In the loveliest of Zoom chats, actress Poppy Lee revealed some insights on her role as Sarah in “No Good Deed”, Netflix suspenseful dramedy series by Liz Feldman. Poppy shared what drew her to the project, her love for murder mysteries, and how the show’s themes of searching for a “dream home” resonate with real-life struggles.
Reflecting on the impact of the show’s setting on her performance, Poppy also opened up about her advocacy work, including founding Collective Sex, and her commitment to using art to inspire social change: an interview that was also a deep look into an actor’s life and career.
What’s your first cinema memory?
Either watching “Titanic” or “Silence of the Lambs”, around when I was 5 years old.
I think both movies are probably not appropriate for age 5 [laughs]. I remember when we were watching “Titanic” that my parents were like, “Oh my God, a sex scene! Naked Kate Winslet!”. Also with “Silence of the Lambs”, it was a couple of years later when we’d immigrated from China to Minnesota, I don’t think my parents knew anything about movie ratings or reviews, so I found myself watching Hannibal Lecter eating somebody’s face when I was 5 years old!
Speaking of “No Good Deed”, what drew you to the character of Sarah and to the show in general?
I was really excited about working with Liz Feldman, I loved “Dead to Me”, I feel like she has a very distinct voice for dramedy, her sense of humor is so specific. I really love a murder mystery – when I was in my 20s, I was listening to crime podcasts all the time, even though now that I’m a mother, in my 30s, I feel too emotionally fragile for it. Anyway, I still love a murder story, and I think the genre Liz creates is the perfect “murder mystery suspense” with some levity and humor to it, and you’re not going to get nightmares after it.
You get the thrill without the fear.
The show explores the theme of finding a “dream home” that might ultimately be a nightmare. Do you feel like this idea of chasing a “perfect” solution to life’s problems resonates with you?
Definitely. I think we totally outsource our life’s stress. It’s easier to be like, “Let me redecorate my entire house, let me finally clean my room”, instead of dealing with trauma. The characters in “No Good Deed” have a deep secret that they’re hiding or running away from, which is revealed over the course of the season, and I think that’s so relatable. Life sometimes is too much, and we just have to do something that’s very tangible, physical things. I feel like the more our emotions are out of control, the more we grasp physical stuff.
Yeah, I totally agree. I’m one of those people who become compulsive cleaners when they feel stressed or worried about something…
Yeah! The more stressed I am, the more random tasks I do that I’ve put off for months.
The house is a 1920s Spanish-style villa with a history of its own. How did the setting and visual style influence your performance and the way you connected with your character?
The house in this show is kind of its own character.
You know, real estate in LA is so unique, people would fight over it. The fact that we can have “selling” sunsets is so true: the hot neighborhoods, the markets, the lore, it’s something very specific to LA. For all these characters, buying the home means something different: it’s either a projection of the future, like “this home means I finally get to start my family” or “this home means it’ll seal my relationship” or “This home means I can run away from the things I’m hiding” or “This home is a supplement to my ego”. I’ve never seen something like real estate in LA anywhere else – LA is the home of Hollywood, the home of this gigantic cultural machine and you feel it in every facet of the city. You know, we filmed in a gorgeous house, and there you already feel that way – the neighborhoods are these big wide streets with sidewalks. You can’t but drive through the neighborhoods wondering who are the people living in those houses; it’s not me for sure, I live in a little home with chickens in the backyard, and that already feels like a lot for me to take care of! [laughs]
This series has some darkly comedic elements, personally one of my favorite genres. What’s your favorite genre to play and your favorite genre to watch?
What I like to play vs what I like to watch are almost complete opposites [laughs].
I think it would be the same for me if I were an actress!
Really? What would yours be?
My favorite genre to watch might actually be dark comedy, but I think I would really enjoy acting in horror movies.
Me too! I love acting in very dark things because I think it’s fun as an actor to try and get into a certain person’s psyche. I wouldn’t even say that “No Good Deed” is that dark, it’s very relationship-driven, and it has a page-turner pace to it, but I feel that dark stories and dark and complex characters are incredibly interesting to work on as an actor.
On the other hand, when I watch stuff, I always feel like I always want to turn my brain off, in fact, I watch a lot of reality TV! Also, recently my friend has given me an itinerary of iconic Chinese films to watch, and it’s been really fun to feel like I have this self-made film school itinerary of movies.
Is there anything Sarah taught you, or any unexpected things about yourself you discovered from working on this show?
