How Natasha Lyonne and Benjamin Bratt Went Beyond Cat-and-Mouse in ‘Poker Face’
In the immortal words of Blues Traveler, “The hook brings you back” — and the hook of Rian Johnson’s “Poker Face” is Natasha Lyonne and Benjamin Bratt.
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Lyonne plays the charmingly irreverent Charlie Cale (who she describes as more “Big Lebowski” than “Russian Doll”) in the murder-mystery “howcatchem” born out of her conversations with Johnson and executed as a mix of their voices. Bratt plays the menacing Cliff LeGrand, tasked with hunting her down and bringing her back to Sterling Frost (Ron Perlman). Charlie spends the 10-episode series on the run, solving murders all over the nation while dodging Cliff’s clutches, only to land in the crossfire between him and Sterling during the finale.
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“I was blown away,” Bratt said of the experience of reading the finale and learning more about his character. “Cliff all of a sudden became this really idiosyncratic, bizarre weirdo. Yes, he’s dangerous, and yes, he’s good at his job, but he’s also got some some peculiar interests, I would say.”
Bratt and Lyonne sat down together as part of IndieWire’s Spotlight series to chat about their characters, delight in their friendship, and effusively praise Johnson’s creativity and intelligence. Their favorite scenes together included Charlie’s coffee-fueled Episode 1 monologue, Episode 4’s mosh pit, and the below-deck boat fight in Episode 10.
“It’s very helpful to be like a director, writer, producer-type person because you have so much more empathy for yourself as you’re embarrassing yourself,” Lyonne said. “Like when the dick ring doesn’t work and it keeps turning off and the entire crew has to surround you to like, trade out your dick ring, you just have a little bit more empathy for the process.”
Bratt had nothing but praise for Lyonne as both performer and person, pointing to her “patter, the inherent intelligence, the wit, the kind of offhanded humor that comes about” as he got to know her.
“Rian comes with a very specific tone and even cinematic vision of what he wants to execute, and he’s pretty final about that, I think always to a pretty spectacular end,” Bratt said. “He put all that in a page that’s kind of a happy marriage between this totally unique character and the person I’ve come to love… so he is now officially a magician.”
In true “Poker Face”-fashion, both Charlie and Cliff face unexpected twists in the finale, setting up the upcoming second season and showcasing Johnson’s razor-sharp writing. Every chase needs a killer antagonist, and Bratt got to develop his incrementally throughout the season, finally going toe-to-toe with Charlie.
“Ultimately, we’re characters who are circumstantially antagonistic, but who actually have respect for each other,” Lyonne said. “It almost felt to me like there was this genuine moment in the end where maybe they actually were just going to fucking run off — not like start a romance, but just more like, ‘We can get out of this together.'”
No detailed spoilers, but that’s not exactly what happens. Charlie and Cliff might not be out of it, but “Poker Face” viewers can look forward to the hook when the series returns.
Watch the full Awards Spotlight conversation between Bratt and Lyonne in the video above.
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