Haley Lu Richardson felt a spark with 'Ponies': 'Oh, my God, this is me'

Twice successful her vocation Haley Lu Richardson has work a publication and instantly known, “I person to bash this.” The archetypal clip was Kogonada’s 2017 indie “Columbus,” a poignant movie that enactment Richardson connected the representation arsenic an actor. The 2nd was “Ponies,” Richardson’s caller Peacock series, present streaming, successful which she plays Twila, a CIA spy successful Cold War Russia, alongside Emilia Clarke.

“I often work scripts and there’s this soul-crushing happening that happens wherever you get 10 pages successful and it doesn’t spark thing successful you, nary transportation oregon inspiration,” says Richardson, 30, speaking implicit Zoom from her location successful Phoenix successful December. Last twelvemonth was peculiarly engaged for her, shooting “Ponies” and 2 films, and she’s inactive learning however to beryllium backmost successful her mundane beingness without the changeless stimulation of a set.

She adds, “When you work thing and determination is that spark — it’s truthful rare. But it happened to maine erstwhile I work the quality of Twila.”

“Ponies,” created by Susanna Fogel and David Iserson, centers connected 2 secretaries moving astatine the U.S. Embassy successful Moscow successful 1977. When their husbands, some CIA operatives, mysteriously dice successful action, Bea (Clarke) and Twila (Richardson) are enlisted to instrumentality their places. Although they statesman arsenic novice agents, some gamely measurement up and physique an improbable relationship successful the process. It’s action-packed, thrilling TV, but besides profoundly grounded successful humanity and emotion. Twila and Bea are complexly wrought, which is mostly what attracted Richardson.

Haley Lu Richardson arsenic Twila, left, and Emilia Clarke arsenic Bea successful Peacock’s “Ponies.”

(Katalin Vermes / Peacock)

“I consciousness fortunate that I’ve gotten to play characters who aren’t each the aforesaid person, but I often play the consecutive 1 successful the duo,” she says. “As a idiosyncratic successful existent life, I americium precise large and large and inappropriate astatine times and expressive and delicate and each of these things. So I’ve ever had to find a mode to code myself down.”

With Twila, however, that wasn’t the case. The character, who is escaping a bleak past successful the U.S., is large and sometimes chaotic, but successful a wholly charismatic way. Unlike Bea, Twila isn’t college-educated and she’s acold little poised, which sometimes works to her advantage. Richardson collaborated with the costume and hairsbreadth and constitution teams to make a vibrant look for Twila, who favors fur and brights, implicit with wildly messy hairsbreadth (it’s not a wig).

“Sometimes I person to effort truly hard to find astatine slightest 1 happening that tethers a quality to me,” Richardson says. “But erstwhile I archetypal work Twila, I was like, ‘Oh, my God, this is me.’ I was trying to think, ‘But however tin I marque her antithetic than me?’ It was the other acquisition I usually have.”

Clarke, speaking separately implicit Zoom from London, adds, “The skeleton of the quality connected the leafage was Haley. So her filling successful the gaps was inevitable. And it was beauteous to enactment with idiosyncratic who truthful thoroughly went to bat for her character.”

Fogel met with Richardson respective years agone erstwhile she was casting her 2024 movie “Winner.” Although Richardson didn’t extremity up successful the movie, Fogel kept her successful the backmost of her mind. “She’s specified a deep, emotional, intuitive histrion who was successful these teen movies wherever the extent and gravitas of her psyche weren’t capable to afloat explicit themselves,” Fogel says. “I had an inkling that she was acceptable to play an big role.”

Clarke joined the bid aboriginal connected arsenic a shaper and was portion of the casting process. She remembers Richardson’s sanction being brought up and feeling similar it was a “divine moment.” “As soon arsenic her sanction was there, we got escaped of each different sanction connected the list,” Clarke says. “The archetypal clip I talked to her I was like, ‘I conscionable met my babe sister.’ I’ve ne'er met anyone similar Haley and I don’t deliberation I ever will.”

The tangible transportation was evident to Richardson too. “It was the astir joyful Zoom,” she says. “I anticipation this amusement goes for 50 seasons truthful I tin conscionable support spending days aft days with Emilia.”

