Whether she’s playing Charlie Cale or just being herself, Natasha Lyonne remains a dog lover through and through.
Lyonne’s love of canines is so great, in fact, that she had her real pooch, a 15-year-old female Malitpoo named Root Beer, appear in the Season 2 finale of Poker Face (all 12 episodes are now streaming on Peacock here). She cameos at the very end of the episode when Charlie, wearing an FBI jacket and trying to hitch a ride on a snowy highway, is followed by the lovable scamp.
And indeed, Root Beer is actually credited as “the scamp” during the end titles.
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Natasha Lyonne on her dog guest-starring in Poker Face Season 2 finale
“Root Beer is what you call a nepo baby,” Lyonne joked during an interview with Entertainment Weekly. “I’ve never had that joy, but I’m glad that she does by proxy. She does a real good job, Root Beer.”
This wasn’t Root Beer’s first onscreen role alongside her owner. The two previously starred together in the 2018 comedy feature Show Dogs alongside Will Arnett, Ludacris, Gabriel Iglesias, Jordin Sparks, and Stanley Tucci.
Speaking with Us Weekly at the time, Lyonne said her dog had “a little bit more like Lord of the Flies” attitude when compared to the other canines on-set, which the actress described as “prep school dogs. They’re far better behaved.”
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For the uninitiated and/or cat lovers out there, a Malitpoo is a designer mix between a Maltese and a Poodle. Lyonne acquired hers from actor Dave Ransone, brother of The Black Phone actor James Ransone.
“I dog sat for a week, [Dave] came back, and I was weeping. I had like 7,000 photos on the iPhone. Then he said, ‘I’m going out of town again.’ So he left her with me for three weeks when she was a puppy,” she recalled while conversing with chef Michael Symon on food-based talk show The Chew. “Then he comes home and I’m like, ‘That’s not your dog anymore.’ Cut to the end of the story, I got him two Chihuahuas, and Root Beer’s my dog now.”
All 12 episodes of Poker Face Season 2 are now streaming on Peacock alongside the complete first season.
