of course, having Rhea Perlman beat me up, it’s been a lifelong dream…. I was also the tallest person on that set, so that was pretty awesome.”)

Not unlike the Cheers and Barbie actress herself, Beatrix’s onscreen part is tiny but mighty. And don’t discount the possibility of seeing her again down the road.

“I would absolutely be open to coming back — it ain’t over ’til it’s over,” Perlman muses.

Johnson says he ended Beatrix’s arc to avoid repeating season 1 beats, and get back to Poker Face‘s episodic nature.

“I wanted to pull everyone’s mind back to what really is supposed to drive this show, which is, in my mind: This should be a season of Columbo where you can literally say, ‘I want to watch the Dick Van Dyke episode,’ and you can drop in and watch it and not have to think about where it lands in the season, per se,” he explains. Though, the Knives Out mastermind adds, “We do still develop a light dusting of a bigger story over the course of the season.”

Damnation creator Tony Tost, who’s taken over showrunning duties from sisters Nora and Lilla Zuckerman, says that Charlie’s new journey literally takes her from Florida up the East Coast — but on a deeper level, season 2 is better able to tackle “where she goes emotionally, psychologically” and explore her need for community.

“She’s trying to figure out what her life is going to look like, and what she is searching for if she’s on the road,” Tost says. “She’s habituated to this lifestyle of living out of her Barracuda hopping from place to place. What does she actually like about that? What are the drawbacks about that? What might cause her to settle down a little bit or cause her to get off the road and find a more stationary existence?”

As Lyonne puts it, this means the episodes follow “the roadmap of Charlie’s soul, on some level.”

The star describes that soul as a bit of “Jeff Bridges’ Big Lebowski Dude flavor,” mixed with “a desert rat people person,” and “kind of like Philip Marlowe, but she’s on her own case.”

She continues, “Sometimes I come home at night and I just think about the beauty of Rian Johnson, and that this extension of Charlie and Poker Face is almost the same as that axiom of ‘Hopefully over time, as we grow up in life, we lose interest in ourselves and gain interest in our fellows.’ And Charlie’s really on other people’s case, that’s her sweet spot.”

Lyonne pauses to apologize for the “monologue.” It seems the star is running on fumes.

“I’ve been doing a junket all day. It was international. I thought the first question they asked me was, ‘How do you feel about the circumcision?’ But they meant the second season. That’s not nice. But I was trying to answer it honestly, and I was like, ‘Do I play a mohel in this one?’…. I haven’t been sleeping enough.”

Okay, so Poker Face redux may not feature Charlie Cale as a mohel, but it does pit her up against a meth gator, possibly psychopathic children, and B.J. Novak as an acid trip-induced mascot. Plus, there’s a full-blown love interest thrown in for good measure.

Like season 1, the new episodes feature an, ahem, murderer’s row of guest stars, including: Alia Shawkat, Awkwafina, Carol Kane, Cliff “Method Man” Smith, Corey Hawkins, David Krumholtz, Davionte “GaTa” Ganter, Ego Nwodim, Gaby Hoffmann, Haley Joel Osment, Jason Ritter, John Cho, Justin Theroux, Kathrine Narducci, Kevin Corrigan, Kumail Nanjiani, Margo Martindale, Melanie Lynskey, Patti Harrison, Sam Richardson, Sherry Cola, and Simon Rex.

There’s also the addition of a new recurring character of sorts. Credited simply as “Good Buddy,” and heard only via a CB radio Charlie acquires for her car, the mysterious, genial new friend is voiced by Steve Buscemi.

The new player is the brainchild of Tost, who’s a fan of Smokey and the Bandit. Good Buddy helps thematically set the table for the several episodes he’s heard in. As Charlie explores the aspect of who she’s going to be in each new adventure, Good Buddy gives her a sounding board to bounce ideas off of. 

Initially, Tost and Johnson weren’t envisaging a Buscemi type, but, says Johnson, “When he was available, I was just like, ‘Oh my God, that’s perfect.’ And he’s got a laid-back coolness to him that fits really well with it. It ends up making sense later in the season. Not really a big spoiler, but he has roots in New York, which end up playing into where Charlie ends up going. So, it worked out.”

