Russian Doll season 2 arrives on Netflix April 20, over three years after its first season dropped on the streaming platform to great acclaim in 2019. Our beleaguered heroes Natasha (series creator Natasha Lyonne, Orange Is The New Black) and Alan (Charlie Barnett, Arrow) are back, and they find themselves once more at the mercy of the universe four years after the birthday-filled time loop that first brought them together. However, it seems their travels will take a very different shape this season.
The trailer for Russian Doll season two has already revealed that the show will partially take place in the 1980s, allowing viewers a more up close and personal look into Nadia's past and family history. Chloë Sevigny (Queen & Slim), who made a guest appearance in the first season as Nadia's mother Nora, will be back for more as well. How big a role she will play in freeing the protagonists from their "time prisoner" status, but it's clear that delving into their roots is a key ingredient in the storytelling.
Sevigny spoke to Screen Rant about returning to Russian Doll season 2 for an extended look at Nora's youth, watching creator Natasha Lyonne work behind the scenes, and uses for time travel in her own life.
I loved Season 2 of Russian Doll, and I'm so glad we get to see more of you in it. What was it like to expand more on who Nora is and what she means in Nadia's life?
Chloë Sevigny: It was very fulfilling and terrifying in some aspects. I don't want to give anything away, but it was great to be back with Natasha. She was doing a lot more behind-the-camera work this season; directing most of the episodes. We were also in COVID, so that was crazy.
I think people were very curious about that relationship, and really getting to more of the meat and potatoes of it for the fans felt very satisfying.
Another relationship I was very curious about was Ruth and Nora, because we've only heard a little about it before. Can you talk about what Ruth and Nora meant to each other?
Chloë Sevigny: I think that Ruth and Nora were old friends. Ruth has probably seen Nora disintegrating over the years, and her mental state kind of spiraling, and I think that's really difficult for Ruth. But she also can see the old Nora, and she's holding on to that and really just wants to be there as a supportive friend.
Yeah, they're like best buddies.
You mentioned Natasha doing more behind the scenes. What was it like to have her as a partner on and offscreen?
Chloë Sevigny: Well, this is her baby, so just the passion that was there and the drive and the excellency that she was asking from everyone around her was really inspiring and stimulating. We all just wanted to show up for her because you could just see how much it meant to her, and we're all just so proud of her.
And we're also amazed that we get to be a part of this project that's so challenging and different than anything you see on TV. It's funny and poignant and moving and everything. It just ticks all the boxes [of] great entertainment.
We know there's a time portal in this season, whatever that means. If history or time had lessons to teach to you, where would you want it to send you?
Chloë Sevigny: I guess I would like to go back to the earlier years of my career, and make some different choices as far as doing more projects. I don't know if I would learn any lessons, but I would like to change the trajectory to a certain extent.
What are your favorite aspects of Nadia as a character? What do you think makes her so compelling?
Chloë Sevigny: I think it's just her chutzpah, you know? How she owns her body; she owns her language. I like how she talks to men and just objectifies them. That is one of my favorite aspects. [laughs] I wish I could do that all day long.
Speaking of doing more projects, what is on the horizon for you in 2022?
Chloë Sevigny: The Girl From Plainville is now playing on Hulu. And I have a film coming out with Timothée Chalamet in May next year called Bones and All. Yeah, just keeping busy.
Over the course of the season, what would you say is one of the more difficult or challenging aspects of portraying, Nora?
Chloë Sevigny: I think you just you see Nora's illness progressing, so just finding the right balance of how to do that to make her sympathetic. But also not too schmaltzy, so that was just finding the right line to play her up.
Russian Doll Season 2 Synopsis
Set four years after Nadia (Natasha Lyonne) and Alan (Charlie Barnett) escaped mortality’s time loop together, season two of Russian Doll will continue to explore existential thematics through an often humorous and sci-fi lens. Discovering a fate even worse than endless death, this season finds Nadia and Alan delving deeper into their pasts through an unexpected time portal located in one of Manhattan’s most notorious locations.
At first they experience this as an ever-expanding, era-spanning, intergenerational adventure but they soon discover this extraordinary event might be more than they bargained for and, together, must search for a way out.
Check out our interview with stars Natasha Lyonne & Charlie Barnett as well.
All seven episodes of Russian Doll season 2 premiere April 20 on Netflix.