Poker Face Star Joseph Gordon-Levitt Speaks Out on Playing a "Total D—k" Villain

Poker Face dropped its ninth episode on Peacock this week, and it's the latest of the series to feature an exciting lineup of guest stars. The Rian Johnson-created series stars Natasha Lyonne as Charlie Cale, a woman who has the ability to tell when people are lying, and she usually ends up having to solve a murder. This week's episode, "Escape From Shit Mountain," featured frequent Johnson collaborator Joseph Gordon-Levitt as well as The Umbrella Acaemdy's David Castañeda, and Everything Everywhere All at Once star Stephanie Hsu. In the episode, Gordon-Levitt plays an extremely unpleasant rich man on house arrest who goes for a joy ride when his ankle monitor stops working, which leads to him causing even more crimes. During an interview with Variety, Gordon-Levitt opened up about playing the show's latest villain. 

"Whether we want to admit it or not, there's a part of us that is just a totally selfish spoiled brat on the inside," Gordon-Levitt explained. "And then there's those of us who strive to be kind because we've learned to overcome the beast within. And so this guy is just a total d*ck through and through. It's the fun thing about acting, just letting the worst part of human nature take surface."

"I think I have to go with stabbing another person through the chest with a knife," Gordon-Levitt said when asked about his favorite on-screen murder. "I haven't had a chance to do that before, the full-on Anthony Perkins-Hitchcock moment, raising the knife high above my head. The way we shot it to maximize the silhouette effect. It's a Dr. Caligari moment. It's such a classic cinematic image, the stabbing, and I'd never done it before, so it's appropriate that I ended up doing it on Rian's show."

"Natasha is a comic genius," he added. "And we have very similar senses of humor and sensibilities. And Stephanie Hsu is just fantastic in this. I shot this before I had seen Everything Everywhere All at Once, and when I finally did get to see that movie, I was honored to have worked with her. She's such a powerful deity in that movie, and here I was, pummeling her head into the steering wheel of a Lamborghini. It felt very special."

As for his Poker Face character's future, Gordon-Levitt gave a bleak update. "I imagine there's a lot of very high-priced lawyers involved," he shared. "Maybe some lobbyists. There could be a call to a member of the U.S. House of Representatives. There's a lot of moving and shaking that happens afterwards and he serves no time. That's the world we're living in, isn't it."

The finale of Poker Face drops on Peacock on March 9th.