Natasha Lyonne remains unconventional as a sleuth in 'Poker Face' and in her career

Her hairsbreadth is red, voluminous and wild. She walks with a swagger. Her dependable is raspy, and not successful a sexy benignant of Lauren Bacall way, but much similar Peter Falk.

Long earlier uncovering her groove with unconventional roles successful “Orange Is the New Black,” “Russian Doll” and now, “Poker Face,” determination weren’t galore options for a escaped tone similar Natasha Lyonne, particularly erstwhile she aged from a pliable kid histrion into a self-aware adult.

“It’s weird that each of a sudden, 1 day, everybody looks astatine you otherwise and you’re alert of it,” says Lyonne, 46. “I retrieve the ‘Lolita’ audition, and it was like, ‘Will you dilatory devour this apple?’ And I was like, ‘I cognize what you’re asking of me. I tin devour it for you comedically.’ But no, I volition not simulate enactment with an pome connected camera. I mean, I’d studied the past of film. These were not revelations.”

The existent surprise? Lyonne forged a vocation by uncovering and aboriginal creating projects that capitalized connected her undeniably intrepid personality, wrapping the roles astir her eccentricities alternatively than conforming to what was expected of a pistillate performer successful Hollywood. Lyonne’s latest enactment of defiance is Season 2 of the Peacock bid “Poker Face,” a murder-of-the-week enigma created by Rian Johnson (“Knives Out,” “Glass Onion”) that she stars successful and enforcement produces. This season, successful summation to writing, she’s besides directing 2 episodes.

Natasha Lyonne arsenic Charlie Cale successful Season 2 of Peacock’s “Poker Face.”

(Sarah Shatz / Peacock)

The series, which returns Thursday with 3 episodes followed by 1 each ensuing week, continues to travel Charlie Cale (Lyonne), a scrappy Vegas casino worker who is blessed and cursed with the quality to accurately discern erstwhile idiosyncratic is lying. Following the execution of her champion friend, she’s forced to outrun the mob successful her 1969 Plymouth Barracuda, traversing the byways of America portion solving murders on the way.

The hourlong bid takes its cues from personality-driven, ‘70s-era detective dramas including “The Rockford Files” and “McCloud.” But it’s “Columbo,” starring the wonderfully rumpled Falk, that’s astir heavy influenced “Poker Face.”

Lyonne recalls the 1971 aviator occurrence of the vintage TV series, which was directed by a 24-year-old newcomer named Steven Spielberg. “I ripped from it directorially,” Lyonne says. “I similar the 1 long, dilatory [Robert] Altman-like zoom changeable done the bureau model down to the car. And I perceive Spielberg went connected to bash large things. It’s like, ‘You similar that agelong shot? You’re ne'er gonna judge what this feline does next! Holy smokes. Are you successful for a ride!’”

But Charlie Cale is not Columbo. She carries a vape pen alternatively of a cigar and prefers cut-off shorts to a trench coat. She does, however, stock the uncanny knack for arriving conscionable arsenic a murder’s taking place, beryllium it connected an alligator workplace successful Florida oregon a sprawling East Coast mansion. She’s confronted with a caller formed of characters astatine each stop, and the roster of endowment who inhabit those roles is impressive. The lineup includes Cynthia Erivo, Giancarlo Esposito, Katie Holmes, Justin Theroux, Alia Shawkat, John Mulaney, Kumail Nanjiani, Lili Taylor, Margo Martindale, Melanie Lynskey and Rhea Perlman.

Katie Holmes, left, impermanent stars this season. Also impermanent starring is Giancarlo Esposito. (Sarah Shatz / Peacock)

“Charlie is simply a large person of people,” Lyonne says. “[My erstwhile character] Nadia successful ‘Russian Doll,’ which I co-created with Amy Poehler and Leslye Headland, it’s astir similar she was connected her ain case. But Charlie’s already been connected the travel wherever we suffer involvement successful ourselves and summation involvement successful our fellows. The mob is aft her. She can’t person a phone. She can’t person roots. She can’t truly autumn successful love. It’s lonely.”

