Emilia Clarke And Haley Lu Richardson On Their Women-Led ‘Ponies’ Show

Prior to their new Ponies series on Peacock, actress Emilia Clarke has been best known to many for playing Daenerys Targaryen on Game of Thrones, while actress Haley Lu Richardson has been best known to many for playing Portia on the second season of The White Lotus. Now however, these two leading ladies are switching things up, as they star in this new spy thriller series.

Set within the 1970s Soviet Union, Universal TV’s Ponies (which stands for “persons of no interest” in intelligence talk) revolves around two rather “underdog” women, Bea (Clarke) and Twila (Lu Richardson), who find themselves in unchartered waters when they offer to assist the U.S. as CIA operatives, to try to outsmart dangerous Russian KGB forces.

Created by Susanna Fogel and David Iserson, Ponies offers a wonderfully cheeky mix of sharp comedy and heart-pounding drama, especially in part due to the great on-screen chemistry between Clarke and Lu Richardson throughout these eight episodes.

Sitting down with these two Ponies stars and knowing that they both are no strangers to playing strong and unique characters on-screen in the past, I first wondered what it was about this Ponies story and their characters, Bea and Twila, that intrigued them to want to take on this television series next within their acting careers.

Lu Richardson said, “Oh, I loved Twila from the moment I read the character description. I just had this gut feeling. It’s rare when I start reading a script and start understanding a character and like immediately connect and feel this spark of inspiration. I didn’t just feel like a spark of inspiration. I was like – I’ve got to do this! I’ve got to play her. I just felt like it was going to be really meaningful for me, creatively and personally, and it really was.”

Clarke, who also serves as an executive producer on Ponies, added: “For me, it was definitely getting to play a co-female lead, where it’s a friendship. It isn’t related, it’s not romantic – this is a female friendship, and that felt kind of incredible because I spent a lot of time around boys – a lot of my career with boys, where I’m the only girl. Then reading the scripts, they just felt fun and they felt enjoyable, and it felt like the kind of show I wanted to watch. Then Susanna and David and Jessica Rhoades, our producer as well – meeting them for the first time was just incredible. Just like lovely, brilliant people – and that makes a big difference.”

Also speaking briefly with Ponies creators Fogel and Iserson, they shared their own thoughts on their on-screen leading ladies and creative collaborators throughout this production process.

Iserson said of Clarke and Lu Richardson, “To me, they are real partners on this show. In success, they are going to be with us throughout the journey. I mean, I love them so much. We have been developing the show for a really long time. And so, these characters existed on a page well before we cast them. We did not write these for actresses in mind because who knew who we could get. I feel our show would have been good with lesser actors, but I think our show can be great with them. We were just really lucky.”

Fogel added: “Emilia playing this sort of like 70s neurotic east coast Jewish-American girl. I was like – I think she can do it! I’d love to see her do it. With Haley, obviously she was in a lot of like teen movies and playing younger, lost early twenties characters really beautifully, but I would love to see her play like an adult and a wife and see what that looks like, especially set in a time period where people are getting married younger.”

With Ponies taking place during a time within our world when women were often not expected or even allowed to excel like their male counterparts, what does it mean to Lu Richardson and Clarke to get to tell a story about these women who thrive in many ways because of their feminine instincts, mindsets and realized resources?

“It’s wonderful,” Clarke said. “My mum worked her whole life, and she was around in the 70s and working and being misrepresented and misunderstood and underpaid and underappreciated. So, then definitely getting to play women at this time, when that was so much more extreme than it is now – it’s obviously still relevant now – feels gorgeous. It’s also right for comedy, because they themselves are definitely going in with bravado, but that is maybe not sustainable, because I think we doubt ourselves quite a lot throughout the show. We have each other and the experience to bolster our confidence as we go throughout. So, you start to feel more empowered and more like we’re meant to be there. We’re meant to be doing that.”

While Lu Richardson answered, she brought up a less-than-enjoyable date experience from her own life. “I’m thinking about this guy I went on a date with and we got into a conversation and he said that he doesn’t think a woman is capable of or should ever be President. Obviously, I never went on another date with him after. We got into a conversation and I think he didn’t understand. I think he maybe lived in a closed life and he didn’t understand women. He didn’t understand the multitudes.”

Lu Richardson continued: “I tried to be patient with him and I think that I did maybe open his perspective a little bit, but I just think he truly didn’t see the value in what women can innately bring to these important roles of life, and that’s like what we in Twila end up bringing. It’s their own specific nature. Part of that is because they’re women. Part of that is just because they’re individuals. It’s like – Why isn’t that valuable?”

Both being seasoned hardworking actresses, long-before Ponies even got on their radar, I was curious if Clarke and Lu Richardson have noticed that their interests in characters and stories have evolved at all at this stage of their careers.

Clarke said, “Yeah, definitely. I’m realizing that I have the ability to say no to things and the ability to say yes to things. I’m now entering a phase – I’ve definitely been on a journey since the end of Game of Thrones, and I know I’ve definitely spoken about this before in interviews, but my markers of success have profoundly changed. For me now, success is – Do I want to wake up in the morning and do I want to go to work? For real. Sometimes, you do jobs where you’re like – I hate this. I’m having a horrible time but apparently it’s a good thing to do and that I should be doing this thing and everyone’s telling you what’s hot – telling you what the thing is that you should be doing. The older I get, I’m like – Wait a second! The only commodity I have that’s completely invaluable is time. I’ve entered that era – and also wanting to be so much more. Taking bigger swings, trying different things – making sure that my creative pot is overflowing, which requires different types of work.”

Lu Richardson added about her evolving creative mindset: “I think I’m drawn to things – I guess it’s kind of an obvious thing to say, but that like somehow connect or inspire where I’m at in my life, personally. Whether they are a character like Twila, who very much I connected to as a person or someone who unexpectedly in an opposite or different ways, a character/project inspires me or aligns somehow. I remember there was a time a few years ago where I retired from playing a teenager. I had to tell my team, I was like – Nope, not even college. Nope! You want things that make you better in your life, and that like are aligned with our own growth and journey on this planet.”

While wrapping up my conversation with these bright Hollywood stars, I asked Lu Richardson and Clarke my signature and original interview question, wondering what they would say to their Ponies television characters, Twila and Bea, if only they could.

Clarke said, “I would tell Bea that she does not need a man to define her life. That’s what I would tell Bea. I would tell her to go off and be more like Twila. That’s basically what I’d tell her. I’d be like – Hey, this chick next to you – do more of that stuff.”

Lu Richardson continued with: “It’s really beautiful, because I’m thinking like energetically, what Twila and Bea learn from each other and how they support each other throughout the show is what probably you would tell Bea and I would tell Twila. Being seen and like being accepted – flaws, strengths, all of it. I think Twila actually does have a lot of shame – deep shame and guilt. So, to just be like – First of all, you’re not too much. You’re right there.”

Clarke concluded by saying, “We’d just give them hugs, basically!”