Is there a better spot for a guest actor on television than “Poker Face,” the Peacock mystery series starring Natasha Lyonne as a crime-solving human lie detector?
You headline the self-contained episode, likely playing the baddie on a show that delights in an exaggerated tone. It requires a big swing but no long-term commitment. And if you connect, you could win an Emmy just like Judith Light, who took the comedy guest actress prize for her Season 1 turn as a 1960s radical up to no good in a retirement home.
Series creator Rian Johnson and Lyonne keep a Google document with the names of dream guest stars, though Johnson says, “It’s kind of a list of every actor in Hollywood.” Yes, they cast a wide net, though judging from the folks they lined up for the show’s 12-episode second season, which premiered last week, you might think they’re working their way through the casts of “Cheers” and “Taxi.”
“The Andy Kaufman episode of ‘Poker Face’ is incredible,” Lyonne jokes, name-checking the late comedian and “Taxi” cast member who has long been rumored to have faked his death. “It was a shock to nobody more than him to even receive a text message. He said, ‘How’d I even get an iPhone where I am?’”
We’ll have to wait for a future season for that guest spot. In the meantime, we spoke with four of this season’s guest stars about their work on the show and whether their bull— detector was on par with the series’ star.
Cynthia Erivo, ‘The Game Is a Foot’
Former child star quintuplets reunite when their stage mom dies. One of them is dangerously determined to be the sole inheritor of the estate.
For the season’s first episode, Johnson cast and directed the Oscar-nominated Erivo, enlisting her to play five separate outlandish characters. There’s the nerdy caretaker, the self-assured artist, the damaged orchard worker, the bored DJ and the literature professor who thinks she’s French.
“You’re really on the edge of your seat the entire time, like, ‘Who am I? What am I doing?’” Erivo says of the acting assignment. “You’re using visual cues to remind yourself, ‘Oh, you’re this person right now.’”
Erivo remembers the day on set when Johnson showed her the split screen of all the characters together. “It was the first time I was like, ‘Oh, my God, this is going to work. The characters are all coming through.’”
Erivo’s bull— detector: Mighty. “Much to my dismay, because sometimes it’d be quite nice to not know when someone’s bull— or not. But it is helpful because then you know how much energy to give to something.”
Katie Holmes, ‘Last Looks’
The wife of a funeral director (Giancarlo Esposito) dreams of a life that doesn’t involve embalming fluids.
“Poor Greta,” Holmes says, thinking about her character. “She had so much hope.”
But let’s not dwell on that. Holmes’ favorite part of her guest spot was letting loose during a nighttime beach party, drinking from what seems to be a bottomless Mason jar of booze and singing the praises of (and later dancing to) Anita Ward’s disco hit “Ring My Bell.”
“There are so many people on the show that I’ve known for decades, but, Katie, I never had the chance,” says Lyonne, who directed the episode. “And she was so game. I would love to screen the unaired full takes of Katie and Giancarlo just going at it. I would be staring at the monitor, like, ‘Holy Toledo, what just happened here?’”
Holmes’ bull— detector: “The older I get, the more attuned I am. But I like to be really open-minded with people.”
Rhea Perlman, ‘Whack-a-Mole’
Mob boss Beatrix Hasp (voiced by Perlman in the Season 1 finale) returns, pushing Charlie at gunpoint to find a mole in her crime family.
“Carla had an edge, but she was not someone with a gun,” Perlman says, name-checking her “Cheers” character. “I never had a part where I had a gun before, nor in my life have I ever held a gun before.”
“You’re telling me Carla never pulled a gun on Sam on ‘Cheers’?” Johnson asks. When told she’d have been more likely to threaten Diane, Carla’s nemesis, played by Shelley Long, Johnson agrees — and Lyonne quickly throws out Long’s name for a future guest spot.
“Our goal is to get the whole cast of ‘Cheers’ on ‘Poker Face,’” Johnson says.
Perlman’s bull— detector: “I don’t have a bulls— gene. I like to give people a chance.”
Kumail Nanjiani, ‘The Taste of Human Blood’
Florida cop “Gator Joe” wins a bevy of police honors until a jealous colleague decides to end his run.
Nanjiani isn’t the first person you’d cast to play a character who shares a few similarities, down to the frosted hair, with Joe Exotic of “Tiger King” fame. But the actor, who binged “Columbo” (the model for Lyonne’s character) during the pandemic, was thrilled to get the call.
“All I want to do is not repeat myself,” Nanjiani says. “The most exciting thing is doing something that scares me 15%.”
Gator Joe doubled that fear factor, but Nanjiani knew the tone of the show would help him.
“The idea of a Pakistani guy being a Florida cop who speaks with that accent, has tattoos and a frosted-tip mullet only makes sense in ‘Poker Face’ world. I’m never going to get the chance to do this character on any other show.”
“The mark of a great ‘Poker Face’ guest star is to go full Kumail,” Lyonne says.
Nanjiani’s bull— detector: Decent. “But it’s not as strong as my wife’s [Emily V. Gordon, ‘The Big Sick’].”
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