“As a idiosyncratic successful existent life, I americium precise large and large and inappropriate astatine times and expressive and delicate and each of these things,” Haley Lu Richardson says. (David Urbanke / For The Times)

Richardson moved to Budapest, which stands successful for Moscow, wherever the amusement is mostly set, successful January 2024 and spent six months successful the metropolis to movie “Ponies.” Being distant for truthful agelong was a caller acquisition for the actor, though she did unrecorded successful Sicily portion making the 2nd play of “The White Lotus.” It meant wholly uprooting her beingness and besides focusing connected a singular quality for an extended play of time. The strength of the enactment was sometimes a challenge.

“We went backmost and distant betwixt time and nighttime shoots, which f— Emilia and my immune systems,” Richardson remembers. “We got sick similar 3 times — I’d beryllium sick, and past she’d beryllium sick and past they would bash each my scenes portion she was sick, and past sometimes we’d some beryllium sick. We had 18-hour days. It was constant.”

Despite the hurdles, Richardson reveled successful playing Twila. She felt wholly locked successful to the character, a pistillate with a large personality, and a fearless, sometimes chaotic attack to situations. Twila charges successful headfirst without interest for the consequences, whether it’s mounting a barroom connected occurrence to flight the announcement of KGB oregon brazenly approaching Russian sources. She’s a stark juxtaposition to the much calculated Bea. But nether Twila’s assurance is simply a vulnerability that Richardson aptly tapped into, possibly due to the fact that it felt truthful overmuch similar her ain acquisition successful the world. Twila is unabashedly herself, thing Richardson channeled successful her caller poesy book, “I’m Sad and Horny,” adjacent if it means alienating immoderate people.

“She learns astir herself, admits things and grows passim the show,” Richardson says of Twila. “There’s a batch of parallels for me. This has been a large taxable of my year, similar with my poesy publication — erstwhile you are a batch oregon excessively overmuch oregon bold and large determination tin beryllium radical who don’t get it oregon don’t similar it and shame you. There’s a batch I learned from Twila, but the main happening is feeling escaped and harmless to beryllium each of yourself and cognize that idiosyncratic is going to spot you and inactive emotion you.”

“She learns astir herself, admits things and grows passim the show,” Richardson says of Twila. “There’s a batch of parallels for me.”

(David Urbanke / For The Times)

Iserson says Richardson recovered a analyzable equilibrium successful Twila’s psyche that ended up being cleanable for the show. “There were versions of this quality wherever we could person formed much of a consecutive comedian, who conscionable played into the comedy, oregon we could person formed idiosyncratic who played much into the toughness and the trauma,” helium says. “Haley is idiosyncratic who holds some sides of this quality successful a mode that is truthful real. She thought of Twila arsenic this afloat formed idiosyncratic who she was embodying but who besides existed and who she loved.”

Foley describes Richardson arsenic having “an obsessive committedness to a infinitesimal feeling true.” “She would litigate those moments until they felt existent to her, and past they were truthful transcendent erstwhile she did them,” Foley says. “There’s a perfectionism to her that you don’t spot due to the fact that it’s truthful invisible and seamless by the clip she’s performing. You tin consciousness the precision and it’s awesome due to the fact that it doesn’t ever look hard.”

Although Twila and Bea observe caller romanticist relationships aft the deaths of their husbands — Twila’s is peculiarly unexpected — “Ponies” is rooted successful pistillate friendship. Fogel says the characters were written arsenic foils for each other. Each has thing the different needs, which pulls them unneurotic contempt occasionally butting heads.

“The combined full of the 2 of them would marque this complete, well-rounded and wholly functional pistillate successful the world,” Fogel says. “But they’re each 2 halves of the whole. Bea leads with her encephalon and Twila is each id. She’s similar a bull successful a china store due to the fact that she has nary filter and has a batch of defence mechanisms. Bea has to larn to beryllium braver and bolder. For Twila, bravery isn’t the problem. For her, it’s astir learning to spot that different radical volition emotion and judge her.”

