\n\tAhead of Thursday\u2019s episode \u2018The End of the Road\u2019, the comedian spoke to Deadline about taking on the \u201cdream role\u201d of the mysterious Alex, at first introduced as a quirky friend and potential Watson for the troubled protagonist Charlie\u2019s Sherlock, but revealed in the finale to be the Moriarty of the story.<\/p>\n
\n\t\u201cI think that was an important part too, is just not that my character be so goofy and silly, \u2019cause I think they trusted me a lot to imbue it with humor, but that wasn\u2019t my directive going in,\u201d explained Harrison. \u201cI wanted to kind of figure out what would be the straight version of that first, because it is a devastating moment for Charlie.\u201d<\/p>\n
\n\tIn the penultimate \u2018Day of the Iguana\u2019, directed by Ti West, an assassin (Justin Theroux) frames Alex for murdering the groom (Haley Joel Osment) at a wedding she and Charlie are catering. <\/p>\n
\n\t\u201cWait, Justin Theroux was in it? \u2026 Oh, that other bum-ass, show-off actor. I\u2019m kidding. I adore him,\u201d joked Harrison. \u201cI just feel like I\u2019m in debt to him for just all the goofing around and silly fun times we\u2019ve had on set.\u201d<\/p>\n
\t\t\t\t\t\t![\"\"](\"https:\/\/deadline.com\/wp-content\/themes\/pmc-deadline-2019\/assets\/public\/lazyload-fallback.jpg\")
<\/p>\n
\t\t\t\t\tPatti Harrison as Alex and Natasha Lyonne as Charlie Cale in \u2018Poker Face\u2019 <\/p>\n
\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tRalph Bavaro\/Peacock<\/p>\n
\n\tThe Lyonne-helmed finale \u2018The End of the Road\u2019, now available to stream on Peacock<\/a>, sees Charlie and Alex on the run from the FBI and the mob as they get to the shocking truth behind who placed the hit and framed her. <\/p>\n \n\tAs revealed in her menacing act-three monologue, Alex is actually the world\u2019s deadliest assassin who became bored with killing bad guys until she heard about Charlie, the elusive human lie-detector. Deciding Charlie is her new challenge, Alex embeds herself in the amateur sleuth\u2019s life, using her to get to mob boss Beatrix Hasp, her actual target.<\/p>\n \n\t\u201cAs soon as I could imagine what it would be like to act, I wanted to play an assassin or a ninja or something,\u201d raved Harrison. \u201cBut as a kid, I actually wanted to be an assassin or a ninja, so it\u2019s kind of better for everyone if I just do it on screen.\u201d<\/p>\n \t\t\t\t\t\t \t\t\t\t\tPatti Harrison as Alex in \u2018Poker Face\u2019 (Ralph Bavaro\/Peacock)<\/p>\n \n\tRead on about Patti Harrison\u2019s experience joining Season 2 of Poker Face, that shocking finale twist and what lies ahead for Alex in Season 3.<\/p>\n \n\tDEADLINE: I\u2019m a huge fan of Poker Face, and I was so excited to see you come on in these last few episodes at all, just as like Charlie\u2019s seemingly new BFF, but then that twist at the end was a really fun way to end the season, and I did not see it coming. Tell me about coming onto this show and working with Natasha on building that unique onscreen dynamic.\u00a0<\/p>\n \n\tPATTI HARRISON: I feel so blown away and lucky to get to play what is really a dream role, not even just\u2014I was about to say my whole life, as soon as I could imagine what it would be like to act, I wanted to play an assassin or a ninja or something. But as a kid, I actually wanted to be an assassin or a ninja, so it\u2019s kind of better for everyone if I just do it on screen. And I\u2019m still not sure on that. I\u2019m taking a Muay Thai, self-defense, jiu-jitsu, Krav Maga class, and I found that my ability to overpower someone else is very far away in the future, and maybe not even.\u00a0Maybe the opportunity for that was in the past. And now I\u2019m best used, just kind of pretending I can beat people up when, actually in real life, everyone on earth would whoop my ass. \u2026\u00a0 The actual process of building the character and stuff, was really fun. It was really daunting. I appreciated how much space I had with fleshing out the character, but I do think they also wanted something specifically with the tone, and I think a lot of times, that\u2019s challenging if you\u2019re in a in a dramedy or a show that tonally needs to be able to get back to the emotional stakes without being too hammy or weird, and so, Natasha really had a vision for the character, but she really gave me space to throw \u2026 spaghetti at the wall, that\u2019s what it