The Big Picture

Natasha Lyonne signed on as a producer for ‘The Second Best Hospital’ due to her trust and admiration for creator Cirocco Dunlap.
Lyonne finds joy in directing, acting, and writing, seeing them all as interconnected facets of her job.
The multi-hyphenate appreciates working with talented individuals and enjoys taking on various roles in projects like ‘Poker Face.’

From creator Cirocco Dunlap and executive producers Maya Rudolph and Natasha Lyonne, the animated sci-fi comedy series The Second Best Hospital in the Galaxy follows alien best friends Dr. Sleech (voiced by Stephanie Hsu) and Dr. Klak (voiced by Keke Palmer), as they attempt to ride the world of anxiety. When they find themselves with access to a time-loop, they use that to conduct experiments that don’t exactly turn out as planned.

During this interview with Collider, Lyonne, who voices the six-legged pointy-eared Nurse Tup, talked about why she was so moved that Dunlap asked her and Rudolph to produce the series, being willing to voice any character, and why developing a TV series can be like the Buzzcocks’ song “Why Can’t I Touch It.” She also said that the writers’ room is currently working through ideas for Season 2 of Poker Face, her love of directing, and her desire to support all-star women like Dunlap and Jacqueline Novak, whose comedy special, Get on Your Knees, she directed.

The Second Best Hospital in the Galaxy Sleech and Klak, two brilliant female alien doctors who specialize in rare sci-fi illnesses.Release Date February 23, 2024 Seasons 1

Natasha Lyonne Was Eager to Help Bring ‘The Second Best Hospital in the Galaxy’ to Life
Image via Prime Video

Collider: What was it about this that made you want to sign on as a producer and get more involved, along with voicing one of the characters? You do a lot of acting roles, but you don’t necessarily produce them all. So, what gets you to want to do both of those things?

NATASHA LYONNE: As the co-creator of Russian Doll, with Amy [Poehler] and Leslye [Headland], Cirocco [Dunlap] was one of the writers on both seasons of the show, so I knew that she was brilliant. But for me, the thing that I was so obsessed with was Shouts & Murmurs, which she had written for The New Yorker. Over the course of those two seasons, we’d also become very close as friends. I just loved her sci-fi brain and her sense of humor. She’s a stellar human being, and she’s just all the things that you see reflected in the world that she built. She’s deeply compassionate and very aware of the human condition, but the way that she spins it into world building is so distinctly Cirocco Dunlap. She had been mentioning and, especially by Season 2 [of Russian Doll], she was really getting excited about this idea that she’d had that was percolating. I was actually very moved that she brought it to me and Maya [Rudolph] to produce because it’s just such a beautiful thing. I jumped at the chance to shepherd her vision into the world. I think the show is extraordinary, and it’s all her. For us, it really became about doing everything we could to help her shine. We reached out to all our friends to get them in the show, and we’re so lucky that Amazon jumped right on it. And then, voicing any character she wanted me to was a given. I’d do anything for her.

When you have trust in the storyteller like that, do you get involved, make suggestions, and give ideas for the character that you’re going to be voicing, or do you just leave it in her hands and take on whatever she gives you?

LYONNE: I’ve produced quite a number of things, and it’s not exactly like that. It’s more interactive. Each creator or writer, or whatever it may be, is different in what their needs are, whether that’s specific line notes, or talking more broadly about concepts in general, or sometimes it involves suggestions or watching a cut and mentioning something. There are all kinds of different ways. What’s so special about Cirocco is that she is so clear in her vision, and she is such a consummate professional. She’s just the real deal. We’ve also produced a lot of things where people might have an idea, but they can’t quite catch it, and it’s heartbreaking to watch that. They want it so bad. It’s like Buzzcocks’ “Why Can’t I Touch It.” “I can feel it and hear it, but why can’t I touch it?” The tougher part of producing is watching someone not be able to quite catch their own brainchild.

Related Alien Doctors Try to Eradicate Anxiety in First ‘The Second Best Hospital in the Galaxy’ Trailer Keke Palmer and Stephanie Hsu lead the new Prime Video animated comedy series in February.

We all know that Hollywood likes to put people into boxes, and you don’t strike me as someone who fits into a box or would want to be pushed into a box. How is that to navigate while also finding projects and roles that you connect with? Was that part of the reason why you wanted to get more involved as a producer and also as a director?

LYONNE: I don’t really think of that anymore. Maybe that was on my mind five years ago. I directed my first short film seven or eight years ago now. I was at Tisch for film school and philosophy. I was a dropout, but I was there for the filmmaking program. I felt like I’d already been acting from 6 to 16, in Pee-Wee’s Playhouse and a Woody Allen movie where I played his daughter. He was very popular in New York in the nineties. I see it all as one job, a little bit like music. I really, really love directing. It makes me so happy. Writing and producing and acting are all one gig to me. It’s basically about, what’s the idea? How do we get the best players in here? And if it’s helpful for me to write or direct or act or produce, then that’s what I’ll do on it. I’m not concerned with boxes. I would not enter a box unless it was a moving box, and it was poorly taped, and it was moving me to the second best hospital in the galaxy. I would journey there, in that box.

Natasha Lyonne Is Looking Forward to Season 2 of ‘Poker Face’

I love the work you’ve done with Poker Face because you get to do some of everything on that show, with different tones and genres. Are there things that you feel you didn’t get to do with Season 1 of that show, that you will get to do with Season 2? And are you also looking to direct more episodes?

LYONNE: We’re in the writers’ room now and the ideas are flowing. Rian [Johnson] remains a genius. It’s a great, really stellar group of writers this year. The ideas are all happening. I’m sure I’ll end up writing and directing more on Poker Face. What’s so fun for directors on Poker Face is that everybody really gets to make their own movie. Rian Johnson is a whole event. Janicza Bravo is a whole event. For me to get to write that Poker Face episode with Alice Ju, who’s also one of the writers from Russian Doll, and then I got to direct Nick Nolte, it was just bananas. It was Rian’s idea of, what about this world of Phil Tippett? And then, Phil Tippett is actually standing on set with Nick Nolte and Terry Jones, and it’s extraordinary. It’s so moving that you get to connect all the pieces of your journey in this life. It’s a very helpful anecdote to the problems they tell you that you’re gonna have if, God forbid, you pass 32 in this business. Recently, I’ve discovered that it’s helpful to have lived some life.

Related How ‘Poker Face’ Sets Up a Season 2 Rian Johnson & Natasha Lyonne wrap up Charlie’s murder mystery road trip, but was that really the end? Thankfully, no.

I have to tell you that I don’t watch a lot of stand-up comedy specials, but I watched Jacqueline Novak’s Get on Your Knees on Netflix because your name was attached as the director and I laughed my ass off.

LYONNE: That Jacqueline Novak is brilliant. It’s another good example. Jacqueline Novak is such an extraordinary writer and performer. Cirocco Dunlap has an extraordinary brain. That is what attracted me. It’s like, “Okay, this one needs directing. This one needs me to voice Nurse Tup, who’s got six legs and some pointy ears, and she’s a nihilistic optimist. No problem!” Anything to help these lady all-stars win is very, very cool. And to get to do it with my friend Maya is very cool.

The Second Best Hospital in the Galaxy is available to stream at Prime Video. Check out the trailer:

Watch on Prime Video