The second season of Russian Doll brings up many questions, but the biggest one of all might be: “Wait, whose voice is that?!”
Much of the season’s time-bending action takes places on New York City subway trains as Natasha Lyonne‘s character Nadia travels back-and-forth between generations in an attempt to piece together her life.
If you listen closely, a voice on the train might sound eerily familiar. Stop banging your head against the wall because we’re here to help. It’s Rosie O’Donnell!
“She’s the subway announcer,” Natasha told Entertainment Weekly. “She’s the ‘Next stop, this is Astor Place. Next stop, 14th street.'”
Natasha knew the recording needed to sound authentic, so went through a Rolodex of famous New York voices.
“It was very generous of [O’Donnell]. I just texted her, because we knew we wanted a real New York accent,” she said. “We were sort of running down the line, we’re like, ‘Rosie Perez, Rosie…Mike Rapaport. Who’s doing this part?’ And so I texted Rosie, and she just would start sending me these little voice memos.”