[This story contains spoilers to the eighth episode of Poker Face, “The Orpheus Syndrome.”]

The guest stars of Poker Face have something in common. After fateful endings to their season one episodes, they aspire to come back and play a different character for season two.

But Cherry Jones acknowledges that, given the reception to the series (which currently has the rare 99 percent fresh rating on Rotten Tomatoes), that might be unlikely.

“I think they wanted to do sort of a rep thing of having guest stars repeat, like they did in Columbo. But, there will be so many people begging to be on this show,” Jones tells The Hollywood Reporter, citing one of the inspirations for the Rian Johnson-created series starring Natasha Lyonne, and speaking before its official season two renewal.

The Peacock murder mystery series released its biggest homage to Hollywood yet with the eighth installment in the 10-episode first season. “The Orpheus Syndrome” starred Cherry Jones as Laura, a top Hollywood film executive who kills the two men closest to her, famed special effects artist Arthur, played by Nick Nolte, and Laura’s ex-husband, played by Tim Russ, in order to keep buried the fact that she helped orchestrate the fatal on-set death of an actress (Rowan Blanchard) during their early days in studio filmmaking.

The episode was a “love letter” to Oscar-winning VFX artist Phil Tippett (Star Wars, Jurassic Park), said Johnson, who, along with his team, designed and created Arthur’s creatures, and did the stop-motion sequences at the end that capture Laura’s demise. While the scenes between Nolte and star Lyonne are grounded in an emotional reality, Laura’s ending leaps into what Jones calls more of a mad world as the powerful producer’s demons catch up to her, and she flings herself off a two-story building to escape the ghosts. The episode, co-written by Lyonne and Alice Ju, also co-starred Luis Guzmán.

It was also the only episode in the season directed by Lyonne, who anchors the series as human-lie-detector Charlie Cale (and who squeezes in her funniest scene yet while in costume at the L.A. museum gala here). “Every reference on this was Hitchcock, especially for me,” says Jones of Lyonne’s inspiration for Laura. Adding, “This is not a grounded character.”

Below, the film, theater and TV actress known for small screen roles in 24, Transparent, The Handmaid’s Tale and, most recently, Succession, speaks to THR about her experience on the Poker Face episode, namely working with Lyonne and Nolte, and why she’s thrilled that her “wackadoodle” character landed when she watched the final cut.

This episode is the only one this season that star Natasha Lyonne co-wrote and directed. Did she give you a sense about why she wanted to tackle this story and, what drew you to it?

I am in love with this show! My wife [filmmaker Sophie Huber] and I just go on and on about how appealing Natasha Lyonne is. She’s just irresistible! And particularly in this, because it’s so wonderful to see her as a flat-out heroine. I actually heard Natasha interviewed saying that Rian Johnson called her Christmas before last saying, “I’ve got the idea [for this episode]. It’s going to be this and that.” So I guess it was his idea, and then they went to town with the script.

When I got the script, I loved it. But I felt so inadequate to do this part. I saw her as this skinny, power [hungry woman]. They talked about this white-wedged haircut, so I kept getting Anna Wintour in my head. I had gained a lot of weight and I wasn’t feeling a lot of confidence at that moment in my life. I just thought, “I don’t think I have this in me.” Even though I come from theater repertoire. And, that’s what this part is — getting to do stuff you normally aren’t given. And my wife finally said, “Cherry, Natasha Lyonne and Rian Johnson, they’re cool. It’s the cool factor.” And I thought, “Oh, OK! I’ll go play with the cool kids!” And, I’m so glad I did. I even had to admit to Natasha how cowed I was by it all and that I didn’t feel right for it. And I didn’t realize how fortunate I was that I was getting to be in the one that Natasha directed. Is that the only one that she directed?

Yes. And the only one she co-wrote.

I’m sure all the other directors were fantastic. But if I ever got to do another Poker Face — which I won’t, because everyone is going to be knocking down the door to be on it — I would want to be in hers. She’s one of my favorite directors I’ve ever worked with because she’s an actor and she’s really a director. So, she’s the perfect director.

She’s a cinephile, too. And, this is a big Hollywood send-up episode. The story locations included a film set, movie museum gala and Arthur’s (Nick Nolte) barn filled with set sculptures (created by Phil Tippett). How meta was this to play out and, who were your inspirations for Laura?  

Natasha knows every movie ever made, I’m convinced. And, I don’t know how, she’s not old enough. She must have spent every waking minute smoking and watching movies. (Laughs.) It was Hitchcock. Every reference on this was Hitchcock, especially for me. Because the character was so wackadoodle and not grounded — this is not a grounded character. In the scene with with Nick Nolte, with Arthur in the barn — in the unbelievably decorated barn! — she would say (in Natasha’s voice), “Alright, think of Kim Novak, and in that feminine way, you’re going to just wrap your little feminine heart around his and you’re just going to charm him.”

She had me walk over and look at one of the [prosthetic] faces and ask if he thought the dead could forgive you. Natasha said, “You know how in Hitchcock those women, they’ll just go so back — deep, deep back into their minds and their brains — back into this wispy memory of it.” And that’s all she had to say, because I know exactly what she meant. But, it gave me the permission to go that far. And she actually said, “Ya know, I never really liked Hitchcock, I never really got Hitchcock. But now working on this episode, I’m starting to think it’s pretty good.”

What genre is this episode? It’s horror. But the scenes between Nick and Natasha are grounded, so it shifts in tone.

Yeah. The real world and then the totally mad world of Laura. That seems to be the two head spaces of this thing.

