Ponies debuted to rave reviews earlier this month and following its premiere, we were able to catch up with series regulars Vic Michaelis ("Cheryl") and Nicholas Podany ("Ray") to learn more about the stellar spy series and breakdown the finale's massive twist - so spoilers ahead!
Before we get too deep into the finale's biggest twists and turns, we talk about developing their chemistry for the series, the differing mindsets of Ray and Cheryl as the season progresses, the unexpected arrival of the nanny, shooting high octane car chases in Hungary, working alongside series leads Emilia Clarke and Haley Lu Richardson, where their characters could go moving forward, and a whole lot more!
The cast features Emilia Clarke (Game of Thrones; Secret Invasion), Haley Lu Richardson (The White Lotus; Five Feet Apart), Adrian Lester (Hustle; Mary Queen of Scots), Artjom Gilz (Dogs of Berlin), Vic Michaelis (Very Important People; Dropout), Nicholas Podany (Hello, Goodbye, and Everything in Between), Petro Ninovskyi (Jack Ryan).
Ponies is now streaming, exclusively on Peacock!
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ROHAN: When you both first got the scripts, what were your initial reactions to your characters and overall plotline? Did you know the twists and turns going into shooting or did you learn more as you got closer to the finale?
NICHOLAS: This is my favorite story from Vic.
VIC: I'm sorry. I'm such a broken record.
NICHOLAS: No, it's so good!
VIC: I signed on last for the show, or I was one of the last people to sign on, so I got sent all the scripts as I am on the plane to Hungary for six months and, you know, I was really excited. I really connected with the character, Cheryl, and then I get to Episode 8 and I screamed. I had literally no idea what was going to happen, and so then I had to frantically text David and Susanna and be like, oh my god! They were like, we know! We forgot to tell you! *laughs*
ROHAN: I do want to get into the finale, but first, when you are developing your chemistry as Ray and Cheryl, were there any things you did before shooting to connect? Or was that a conversation once you got on set?
NICHOLAS: I think so much on the page is about the, you know, some of the comedy of the relationship, or the blaring red flags that you see in the relationship, and just watching two people kind of laugh their way through these glaringly obvious issues in the marriage, and I think something that Vic and I both really wanted to convey, through the show in whatever moments we could, was how in love these people are, so it's not just a comically bad marriage, but actually there is a real love and a real foundation for these two. They just have gotten complacent in the dynamic that they've set up, and now it's easier to stay in that dynamic than change anything or rock the boat.
VIC: Yeah, I think about that a lot with the nanny, where Ray is sort of openly having this emotional connection with the nanny, and I think if you're upset about being embarrassed, you're angry. And I think in order to be genuinely hurt by something like that, there has to be something else there. You know what I mean? I don't think you can get that hurt by somebody that you don't love or care for.
ROHAN: Vic, throughout the season, Cheryl also butts heads with Twila, whose personality is the polar opposite of Cheryl’s. What was it like working with Haley and developing that dynamic?
VIC: Yeah, totally, and, you know, working with Haley was the absolute best, I mean, like Nick, you too got to spend a lot of time on screen together. Haley just has comedy in her bones, really, she’s so good to go back and forth with. And I think, like, you know, we're two sides of the same coin where, you know, she is kind of driven to have what you want. She got herself out of a tough situation at home, and was like, I just want to travel the world, and so made that happen for herself, and I think Cheryl is doing the same thing. Obviously, she has taken a very different path in which to do that. But I think they both, a little bit, see each other for who they are, and like are not willing to give each other much time or space to sort of play with whatever they're sort of covering up about themselves.
ROHAN: Nicholas, you also get to share a lot of scenes with Haley, but it’s a different dynamic. While Emilia’s character Bea gets the majority of the dangerous field work, Ray chooses to give Twila a chance to prove herself. What do you think Ray sees in Twila that the others seemingly don’t?
NICHOLAS: I think so many people in the field of the CIA become dispassionate, not trusting, very cold people, and I think Ray has found a way to keep his moral compass stuck in one direction, while also maintaining his optimism, his open heartedness and his real self. And so, when he comes across someone who is so open and so, you know, like hard out to the world, he relates to that person immediately, even though they have very different hearts on their sleeves, to see someone that open also interested in the ideology of, you know, the mission and of what is right and what is wrong is really compelling. He has a real distinction of what he's fighting for, like he's not in it for the money. He's not in it for any kind of glory. He's in it because he thinks it's the right thing to do, to keep the right kind of ideology in the world, and he believes that Twila has a very similar motor, she wants the right thing to be done, and I think that's a very compelling thing for him.
ROHAN: Vic, throughout the first half of the season Cheryl is very put together, but when the nanny enters the picture, some of the cracks start to show. What do you think it is about the nanny’s presence that sets her off? Is it her potentially threatening her relationship with Ray? Or does she feel like the walls are starting to cave in?
VIC: I think it's both, you know, it is all of a sudden. Her personal mission is a lot harder. I think both of those things exist at the same time. I think that is the initial gut reaction and also the practical reason, and then I think in those cracks that have formed seeps in this thing of, like, on top of that, my husband likes her, like, you have to be kidding me. I'm very fortunate that, you know, in conversations with David and Susanna, they're both sort of like, you know, Cheryl is a very ego driven person, and I think in the same way that Ray falls back on a lot of the things that are comfortable, I think Cheryl has always been the most put together person in the room, spends the most time on her hair, the most money on her clothes, and I think this idea that she can't buy or guarantee Ray's affections, and that there might be something more, somebody else, that could draw him away, I think is maybe a final nail, even though Cheryl obviously is like doing all these things that are much more fracturing to a relationship, it just is. I don't know. It's very interesting.
