Talking to Heléne Yorke really doesn’t feel like an interview. Sure, during a Friday afternoon Zoom we mostly focus on The Other Two, the criminally underrated Max comedy she stars in, but there’s enough bantering about life and mom things that it quickly shifts into chatting. And it certainly doesn’t hurt that she’s funny and relatable, not entirely unlike her on-screen persona.
One half of the titular Two, Brooke Dubek is a former professional dancer who’s searching for her purpose and examining her identity after her youngest brother becomes a pop sensation overnight. At this point in the series’ third season, she’s managing the careers of ChaseDreams (Case Walker) and her mother-turned-media mogul Pat Dubek (Molly Shannon) after temporarily leaving the industry because the pandemic made her feel guilty about not being a professional do-gooder, and middle child Carey (Drew Tarver) is on the rise as an actor but tanking in his personal life.
“We live in a time where what we’re doing has nothing to do with us and everything to do with others based on this very public way in which we all engage in the world,” Yorke tells The Hollywood Reporter of the way her character’s experience mirrors our current reality. “Like, ‘I see what other people are doing, so therefore what I’m doing is wrong and bad.’ It’s like a constant feedback loop.”
Of course, there are moments this season that would make anyone question the path they’re on. She was tasked with driving a photo of her little brother’s well-groomed armpit across the country in a produce truck so Rolling Stone could properly celebrate his adulthood, went to literal outer space twice on dates with insufferable billionaires, and in the latest episode almost chloroformed Ben Platt to stop him from performing during her A Night of Undeniable Good telethon.
Episode eight, which aired June 15, peers behind the curtain at the production of the show within the show and is chock-full of the biting satire The Other Two is known for. Brooke is producing an eight-hour televised event to raise $250 million for mental health awareness — a cause ChaseDreams is championing in an effort to rehab his image — which features “performances from singers who get anxious sometimes” as well as “a powerful speech from Parkland survivor [Insert Name of Parkland Survivor We Can Get].” The Parkland placeholder text becomes a recurring joke, but it’s a minor mishap compared to the homophobic CEO who decides to pull an already-announced $100 million donation if Platt performs, which leads to both an oiled-up, shirtless Streeter (Ken Marino) sexually harassing the Broadway star in an attempt to distract him and the narrowly averted chloroforming.
“Sometimes people want to call Brooke a hot mess, or put characters in a box like that, and I’m like, ‘Do you have it together?’” says Yorke. “We all kind of suck a little bit.”
While her decisions, and intentions, are sometimes questionable, she’s been the driving force that pushes her family to make the most of their successes.
“Brooke is the uninhibited sibling of a trio who sort of thinks, ‘Why not? Let’s see what happens,’ says Yorke. “I always describe her as somebody who’s willing to dive into a pool that’s empty and be like, ‘By the time I get in there I’ll hit water’ and just have faith in that. I really love that about the character.”
Drew Tarver as Carey, Case Walker as Chase and Yorke (right) as Brooke in season 2 episode 1 of The Other Two.
GREG ENDRIES/HBO MAX
Along with being able to do some impressive mental gymnastics — “I have a remarkable ability to look at a situation and come at it from 500 different directions” — Yorke says she and her character share that inherent optimism. “Reality is so devastating sometimes,” she says. “The ability to keep going to put one foot in front of the other no matter how dire, I think I got that because I’m an actor and I moved to the city and I worked my ass off and a lot of it did not work out for me. I just kept going.”
Yorke, who was born in Vancouver but grew up in L.A. and graduated with a musical theater degree from the University of Michigan, has been building a career both in television (Masters of Sex, The Good Fight) and on stage (Bullets Over Broadway, American Psycho).
Making the jump to a comedy created by SNL alums Chris Kelly and Sarah Schneider and starring alongside Shannon, Marino and Tarver was a bit intimidating, at first.
“I remember being like, ‘What am I doing here? This is a comedy show. I’m a theater kid,’” Yorke recalls. “It felt like we were working on a secret, something we knew people were gonna love and that was really fun. That’s what I remember from the beginning is just being like, ‘Damn, these people are cool and I’m hanging out with them.’ It was like I’d finally made it to the right side of the playground, or whatever. It’s the best.”
