Russian Doll ‘traumatising’ for Natasha Lyonne found learning Hungarian – Film News | Film-News.co.uk

Natasha Lyonne found learning to be the “most traumatising” part of the Russian doll of the second season.

The Orange Is The New Black star’s character Nadia discovers that she’s on the Netflix show for the second season in a bunch of potential travel and other people’s bodies.

One key sequence is set in Budapest and required Natasha to speak Hungarian as if it’s her first language, and in an interview with Entertainment Weekly, she admitted that it was a daunting task.

“I would say the most traumatising was learning Hungarian,” she shared. “It was such a crazy undertaking. I blame Alex Buono, who’s the other director of the season and really my partner this year. I love him to death, but my God, what a lunatic.”

In a separate interview with IndieWire, The American Pie star revealed that the season of showrunner and co-director serving as the language of learning is full-on.

“It was a nightmare,” Natasha said. “I was the showrunner, with spreadsheets, Hungarian budgets. Everyday, we’re shot-listing, storyboarding, and I didn’t speak a lick of Hungarian.”

“(I kept saying to Alex) It can’t be an impression of Hungarian. I’m going to have to like Dustin Hoffman in Hungarian! And he was like, ‘That’s the real s ** t! this! ‘”

Natasha worked with acting coach Terry Knickerbocker and Hungarian actress Éva Magyar to nail the accent and she could.

“We just kept f ** king hammering it and hammering it … We’d be the first AD (assistant director) with f ** king tech scouts and I’d be working on it,” she recalled.

Russian Doll season two is streaming on Netflix now.