I don’t think I’m giving anything away by saying this, because I think it’s revealed very early on, but my character very much wants to start a family. I myself have a two-year-old son and I’ve always wanted to be a mom and understand that desire overtaking you, but something I really like about my character is that she really loves being in a relationship. Me and Abbey Jacobson play each other’s wives and we’re very much a team. There are a lot of dysfunctional relationships in this series and ours also has its secrets, but for the most part, we’re like a duo and I really love that. Maybe I struggle with the feeling that that’s not possible in a relationship or maybe I feel like I don’t really need a relationship – I can get a lot of things done by myself, I’m really independent. I really love love but the idea that I need a partner it’s something that I’ve had to grow into, so I think I admire how much my character gives herself over to this relationship. For me, in the relationships I’ve been in, a lot of times I’ve wanted to jump ship when things were not working, maybe because I haven’t been with the right person yet, but I think it’s easy for me to say, “We’re not on the same page”, “This is not working out”, while my character is very committed to working on her relationship and she will stick to it. I admire that about her, and I want to learn from her.
“I admire how much my character gives herself over to this relationship”
Alongside acting, you’ve been trying to break stigmas through your work – you also founded your own company, Collective Sex, with that aim. What impact do you hope to have through your art?
I founded Collective Sex in my early to mid-twenties in New York. In many ways, I was still discovering and understanding myself, and that was a collective of people meeting monthly for storytelling and poetry nights. I had done a lot of physical theater stuff where we would use the concept of “being our bodies” as a way to unearth our stories or be able to heal from trauma by talking about it with other people. Going back, there are a lot of things I would have done differently, but I also like who I was at that time, too. When I graduated, I realized there’s so much healing that is possible when we have space to tell our own stories.
If there’s something special about that era is that, in a small room, what we were doing felt revolutionary and life-changing. In some ways, it was, but now I feel a little bit disheartened by the world because maybe I have a realism lens on. I really love the spirit of that time, though; I love how much importance and urgency we felt around everything.
How do you choose the roles you play? What makes you say yes to a project?
I think first and foremost it is the script. When you read something, you can really tell if it’s a good script or if it’s something that doesn’t resonate.
I also prioritize working with filmmakers that I really admire and want to work with – I’d much rather take a job that has an amazing script and an amazing director versus a high-profile franchise I’m not sure about.
What kind of projects or causes would you love to see more of in Hollywood? Are there specific kinds of stories or perspectives you feel are underrepresented and worth exploring?
I feel like our role as artists is so precious and unique, but also sometimes in contrast with what the industry wants. In the past, we had a role in shaping and sharing culture, and changing culture, and sharing narratives and changing perceptions, which is hard to measure sometimes, but you can feel it, you can feel the needle of social change slowly shifting – things that were taboo are now openly talked about, for example. A friend of mine said, “Cultural change precedes policy change”, and it’s a very intangible process, so I think a lot about what the responsibility of an artist is.
At the very moment, what I’m probably invested in is Gaza and Palestine: I think any help we’re able to give to individual families is like a drop in the ocean compared with how big of a disaster this genocide is. Something that I think is our responsibility as artists is the narrative change, humanizing people that our governments have deemed to be disposable, putting a face to this escalating number of deaths, showing the cultural beauty of people who are actively being replaced right now. That’s where my head is at right now.
Your biggest act of rebellion?
There’s a lot of pressure on artists not to speak up about things that are political. Especially right now, there’s a lot of censorship around Palestine and Gaza. I have a lot of peers in the industry who are afraid to be dropped by their agency or fired from their jobs if they say something. I’ve lost work because of it also, although I don’t think of it as an act of rebellion that much, it rather feels like human nature. When there are so many professional repercussions for something like that, my act of rebellion is that I don’t stop, and it’ll probably be more and more like this as time goes on, and come what may [laughs].
What does it mean for you to feel comfortable in your own skin?
I honestly think it takes time and age to feel comfortable in your own skin. I don’t know if I could have rushed it at all. I’ve been acting my whole life, but I’ve only been working in the industry for the last 5-6 years: part of me feels grateful that by the time I came into the industry, I’d already spent a lot of time figuring myself out and understanding myself better, building my own sense of self-worth and identity outside of the industry because it’s very easy to be grounded by it; especially for actors, you’re constantly seeking approval, the industry can mess up your brain and your sense of self-worth. I took time to understand myself first, I did many other things before that, I had to go through a lot of phases of myself that I look back and cringe at, but I had to try on those versions of myself.
You can’t rush that feeling.
Photos by Lenne Chai.
Styling by Lindsey Hartman.
Makeup by Michelle Chung.
Hair by Tammy Yi.
Production Designer: Katrina Songco.
Photo Assistant: Chir Yan Lim.
Styling Assistant: Claire van Eijk.
Producer: Leah Oliveria.
Studio: Hype Studios.
What do you think?