Interview: How playing the flawed and relatable Brooke on ‘The Other Two’ has been a dream for Heléne Yorke

“Nothing makes you want sex less than wearing your Invisalign”

This unexpected yet hilarious digression into a dental vent session about sensitive teeth and being numb from local anesthesia during a recent interview highlighted Heléne Yorke’s witty candor while simultaneously blurring the lines between her and her character Brooke’s funniest and most effervescent traits.

For a series that seems to be collecting networks and streaming platforms like Infinity Stones (moving from Comedy Central to HBO Max to the now shortened Max), The Other Two has only proved to have gotten funnier and more incisive with each new season. Its third season is currently airing and dives deeper into the lives of its titular siblings, Brooke and Cary Dubek, as they navigate success in the shadow of their younger brother and instant pop sensation, Chase, and their TV network-owning mother, Pat. The mastery of the show comes from balancing non-stop humor due to its razor-sharp satire about the industry with sobering real-life dilemmas that hit an equally striking dramatic chord. 

Brooke is a complex amalgamation of these two dynamics, especially this season as she attempts to leave a toxic entertainment industry to “do good.” Yorke’s impressive range comes from an illustrious career that started with a musical theater degree and has continued to blossom from stage to screen. On Broadway, she notably starred in Bullets Over Broadway, American Psycho, and Grease, including a national tour of Wicked as Glinda. Then, in just ten years, she’s proved herself with a rich filmography of dazzling roles in TV shows like: 30 Rock, Masters of Sex, The Good Fight, Graves, and Quantico. 

While this show becomes increasingly surreal- two of the best episode titles this season are “Brooke Drives an Armpit Across America” and “Brooke, and We Are Not Joking, Goes to Space”- Yorke remained a grounded, spirited presence during our recent conversation. She praised the writers for creating a layered female lead with a proper, authentic character arc. She doted on her life-long friend Josh Segarra and deconstructed a pivotal scene she shares with his character, Lance, this season. Gabbing about everything from theater to Invisalign made it instantly clear that Heléne was born to bring Brooke to life. 

Nick Ruhrkraut: Thank you Heléne, for being here. I’m so excited to talk to you, to talk about your history and The Other Two, one of my favorite shows on television right now.

Heléne Yorke: Oh my gosh. Great. Thank you.

NR: So I guess starting from the beginning, what inspired you to become an actor?

HY: I don’t know. I think if you’re dumb enough to do it, it’s just in you, sadly. (laughs) You’re kind of like, you need people to look and watch and appreciate. And that was what really attracted me to it. I danced from a very young age. I thought I was going to be a ballet dancer, and I just physically, I was, you have to what? No, I’m not doing that. And then I joined a choir and then I was like, I should do musicals. So I went to the University of Michigan for musical theater and I was like, this is it. And it’s still the biggest thing I’m a dork for. I’m not impressed by absolutely anybody, but if I see Rob McClure on the street, I’m like, [screams] Rob McClure!

I’ve hid from Sutton Foster physically. I did a City Center version of Grand Hotel and she came and I hid from her in my dressing room. I was like, I can’t meet her. So yeah, I did theater and then I broke my ankle doing a… I did Bring It On the musical, the out-of-town tryout with Lin and Andy, all those people. And I had to leave. And I was, I should do TV where you could work with a broken ankle. So I really got into it with that.

NR: Oh my God.

HY: Doing theater is physically grueling, but incredible and I hope to do it again. But I got into it through that avenue and then kind of convinced people in TV to think I was cool enough to be on it. And here we are. Cool enough. Cool enough.

NR: With television, you’ve done everything. We’ll get into Broadway in a second. But you’ve done comedy, you’ve done drama, you’ve voiced characters on BoJack Horseman and Family Guy, you’ve done everything. And what I love about Brooke is that you get to put all of that together. But was there a conscious delineation between working in these different genres or wanting to put them together?

HY: I needed money, Nick, and I would’ve done just about anything. I was working the front desk at Physique 57, an exercise studio here in New York, and I didn’t care what the job was. I would do it. And in doing so, I have a nice, well-rounded career out of necessity. That sounds really sad, but I mean it. There’ve just been a couple moments where things happen and you just think, okay, this is great, this is going to get me to the next thing. And one of those jobs was Masters of Sex, which I did on Showtime and Bernie Telsey cast that who casts a ton of theater in New York.