“Bea leads with her encephalon and Twila is each id. She’s similar a bull successful a china store due to the fact that she has nary filter and has a batch of defence mechanisms,” says Susanna Fogel astir the characters.

(Katalin Vermes / Peacock)

Clarke notes that Hollywood likes to isolate women, often lone spotting 1 histrion successful a peculiar movie oregon TV show. But “Ponies” gives Bea and Twila adjacent abstraction successful the spotlight and yet concurs that they’re stronger due to the fact that of their friendship.

“The happening that makes the amusement truthful unsocial is that truthful overmuch worldly happens and you privation to ticker each episode, but it is astir character,” Clarke says. “Things hap to the characters, arsenic opposed to worldly happening and past we conscionable the characters. The amusement lives and dies connected this relationship.”

Richardson and Clarke developed a akin relationship offscreen. There wasn’t a batch of clip connected acceptable successful Budapest for leisure, but the brace would often sermon their enactment oregon interrogate upcoming scenes portion successful their side-by-side constitution chairs. One vacation weekend, Richardson booked an Airbnb for the formed astatine a adjacent water and everyone took shrooms together.

“I don’t cognize however they got them into Budapest, but we had a beauteous large night,” Richardson recalls. “I curse I was not the cause dealer, but I was the cause taker.”

Clarke denies being liable too. “I can’t retrieve who brought the mushrooms,” she says. “Someone did, and past crippled over. It was truthful wonderful.”

After wrapping “Ponies” past summer, Richardson flew to South Africa to sprout Gore Verbinski’s upcoming sci-fi thriller “Good Luck, Have Fun, Don’t Die,” which she describes arsenic “psychotic but amazing.” She past headed to Hong Kong to marque a “collaborative experimental thing” with Kogonada, which the filmmaker has since edited into a movie called “zi” that is acceptable to premiere astatine Sundance. In the midst of it, she wrote and released her publication of poetry.

“I ne'er thought I would constitute a poesy book, but successful doing that, I consciousness similar I recovered existent empathy for myself,” she says. “I realized I tin enactment myself retired determination and immoderate radical volition subordinate and laughter and emotion it, and immoderate radical won’t and I americium inactive OK. It was a truly cool, freeing experience.”

“I ne'er thought I would constitute a poesy book, but successful doing that, I consciousness similar I recovered existent empathy for myself,” she says of moving connected “I’m Sad and Horny.” “It was a truly cool, freeing experience.”

(David Urbanke / For The Times)

Richardson says she’s ever been unfastened but discerning erstwhile it comes to her career. She’s not funny successful manifesting the cleanable relation due to the fact that she’s not definite what that volition look similar successful advance. She simply knows it erstwhile she reads it. She has thing upcoming connected her slate, though there’s a anticipation that “Ponies” volition unrecorded connected beyond the archetypal season. It ends connected a gripping cliffhanger (and, it’s not a spoiler to say, with Bea and Twila holding hands successful solidarity).

“I’ve been having a bully clip lately,” Richardson says. “Acting and with the originative stuff, I’ve been having fun. I don’t cognize what my adjacent happening volition be, but it volition beryllium fun.”

Excavating Twila has fundamentally changed Richardson, calling the acquisition profound, creatively and personally, unlocking a caller furniture of acting for her.

“I cognize that acting is fake, and we are playing make-believe and saying lines written for america and playing a quality who writers make and past actors bring to beingness and who truly lone lives connected a screen,” she says. “But playing Twila made maine recognize however existent acting tin beryllium too.”

There’s a feeling of “extreme accomplishment” that has lingered since “Ponies” wrapped past summer. She knows she gave herself to the enactment fully.

“I felt exhausted, but I besides didn’t consciousness depleted,” Richardson says. “It was a reciprocal experience, similar wherever Twila and the acquisition of the amusement gave backmost to me. I’m challenged each clip I enactment connected a project. My assurance builds.”

She pauses, past adds, “I’m trying to bash this and explicit myself successful this mode and research successful this mode creatively for possibly the remainder of my life. What I bash is truthful personal. It’s marque believe, but it’s besides real. You person to instrumentality your existent bosom and feelings and assemblage and dependable and springiness it to thing that is being created. That’s what I did with Twila.”