Talking to Heléne Yorke doesn’t really feel like an interview. Sure, during a Friday afternoon Zoom we mainly focused on The other two, Max’s criminally underrated comedy in which he stars, but there are enough jokes about life and mom things that it quickly turns into small talk. And it certainly doesn’t hurt that she’s fun and relatable, not entirely unlike her on-screen character.
half holder TwoBrooke Dubek is a former professional dancer who is searching for her purpose and examining her identity after her younger brother becomes an overnight pop sensation. At this point in the series’ third season, he’s managing the careers of ChaseDreams (Case Walker) and his mother-turned-media mogul Pat Dubek (Molly Shannon) after temporarily leaving the industry because the pandemic made her feel Guilty for Not Being a Professional do-gooder and middle child Carey (Drew Tarver) is on the rise as an actor, but he’s sinking in his personal life.
“We live in a time where what we do has nothing to do with us and everything to do with others based on this very public way that we all engage with the world,” says Yorke. the hollywood reporter the way his character’s experience reflects our current reality. “Like, ‘I see what other people are doing, therefore what I’m doing is wrong and it’s bad.’ It’s like a constant feedback loop.”
Of course, there are moments in this season that would make anyone question their path. He was tasked with driving a picture of her little brother’s well-groomed armpit across the country in a produce truck for Rolling Stone was able to properly celebrate his adulthood, literally went into outer space twice on dates with insufferable billionaires, and in the last episode almost chloroformed Ben Platt to prevent him from acting during his TO night of undeniable good telethon.
Episode eight, which aired on June 15, takes a behind-the-curtain look at the show’s production within the show and is packed with biting satire. The other two is known for. Brooke is producing an eight-hour televised event to raise $250 million for mental health awareness, a cause ChaseDreams champions in an effort to rehabilitate her image, which features “performances by singers who sometimes get antsy” as well as “a powerful parks survivor speech [Insert Name of Parkland Survivor We Can Get].” Parkland’s placeholder text becomes a running joke, but it’s a minor mishap compared to the homophobic CEO deciding to pull an already announced $100 million donation if Platt acts, leading to a Streeter ( Ken Marino) oiled up and shirtless sexually harassing the Broadway star in an attempt to distract him and the chloroform narrowly avoided.
“Sometimes people want to call Brooke a mess, or put characters in a box like that, and I’m like, ‘What? you have it all together?’” says Yorke. “We all kind of suck.”
While her decisions and intentions are sometimes questionable, she has been the driving force pushing her family to make the most of their successes.
“Brooke is the uninhibited sister of a trio who thinks, ‘Why not? Let’s see what happens,” says Yorke. “I always describe her as someone who’s willing to jump into a pool that’s empty and say, ‘By the time I get there, I’ll touch the water,’ and I just have faith in that. I really love that about the character.”
Drew Tarver as Carey, Case Walker as Chase, and Yorke (right) as Brooke in Season 2 Episode 1 of The other two.
GREG ENDRIES/HBO MAX
In addition to being able to do some impressive mental gymnastics—”I have a remarkable ability to look at a situation and come at it from 500 different directions,” Yorke says that she and her character share that inherent optimism. “Reality is so devastating sometimes,” she says. “The ability to keep putting one foot in front of the other no matter how terrible it is, I think I got it because I’m an actor and I moved to the city and I worked hard and a lot of it didn’t work out. exercise for me. Go forward”.
Yorke, who was born in Vancouver but grew up in Los Angeles and graduated in musical theater from the University of Michigan, has been building a career in both television (masters of sex, the good fight) and on stage (Bullets On broadway, American Psycho).
Leaping into a comedy created by snl Alumni Chris Kelly and Sarah Schneider and starring alongside Shannon, Marino and Tarver was a bit intimidating at first.
“I remember being like, ‘What am I doing here? This is a comedy show. I’m a theater kid,’” Yorke recalls. “It seemed like we were working on a secret, something that we knew people were going to love and it was a lot of fun. That’s what I remember from the beginning: ‘Damn, these people are cool and I hang out with them.’ It was like he had finally made it to the right side of the playground, or whatever. Is the best.”
