00:00Who am I? I'm just some schnook in a chair. In Chanel, though.
00:05Hi, I'm Natasha Lyonne, noted eccentric.
00:08My work wives? No shortage.
00:11Certainly Chloe Sathamie, Claire Duvall, Melanie Lensky, Janeksa Bravo,
00:16Poehler, Amy Poehler, Alice Jew, I think of her as maybe more of a work daughter,
00:22because she's younger than me.
00:24I guess I feel like my most powerful, if I can do a Thursday New York Time puzzle,
00:28or it's not always even a Friday or a Saturday.
00:32Other things that make me feel powerful, giant hair.
00:35What makes me feel the most powerful is when I see a man in sort of a thong
00:38that's also shaped as an elephant tusk.
00:40Now that can also be like even a banana with eyeballs.
00:43Well, it felt pivotal.
00:44For me, honestly, it's always hard to trump the experience of Russian Doll
00:48because it was so personal.
00:50I was so invested in the material, and I really got to do a 360 number,
00:54which is being like fully embodied in it,
00:56like the writing and directing and creating and show running.
00:59I love that show so much.
01:01It's like a huge collaboration, a huge undertaking,
01:04and I think I'm always very moved that people connected with it
01:08because it lets me know that it's okay to sing you a little song in your heart,
01:13even if it's not for everyone.
01:14Some people will get something from it.
01:16What keeps me grounded is the memory of the insignificance of it all.
01:21It actually doesn't matter if I personally win or visit life.
01:26Always helpful to remember we all die at the end of the movie.
01:30So get your banana boat tannies now, you know what I mean?
01:35Something I wish more people understood about my job.
01:38Sometimes people say, is it fun?
01:39It's a little bit more like, you know, a great adventure that you're embarking on.
01:43It's a very work-intensive thing,
01:46so the fun is in feeling like you got it.
01:48I think probably the thing I have the most fun with is at the monitor.
01:51When directing and things like all come together,
01:53and you're like, what just happened?
01:56That is very satisfying.
01:57The best piece of advice that I received is to have the talent to back up the talent
02:02because I think a lot of people are gifted,
02:04but you have to like take care of that gift.
02:07I'm a big beach person.
02:09I'm always looking forward to like what I call the Shawshank at the end of the movie,
02:12even if those are TV shows.
02:14And when I get there, I'm like, ha, full Shawshank.
02:17I will say that for sure my happy place is in writing.
02:20I have a lot of like secret scripts and sort of Google Docs
02:24that I work on with some pretty extraordinary people that are writers.
02:28I'm writing something right now with Britt Marling, who I adore.
02:30And our inner children are delighted, and it actually gives a lot of energy.
02:34It almost like doesn't feel like work at all.
02:36It feels like us in a playpen doing our thing,
02:39and it's very invigorating.
02:40My first audition, well, I was so young.
02:46My mom had taken me probably to some commercial or something.
02:49I do recall crime.
02:50I think that since she tried it with my older brother first,
02:53she knew that that was just normal.
02:55So I did go to a second.
02:56If I'm like show running something like Russian Doll,
03:00I'm apt to do a lot of push-ups, Travis Bickle style in the morning,
03:04but to George Harrison's Give Me Love.
03:06Sort of calm and serenity and gratitude before I get going,
03:09but with a nice blend, you know?
03:12Coleman Domingo, not to drop a major name,
03:14he really taught me that it's really nice to just like take a pause
03:18of like a centering self.
03:20Just kind of like settle yourself and take a breath.
03:22And as you guys might have noticed today, I also bring a playlist.
03:25There's a great Peter O'Toole conversation.
03:28He says memorizing lies.
03:30The implication is a sort of how dare you.
03:32You actually like are supposed to spend time with the material
03:35and really like get it in your system such that
03:38kind of like gets in your DNA.
03:40I think that I really found my own curriculum within that
03:43would go on these sort of deep dives.
03:45It's pre-internet.
03:46So now in older life, well, I found Instagram.
03:49So I think I saw something where Anthony Hopkins talks about
03:53how the way he does it is he'll read a script sort of 10 times over.
03:57It sort of has to enter your system.
03:59To prepare for a scene, I like to be completely off book,
04:03mainly for anxiety or exactitude.
04:05And from there, I like to sort of like find the space
04:08for improvisation or surprise.
04:10I think it just makes you looser.
04:11No spoilers, but the finale of Poker Face,
04:13the season which I was lucky to direct,
04:16had a surprise cameo by someone who was very special to me.
04:18It really changed it.
04:20Ryan was there.
04:20We were so delighted.
04:22She got involved and that was completely spontaneous
04:24and it really made the scene.
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