vulture festival 2022

Natasha Lyonne, Director-at-Large, Is ‘Addicted’ to Zooming In

Director to you. Photo: Getty Images for Vox Media

You’ve heard of the Kubrick stare, you’ve seen the Tarantino feet shots, and you’re certainly aware of Wes Anderson’s obsession with symmetry. But get ready for a new filmic signature: Natasha Lyonne’s zooms. During a Vulture Fest 2022 interview conducted by A League of Their Own’s Abbi Jacobson, Lyonne professed her obsession with the zoom gun when she’s directing. The device, she explained, allows for zooming while filming. “It’s like a slow zoom, like in those ’70s shots,†she said. “It’s very moody.†Lyonne first got her hands on a zoom gun while directing an episode of her upcoming show, Poker Face, when getting a shot of Nick Nolte. “As I’m watching the monitor, I’m getting tighter and tighter on Nolte,†she said. “It’s fun as shit.†Nolte does have a very watchable face. “I got so hooked on it,†Lyonne told the crowd. “And I’m easily addicted to things, granted, but I was so hot for this zoom gun.†A classic Lyonne mixture of funny haha and funny sad. “If I just had Nick Nolte and a zoom gun and a weird room, that would be my personal heaven.†We are talking about a man whom Barbra Streisand once asked to move in with her.

Natasha Lyonne the Director Is ‘Addicted’ to Zooming In