felt like. And Tony Tost, who\u2019s [the showrunner] was incredible, truly such a rock, and what I will say is his humor, but also his understanding of where the core pain and sort of darkness of these people and what the stakes would be if they lost something, it\u2019s just the way that he explains the story. I\u2019m not doing a good job of articulating it. But it was just a really gentle guiding hand when the work for the character was actually kind of intense, cause I was doing stunts for the first time, which was awesome, which I think was my favorite part of the whole show. And just kind of having to play two characters and not shooting completely chronologically, so it was kind of figuring it out as we go along with what felt right for when we finally were starting to do the scenes and what would feel kind of like ultimately the most surprising shift in tone, but also would still make sense for the world to make it not feel so goofy, I guess, cause the odds of feeling too goofy, they\u2019re there, they exist.\u00a0<\/p>\n \n\tDEADLINE: Well, I think it worked out perfectly. I really did not see it coming, and then when it did, all the flashbacks of her lying about the coffee order and then turning around and slitting Justin Theroux\u2019s throat, that was pretty badass.\u00a0<\/p>\n \n\tHARRISON: Wait, Justin Theroux was in it? \u2026 Oh, that other bum-ass, show-off actor. I\u2019m kidding. I adore him. I adore Justin Theroux. I would\u2014and who knows if I\u2019ll regret saying this in print later\u2014but, I would actually, if he was like, \u201cI\u2019ll pay you $300 to go beat up that person,\u201d any random person on the street, any random person online, I would go do that. I know I would lose, and they would whip my ass instead, but I just feel like I\u2019m in debt to him for just all the goofing around and silly fun times we\u2019ve had on set.\u00a0<\/p>\n \t\t\t\t\t\t \t\t\t\t\tNatasha Lyonne as Charlie Cale and Patti Harrison as Alex in \u2018Poker Face\u2019<\/p>\n \t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tRalph Bavaro\/Peacock<\/p>\n \n\tDEADLINE: It was fun to kind of be along on that ride, but also it was really heartbreaking how you go from being like the Watson to the Moriarty, and we see throughout the season, Charlie\u2019s really trying to find connection and an anchor or something, and she almost had that. Tell me about the emotional weight of that dynamic.\u00a0<\/p>\n \n\tHARRISON: I think that was an important part too, is just not that my character be so goofy and silly, cause I think they trusted me a lot to imbue it with humor, but that wasn\u2019t my directive going in. I wanted to kind of figure out what would be the straight version of that first, because it is a devastating moment for Charlie, especially after two seasons of the show about this person who\u2019s been hunted and on the run and so isolated, and kind of sorting out what what the rest of their life would look like if it\u2019s all worth it. It is just like a really sad, like the loneliness that you feel in a movie that would be about outer space or a TV show about outer space. I keep calling it a movie because filming it felt like a movie because of how cool all the stages were and the sets, and it was my first time working with Ti West and like Rian Johnson<\/a> and all these people who I\u2019m like, \u201cMovies, movies!\u201d And I think it should all be viewed in one sitting as a movie, it\u2019s the original way it was intended to be watched in one sitting, the first and second season as one film.<\/p>\n \n\tDEADLINE: And those final two episodes played out kind of like a horror movie too, which is why it\u2019s so great that Ti West is one of the directors.<\/p>\n \n\tHARRISON: Oh yeah, it was so cool. When you\u2019re on set too, I have tone blindness when it comes to reading a script, when it comes to filming something, and then whenever I actually see the thing on a screen when it comes out, I\u2019m like, \u201cOh, that\u2019s why they were like doing that. That\u2019s why the camera was on a track, on a dolly.