Making of ‘Poker Face’: Lively roundtable with 4 crafts artisans [Exclusive Video Interview]
On Peacock’s murder mystery/comedy hybrid “Poker Face,” not only are the actors, writers and directors pivotal to the success of the show, but the artisans toiling behind the scenes are of course some of the real stars of the show. How do they typically work with other departments to ensure that they’re all serving the story and elevating the actors’ performances in the best possible way? To answer that question and many more, we celebrated the the show’s acclaimed first season with a special 40-minute “making of” roundtable discussion with costume designer Trayce Gigi Field, production designer Judy Rhee, makeup department head Amy L. Forsythe and hair department head Marcel Dagenais. Together they are joined by Gold Derby senior editor Rob Licuria for a fascinating Q&A about their highlights. Watch our exclusive Q&A video above.
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“Poker Face” was created by Oscar-nominated writer/director Johnson (“Knives Out,” “Glass Onion”), who also serves as co-showrunner alongside producer writer/producer sisters Nora Zuckerman and Lilla Zuckerman. The “case-of-the-week” murder mystery stars Emmy nominee Natasha Lyonne (“Orange is the New Black,” “Russian Doll”) as Charlie Cale, a casino worker on the run from her nefarious casino bosses. As Charlie tries to stay one step ahead of casino head of security Cliff LeGrand (Emmy nominee Benjamin Bratt) in a cross-country cat-and-mouse game, she becomes inevitably entangled in a mysterious death of a stranger on each stop along the way.
The series harkens back to the classic whodunnits of yesteryear, like Emmy-winning favorites “Columbo” and “Murder, She Wrote” and the more recent comedy-tinged “Monk,” as Charlie finds herself in the thick of the action in every town, truck stop and resting place, solving mysterious murders aided by her uncanny ability to tell when people are lying to her. Lyonne portrays the scrappy amateur detective with her trademark droll wit and sarcasm, alongside a star-studded cast of guest actors including Lil Rey Howery, Joseph Gordon Levitt, Tim Blake Nelson, Ron Perlman, Hong Chau, Stephanie Hsu, Nick Nolte, Chole Sevigny, Ellen Barkin, Cherry Jones, S. Epatha Merkerson and Judith Light, to name just a few.
“We all really like each other, so I think that that really comes through on screen,” Field explains about working with her fellow department heads on the show. “It’s a testament to show that we are all into making the best product possible by constantly collaborating,” she says. “We created a shorthand so quickly,” Forsythe agrees. “Everybody on this panel is really good at what they do. So, you can basically go into somebody’s office and they already have the answer and you haven’t even asked the question,” she laughs. “Our personalities really melded very well,” Rhee adds, noting that “I love seeing everything on the screen and how it all did come together with such a shorthand. It’s pretty incredible,” she says. “It was really fun to be with such a great, talented group,” Dagenais declares, adding that “the collaboration was really incredible.”
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