Natasha Lyonne believes that traumatic family history — her grandmother was an Auschwitz survivor — has deeply affected her life choices.
Yes, the four-time Emmy nominee is pondering the big questions while promoting the second season of her Netflix series, “Russian Doll,” which premieres April 20.
“I’ve obviously had a very checkered past, to say the least, and I’ve been very open about it,” she told The Post in her signature sandpaper voice. “And it’s like along the way you’re supposed to kinda go digging for some other meaning to life other than self-destruction.”
Discussing her high-profile struggle with drug addiction in the early aughts, she told The Post, “I don’t think you can take Hitler out of the equation, the way I moved through my teenage years especially. I’ve almost not been able to reconcile the real weight of what it means that that can happen, and that that can happen within a line of family that’s so close to you.”
The native New Yorker further suggested that even trying to ponder the Holocaust’s far-reaching effects was too overwhelming.
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“It’s too big a concept to process and I think that that’s happening pretty frequently, especially because of social media,” she said. “It’s like we’re being inundated so constantly with ideas that are too big to hold.”
In the first season of “Russian Doll,” Lyonne’s character got caught in a bizarre loop that had her repeatedly attend the same party, then die at the end each time — only to awaken the next day unharmed. This season once again delves into the subjects of mortality and existentialism by bouncing back and forth between generations and countries.
While the veteran actress — she got her start as as 6-year-old Opal on “Pee-wee’s Playhouse” way back in 1986 — isn’t sure if she believes in time travel, Lyonne said she is at least “very curious about” the “major sort of scientific concepts” surrounding it.
“I’m a high school dropout,” the “Orange Is the New Black” star revealed, “so I certainly don’t claim to know very much about quantum physics or anything, but I definitely read a lot of books and do that kinda thing, so it certainly has sparked my curiosity.”
In terms of what’s next for Lyonne, she’s leaning into her off-camera work, too.
“Listen, I love Rosalind Russell. I love Barbara Stanwyck. I even love Jean Harlow,” the “American Pie” vixen declared with her iconic, raspy New Yawk accent, projecting the aura of an Old Hollywood actress.
“But I always liked that rat-a-tat rush of the old days. But maybe throw in some of those Hungarian guys that ran the studio ’cause that’s where I’m trying to get. I’m quite enjoying being behind the scenes too, so I’ll take it all, please, ma’am and thank you.”
