Natasha Lyonne on her role in Poker Face season 2, and leaning into her eccentricity
Natasha Lyonne on Poker Face season 2 and how she ripped off Steven Spielberg’s Columbo to direct two episodes of the hit TV series
Her hair is red, voluminous and wild. She walks with a swagger. Her voice is raspy, and not in a sexy kind of Lauren Bacall way but more like Peter Falk.
“It’s weird that all of a sudden, one day, everybody looks at you differently and you’re aware of it,” says Lyonne, 46.
“I remember the Lolita audition, and it was like, ‘Will you slowly eat this apple?’ And I was like, ‘I know what you’re asking of me. I can eat it for you comedically’. But no, I will not simulate sex with an apple on camera.
“I mean, I’d studied the history of film. These were not revelations.”
Lyonne forged a career by finding and later creating projects that capitalised on her undeniably intrepid personality, wrapping the roles around her eccentricities rather than conforming to what was expected of a female performer in Hollywood.