And I just sort of crawled my way through. Oftentimes if I end up on a show that’s more of… I’ve been on a couple very highly regarded, respected procedurals and anytime I do one, I sort of feel like I’m doing an impression of somebody on one of those, because I’m like, I don’t know how to do this. And I found myself doing The Good Fight and I was in a scene with Christine Baranski and Bernadette Peters, and I was like, “What?!” I think I had maybe a line, but it did not matter.

Yeah, I think being a working actor, it’s a wild ride and you’re just kind of always singing for your supper. And I think at many stages I was just happy to be working. Yeah, it’s nice now, I sit in interviews and people are, you’ve done it all. (laughs)

NR: You have to give yourself credit. 30 Rock is not nothing show or High Maintenance, these names. So I totally understand needing money and surviving, especially in New York.

HY: Oh, I wasn’t doing those jobs for money. It’s so funny, you get asked what drew you to doing this? And I was like, I want to be a series regular on a show. I think that there’s sort of this luxury that high profile actors get where they choose projects. They kind of pick and choose and they’re like, “Oh yes, I read the script and whatever.” And we get scripts and it’s like, “They want me to be a series regular on a show? Please, my God.”

And of course, as a result of who I am innately, I ended up doing some things that I am so… I can’t believe I did 30 Rock. High Maintenance was a role that my incredible friends wrote for me based on my audition for 30 Rock because Katja Blichfeld cast that show and we share a manager. And so that’s how I ended up in that place. But I’ve just been a worker more than anything.

NR: We love it. And getting back to Broadway, I love your “For Good” moment in, I think it’s episode 6 when you’re on the rocket ship. And I wanted you, I need you to, I’m still holding out for you breaking out in song in The Other Two. Because yeah, you came from Broadway. I’ve seen many a YouTube clip of you belting. You have an incredible voice. So I need you to do this on this show.

HY: I know. I did get to do that music video season one, which people-

NR: Yes, the dancing.

HY: And I was like, “Show some respect. I can do it all you guys.” Yeah, I know, that would be amazing. Of course, Leland writes all of our songs. I would love to do a song with Leland, he’s incredible.

NR: That’s perfect.

HY: But yeah, I don’t know, I think Brooke was a dancer and now she’s a manager, so maybe it’s not in her, but the next job that I beg for. (laughs)

NR: Are there elements from the theater, from Broadway that you get to use in this show as Brooke?

HY: I don’t know that it’s elements of Broadway, but I have a theater background and a theater training. And one of the things I love about this writing so much is that they take this character everywhere and sometimes in one scene and getting to ‘Gumby’ around those moments is such a gift. And characters aren’t written like this very often. And of course as we’ve gone on, they write knowing my voice now, and it’s so delicious to just hit so many different notes as it were, within scenes in a character over a course of a season. And I feel like my theater background really informs that.

NR: Yeah, definitely. Are there moments that you get to improv? The writing is so tight, but is there still wiggle room to play around a little bit in the scene?

HY: We get asked this a lot, and not that we don’t wiggle because we have a really good time doing this, but not really. What you see is what they wrote. Chris and Sarah are geniously precise in exactly how they see the comedy playing out, how they see it shot, how they want things timed for the audience to experience them. One of the funniest things about their scripts are their stage directions of what’s happening and what somebody is thinking in a moment. If you can get your hands on them, the stage directions are the best part of these scripts. Like at the Oscars when they show stage direction, I’m like, show their stage direction at the Oscars.

It’s so funny. They’re so intentional. And again, we’re going through this writer strike right now and it just cannot be overstated, the value. They are it. We are vessels for them. Yes. So I would love to say we’re improving all the time, but everything you hear has been intentionally put together, which is I think a part of what makes them so great.

NR: Yeah, no, the show is so collaborative and I love that you get scenes one-on-one with almost every character, but you guys get to play around so much. Molly, Josh, Drew, Wanda, Ken, Case, it’s insane what you guys all do together.

HY: Yeah, when I read this season, I saw I was doing so much with Ken Marino this year and I just got so excited. And there’s more to come, stupidly. I love him so much. I think he’s one of the funniest actors alive. I got to do stuff with Jimmy Fowlie this year, which Drew’s been hogging him for two seasons and finally got to be with Cameron Colby. Again, I come from a theater background. I didn’t do improv. I couldn’t afford the classes. And I get to work with these comedy geniuses and it’s hard to imagine, even though I did. I can’t imagine it, I did it. But you know…

NR: You have to pinch yourself just a little bit to make sure it’s real.

HY: Yeah, exactly.

NR: So Brooke, I feel, is the focal point this season and-

HY: Oh my gosh.

