The premise ofRussian Dollis not for the faint of heart, as it involves Nadia (Natasha Lyonne) stuck in a time loop that began to take place during her birthday party. Forced to relive the same day over and over again until she finally learned what she was supposed to do, the character slowly lost her grip on reality as she always came back to the same place after dying in the most unexpected ways. Fortunately for her, every time the loop was reset, she always ran into her friend, Maxine (Greta Lee), who was always there to congratulate her on her party.
During a recent interview with Collider’s ownPerri Nemiroff, Lee described what it was like to film the line several times, saying, “I initially said no to the job because I thought there’s no actor in their right mind who will be willing to take on how to do a good job of delivering the same line over and over again. I thought there’s no way anyone can come out of this and feel like they’ve come close to doing it. And I had even suggested that we just film it once, and we just reuse that take. And then when I said, ‘Okay, I’m in,’ and I couldn’t say no to this group. Natasha and I go way back.” She went on to explain:
“We filmed a pilot for NBC that was kind of the genesis of Russian Doll actually, years ago. And Leslye Headland of course, and Amy Poehler, these incredible women, so I said yes and then they politely and gently said, ‘No, absolutely not. We’re not gonna use the same take over and over and over again.’ So I don’t know, I think it was like 50 times. I mean, I’m trying to think. There were 10 episodes, I said it multiple times. It was a lot of times.”
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Since every time Nadia came back wasunder a different context, Lee couldn’t get away with filming one take for the line before moving on, as the interactions with the protagonist were quite different every time the loop decided to send her to the party. Eventually, Nadia would realize that Alan (Charlie Barnett) was also stuck in a time loop, and the pair can get to know each other better because of theirunusual shared experience. The only bad thing that could come out of this friendship was how Nadia and Alan had very different perspectives on their lives, making them end up in constant disagreements.
At the end of the day, they manage to settle their differences, and the story was so belovedNetflixdecided to renew the series for a second season.In the second installment, Nadia discovers a wormhole that allows her to travel to 1982, only to realize that in, that year, she’s stuck in her mother’s (Cholë Sevigny) body while she’s still pregnant with her past self. Now, it is up to Nadia to fix some of the mistakes her family went through in the past while trying to warn Alan about the wormhole sitting in the middle of a train station.
Greta Lee’s JourneyAcross the Spider-Verse
Besides having a best friend stuck in a time loop, Greta Lee was featured in one of this summer’s biggest films. By voicing LYLA, Miguel O’Hara’s (Oscar Isaac) digital assistant, Lee establishes a confident character with plenty of knowledge about how the multiverse works. She is in charge of keeping Miguel communicated with the rest of the Spider-Society, tracking The Spot (Jason Schwartzman) and helping Gwen (Hailee Steinfeld) with her responsibilities as one of the newest agents of the group. With such a trustworthy ally by Miguel’s side, the multiverse remained safe for many years, until Miles Morales (Shameik Moore) changed it with his journey.