ROHAN: Nicholas, Ray is a great agent, and is very aware of his surroundings and is naturally suspicious, but there’s obviously this huge blind spot with his own wife. Why would you say Ray has that sort of blind spot with the people he’s closest to?
NICHOLAS: Well, he's really good at his job. I mean, he's really good at, you know, the analytics, about gathering information, about providing that information for the right people, being there right on time when he needs to be, he's punctual, but he has a real distinction, and this is how he survived between his career and his life, and those two will never mix. And the idea that not only someone in his life, but also someone who he has committed his entire soul to would, I mean, let alone betray him, just even be in the same kind of sphere of his career, not that she can't, just that that doesn't cross his mind. He's so stuck in the ways that have got him this far that I think it'll be interesting to see how he reacts to all this information.
VIC: I'm like, I think they both think that they are holding up their end of the bargain still. Cheryl is still like, I'm still dressing up and I'm still in my outfits and I'm still showing up, and Ray is like, I've never physically cheated on you.
NICHOLAS: I don’t even know if Ray would. I think Ray is in such a mental hopscotch kind of loop that he probably doesn't even know that he's emotionally cheating on Cheryl.
VIC: No, of course, not!
NICHOLAS: I think it’s just wanting to do the best for everybody, but, of course, from an outsider's perspective, you see what's happening to him, but inside his brain, which is incredibly compartmentalized, yeah, that'll create a lot of blind spots.
ROHAN: Vic, we’ve alluded to it, but let’s talk about the big twist in the finale. Now that we know Cheryl’s true allegiances, were there subtle hints that you dropped throughout the season that fans can go back and try to find on a rewatch?
VIC: I mean, you know, I think that Cheryl prides herself, and probably is very good at the polish, especially early on. You know what I mean? I think, you know, in conversations, a lot of conversations with David, it was something we decided early on that like Cheryl is going to do this top of intelligence, do this as earnestly as possible. I think there's things in the writing that, if you like, go through and look at it, there are certainly moments where you go, oh, that makes sense, that makes sense that Cheryl was doing this because of this, but I also think, like part of the reason probably why she was chosen for this is because her personality fits it so well, and it's because of who she is that nobody is going to suspect her of anything. It's something that maybe if anybody else was saying this or acting this way, people would be like, that's weird, but because Cheryl is so polished and deeply direct and has a little bit of a low emotional intelligence, you know, absolutely everybody's just going, oh, that's just Cheryl. There's like absolutely nothing. Like, I don't know, if you were to sort of, on paper, I think look at this in a situation today, you'd be like, Cheryl probably had something to do with that, but because of the time period and Cheryl's station within the organization, you know, being like a secretary, people just had absolutely no clue.
ROHAN: Nicholas, you get this really great car chase early in the season - which they callback to in the finale - but what was it like shooting that sequence? How much were you actually behind the wheel?
NICHOLAS: I was so excited, man. It was the last thing I shot, that was like my last day, was the interior shots of the car. They taught me how to drive that car. And then they were like, you know what, a stunt guy probably knows how to do this better. Yeah, on the actual streets, it wasn't me, and when it is me on the actual streets, I'm being towed by a very slow truck. So yeah, but to watch it back was so cool.
VIC: You don’t have to tell people that part, you could just say it was you driving. You don't have to say you were being towed by a truck. You could be like it was me in the driver’s seat.
NICHOLAS: I have to be honest, because the moment that it is me behind the wheel, I will not shut up. No, it was really cool to read that and be like, oh, we're gonna do that. You know, you get these little moments as an actor where you get to, you know, live out your little Clint Eastwood dreams, and you're like, hey, yeah, that's cool.
ROHAN: What was your experience shooting in Hungary? Did just being there help getting into character and the sort of feel of the show?
VIC: I don't know about you, Nick, but it was the oldest place I've ever spent that much time. You know what I mean? Like, you really feel like you step into the history of the place, you know what I mean, especially once you're in the costumes and some of the locations that we shot at, where you're literally walking through an abandoned building, and then you get into, like the most beautifully dressed room with these like square, these like cube ceilings, that are like from the ‘50s that just got sealed up and hadn't been touched until they found it during location scouting and then dressed the whole thing, and then we're in our costumes. It really was transportative.
NICHOLAS: It was transportative.
VIC: We were transported.
NICHOLAS: It was this great thing of just, you know, from the first moment we started shooting, like, the first scene we shot was the Christmas party, or the first scene I shot was the Christmas party, and I walked in in my outfit, and I just didn't realize how huge of a character the USSR in the 1970s was going to play in this show, because you read it on paper and you go right, the plot, the characters, this is great. But, oh my god, the fact that they shot it in a 4:3 aspect ratio is massive to the show's aesthetic, and it's an entire character in and of itself, and it just aids the energy that I think we're going for, and the sheer fun of it is really reflected in that that aesthetic, and yeah, Hungary and Budapest especially, has such a respect to its own history and to its own, you know, revolutionary impulses that is so cool to to be filming there.
VIC: That's an incredible point too, because we also, like, worked with people who were alive and in school during that time period, and so even as they're like prepping us to go into the scenes, we're like hearing the stories of what it was like living through that time period, and it was really hard not to be, you know, affected by the weight of that.
Moscow, 1977. Two “PONIES” ("persons of no interest" in intelligence speak) work anonymously as secretaries in the American Embassy. That is until their husbands are killed under mysterious circumstances in the USSR, and the pair become CIA operatives. Bea (Emilia Clarke) is an over-educated, Russian-speaking child of Soviet immigrants. Her cohort, Twila (Haley Lu Richardson), is a small-town girl who is as abrasive as she is fearless. Together, they work to uncover a vast Cold War conspiracy and solve the mystery that made them widows in the first place.