NR: We follow Cary, but Brooke has evolved so much. Season one, you’re trying to get into the industry. Two, you have the chance to manage Alessia Cara, and then here you are, three, you’re still evolving and these characters’ personalities are so much set in stone, but how do you still look to find new corners of who Brooke is at this point?

HY: I think this season they touched on a really uniquely specific shitty instinct in all of us, which is to have somebody reflecting what you think is the right thing to be, and doing somersaults trying to be that person in order to fulfill what you think is correct for them as opposed to for yourself. And I thought it was so interesting that this season they have these two successful characters that are doing well. They’ve taken these characters up to an altitude and they’re, “Great, so we’re going to drop you from here.” And it was like, oh, ah!

And I think we also all get in these places where we forget where we are, where we’ve gotten, because we’re, if you’re constantly searching and you can’t relax in success, you’re constantly going to be looking for some other answer for how to get that. And I thought that was what was so awesome about season three is that they’ve arrived, but they’re still who they are. They’re still going to always be looking.

And I fall into that all the time myself because as somebody who, I’m joking, but of course I worked very hard and auditioned a hundred thousand times and was told no constantly. And I have to be reminded sometimes that I’m having a good moment because I’m even now worried about it ending or it being the last lady who sang or something. And so it’s hard to feel like you’re doing okay and in this season she’s engaged to this guy who’s such a good person and so that must mean that she’s bad. And I thought that was really sad, but also funny.

NR: The struggle that Brooke has, it’s so surreal this season, but there’s still a relatability, a sensibility to what you bring and who this character is. And I do this, we’re chatting, but I’m also a dentist. And to feel that-

HY: You are? My brother’s girlfriend is an endodontist. Isn’t that crazy?

Nick: She went the extra mile.

HY: Yes. She does root canals. Ah!

Nick: Some of them are fun, some of them are not so props to her. But you have this do-good instinct and you want to make sure you make an impact and have this meaningful life, but you also have this passion and this artistic side. So I think the way you get that across and can make Brooke relatable, especially on the show, is such a feat. And I have to applaud that because it’s something that maybe on paper seems like it wouldn’t be accomplished.

HY: Thanks. That’s so nice. I get asked all the time about Brooke being a hot mess and I always kind of push back on it because I think that just implies that everybody’s a hot mess. And I don’t think that’s the case. I think we’re all just trying to figure it out in the way we know how. And sometimes we do a good job and sometimes we do a really bad job and I do a bad job all the time. (laughs) And I think that’s what I love about the character is that it speaks truth to that. It’s not pretending to be more together than it is. And I’ve always really liked that.

NR: Yeah, me too. What’s something you’ve learned from Brooke, good and bad?

HY: What I’ve learned from her that’s good is: just try it. You know what I mean? Why not try it? Go to the thing, ask the person, who cares, just try it. And even the way that she talks to Cary about getting on Grindr or whatever, to her, it’s just a no-brainer, just try it. And I really love that about the character and I think that I’ve taken that on, but then I also think there’s a bad side to that. So I guess my answer is the same thing.

NR: And since season two we’ve had this pandemic, but you’ve also become a mother, you’ve gotten married, so you’ve gone through your own changes in your personal life. So are there parallels that you brought to the show going through all of those big life achievements?

HY: No, and in a way that I think when you have a family, I think it’s viewed in a lot of ways as this point of weakness in your life because there’s this other thing that you’re always going to give more focus to and people know you’ll always give more focus to that. And it’s sort of, oh, you know, have a family now, you couldn’t possibly work at this level any longer.

I don’t know that that’s what people think, but I think that there is that kind of general stigma attached to those things. And if anything, I think having… well, certainly my husband has made me a much stronger person out in the world, but then also having a son has completely realigned my priorities. But one of the things I love about what I do is that it’s a complete escape from my life. Not that I want to escape my husband and son, but I love going to work. It makes me a better mom and it makes me a better wife because I come home the fullest version of myself and I have this form of expression that makes me whole.

So if anything, I was able to go out into the world and do my Brooke thing and be Heléne and come home and be able to fully relax in my home life. So if anything, it makes it that much sweeter, for sure.

NR: And doing so many things, I think you put the time towards what you want to and you make it all happen even if you don’t have the time. So you just learn how to juggle better.

HY: Truly, that’s the unbelievable thing is that people are like, “Oh my God, it gets so crazy.” And if anything, I think especially as a woman, you realize your capacity for that, for balancing so many different things at the same time. It’s kind of unbelievable what women can do or anybody. It’s, yeah, if you’ve got multiple things going on, you’ve probably got to go dig into somebody’s cavity in 10 minutes. He’s in your office for all I know.

