Chloë Sevigny Started Filming ‘Russian Doll’ Season Two Right After Giving Birth

Chloë Sevigny recently revealed that she started filming the second season of “Russian doll” barely months after her delivery. The actress played the pregnant Lenora in the time-bending comedy-drama.

The show was created by the lead character, Natasha Lyonne, as well as Leslye Headland and Amy Poehler. The first season of "Russian Doll" premiered on Netflix in February 2019 and received four Primetime Emmy Awards and several other accolades. Season two was announced in June 2019 and released on April 20, 2022.

While season one focused on Nadia, played by Lyonne, and her dash against death, season two saw motherhood as one of the themes with Sevigny in the forefront. The actress played Nadia’s mother and revealed that she was in a delivery room just months prior to when she started filming.

The second “Russian Doll” season was just released and will star Sevigny as Lenora. Lenora is the mother of Natasha Lyonne’s character Nadia. In this season, Nadia is trapped in her mother’s body while Lenora is pregnant with her and stranded in a time-traveling subway portal.

The show primarily highlights the idea of motherhood and the innocence characteristic of childhood. For Sevigny, who played Lenora, the role came at a perfect time. In May 2020, the actress had her first child, Vanja.

In an interview with E! News, the mother of one said, “I became a mother right before we shot the second season. I was thinking a lot about being a mother, about how I rear my child and the stories I tell him of his forefathers. How do I usher this young man through the world to be a good, strong, sensitive, upstanding individual?”

After giving birth, Sevigny revealed that she started filming the second season of “Russian Doll.” The actress said, “This was my first project going back. I was like, ‘This is setting the bar pretty high.’ If I’m going to be away from my baby to work, it better be this good!”

Sevigny said because she got back to filming months after giving birth, she had to wear a prosthetic baby bump throughout her time on set. The 47-year-old revealed that the first prosthetic she had to wear was silicone, and the weight didn’t sit right with her, so they made another out of foam.

“At first, it was silicone, so it was very heavy,” she said. “Then they made a new one out of foam, and it was quite light.” Sevigny added that resting her hand on the prosthetic bump made her remember when she was actually pregnant. “I would just rest my hands on it. The sense memory came back,” she continued.

Sevigny revealed that months before she started filming, the actress was really deep into her role as Lenora and the motherhood theme of the series. So deep that the 47-year-old was thinking of the series while she was in the delivery room.

Sevigny recalled that while the delivery was “very painful” and “very dramatic,” she wanted to film the moment. She said, “I do remember being like, ‘I wish we had filmed the delivery. In the moment, it was very painful and very dramatic, but I was like, ‘Should we do a video for Natasha?’”

Sevigny could not make the much-desired birth video, as evident by the lack of footage in the series. However, because of the actress’s proximity to motherhood, both on set and off, she gave a stellar performance in the second season of “Russian Doll.”

While putting together the time-bending series for Netflix, Lyonne initially had Jordan Peele in the mix as Nadia’s partner. In an appearance on Entertainment Weekly, the actress talked about how difficult the original “Russian Doll” script is compared to the Netflix series.

She said, “It’s funny to look at that pitch document. It’s so charming because there’s so much in it that is [different]. First of all, Jorden Peele plays heavily in it as a love interest. Which is just funny that it’s such a pre-Jordan Peele, Oscar-winning auteur era, where we’re just like, ‘Okay, great. So he plays the boyfriend.”

Lynne also revealed that she wanted the series to have a three-season arc, and each season would have its own time-twisting and universe-altering storyline. Despite the other changes made to the series, this aspect of the show was seemingly accepted.