Poker Face at PaleyFest: Inside Season 2 With Natasha Lyonne, Rian Johnson, and More
Cynthia Erivo’s performance in the first episode wowed the crowd at the Dolby Theatre.
As Natasha Lyonne put it, Poker Face Season 2’s knockout first episode “is quite possibly the most Rian Johnson thing to ever Rian Johnson.” The visual style, the wardrobe, the music, the snappy dialogue — it’s all back, and it’s back big time.
The energy at PaleyFest LA’s screening and panel event on Saturday, March 29, was high after the crowd was treated to Cynthia Erivo’s performance as multiple sisters in a wild 45ish-minute ride titled, "The Game Is a Foot.” It’s clear we’re in for another season of delightful guest stars playing off Lyonne’s crime-solving Charlie Cale.
Fittingly, the post-screening panel at the Dolby Theatre treated audience members to charming banter and behind-the-scenes insights from some of Season 1 and Season 2’s deep bench of performers: Clea DuVall, Kumail Nanjiani, John Cho, Judith Light, Melanie Lynskey, GaTa, and Haley Joel Osment.
Aidy Bryant, hilarious as ever, moderated the conversation and scored us some exciting tidbits about what we can expect from Poker Face Season 2.
What asked how he and the team approached crafting the second season of the hit series, Johnson said he “wanted to do what we did in Season 1 and just do more of it.” He continued, “The show is really born out of a love of Columbo and The Rockford Files, those shows that we grew up loving. The idea was not to build some bigger mythology or ‘let’s see where Charlie goes with her bigger arc.’ The idea was just ‘let’s make some really kickass, wonderful episodes. And, let’s try something different with each episode.”
That’s part and parcel of Poker Face’s appeal: each episode drops us into another highly specific, weird and wonderful slice of life, all threaded together by the compulsively watchable Charlie Cale.
Lyonne offered insight into what makes Charlie such a compelling protagonist: While Charlie has an uncanny ability to tell when someone is lying, she also has a deep interest in the people she meets. “She’s such a Lebowski, Dude [type] who’s genuinely curious, [a] ‘lost interest in herself, gained interest in her fellows’ kind of thing,” she said.
When discussing casting for Season 2, Johnson described it as “a mixture of friends we’ve worked with before but also people we’ve always respected but haven’t gotten the chance to work with.” In the former camp, Kumail Nanjiani looked at Natasha Lyonne and deadpanned, “Yeah, I just got a text from you on a Friday, you were like ‘Hey, do you wanna be in Poker Face on Thursday?’” Based on the description of his character, a Florida cop covered in tattoos named Gator Joe, we’re glad his answer was “Yes.”
John Cho will also be playing against type, as his character was described as a “villainous swindler.” Said swindler will have an encounter with Melanie Lynskey’s character. When asked if it was challenging to jump into shooting on such a tight schedule with Cho, Lynskey quipped, “It helped to be working with the world’s most charming man.”
Rounding out the guest panelists’ characters will be GaTa’s conman accomplice to Cho’s swindler, and Haley Joel Osment’s influencer sponsoring his wedding with an energy drink called “Ballzilla.”
As the conversation wrapped up, Bryant asked Johnson and Lyonne who might be on their casting wish list for the future. “Aidy Bryant,” they replied. Fingers crossed!
Stream all of Poker Face Season 1 now on Peacock and mark your calendars for May 8 when Season 2 kicks off with the first three episodes.
