Rian Johnson continues to explore the mystery genre with his new series, Poker Face. While his films Knives Out and Glass Onion took a page out of Agatha Christie's style of whodunit murder mystery, Poker Face is inspired by the classic detective series Columbo, with a new howcatchem mystery at the center of every episode. Poker Face follows Charlie Cale (Natasha Lyonne), who has an uncanny ability to know when people are lying to her, which gets her into trouble.
Traveling across the country and below the radar, Charlie can't help but be drawn into a new mystery with a unique cast of characters each time she stops. With her lie-detecting ability and mind for puzzles, Charlie can't help but solve the case, even if it leads to more trouble. Poker Face has an impressive cast of characters in each episode, including Stephanie Hsu, Ellen Barkin, Lil Rel Howry, Hon Chau, Nick Nolte, and Adrien Brody.
Screen Rant spoke with Brody about his role on Rian Johnson's new mystery series, Poker Face. Brody explains what he loves about collaborating with Johnson and Natasha Lyonne. He also breaks down why he wanted to infuse his character, Sterling Frost Jr., with complexities, including how he is similar to Fredo from The Godfather.
Adrien Brody On Poker Face
Screen Rant: Amazing job on Poker Face. I absolutely love this series. It keeps you guessing all the way through. It's amazingly written and directed. Can you talk to me a little bit about your character Sterling Frost Jr., and what drew you to the character?
Adrien Brody: Well, what drew me to the character was Rian. Rian wrote a wonderful character and presented it to me. I don't know if you're aware, but we worked together many years ago on Brothers Bloom, and I consider him a friend. He's just a wonderful person and remarkable filmmaker and writer, and it was a pleasure.
It was just something that drew me to it. It's just so well written. You don't need much else. When Rian calls and says, "I have a part that I think you'd be great for, and would you come on and come play?" It's pretty exciting.
Absolutely. What did you want to bring to the role of Sterling Frost that wasn't necessarily on the page?
Adrien Brody: I mean, there's a complexity. And a lot of it is within the writing, but there's a complexity that I felt I wanted to convey that kind of illustrates he's not a clear-cut baddy. He's got his own issues that he's contending with, and he's being raised with a powerful father running casinos in Reno, and his level of power that he possesses, but also some sense of living under his father's shadow. And I think those circumstances in life, they affect you and your choices. And he's made a lot of bad choices, partially because of his circumstances, even though he has a lot presented. So I just wanted to make him a bit more complex.
The real catalyst that jumps Charlie's journey in Poker Face is Sterling Frost, Sr. It's almost like Junior wakes up this sleeping giant in that first episode. Can you talk to me a little bit about Sterling Frost Jr's relationship with his father?
Adrien Brody: Well, as I was saying, it's very easy for me, and I would assume for anyone, to understand that there's probably a lot at stake there, and the pressure's really on for Junior to live up to his father's expectations. He probably was a wild and irresponsible young man, and he's kind of paid a price for that.
And I think he feels like there's room for him to be a real player, but he doesn't quite have the goods, and he doesn't quite have that respect, even from his own father. And that's a big challenge. It's kind of a bit like Fredo in The Godfather. He doesn't quite know how to pull himself together, and he's really yearning to be somebody and do something great for the family, but kind of can't help but fucking up. And there is a tone of that that spoke to me about the character.
It's so funny you said that because that was part of my notes. That his father views him as Fredo, but he views himself as Sonny, and you hit it right on the head with that.
Adrien Brody: That's really great! That's really great. That's brilliant. Yeah, I can totally see that. He may view himself as Sonny, but a lot of people who put on a big ego really don't necessarily feel that good about themselves, though. I think he has a lot of self-doubt that he's concealing with all that bravado. And dressing up. The costume designer and I, really went there to have him really kind of dressing up to be the man in his own way. And I thought it was really special. I tell you, it felt like we were making a film. It was just really wonderful.
Even when the show starts off, it's so cinematic. Rian is a brilliant director, but talk to me about what Rian's directing style adds to Poker Face. I know he directed the first two episodes and wrote the first episode as well.
Adrien Brody: Yeah, he's a creator. He and Steve Yedlin, his DP, who pretty much shot everything. All the stuff that you see of Rian's is the same DP. He's a wonderful cinematographer, and I think there's a lot of nuance. Even though this is an episodic format, there's a lot of nuance, and they really squeezed in a lot of feeling and texture in the visuals and the storytelling stuff. Natasha is just such a wonderful actor, she's so strong. She's so expressive and strong and everything you see her do is just really riveting.
Absolutely. I was going to ask you about that, because I feel like Natasha, she obviously knows when people are lying. Can you talk to me about how Sterling wants to exploit that?
Adrien Brody: Well, sure. I mean, he's heard this lore about this girl from his father, and it goes around town. He sees an opportunity for her to help him cash in on. Any gambler would see it in a second, the value and the ability to read a tell. And to give you odds in winning consistently. And if you win most of the time through playing well and having this trick up your sleeve, you're going to make a fortune. And so just trying to exploit it and figure out this system that they're trying to devise so that they can take down this whale.
I feel like Charlie's real strength is her ability to connect with people and really observe them, and Natasha is perfect in this role. I just wanted to ask you, because you kind of touched on this a little bit. She is so good as Charlie. What did she bring to the role that surprised you?
Adrien Brody: Everything was quite surprising. I mean, I think she's a wonderful actor, but her choices are wonderful, and she manages to kind of deftly dance between the overt comedy and a nuanced, believable character. And it's playful, but it's contained. And it's broad and contained. It's really wonderful. It's so wonderful to work with her. And we both enjoyed it. I tell you, we both laughed, and we got a kick out of each other.
And each time we'd do a scene we'd both go, "Oh, that's what you're going to do? Okay, watch this." And it was just so fun, and it's just really a pleasure to work with someone who has that kind of understanding and confidence with the work, then you can just go play. Super prepared and just able to create a lot of complexity and variations within that, so it becomes very much like a dance.
About Poker Face
Poker Face follows Charlie Cale (Natasha Lyonne), who has an uncanny ability to know if someone is lying to her, when she hits the road in her trusty Plymouth Barracuda. Every stop pulls her into a new mystery with a unique cast of characters that she can't help but solve. Ryan Johnson's new series is a "how catch 'em" style of mystery inspired by the television classic Columbo.
Check out our other Poker Face interviews here:
Poker Face season 1 is now streaming on Peacock.