Warning: This article contains spoilers for Russian Doll season 2.
When it comes to the 25-year friendship between Natasha Lyonne and Chloë Sevigny, one thing is obvious: Sevigny is the boss.
And that dynamic was quite helpful in pulling off season 2 of Russian Doll (now streaming on Netflix), which sees Lyonne’s character, Nadia, traveling back in time. When she does, she discovers that she’s not in her own body, but instead inhabits Sevigny’s character — Nadia’s mom, Nora. This body-swapping meant a lot of coordination between the two stars, and Lyonne credits her longtime friend with making it all work.
“Chloë is also a director,” Lyonne says in the latest installment of EW’s Around the Table video series, joined by Sevigny, Charlie Barnett, and Greta Lee. “She’s really good, and because she’s also used to being the boss of me — which she is, to be clear — she’s really going to be like, ‘Stop it. Stay still. We’re both turning to the left right now. Okay? Do it.'”
In the new season’s first episode, for example, Nadia, in her mother’s body, stares at her reflection in the mirror, which required the two actors to perfectly match each other’s mannerisms.
Vanessa Clifton/Netflix; Netflix Chloe Sevigny and Natasha Lyonne on ‘Russian Doll’
“Obviously there’s trick glass there that’s being moved in and out based on the shot, so Chloë and I would be staring at each other and trying to mirror each other’s facial movements,” Lyonne explains. “And some of my happiest moments on the show are breaking Chloë, and us just busting up because we’re not mirroring exactly, or we’re in such a state of intensity.”
Whereas season 1 only showed Nora in flashbacks with a child version of Nadia, season 2 allows mother and adult daughter to not just share a body, but also share screen time, which was really special for Lyonne and Sevigny. “It makes me really happy,” Lyonne admits. “We have this unspoken thing, where if we’re just sort of sitting on camera together, there’s so much information between us.”
For instance? “Chloe will touch my hair without me noticing,” Lyonne says, “or just these little things, the way Chloe knows that I need to ash [when smoking], because I’m always ashing on myself. We have a lot of detail between us.”
For more from Lyonne, Sevigny, Barnett, and Lee, including their hilarious behind-the-scenes memories (mosquito-infested set! Hitler jokes! confused extras!) and what the season’s emotional finale meant to them, watch the video above.
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