Name: How Natasha Lyonne Built Her Poker Face, Orange is the New Black and Russian Doll Characters
Uploaded: 2025-08-20T18:11:44.000Z
Duration: 9 min 12 s
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So it's important to me, now that I'm getting older, to make sure that all my characters could get hip replacements, and it wouldn't matter.

Hello, Harper's Bazaar. I'm Natasha Lyonne, and I'm gonna break down how I brought some of my characters to life.

Hi. What do you want to know a little bit about her story?

Well, gosh, it's hard to remember because it was almost 20 years ago.

She was sort of based on Tamara Jenkins, the writer-director.

Slums of Beverly Hills comes from being on the outskirts of the, uh, really good 90210 zip.

So you could still go to the schools, but you're not living in a mansion, Henny.

She was a teenager. I think she's about 15, which I still am.

Uh, and she's sort of coming of age, growing breasts, getting her first bra.

Yeah, it's definitely a sort of quintessential coming-of-age picture.

I remember that Tamara sent, uh, a lot of references.

We ended up with a lot of, like, halters and jean shorts and, you know, those stripy socks with sneakers.

Later, the great Marissa Tomei, who I'm still so close with, is her cousin that moves in, and she teaches her how to nair her mustache.

And gets her some platforms and a little miniskirt.

A big part was, I'm not sure you guys might be, uh, in too tight on me.

I didn't have the necessary rack for the gig, so I was wearing, uh, sort of chicken cutlets.

But we were shooting in the, uh, the dead of summer, so I just remember that I was always constantly taking out and juggling these chicken cutlet boobs, because it was so hot, they'd get sweaty, and we had these large air-conditioning tubes that would be in this little slums of Beverly Hills tenement.

So I would hang out in there, crawling around in there, reading my philosophy books, and I'd put the little chicken cutlets in there to try to cool them off.

There was a lot of that. Yeah, I mean, it was certainly a very special film that really resonated with people.

Again, I think it was that Tamara Jenkins was drawing on so much personal reservoir that it just felt very specific.

I see it still now, and I think it's probably the best movie that I've made.

I probably just wouldn't even recommend, let alone break down.

I've technically died on three separate occasions, and I haven't met God.

Dindy Collins' Orange is the New Black, now streaming on Netflix.

It was a couple of years ago, but it's still there, I bet.

You know, Piper, Taylor Schilling, sort of, you know, trusted ally in the early seasons, and, of course, has a grand romance with the Isle of Stone, Lorna.

Kate Mulgrew, Red, is sort of her prison mom, and, yeah, she's really got a lot of mommy issues.

You know, her mom kind of didn't really give her the love she needed, and I think weirdly sort of finds a bit of a family while she's in there, even though she knows she's got to get out.

You know, it takes place in prison, so, you know, I remember in establishing those characters with the hair and makeup and wardrobe team, it was all about sort of personalizing, in these small, nuanced ways, these characters who were in Litchfield Prison and, you know, what they would have access to.

So, for Nicky Nichols, it was a lot of, like, we put a white T-shirt underneath it so she could just roll up the T-shirt a bit, or she would stuff her pants into her kind of work boots so that she had a little bit of flair.

And from a makeup standpoint, we really realized that, like, the under black liner with just some too much mascara was sort of no foundation.

The hair, it's messy, unpolished, unkempt.

Yeah, you know, Nicky Nichols is a ladies' man.

I don't know what your secret is, Specs, but you are looking even hotter than I remember.

That's sort of key to her style or her sort of presentation is,

And then, yes, it is really heavy in the final season as Red's mind starts to float away.

She sort of finds herself kind of, you know, taking over that slot and, you know, becoming the mother to Red.

Do your vitamins usually have an identification number on them?

It was actually very sweet, you know, because, you know, like the Netflix parties would be these, like, you know, small things.

I remember, like, telling my friends about Orange is the New Black, and they were like, ah, that's too bad.

I guess you're on a, your career took you to the internet.

We were shocked to discover, like, the huge hit it would become and the way it would change the business forever.

So it was sort of very fun to be in on that early ride, an industry really changing.

And then you were kind of in the eye of the storm.

We were just making this bizarre secret show and sort of nobody knew what we were making.

And then all of a sudden it came out and it really changed the landscape also of, you know, our vision of what women could be and what type of women should be at the center of the story.

I mean, I smoke, what, like two packs a day?

I have the internal organs of a man twice my age.

A Russian Doll is a show I co-created with Amy Poehler and Leslie Hedlund.

She's a pretty defiant, you know, when we first meet her and sort of her arc is one of finding Alan and sort of finding that connection that sort of opens up a way out of, in season one, a death loop.

And in season two, it goes even, you know, deeper into sort of her, her origin story.

Season two really becomes a Quantum Leap season.

Nadia is definitely sort of a bit of a Lou Reed figure.

For the year, it's important to have like very good walking shoes because there's a lot of running around, you know, she's always falling down staircases and running into the MTA and walking on train tracks.

So a lot has to happen and they're really long hours and a lot of night shoots, we usually shoot in dead of winter and, you know, silky blouse or something that's sort of like someone's a bit of a Stevie Nicks or something.

And then over that, a sort of, you know, a blazer that can get her through all situations.

And then on top of that, an overcoat, pair of sunglasses, cause you need those.

You know, I write and direct and produce and star in that show.

Russian Doll and Poker Face have real tentacles in the Altman movie, The Long Goodbye and Elliot Gould's sort of hipster, you know, seventies portrayal of a sort of sleuth.

It's a really special endeavor and it's a brainy bunch that comes together to realize it.

And, you know, as a cocktail waitress at a casino when we first meet her and she finds herself a little bit in the middle of the eye of the storm, kind of cracking a case.

She's got this ability to tell when people are lying and historically she's used that for poker, but left aside that life for a simpler one.