How a ‘Poker Face’ Connection Led to Benjamin Bratt’s Guest Role

[Warning: The below contains MAJOR spoilers for Loot Season 2, Episode 4, “Mr. Congeniality.”]

Loot’s latest episode welcomed a very special guest star with the appropriately titled installment, “Mr. Congeniality.”

Benjamin Bratt stepped in to play a version of himself as Molly (Maya Rudolph) visited a swanky meditation retreat for her mental well-being. Things took a hilariously heated turn as Molly couldn’t hide her attraction to the movie star.

Much to Molly’s delight, Bratt expressed an equal interest in her. But how did this amazing guest star appearance even come together? It turns out that there’s a Poker Face connection as Natasha Lyonne, who stars in the Peacock series is an executive producer on Loot and suggested her costar Bratt for the role.

Apple TV+

“I mean, you yourself Poker Faced that… Natasha did suggest Benjamin Bratt,” co-creator Alan Yang says with a laugh. “She was like, ‘he’s incredible!’ And she really liked working with him and then we loved working with him. He was so funny and so nice and extremely preternaturally handsome.”

“But yeah, we love the idea of actors playing themselves,” continues Yang.

“When we were thinking about doing this show way back, we were like, ‘The billionaires are surrounded by celebrities, sometimes they’re just in these rarefied circles, and we thought it would be funny if Molly at some point had something going on with an actor,” co-creator Matt Hubbard adds.

Apple TV+

Thankfully, Bratt was more than willing to pull his best comedic performance out. “We were so excited to write jokes for him about being super into Molly, and he was incredible. He was so game and he has the instinct that any good comic actor has where he just played everything so straight and committed so hard to it,” Hubbard muses.

For Rudolph, it was a departure from her usual comedy. Although she says, “It was so much fun… And he’s so lovely and kind,” Rudolph admits, “We were both nervous… like I don’t do kissing scenes. I don’t do that kind of stuff, that’s not my thing, so I was very uncomfortable, especially because I didn’t want him to feel like, ‘I brought you here because I have the hots for you.’”

“It’s so embarrassing to be like, ‘Hey, you’re really hot, would you come to my show?’ But he’s the whole package,” Rudolph praises.

The casting choice paid off in comedic spades that viewers are sure to laugh over when streaming the standout episode.

Stay tuned for more shenanigans as Molly’s story continues on Loot Season 2, and let us know what you thought of Bratt’s guest role in the comments section, below.

Loot, Season 2, New Episodes, Wednesdays, Apple TV+