How Natasha Lyonne and Rian Johnson Cast Season 2 of Poker Face

While walking the red carpet to celebrate Season 2 of the Peacock series, both Lyonne and Johnson opened up to TooFab how they go about casting the series — which is packed with celebrity cameos.

“It’s an interesting challenge,” Johnson — who created the show and serves as executive producer, writer and director — began.

“Because we cast as we shoot, we cast week to week, and so it’s always a bit of a panic process and we do have lots of actors who are interested,” he continued. “It’s also these actors are the most talented actors on the planet. So they’re very busy. And so it’s always like doing a jigsaw puzzle on a moving train a little bit.”

It’s then that Lyonne hilariously crashed TooFab’s interview with the director.

“Oh, TooFab,” Lyonne said. “What are you guys talking about?” she asked, before being filled her in on the topic of casting. “Oh my God yeah, remember that burner phone we got? That was for casting. We’re 666-6666-6666,” the lead actress and fellow-EP joked.

“That’s the thing. It does get really down to the wire at a certain point,” she continued. “So, it’s lofty complicated or it’s one of our friends, and we think there’s a bite and a desire, but then everyone has a schedule and children and flights. And so the episode needs to be protected.”

Looking around, Johnson pointed out some of the “incredible” guest stars.

“It’s pretty incredible. We’ve got Clea (DuVall), we’ve got Melanie (Lynskey). It’s insane,” he said — before Lyonne joked, “Blanche DuBois is over there, Barbara Stanwyck. Ludacris, Ludacris is here tonight, folks.”

The duo also managed to score Cynthia Erivo at the peak in her career right now, after starring as Elphaba in Wicked. She takes on the feat of playing five different characters in Season 2 of the series.

“She’s incredible,” Johnson teased. “Because we shot that episode in 10 days, which for the length of the script is not a lot of time to shoot it, and it meant that we were so tightly scheduled. So, she would literally do one half of the scene with one character, go and do a quick makeup change, come back and do the other half of the scene and she had to keep it all in her head.”

The Knives Out director also stressed that Erivo was filming during her Wicked press tour

“I have no idea how she worked that hard on the episode and was just also such an absolute pleasure. So I just bow down before her. I really hope I get to work with her again, she’s amazing,” he added.

Johnson is also getting ready for the third installment of his Knives Out franchise, which stars Daniel Craig as Benoit Blanc and a long list of big names. As for who surprised him the most, he said, “In many different ways, so many of the cast did.”

“I really love … Josh O’Connor, I think he can do anything. I think he’s miraculous. My director friends are sick of me hyping up Josh O’Connor to them,” he revealed, before pointing out another actor who is showing a different side to his acting abilities in the film.

“Also, Jeremy Renner, I feel like he has some comic scenes in this one that I think people are going to be surprised by how weirdly funny he is in the movie. I think he should be doing more comedy,” he added.

Johnson’s third Knives Out movie, titled “Wake Up Dead Man: A Knives Out Mystery,” is scheduled to be released globally on Netflix in the fall of 2025. It also stars Glenn Close, John Brolin, Mila Kunis, Kerry Washington, Thomas Haden Church and Andrew Scott.

Season 2 of Poker Face, starring Lyonne, premieres on Peacock on Thursday, May 8th, 2025 — with the first three episodes launching that day, followed by weekly releases every Thursday.