In the four-plus years since the series premiere, there’s been a global pandemic, a move from Comedy Central to the streamer now known as Max and the birth of Yorke’s son, Hugo. But, despite the changes, production delays and onscreen time jumps, she says it’s easy to step back into character.
“The writing is so good and they write to us so beautifully that it’s like putting on your favorite pair of pants if they constantly changed sizes with you,” Yorke says. “The shooting of it is so intentional as well. We are so maniacal about how the timing works out based on the way the camera moves because jokes are everywhere. I get very annoyed at my husband because he’ll laugh at Drew and he’ll miss a joke of mine.”
Fans catch them though, and Yorke has found herself in more than one meme-ified gif — like this one below, which she’s actually used in conversation. “I send myself to people, yes,” she laughs. “And I use my own stickers on Instagram.”
“It’s funny to see what resonates with people,” she says. “People make memes and stuff, and I love seeing what people catch because you think like, ‘Oh, that happened so fast, are people going to catch it?’ It’s hard because you’re so close to it.”
Brooke’s arc in the third season is largely centered on self-improvement, which mostly takes the form of surface-level changes as she struggles with trying to be “good” like her on-and-off love interest Lance (Josh Segarra), who’s now a nurse.
“At this point she’s not with Lance anymore and she’s kind of flailing and trying to figure out ‘how I can get above this person?’” Yorke explains. “I think you’re watching the season of somebody who’s grasping and keeps thinking she’s getting closer to something but is always constantly getting further away.”
It’s easy to take his side and think, “This poor guy has to put up with this girl,” she says. “But, in any relationship, you’re basically asking somebody to like the things about you that suck. And he does. I think that this is her person. If you want to be with somebody forever, you have to find somebody who doesn’t mind the stuff about you that sucks and vice versa. That is a lasting relationship. Nobody’s perfect.”
Josh Segarra as Lance and Yorke as Brooke in season 3 episode 1 of The Other Two.
GREG ENDRIES/HBO MAX
In a series that does some of its best storytelling by watching its characters find new surprising ways to fail at life and love, it’s hard to say if rock bottom exists for any of them — but Brooke comes close in the penultimate episode. Without spoiling it, let’s just say Lance being named People’s Sexiest Man Alive lit a fire for Brooke to prove once and for all that they’re on the same level, because he can’t truly be as good as he seems. The quest takes her to some uncomfortable and nerve-wracking lengths.
“Episode nine is one of the most challenging things I’ve ever worked on because it was very physical and very demanding from a makeup perspective,” Yorke says. “We were in this one apartment building on 25th Street for a week and just wreaking havoc, climbing in and out of a window like 400,000 times. I think — and I feel this way about parenthood as well — the hardest stuff is always the most rewarding. That’s true for this season more than ever.”
The season three finale airs June 29, and Yorke is happy with where it brings Brooke’s story.
“People are frustrated with Brooke and she deserves it,” she says. “I’m really proud of her and how she comes through at the end of the season. I don’t think it’s what people will expect. I hope it’s not what they expect.”
She continues, “And, just broadly, I’m proud of the whole season because we were asked for so much as actors. I feel like, in a way that I’ve never done in my career, I gave a 360 performance that is hard comedy, physical comedy, ridiculous situations and then moments that are real and deeply grounded. I think they did a nice job of capping off the season. More than anything, I’m just really proud of her.”
Yorke says she’s often asked what her next dream job would be. It’s a question she can’t answer because she never saw a role like this coming.
“It’s just so fun and so rare to be on something that …” Yorke stops herself mid-sentence. “This is so embarrassing. I would watch White Lotus like everybody else, and at the end of White Lotus, HBO Max would [suggest] more like this. The first one was The Other Two, and I would just watch episodes of my own show after White Lotus. I love it. It’s my taste. It’s something I would like if I wasn’t on it.”
The prospect of not being on The Other Two doesn’t take more than an instant to sink in.
“It’s something I would be mad I wasn’t on if I was watching it,” Yorke says with a laugh. “I probably wouldn’t watch it because I’d be jealous of whoever booked Brooke Dubek.”