Of course, almost all of this star power came about thanks to Johnson and Lyonne’s wide network of Hollywood buddies, which was a new way of casting for Tost.

“It’s an interesting process, because both Natasha and Rian have very full Rolodexes of cool pals,” he says. “We have a great casting director, and there are some elements of traditional casting, but a lot of it is just Natasha or Rian texting their friends like, ‘Hey, do you want to come do two weeks of Poker Face with me?'”

Case in point: The script for episode 3 called for the corrupt FBI agent to be “a John Mulaney type.” Lyonne saw this description and simply texted Mulaney. Ditto for acclaimed horror filmmaker Ti West, who showed up to direct the penultimate episode after receiving a similar message from Lyonne.

Of course, for all the stars who did show up to play, there are several more that didn’t quite make it. Take, for example, longtime Lyonne pal and former Orange Is the New Black scene partner Uzo Aduba.

“It’s not Cynthia [Erivo’s role],” she reveals. “You’d never guess which one watching it, so I won’t tell you. But God, she was going to crush. It was a good one. Uzo and I had been planning on it all year, and then the dates got all screwy, because it’s a crazy show.”

But not as crazy as the Poker Face cover shoot, where Lyonne is currently asking if “our scene-stealing friend” — meaning the beagle, June — could be allowed to walk on the table, which it appears the pooch is just dying to do.

Lyonne can’t stop ad-libbing with each of the dogs, telling one particularly nosy pup to mind his own business one take, then telling another, Mater, that he’s “the new Bill Hader,” following in the Barry star’s footsteps (paw prints?) with a hit show titled “Barky” on “H-B(ark)-O.” At one point, she sighs, and sums up the feeling on set, telling the crew gathered around the monitors, “God, life is a dream.”

For Helberg, these types of interactions perfectly encapsulate his experience of working with Lyonne, whom he describes as, “Like if Gena Rowlands smashed into Joan Rivers and they had some sort of offspring. That’s her vibe. It’s very colorful, and it’s like a buffet of absurdity. As an actor, it’s impossible not to feel very alive in the scenes with her, and it just brings out the best and the strangeness in everybody. It gives this show that particular flavor.”

Between Helberg’s Luca and Lyonne’s Charlie, is that particular flavor a bit of a will-they-won’t-they vibe, perhaps? The Big Bang Theory alum admits that from the first scenes he shot in season 1, it was obvious there was a unique connection between the characters.

“There seemed to be even a flirtation that I don’t know whether or not was baked into the writing or just sort of came out of our strange chemistry,” he says with a laugh. “It felt very special when I was on set, because I could feel this show’s got something really wonderful crackling.”

This is especially true for the final stretch of the season, which will once more see Luca pop into Charlie’s orbit after last seeing her in episode 3. He’s hesitant to say too much, but Helberg teases that his return enabled him to live out “some real dream scenarios” as an actor.

“[Luca] gets to be more and more heroic, and there’s definitely some real cliffhangers that they’ve written into the end of the season,” he says. “There are some action scenes that I, as an actor, did not ever think I would get a chance to play…fast-driving cars…. I don’t want to say too much, but yeah, there’s some cool business.”

Lyonne, who directed the finale — ominously titled “The End of the Road” — is also hesitant to answer EW’s questions about it.

“Well, I am not sure how to tackle this one,” she says, pausing. “Let’s see. Suffice to say, there’s a lot of twists and turns yet. There’s definitely surprises aboard in that back half of the season. Yeah, there’s some good s— coming. That’s all I’ll say.” (No bulls— detected here.)

Helberg does reveal that his character continues his omnipresent internal debate between bringing Charlie down or teaming up with her.

“And it really ends on this note of: ‘Oh my God, how will they ever exist in the same world together?'” he says. “I think that that’s what I’m looking to answer. Hopefully, in another season, we’ll really see what Rian and the rest of them have as the answer to that question.”

As for the show’s future, Johnson insists he’s just focused on getting this season to the finish line first. But Tost has lots of ideas — including one involving independent pro wrestling and Black Bird star Paul Walter Hauser — that he couldn’t quite crack for season 2.

