‘Poker Face’ Showrunners Gush Over Joseph Gordon-Levitt, Stephanie Hsu, and “Amazing” Episode 9 Cast

The penultimate episode of Poker Face Season 1, “Escape From Shit Mountain,” is a work of art with yet another all-star cast.

Like each installment in Rian Johnson‘s masterful mystery-of-the-week series on Peacock, Episode 9 finds our protagonist Charlie Cale (Natasha Lyonne) using her special lie-detecting abilities to crack a murder case. But writers Nora and Lilla Zuckerman’s decision to toy with the show’s typical structure led to especially gripping, layered, at times comedic performances from Lyonne, Joseph Gordon-Levitt, David Castañeda, and Stephanie Hsu.

When chatting with Decider about their duties as showrunners, executive producers, and writers on Poker Face, the Zuckerman sisters took some time to gush over their “amazing” Episode 9 cast, starting with Hsu, who plays Morty, a stranger who offers to fill up the Barracuda’s tank at a Colorado gas station in exchange for a ride.

“She’s amazing,” L. Zuckerman declared. “We had just seen in Everything Everywhere All at Once I think literally days before she came to set, and so we were very starstruck. We got there and we were like, ‘Oh my god.'” N. Zuckerman added. “She’s so good. It was awesome. I mean, we felt really lucky.”

The lucky streak continues when Gordon-Levitt, one of Johnson’s go-to guys, was cast as Trey Mendez, an entitled asshole who begins the episode under house arrest for insider trading. When a power outage disables Trey’s ankle monitor, he takes his Lamborghini for a joyride on the windy, snowy roads of “Shit Mountain,” plows it into a human being, and tries to cajole Castañeda’s character, Jimmy, into helping him cover up the crime. Castañeda skillfully portrays a heartbroken, conflicted motel owner who’s fed-up with his “friend’s” bullshit. And Gordon-Levitt perfectly steps into the moccasins of an angry, remorseless bro who drinks coconut rum and doesn’t tip his delivery workers.

“He plays this character that is so wicked, so diabolical, but also funny. And he is a really funny actor and also incredibly, like, physically adept,” L. Zuckerman explained. “He does a lot of physical humor in this episode, without ruining anything. He just commits and throws his whole body into this role. He’s wonderful.”

Whether he’s walking to his front gate to pick up take-out or lugging bodies through the woods, Gordon-Levitt spends a bulk of the episode trudging through the snow, and according to the Zuckerman sisters, he’s a natural winter actor. “There’s one take of him, I think it’s actually in the trailer, where he’s in the snow. And we had some fake snow [and] some manufactured snow. And to reset it, it has to be perfect. And he did it in one shot. We were like, ‘Holy shit, we got it,'” N. Zuckerman shared. “He just nailed it, knew exactly where to hit. And it looked physically so tough, but he just nailed it and it was like, ‘We don’t need to go again. We got it.’ That was working with him. He was great.”

From on-point casting and a sharp script full of beloved Poker Face twists and turns, to an incredible use of sound, lighting, and stunning cinematography, “Escape From Shit Mountain” — directed by Rian Johnson himself — is the show’s latest masterpiece.

Though it’s the penultimate episode in Season 1, the Zucks revealed that since it takes place in winter, Episode 9 was actually the first episode of Poker Face they shot, which only makes it more impressive. Want to hear more from Poker Face showrunners Nora and Lilla Zuckerman? Check out Decider’s full interview here.

The first nine episodes of Poker Face are now streaming on Peacock. The tenth and final episode of Season 1 premieres on Thursday, March 16.