\u201d \u2026 I really was so like excited to see. Cause there were so many things that Ti was like, \u201cIt\u2019s gonna feel weird, but you\u2019re gonna need to do this. Just really keep doing this longer than you feel you\u2019re gonna want to\u201d in terms of acting scared or having certain reactions. And I think the show is a love letter in a lot of ways to all sorts of TV shows and movies, and everyone involved, they\u2019re all film, TV junkies, and it just really felt invigorating to be like, \u201cOh we\u2019re telling a story that is moving\u2014everything feels so alive,\u201d I guess. I feel like I\u2019ve watched some stuff recently that just feels like cash grabs, or it doesn\u2019t really matter if the characters have chemistry, it doesn\u2019t matter if the story is exciting or whatnot. They\u2019re just like, \u201cLet\u2019s put this movie out cause we know people will go see it.\u201d Or \u201cLet\u2019s put this TV show out because it\u2019s a franchise, or people will just watch it no matter what.\u201d And it does feel cool to get to work on something where everyone was so excited to talk about the references, and the planning for the shots, and why the camera moves make sense for the story and the characters\u2019 emotional world and stuff like that.<\/p>\n \n\tDEADLINE: I heard Clea Duvall is kind of responsible for your your casting. Tell me about how she connected you to the show.\u00a0<\/p>\n \n\tHARRISON: Wait, I didn\u2019t know this.\u00a0What did you hear?<\/p>\n \t\t\t\t\t\t \t\t\t\t\tPatti Harrison as Alex in \u2018Poker Face\u2019 (Ralph Bavaro\/Peacock)<\/p>\n \n\tDEADLINE: Natasha told me when I was interviewing her that Clea recommended you to play the part. She said you\u2019d be perfect for it.\u00a0<\/p>\n \n\tHARRISON: I\u2019m literally learning this from you. Oh, Clea!\u00a0She\u2019s so nice. \u2026 That is like liquefying my mind, body and soul right now. That is so nice. I really just got the email and an offer, I didn\u2019t audition for it. I auditioned for the first season of Poker Face, and I was not proud of my audition. I think I auditioned maybe twice actually.\u00a0<\/p>\n \n\tDEADLINE: Do you remember which role?<\/p>\n \n\tHARRISON: One of them was for the pilot episode, the cleaning lady, Charlie\u2019s friend who\u2019s murdered \u2026 I didn\u2019t hear back for, I feel like years, because from that audition process, I think I was in lockdown. And then I got the offer email, and I was like, \u201cOh my gosh!\u201d And I was truly so mortified because it\u2019s my dream to work with Rian Johnson. \u2026 After those first auditions, in my mind, I\u2019ve done such a bad job that I was like, they\u2019re gonna be mad, like, \u201cthat dumb ass bitch can\u2019t act,\u201d and I\u2019ll never get to have the opportunity to work with them again. So, when I got the email, I was so ecstatic, and then to get to work on the show, I just kind of dove into it. It felt weird to be like, \u201cSo who is responsible for me getting this role?\u201d \u2026 I think I just wanted to do such a good job that I blacked out from giving myself brain damage from thinking so hard.\u00a0<\/p>\n \n\tDEADLINE: Well, I think you did do a great job, andhopefully you\u2019re returning for Season 3, I assume, since they they didn\u2019t find a body. Can you tell me if there\u2019s been any chats about going forward, the whole Sherlock\/Moriarty dining dynamic, I guess?\u00a0<\/p>\n \n\tHARRISON: You know, I wish I could say more, but Peacock actually has in our contracts that if we speak on future seasons, there is an NBC NDA assassin that comes and kills you, using a very unique style of martial arts exclusive to NBC, that they only teach their like top-ranking officials. So, you\u2019ll have to wait and see.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"SPOILERS: This post contains details about the Poker Face, Season 2 finale episode \u2018The End of the Road\u2019…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":353,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[54],"tags":[88,492,493,220,494,495,92],"class_list":{"0":"post-352","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-tv","8":"tag-entertainment","9":"tag-natasha-lyonne","10":"tag-patti-harrison","11":"tag-peacock","12":"tag-poker-face","13":"tag-rian-johnson","14":"tag-tv"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/352","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=352"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/352\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/353"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=352"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=352"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=352"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}<\/p>\n<\/p>\n<\/p>\n