Natasha Lyonne says she confronted her own 'inner brokenness' through 'Russian Doll' and 'Orange is the New Black'

The actress stopped looking at her personal failures as shortcomings.

February 28, 2019, 4:32 PM

Actress Natasha Lyonne's hit Netflix shows "Russian Doll" and "Orange is the New Black" helped her view her personal "inner brokenness" as an accomplishment.

Thursday on "The View," Natasha Lyonne shared the growth she went through as a creator and a woman while working on her two Netflix original series.

With "Orange is the New Black" wrapping their seventh and final season this year and "Russian Doll" making its debut in February, both comedy-dramas meet their end in 2019.

"What [the shows] have in common that's so meaningful to me is... what they're saying about sort of society in a way," Lyonne told “The View” co-hosts.

PHOTO: Natasha Lyonne discusses her personal growth through her shows "Russian Doll" and "Orange is the New Black" on "The View" Feb. 28, 2019.
Natasha Lyonne discusses her personal growth through her shows "Russian Doll" and "Orange is the New Black" on "The View" Feb. 28, 2019.
Nicolette Cain/ABC

She went onto explain that the public's false ideals of perfection for how women should look and act "really harms" womens’ self-image, as well as the world's perception of them.

"For me, it's been an incredibly supportive and deep time to be surrounded by so many extraordinary women," Lyonne said about the Netflix shows. She credits them for her evolution as a creator, woman, and human being through the years.

"To kind of, sort of live and admit my own sort of inner brokenness as more of an achievement than a shortcoming is really -- it's been a huge growth process to get to work on both these shows."

PHOTO: Natasha Lyonne discusses her personal growth through her shows "Russian Doll" and "Orange is the New Black" on "The View" Feb. 28, 2019.
Natasha Lyonne discusses her personal growth through her shows "Russian Doll" and "Orange is the New Black" on "The View" Feb. 28, 2019.
Nicolette Cain/ABC

Based on Piper Kerman's memoir that was No. 1 on the New York Times’ bestseller list, Netflix's "Orange is the New Black" exposes life inside a women's prison and "the corruption of our prison industrial complex," Lyonne said. She portrays Nicky Nichols in the Emmy-winning series, and received an Emmy nomination for her role in 2014.

An out of the blue phone call from Amy Poehler, in which the comedian called Lyonne "the oldest girl in the world," ended with an idea for a new show about old souls that eventually evolved into "Russian Doll."

Since its debut less than a month ago, the show has received lots of buzz. Lyonne stars as Nadia in the "Groundhog Day"-style series, where she relives her 36th birthday over and over.

"It's real to all of us," Lyonne said about the ideas tackled in the series. "The idea of loss of freedom and sort of how human spirit endures despite that."

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