Poker Face Director Clea DuVall Takes Us Inside Season 2's "The Big Pump" (EXCLUSIVE)
The actress, who is longtime friends with Natasha Lyonne, returns to direct a Season 2 Poker Face episode.
The unending road trip has gone surprisingly idle for Charlie Cale (Natasha Lyonne) in this week’s new Poker Face, "The Big Pump." The civilian sleuth has settled into her Brooklyn sublet, generously provided by her CB radio pal, Good Buddy (voiced by Steve Buscemi).
Having solved the murder of building tenant Maddy (Awkwafina) in last week’s “A New Lease on Death,” Charlie is trying on the neighborhood for size with new friend Alex (Patti Harrison) and a trial membership to the local gym owned by self-help purveyor, Brick (Method Man).
RELATED: Poker Face Director Adam Arkin Takes Us Inside Season 2's "Sloppy Joseph" (EXCLUSIVE)
Connections are a theme for this episode and that extends to the behind-the-scenes crew, as first-time director — but Poker Face familiar — Clea DuVall leaned on a lot of friends to help her bring this mystery to life. NBC Insider spoke to the actress/writer/director about going behind the camera in Season 2 and reuniting with her long-time best friend, Lyonne.
Natasha Lyonne and Clea DuVall go back to But I'm a Cheerleader
As young actresses, Lyonne and DuVall shared an agent. But they didn’t actually work together until But I'm a Cheerleader (1999). They remained close friends after the film became a cult hit but they didn't work together again until DuVall’s directorial debut, The Intervention (2016), which featured other friends and Poker Face alumni, Melanie Lynskey, Jason Ritter and Alia Shawkat.
Then, in the Season 1 Poker Face episode "The Hook," DuVall guest starred as Emily Cale, Charlie’s estranged sister. As a burgeoning director and Lyonne’s bestie, the Season 2 pick-up order for the series opened the door for DuVall to return as a director.
RELATED: Poker Face "The Sleazy Georgian" Guest Stars Explained: Melanie Lynskey and John Cho
DuVall explained that getting to direct "The Big Pump” was actually a surprise because she had initially been assigned a different story this season. "For a long time, I thought I was going to be doing a different episode,” she explained following an appearance at PaleyFest LA 2025. "There was a recalibration, but I love this story. It was so fun and funny. The guest cast was so incredible with this dreamy cast of Method Man and Jason Ritter and Natasha Leggero and Patti Harrison. Knowing that the show is so good and the writing is so good and that we have Natasha leading it, I just knew that no matter what the genre was, it was going to be incredible."
Clea preps to helm “The Big Pump"
With “The Big Pump,” DuVall gets to play in a broader, more farcical comedic space when Brick, the gym owner, gets in over his head selling an amazing, underground, liquid supplement drink to his gym bro clientele that is actually illegally acquired breast milk. When his grift is found out by a nerdy client, an accidental murder happens and Charlie gets to the bottom of it.
DuVall said she went all-in to prep for her episode watching all of Poker Face Season 1 for a second time to immerse herself in the tone of the show. She also watched every film reference given to her by series executive producers, Tony Tost and Rian Johnson.
RELATED: Poker Face Director Breaks Down Charlie's New Love - and Loss - in Season 2 (EXCLUSIVE)
"I also got to come on a little bit early because Rian was directing the episode before mine,” she said of her extended pre-production window. "I got to go and just shadow him on set, which was so cool because I think he is one of the greatest directors working right now. To get to watch him work was so thrilling for me."
And then she got to direct her best friend for a second time, which DuVall said was a gift. "Natasha is so good at performing the scene as written, but then she also can pull these references, or pull these lines out because she's brilliant,” she said of her friend’s improv skills. "She’s so quick and she's so smart. As a writer, I really admire it because you spend so long trying to think of, what is the perfect thing to say here? And then she just comes out with it on the fly, and she's just brilliant."
New episodes of Poker Face debut Thursdays on Peacock; head there now to catch “The Big Pump" and the rest of the show's previously aired Season 1 and 2 episodes!