For now, though, everyone is just eager to see the reaction to the rest of Poker Face 2.0. If its Rotten Tomatoes score is anything to go by, though, they have nothing to worry about. As of press time, the new season has a 100 percent from 38 reviews — putting it on par, at least in critics’ minds, with season 1.  

When asked what he thinks is the show’s ace up its sleeve, Johnson doesn’t hesitate: “I hope it feels a little bit like theater camp, with us all just pulling in our friends to have a good time making these weird little mini movies. But for me, Natasha is the answer. Natasha is at the heart of that experience.”

Back at the cover shoot, EW has a front-row seat to that quintessential Natasha Lyonne experience. It’s late in the day, and the canine actors are beginning to look ever so slightly restless. Root Beer is napping somewhere out of sight. And Lyonne — still eager to finish so we can give the dogs that promised chaos take — is absentmindedly singing the Four Tops hit “Ain’t No Woman (Like the One I’ve Got)” in between setups.

But as soon as action is called on this final shot, her eyes laser into focus. She suspiciously looks side to side at her costars before gleefully revealing her hand, as planned. Then, completely unprompted, Lyonne picks up a plush cigar toy and offers it to Mater, who holds it in his mouth like a pro. The set bursts into laughter as Lyonne buttons the moment: “Ta-da, motherf—ers.”

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Directed by Alison Wild + Kristen Harding
Photography by Kelia Anne

Motion — DP: Chevy Tyler; 1st AC: Hannah Carpenter; 2nd AC: Mikyla Jonck; Techno Crane Op: Daniel Hagouel; Techno Crane Support: Steven Neel; Gaffer: Bailey Clark; Best Electric: Maile Edwards; Key Grip: David Gonzalez; Best Grip: Jake Poole; Swing: William “Skip” Haswell

Production Design — Isaac Aaron/This Represents; Lead Man/Fabricator: Matt Banister; Runner: Tyler Johnson; Seamstress/Art Dept; Charlotte CaHill

Photo — Assistants: Lucky Pettersen, Alex Feggi

Animal Wrangling — Benays Bird & Animal Rentals; Dog Trainers: Kelli Fulco, MandyLi May, Kimberly Andrews, Sheri Aparacio, Doree Sitterly, Deborah Papagiannopoulos

Natasha Lyonne — Stylist: Brad Goreski/The Wall Group; Assistant: Clarke Johnson; Tailor: Rose Stepa; Hair: Vernon Francois/The Visionaries; Makeup: Kathy Jeung/Forward Artists; Manicure: Vanessa Sanchez-McCullough/Forward Artists

Post-Production — Color Correction: Nate Seymour/TRAFIK; VFX: Derek Viramontes; Design: Alice Morgan; Header Editor: Jordan Moran; Score: Nathan Johnson

Wardrobe
(Cover) – Bodysuit: Dior; Tights: Calzedonia; Shoes: Rossi; Earrings, Rings: Chopard; Bracelets: Chopard, A.Jaffe, Joseph Saidian
(Turquoise) – Bodysuit: Brielle; Tights: Calzedonia; Shoes: Minacapilli; Earrings, Rings: Chopard; Bracelets: Chopard, A.Jaffe, Joseph Saidian
(Pink) – Jumpsuit: Dundas; Shoes: Jimmy Choo; Earrings: Emily Wheeler; Rings: Emily Wheeler, Selim Mouzannar, LeVian, Hanut; Bracelets: Shay, Selim Mouzannar; Red Jacket: Sergio Hudson
(Suit) – Vest and Pant: McQueen; Shoes: Louboutin; Rings: Emily Wheeler, Selim Mouzannar, LeVian; Bracelets: Shay, A.Jaffe, Joseph Saidian; Hat: Eugenia Kim
(Jumpsuit) – Jumpsuit: Dundas; Shoes: Thom Solo; Earrings, Necklace: Chopard; Rings: Chopard, LeVian; Bracelets: Shay, A.Jaffe, Joseph Saidian
(Lips) – Dress: Balmain; Shoes: Le Silla; Earrings: Chopard; Rings: Chopard, LeVian
Bracelets: Chopard, A.Jaffe, Joseph Saidian; Sunglasses: Karen Wazen