In the more than four years since the series premiered, there’s been a global pandemic, a move from Comedy Central to the streamer now known as Max, and the birth of Yorke’s son, Hugo. But despite the changes, production delays and screen time jumps, he says it’s easy to get back into character.
“The writing is so good and they write to us so beautifully that it’s like putting on your favorite pair of pants if they were constantly changing sizes with you,” says Yorke. “The shooting is also so intentional. We’re so cranky about how time works based on the way the camera moves because jokes are everywhere. I get really mad at my husband because he’s going to laugh at Drew and miss a joke of mine.”
Fans get them though, and Yorke has found himself in more than one memeified gif, like this one below, that he actually uses in conversation. “I send myself to people, yes”, he laughs himself. “And I use my own stickers on Instagram.”
“It’s funny to see what resonates with people,” she says. “People make memes and stuff, and I love seeing what people pick up on because you’re like, ‘Oh, that happened so fast, will people pick it up?’ It’s hard because you’re so close to it.”
Brooke’s arc in season three focuses heavily on self-improvement, which mostly takes the form of superficial changes as she struggles to try to be “good” as her on-off love interest Lance (Josh Segarra), who is now nurse.
“At this point, she’s not with Lance anymore and she’s a little shaken up and trying to figure out ‘how can I get over this person?’” Yorke explains. “I think you’re watching the season of someone holding on and still thinking that she’s getting closer to something, but she’s always constantly pulling away.”
It’s easy to take her side and think, “This poor guy has to put up with this girl,” she says. “But, in any relationship, you’re basically asking someone to like the things that suck about you. And she does. I think this is her person. If you want to be with someone forever, you have to find someone who doesn’t care about the things that suck about you and vice versa. That is a lasting relationship. Nobody is perfect.”
Josh Segarra as Lance and Yorke as Brooke in Season 3 Episode 1 of The other two.
GREG ENDRIES/HBO MAX
In a series that does some of its best storytelling by watching its characters find surprising new ways to fail in life and love, it’s hard to say if any of them have hit rock bottom, but Brooke comes close in the penultimate episode. Without spoiling it, let’s say Lance is named PeopleBrooke’s Sexiest Man Alive lit a fire for Brooke to prove once and for all that they’re on the same level, because he really can’t be as good as he seems. Her search for her takes her to uncomfortable and harrowing extremes.
“Episode nine is one of the most challenging things I’ve ever worked on because it was very physical and very demanding from a make-up perspective,” says Yorke. “We were in this apartment building on 25th street for a week and we just wreaked havoc, going in and out of a window like 400,000 times. I believe, and I also feel that way about parenthood, that the hardest things are always the most rewarding. That’s true for this season more than ever.”
The season three finale airs June 29, and Yorke is happy with where it brings Brooke’s story.
“People are frustrated with Brooke and she deserves it,” he says. “I am very proud of her and how she comes to the end of the season. I don’t think it’s what people will expect. Yo hope It’s not what they expect.”
She continues: “And overall, I’m proud of the whole season because they asked so much of us as actors. I feel like, in a way I’ve never done in my career, I gave a 360 performance that’s hard comedy, physical comedy, ridiculous situations, and then moments that are real and deeply rooted. I think they did a good job closing out the season. More than anything, I’m very proud of her.”
Yorke says she is often asked what her next dream job would be. It’s a question she can’t answer because she never saw a role like this coming.
“It’s so fun and so weird to be in something that…” Yorke stops mid-sentence. “This is very embarrassing. I would like to see white lotus like everyone else, and at the end of white lotusHBO Max would [suggest] more like this the first was The other twoand only watched episodes of my own show afterwards white lotus. I love it. It’s my taste. It’s something I would like if I wasn’t in it.”
the perspective of No be in The other two it takes no more than an instant to sink.
“It’s something I’d be mad not to be in if I was watching it,” Yorke says with a laugh. “He probably wouldn’t watch it because he’d be jealous of whoever hired Brooke Dubek.”
