Emilia Clarke is trading Dothraki for Russian.
The British actor, who catapulted to fame at 24 when Game of Thrones premiered, is starring opposite White Lotus alum Haley Lu Richardson in PONIES, a Cold War–era spy thriller hitting Peacock Thursday. And while neither actor actually has a background in espionage, each one felt a close personal connection to the role she plays.
“It’s very obvious I’m Bea,” Clarke said of her character, a type A newbie spy, arching her unmissable eyebrows during a Q&A hosted by VF’s Hillary Busis.
“Very personally, I needed to play [Twila],” Richardson added of her own part. “She was meaningful to me.”
Throughout the night, Clarke often mirrored Bea, the straight-laced Wellesley grad who headlines the show. Richardson, too, spent the evening channeling fiery Twila. The characters’ friendship takes off after both women realize their CIA-operative husbands have died in a mysterious plane crash—and they become hell-bent on finding out why. Practically overnight, these “Persons of No Interest” (PONIES) become special agents in KGB-era Moscow.
VF’s Wednesday screening at The Whitby Hotel was the perfect place for the duo to show off their chemistry. Their bond was tangible as they giggled and whispered to each other onstage. Richardson even wore a dress that fit her character’s zany persona—a sheer leopard-print mini trimmed with ruffles of white lace and complemented by a stripe of red plaid. Clarke, meanwhile, looked quite a bit more like Bea in an elegant black gown.
While both agreed they’d make horrible spies in real life, the two had no difficulty transitioning into their respective characters: “Both of us are pretty fucking cool,” Richardson said. “And together, we’re unstoppable.”
David Iserson cocreated the series with Susanna Fogel, who also partnered with him on the 2018 film The Spy Who Dumped Me. Iserson’s not shy about being a Cold War fanatic—“I have a giant mural in my home of the first Soviet dogs in space,” he said during the Q&A. “This is just a world I wanted to live in.”
And though the two are well aware of how America’s rapidly shifting relationship to Russia has made their new series increasingly topical, the heart of the show is the deep-rooted friendship between Twila and Bea.
Fogel told VF that the pair are two halves of a whole who realize that their relationship is just as important to their lives as it is to their mission. “It’s interesting because we’ve worked on projects where people keep wanting to break the friendship apart. Like, ‘Where’s the conflict where they hate each other?’” she told VF. PONIES, though, “is not a story that starts with an estrangement and takes eight episodes to get them to like each other. They are buddies.” And in the midst of nail-bitingly fast car chases and dark-alley shoot-outs, Fogel and Iserson didn’t need to “mine” the friendship for extra drama.
Iserson’s quest was to balance the humor and heaviness. “Part of our purpose is to take a show about two women who can be funny with each other, but actually is grounded in emotion and narrative weight,” he said. “And to treat it the way that many people would treat shows about men.”
It’s no secret that the television industry remains largely male-dominated. For decades, spy movies—and intelligence work itself—have been as well. But onscreen, Bea and Twila use misogyny to their advantage. As unassuming women, said Fogel, their invisibility is their superpower.
“The ’70s are interesting, because it’s a time that—at least in America—we were loudly talking about feminism a lot in culture, but people were still in traditional marriages and had families with traditional expectations,” Fogel told VF. “This was an interesting prism through which to look at: How empowered are you, really, deeply down?”
Post-screening, the crowd spilled out into The Whitby Bar and Restaurant, where Richardson sipped a dirty martini (with three olives) alongside her fellow cast members. She joined her dashing costars from episode one: Artjom Gilz, Nicholas Podany, and Petro Ninovskyi, circling a faux-memorial for the one comrade who couldn’t make it, Adrian Lester. On a table below them, a framed photo of Lester’s smizing headshot was adorned with flowers and votive candles.
The rest of the crowd schmoozed and sipped “KGB mules” or Sancerre while the actors made their rounds through the warmly lit bar. Fogel posed for a photo with husband Ira Glass, the renowned This American Life host, who joked that he has a soft spot for Q&As. He met his wife, in fact, after interviewing her at one.
The crowd mingled and laughed as Hell’s Kitchen grew quiet outside. Midtown had emptied out, but Clarke and Richardson were staying late at the after-party—in typical Bea and Twila fashion.
Richardson loved appearing in season two of The White Lotus. When asked to compare her character on that series to her character on PONIES, she was clear: “I prefer Twila,” she admitted during the Q&A.
The audience laughed, but Richardson only shrugged, remaining loyal to her alter ego.
“Print it.”
All episodes of PONIES are available to stream on Peacock today.