NR: I have that rocket ship dental chair sitting in my family room. Yeah.

HY: Yes. You’re like, “I never want to leave work. I love it so much.”

NR: So getting into what is one of my favorite scenes that Brooke has is the fight with Lance, with Josh Segarra. As scene partners, it is so much fun watching you guys riff off of each other this season and your big moment at the end of episode five, you have this big fight and everything is so visceral and there’s such a physicality to your acting. Brooke is reacting to everything that he’s saying, and he is our grounded character this season along with Curtis. But you see her mind working and kind of opening up. And then at the very end, he says he’s a do-gooder, he does good. And she just snaps back into place and puts that wall up. So can you talk about this scene a little bit or how you approached it and I guess working with Josh and how those scenes went this season?

HY: I love working with Josh Segarra. I’ve known him for 16 years. We came up in New York theater together. He graduated from NYU and me from Michigan, and we would party at Bourbon Street on 46th Street. He’s so on it at every step of the way. He comes fully memorized, doesn’t bring his sides to set. It’s wild. He’s such a prepared, grounded guy who really, truly lives within this character. And it’s like second nature to him to do it. And especially now heading into season three, both of us love these characters so much and love each other so much that we were so excited that there was more for them to go, more story to be told. And I can’t say enough about working with him and what kind of an actor and person he is.

He really is that good guy. He is that person. And as far as my approach to the scene, I like to, again, Josh does, I like to come really prepared. I like to be really on it so that I can feel free. There was also a big debate over what Brooke was wearing in that scene. Should she be in a robe? Should she be half-dressed? And they really wanted her to feel like she was bare to him. So what you see is that, is just sort of this basically undressed person. As undressed as I, with a 3-month-old, having just had a baby is willing to do. (laughs)

But she starts off and it’s all about how she lies and said that she had an affair with Shuli. And she’s like, “What’s the big deal?” And I think we do this when we’ve done something wrong. We know it’s wrong, but we don’t want it to be so we shove it off of ourselves and then we find a way to be like, actually, this is why it’s happening, it’s actually your fault. It’s a way to turn it around to be like… and there’s also truth to how she’s feeling, but it’s true to her. And that’s valid. And if you make somebody else feel smaller in who they are, maybe you can feel a little bit better about the shit that you are.

And I think that the scene really does that. It goes from I was having an affair with Shuli, what’s the big deal, to him really dropping in and her realizing he’s actually pissed. And then mirroring that with just being, not being able to be sorry or take a beat in any way.

And they’re kind of at each other. And what I love about it is that I think that she’s just being a fuck up and he’s like, I’m a good person. And I think it’s such a good moment for the Lance character. I think it’s a moment that an audience would want, is for him to cut her down because I think she needs it. And what’s her response going to be as a result of that is kind of what the latter half of the season is really about.

But again, this is wonderful writing and to be able to give a comedic performance, do real physical comedy, but then also do this is, I don’t know when I’ll ever get that opportunity again, if ever. And it doesn’t matter what those two do, I will follow them to the ends of the earth. I can’t believe I’ve gotten to give this 360 performance on a show.

But I think that’s what it is, and I think that’s what makes these characters, as fucked up as they are, so relatable is that we all do it. You can watch these characters live out your worst instinct, the worst way that you would argue, the dumbest shit you do in an argument to make yourself feel better so that you can walk away feeling like I was right, even when you’re not. And then what I love is that then in episode 6, they take her to this place and then they start episode 6 and she’s eating nachos all over the place. It’s just like *mwah*, dream.

NR: The nachos part. Some of these beats feel too specific to be made up and it’s like, where did this come from?

HY: I know.

NR: A huge party tray.

HY: Yeah. They come from stories that they’ve been told, but also just, it’s just stupid. And yeah, again, wonderful writers’ room of really smart… Jimmy Fowlie, Dylan Guerra, Gilli Nissim, Allison Silverman, Moss Perricone. Just good good fucking writers. Funny.

NR: Yeah, amazing. This character is a dream, this show is incredible. So congratulations on everything and thank you so much for being here today and chatting with me.

HY: Thanks, Nick. Thanks for taking the time.

Heléne York is Emmy-eligible in the category of Outstanding Lead Actress in a Comedy Series for the third season of the Max Original series The Other Two.

Photo: Greg Endries/Max