SPOILER ALERT: This interview contains spoilers from “Poker Face” Season 2, Episode 3, now streaming on Peacock.
FBI agent Luca Clark (Simon Helberg) returned for more action in Episode 3 of “Poker Face,” which is in the midst of a second season boasting more murders, more Charlie (Natasha Lyonne) investigations and more guest stars — including stand-up comedian John Mulaney.
Rian Johnson’s charming murder-of-the-week show features different marquee guest stars in every episode. But since Helberg plays one of the show’s few recurring characters, he’s had a chance to grow the trajectory of Luca since Season 1.
“It’s exciting to see how he fumbles up the ladder, starting from driving around geriatric retired ex-cons in witness protection, all the way to cracking these really significant cases for the FBI and getting into the shit,” Helberg tells Variety. “As an actor, it’s a real dream because I haven’t gotten to play a lot of heroic figures. It’s really cool to play these moments where there’s a damsel in distress, you’re pulling out your gun and sticking your head out of a sunroof. It’s probably stuff that Luca’s seen in movies.”
This episode sees Helberg back in action when Beatrix Hasp (Rhea Perlman) tries to find who in her crew is a mole — with the unexpected help of Charlie. Helberg recalls his first day on set — a car scene with Richard Kind, who plays Beatrix’s murdered husband.
“It was showing up with this huge chunk of dialogue, a lot of, ‘Hello, nice to meet you’ on set, then jumping right into the scene,” Helberg says. “It’s unique because it’s a TV show in its second season, but because you’ve got this rotating cast and rotating crew and directors, it always feels a bit like the first day of school on each episode.”
Below, Helberg breaks down singing Stephen Sondheim tunes with Mulaney, why he thinks Luca would try to emulate “Twin Peaks’” Dale Cooper and the “fever dream” of returning to the Warner Bros lot to film the Season 3 finale of “Night Court,” which was recently canceled at NBC.
Tell me about your first reaction to reading the script and seeing that you’d be playing best friends with John Mulaney, who portrays Danny.
I was very excited that the “John Mulaney type” referenced in the script actually became John Mulaney. That was a treat, because that’s how he was described. Even if it ended up just being a “John Mulaney type,” I’d be excited, but I had the real thing. He couldn’t have been kinder and sweeter. We had to jump right in and wrestle each other and squeeze each other’s cheeks with strange, clumsy fighting. And we were supposed to be best friends, too. So all of that breaks the ice pretty quickly when you’re groping another guy on set. I had become, like most people, kind of obsessed with him.
He’s a very curious follow who’s interested in everything that’s happening and everybody that’s around him. His observations are what sets him apart from everybody else. In terms of any kind of cliché about stand-ups being awkward or hostile, which there are some, John couldn’t be farther from that.
I know you’ve trained in music with your past roles in ‘Florence Foster Jenkins’ and ‘Annette.’ Here, you and Mulaney get to sing some lines from Stephen Sondheim’s ‘Merrily We Roll Along.’ Was any of that improv?
It’s pretty verbatim on my part. I know John and Natasha improvised a bit in their scene when he’s under arrest. But the writing is just so sharp. The team is so keen to good storytelling — always a beat ahead and shocking in a way that still feels authentic.
We didn’t meet with any musical coaches or work too intensely on those beats. I know Sondheim and some musicals, but I actually wasn’t super familiar with “Merrily We Roll Along” for some reason. And I don’t know if John was. We didn’t really talk much about it. Best left unspoken, I think. I listened to those songs and those phrases like a psychopath on repeat.
‘Poker Face’ is, in large part, inspired by murder mystery shows like ‘Columbo’ and ‘The Rockford Files.’ What are some films or shows that you think Luca would try to emulate as an FBI agent?
There’s these moments where he’ll say something quippy and put on sunglasses and like, he’s seen “The Fugitive.” He’s seen “Point Break.” He knows that there’s something to the suaveness that detectives can have and there’s probably an awareness of that.
I don’t know if I should be embarrassed, or it’s just a fortuitous thing, but I hadn’t seen “Twin Peaks” until after shooting the second season. I’m actually in the middle of watching it, but Kyle MacLachlan’s Dale Cooper is completely someone who I think Luca would probably have seen and maybe even tried to emulate. After watching it, I was like, “Wow, it’s the same hairstyle!” There’s that sort of earnestness and good-doer quality, trying to be the best FBI agent you can be. When I opened the script for this episode, I saw in the third page or something that I got shot in the head. I did get scared, but I guess that was the point.
Maybe Luca can emulate Dale Cooper in Season 3. What was it like filming that shootout scene — especially as an actor who a lot of people probably associate with more comedic roles in sitcoms like ‘The Big Bang Theory’?
It was really technical and, in many ways, plays on things that I don’t feel particularly skilled at doing. You’re supposed to have a real second-nature quality to all that stuff, obviously, and it’s not like I got to really spend a ton of time with the gun and doing those kinds of stunts with the time you have on set. There was some of that where, mechanically, you just want it to feel lived in.
It’s very piecemeal, shooting those kinds of action sequences. Sometimes you’ll just film a moment of ducking out of frame, or it’s the stunt person who falls in the shot but you’re on the ground in the next. It’s like hearing an album out of the order and trying to remember where each song goes on the playlist because you’re like, “Where are we in this?” And then you see it all put together and it might be 30 seconds on screen, but it’s got 50 shots.
You recently reunited with your ‘Big Bang Theory’ co-star Melissa Rauch on the Season 3 finale of ‘Night Court.’ What was that shooting experience like?
It was a little like a fever dream getting to drive back on the Warner Bros. lot and going back on the sound stage. Seeing Melissa and some of the same crew was really a joy. I love Melissa so much. It was great to kind of hint at our former relationship and dynamic that we had on “The Big Bang Theory” but still stray so far from it. The whole scene was really kind of a hint — letting the audience into a secret past that they didn’t know she had. It was fun to pop in there and play a different version of husband and wife.
Finally, with your work in this episode challenging you as an actor, what are the kinds of roles you’re hoping to take on in the future after ‘Poker Face’?
My goal is to always be doing something different. I just hope not to repeat too many beats and too many of the same characters, which is funny coming from somebody who played the same character for 12 years. And maybe that’s part of it. But when I started “The Big Bang Theory,” it was, “Hey, maybe we’ll do a pilot and then get picked up.” I auditioned just like every other job, every other character I’ve ever played and it happened to last for an incredibly long time. So I’m just really hungry to have opportunities where I can challenge myself. It does tend to be in opposition to “Big Bang” just because I did that for so long.
This interview has been edited and condensed.
