Part of the pleasure of watching Natasha Lyonne in Poker Face is the sneaking suspicion that she is but a whisker away from actually being Charlie Cale, amateur sleuth and the show’s rascally heart. Lyonne could probably solve crimes, even without Charlie’s party trick: a preternatural ability to tell when someone is lying. (Her catchphrase: “Bullshit.”) Like Charlie, Lyonne could probably drive a Plymouth Barracuda around the US, catching killers in nursing homes and truck stops. “Well, I do love solving a case, in a way,” she says. “I do love a puzzle.”
Specifically: crossword puzzles. The 44-year-old is such a fanatic she was once invited to construct one for the New York Times. On set, the Poker Face creator Rian Johnson and Lyonne would take breaks from solving crimes to solve puzzles – crosswords, Wordle, even Duotrigordle (32 Wordles at once). During the recent actors’ strike, she raised money by auctioning off the chance to have a “15-minute existential conversation with Natasha Lyonne and her dog, Rootbeer, while doing the Wednesday NYT crossword puzzle”. Someone paid $6,300 for the privilege. “We had a great time!” Lyonne says. “Turns out crossword lovers have a lot in common.”
