Haley Lu Richardson is on a creative sabbatical when she chats with emmy about playing Twila — a brash, bohemian American — in Peacock’s Ponies, a 1977 Moscow–set spy thriller. Recruited by the CIA and paired with the staid Bea (Emilia Clarke) to gather intel after their husbands are killed in a mysterious plane crash, these secretaries are unlikely operatives — they’re persons of no interest, or “ponies.”
Richardson, who played Portia in season two of HBO’s The White Lotus, released a book of poetry, I’m Sad and Horny, in November. She wrote it on the cusp of turning 30, in part while filming Ponies in Budapest. "My career as an actor is so fulfilling, because I get to do what I love," she says. "But so often it’s figuring out how I can find inspiration and collaboration within this big machine of making a TV show. What I’m doing here is just pure creative exploration, with no goal in mind. It’s for the soul."
Clarke (left) and Richardson in Ponies
In the eight episodes of Ponies, Twila is, unlike everyone around her, unfiltered and a bit too familiar. Richardson felt a connection: "As I read [the pilot], I was like, ‘I am supposed to play her. I have to play her.’ Where she’s at in her life and her growth throughout the season isn’t far off from the themes of my book and my life. Twila is the most similar to me of any character I’ve played."
Richardson’s poetry lays bare the messiness of growing pains; Twila is also unapologetically emo: too loud, too pushy, too much for society and even her husband. "Playing her, I healed a lot of things within myself," she says. "It was an amazing, life-changing thing, to learn to accept yourself as you are, even if other people don’t like it or don’t understand."
She loved working with Clarke, who’s also an executive producer. Hunkered down in Budapest for six months, they leaned on each other and channeled their sisterhood into the work. "It’s a spy show and thriller, but at its core, Ponies is about these two women," she says. "They have this journey of finding their power; it was fun to explore proving people wrong as women and even proving ourselves wrong as our characters."
In tough moments, they’d exchange glances or even hold hands. "It was beautiful to connect to someone in that way,” Richardson says. "Also, I taught her how to twerk, which was great."
This article originally appeared in emmy Magazine, issue # 13, 2025, under the title "Conflict of Interest."
Ponies premieres Jan. 15 on Peacock.