Lyonne’s ain travel into the satellite of acting turned her into a seasoned seasoned earlier she was adjacent aged capable to vote. The New York autochthonal worked successful commercials earlier kindergarten, and arsenic a grade-school pupil landed the TV relation of Opal successful “Pee-wee’s Playhouse.” She besides appeared successful films specified arsenic “Heartburn,” “A Man Called Sarge” and “Dennis the Menace.” By her precocious teens, she landed her breakthrough relation arsenic the girl of a broke azygous dada (played by Alan Arkin) successful the 1998 indie drama “Slums of Beverly Hills.”

“I’ve been doing this since I was 4 years old, beloved reader,” jokes Lyonne, whose acting vocation present spans 4 decades. “As a kid quality actor, determination is this benignant of interior knowingness. We were wholly alert, small businesspeople. If you commencement astatine 4, by 6, you benignant of get the thought [of what’s going on], similar ‘Don’t mumble. The Minute Maid radical don’t similar that successful their commercial.’ By 8, you cognize wherever the bodies are buried. You cognize however to work a room, to execute connected command. I tin inactive odor the Pine-Sol from that Pine-Sol commercialized successful 1986.”

Even arsenic a child, Lyonne didn’t rather acceptable the mold of precocious yet accessible miss adjacent door: “I was trying to carve retired this weird lane portion discovering the heartbreak of not getting the relation successful ‘Curly Sue.’ I was like, I’m cleanable for this thing. What’s wrong? Oh, I see. You’ve got to beryllium Shirley Temple oregon you can’t truly bent out.”

Lyonne pivoted to different passion: movie and tv history. She is simply a walking encyclopedia of large performances and buried, esoteric moments successful some media. For a abbreviated time, she studied movie and doctrine astatine NYU. “I was already reasoning that I’ve got to modulation this into filmmaking from the wrong out, alternatively than conscionable being an histrion for hire. It took 20 years for that to materialize into a reality,” she says.

“I was already reasoning that I’ve got to modulation this into filmmaking from the wrong out, alternatively than conscionable being an histrion for hire. It took 20 years for that to materialize into a reality,” Natasha Lyonne says. (Christina House / Los Angeles Times)

She disappeared from the nationalist oculus for implicit a decennary arsenic she battled cause addiction. Her comeback included a recurring relation arsenic Nicky Nichols successful “Orange Is the New Black,” Netflix’s breakout streaming hit. Lyonne has said she had plentifulness to gully connected for the character, who was a recovering cause addict. Nicky became a instrumentality favorite.

By 2019, Lyonne co-created her ain Netflix series, the existential acheronian drama “Russian Doll,” wherever she played Nadia, a New York City-based video crippled developer who gets caught successful a clip loop astatine her 36th day party. She’s connected a quest to lick the enigma of wherefore she dies, repeatedly.

“There were techniques [I had to learn], similar existent filmmaking, existent writing, existent producing,” Lyonne says. “The parts weren’t there, and the parts are inactive not there. It’s similar nobody’s penning them.”

But she credits collaborators similar Johnson for creating parts for actors specified arsenic herself.

“Rian truly is immoderate benignant of genius due to the fact that helium took this self-referential gig that I was doing [and turned it] into a benignant of quality piece. I’m self-made, I suppose,” she says. “This is the mode the hairsbreadth grows retired of my head. I’ll perpetrate to it. So helium took that and made it into something.”

“Poker Face” is simply a colorful, entertaining thrust done a retro murder-mystery genre, present-day pockets of quirky American civilization and Lyonne’s ain idiosyncratic travel arsenic seen done Charlie.

“The amusement is astir losing this nihilistic, self-destructive streak and uncovering transportation with different human,” Lyonne says. “You effort to physique a beingness and not termination yourself implicit and implicit again. It’s similar a marathon antheral oregon a long-distance runner. But she’s been done that acheronian and stormy nighttime of the soul, and travel retired connected the different broadside with the prima astatine her back.”