Russian Doll star Natasha Lyonne’s career has been skyrocketing ever since she stepped into the orange jumpsuit of Nicky Nichols on Netflix’s Orange Is the New Black. But the actress, who has been open about her struggles with addiction, took herself out of the spotlight for a number of years to recover.
“I think the simple truth in any conversation about recovery, in general, is things take time,” the actress said during The Hollywood Reporter Comedy Actress Roundtable about making a return to Hollywood. “It didn’t mean as much on a box office level that I’d left and now returned. So, I think it’s kind of a slow build.”
She continued: “If you just show up, you do the work, you’re kind of on time. It’s like we’re all entitled to some level to [drop] out at some point. At least mine is sort of the tangible variety, so we can touch it and talk about it cleanly. But the truth is it gave me time to re-assimilate as an adult human, being in the arts, and figure out who do I want to be in this game? What do I want to say? What do I want to do? What do I care about?”
Lyonne goes on to discuss why she feels “very lucky” to have stepped away from Hollywood, saying, “Now I’m inspired to keep going, rather than feeling like they burnt me out. Now we’re getting to make our things, so it feels very different.”
The full Comedy Actress Roundtable is set to air June 23 on SundanceTV. Lyonne appears on the roundtable panel along with Regina Hall, Jane Fonda, Tiffany Haddish, Alex Borstein, Maya Rudolph and Phoebe Waller-Bridge. Follow all the Emmy-season roundtables at THR.com/Roundtables.
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