Charlie Cale, Natasha Lyonne’s character in Poker Face, is like Ted Lasso‘s Roy Kent (Brett Goldstein) in two crucial ways: She doesn’t shy away from swearing, and because she’s on the run in her ’69 Plymouth Barracuda, she’s the epitome of here/there/every-fucking-where.
We first meet Charlie, a cocktail waitress with the special ability to tell when someone is lying, at a Nevada casino. But after she’s forced to flee the state, she takes viewers on the road to a truck stop in New Mexico, a barbecue joint in Texas, on tour with a metal band, and more unique locations. Rian Johnson’s mystery-of-the-week series — which dropped its first four episodes on Peacock on January 26 — embraces episodic storytelling by introducing a new case to crack, cast to meet, and captivating new setting to explore each installment. The variation keeps things fresh and fun, but it also has viewers wondering where Poker Face was filmed.
Did the cast and crew travel from state to state to get their shots? Or are the realistic settings we see onscreen simply the result of a talented set design. If you’ve found yourself asking “Where was Poker Face filmed?”, then we’ve got answers. Here’s everything we know about the filming locations for Johnson’s series.
In press materials for the show, Poker Face creator Rian Johnson explained, “We cut ourselves loose as far as the writing goes so that when you sit down to watch an episode, you have no idea where Charlie will end up next… We thought, okay, this is a road trip show. So let’s really try and have a different world for every single one.”
Though Lyonne’s character drives state-to-state, the cast and crew didn’t head out to every single location depicted in the series. Per the press notes, Poker Face primarily filmed in “a roughly 40-mile radius” in New York, with special on-site trips to New Mexico and Nevada. That means a significant portion of the stunning sets and locations you see on-screen were either crafted or found in New York.
“The turnaround time was very quick, every 10 days we were shooting a new episode after our first two that we shot consecutively with a traditional six to eight week prep. We knew some of the storylines and locations early on to start research and scouting, like the Texas Barbecue episode, but we were always up against TIME,” production designer Judy Rhee said in press notes. “We had an amazing Art Dept. team, as well as Construction, Scenics, Set Dec./Set Dressers who consistently met the demands of the script and schedule. Without them, we would not have a show. It was also tricky to find the variety of landscapes in the Hudson Valley, but our Locations dept. did an incredible job.”
Rhee designed Season 4 of Better Call Saul and Johnson directed two episodes of Breaking Bad, so it wasn’t their first time on-location in New Mexico. But Poker Face was a much more challenging experience, because every new case requires a different backdrop.
“[Rian and I] discovered in our early discussions that we are both big fans of Italian Neorealism films, so we referenced some of Antonioni’s work. For Episode 3 we talked about the location needing to look and feel like Paris, Texas or The Last Picture Show,” Rhee explained.”…There were certain locations that we were trying to retrofit the episodes into because of the limitations we had. We were able to find places that could pass for Texas, the Southwest or The Adirondacks.”
In an interview Poker Face showrunners Nora and Lilla Zuckerman, Lilla also commented on the show’s ambitious settings. “The wonderful thing about this show is that it is designed to just be an ongoing thing, because it is so episodic that you can set one of these murder mysteries anywhere,” she said. “And I think that what we wanted to do was really peel back and take a look at the heartland of America and the characters that are there, and really surprise people with where we could set these stories.”
Here’s hoping Poker Face lives to see a second season so we can keep road tripping and seeing the sights with Charlie Cale.
The first four episodes of Poker Face are now streaming on Peacock with new episodes dropping weekly on Thursdays.