Natasha recently said on Watch What Happens Live that Nick Nolte was the most intimidating guest stars of all of the Poker Face cast; she was starstruck. Did you feel that way? Had you known him previously?

I hadn’t known him. I have spent my life in theater so I never saw many movies, and so I never saw a Nick Nolte movie. I wasn’t going to start before I worked with him! Now, I can go through the canon. But it was beautiful to actually get to see the episode and watch [Nick and Natasha’s] work together. Because you can see she is just gobsmacked by him. She treated him with such reverence. And he clearly adores her. They had known each other, I remember she had said at one point, “Remember that night up in the Canyon?” and from that sort of thing. And you could tell he was so delighted to be there, and that he felt well-supported, as we both did. I would highly recommend, for any actor looking for a divine experience with a knowledgable director, to seek out a job with Ms. Lyonne. I just hope she keeps directing.

The camera work in your scenes with Nick Nolte felt the most intimate. What was it like to do those scenes and was that exactly how they were scripted?

It was all how the script was. And of everything, that was the most Hitchcockian in terms of Natasha’s direction to me and how, as the femme fatale — the Hitchcockian femme fatale — she wanted Laura wrapping Arthur around her finger, the poor widow kind of thing. I found myself even moving my skirt over, like a 1950s femme fatale. Natasha was very specific and in playing that scene with him, his Arthur was so profoundly caring and dear and loving, it just broke my heart. I wish she could find a way for him to come back as another character. Because they’re just so beautiful together. Someone had said that had Laura not killed Arthur, Charlie [Lyonne’s character] could have lived there happily the rest of her life with Arthur and learned to do what he does and pass it onto the next generation, and I think that’s true.

Do you attribute Charlie and Arthur’s connection to Nick Nolte in that role?

Yeah well, it’s two people sort of in mourning in the episode. He’s in mourning for his friend and she’s in mourning for her friend [played by Dascha Polanco], which started the whole thing off [in the Poker Face premiere]. When we were working on it, I didn’t know any of the other episodes. So I didn’t know that Charlie loses this friend in the very first episode and that that’s what starts the whole thing. So those scenes between Arthur and Charlie I thought were so profound in that way, of lost loves. I hope [Natasha and Nick] get to work together again one day, because they were just magic together.

In this episode, most of you die. Unlike the other episodes, three of you guest stars [also including Tim Russ] don’t make it out alive. What was it like on set dealing with the material? Did any of you stay in character?

Honestly, it was fun, fun, fun. Natasha said at one point, “You know, we’re journeymen. You go in, do your job and do the scene, and you sit back in your chair and you chew the fat.” It felt like that. It wasn’t All Quiet on the Western Front. And that’s because this episode is not grounded in reality, it’s heightened reality and more theatrical, certainly this one. They’re all theatrical, from the barbecue [episode co-starring Lil Rel Howery] to the Judith Light and the Epatha [Merkerson episode]. Because it’s ultimately comedy, but I guess all murder mysteries as a genre are less scary and more fun.

There was also the dinner theater episode with Ellen Barkin and Tim Meadows.

I haven’t seen it yet. [Note: This interview took place before Barkin’s episode released.]

That episode and yours tackle the world of Hollywood the most. Are you curious to see what your peers think?

No. The only thing about my peers is that honestly, [Laura] is so wackadoodle and I went off in so many places with this one. I was so afraid I was going to be so bad that they weren’t going to be able to issue the episode. (Laughs.) That was my fear!

Now that you’ve seen it, do you feel better about taking the risk?

I sort of watched it like this [covering my eyes]. I feel better because my wife said that it was funnier than I [said]. (Laughs.) I just can’t imagine anyone not enjoying this series. I heard Natasha say that you can watch it with your kids and with your grandparents — and I was going along thinking that’s true, until I got to Epatha and Judith Light’s episode! Maybe the rest you can. That one got heavy, it really surprised me.

As heightened as your episode is, the topic of on-set tragedies is relevant right now.

Yes, God, that’s true. And it was at the time that we were doing it. It’s a dangerous business. People don’t realize it, but it’s a dangerous business.

Did that make it even harder to find some sort of connection with this woman?

Well, it’s that sort of thing where you ask: Did she start out bad, was she just a bad seed? Or was she just money hungry and just needed to keep it moving that day, where she didn’t even think about the risk to the girl [who died on set]? Or, did she think about the risk and didn’t care? Who knows. But I do think that which she seems to not have cared a whit about begins the corrosion of her soul. That’s how I played with it: That was the beginning of the corrosion. And then she goes down from there, when she’s caught by her husband. Clearly she cares more about the corporation than she does the men in her life, she just goes so bonkers. I guess that happens to lots of folks who are slightly mad and obsessed.

Would you say the takeaway is that your sins ultimately get you in the end? [Note: The camera catches Laura smiling as she jumps to her death.]

If there’s a God in the heavens!

How long did you spend making this episode?

Tragically, it was only two weeks. I wish it had been two years, because it was that much fun being on set with Natasha and that excellent crew. And she’s a force, she’s a task-master with wanting things to move along. You never know what she’s thinking about or doing in between setups, but at one point we were on top of that bluff overlooking the Hudson River [at Laura’s house] and this huge powerful rainstorm came sweeping over the Hudson Valley. Natasha was out on that deck where [Tim Russ’ character] jumps and Natasha was looking up at this wave of rain just screaming, “Stop!!!!” And I almost expected it to stop! I just want her to keep doing these, until I grow old.

Poker Face is now streaming on Peacock, with two more episodes left of the season.