"How heartbreaking it is going to be to see it end," Lyonne told INSIDER of the seventh season of "OITNB" while discussing her new Netflix show "Russian Doll." "We're really a tight unit."
"Plus, it means that come March 1, I'm unemployed. So, it's a lot of feelings," Lyonne added.
Lyonne has played the sarcastic and quick-witted Nicky Nichols on "OITNB" since the show's premiere in 2013. In that time, we've seen Nicky grow from a heroin addict to a sober inmate who isn't as tough as her outer exterior leads you to believe.
This season, Lyonne will direct an episode of the show. What can she tease about the seventh season? Not much.
"I don't think that's legal," said Lyonne, when asked what she could share about the final season. "I do think they might actually kill people for less, but it's really meaningful to get to direct in the final season."
"If it wasn't enough to love and know everybody so intimately as an actor, to watch them be so brilliant at the monitor and from a distance and to get to work with the writers and our incredible crew behind the scenes in that way was just like a further reminder of how singular that show is," she continued, speaking of her experience directing on "OITNB."
"They've built such iconically brilliant roles within the show, and now I'm so excited to kind of stay really close to them for the rest of my life and just get to see all the incredible work that they're gonna continue to do," said Lyonne about her "OITNB" castmates.
Even though Lyonne will bid farewell to "OINTB," she did get to work with some cast and crew again on her new Netflix series "Russian Doll," which will premiere on the streaming service, Friday, February 1.
Without giving too much away, the show, with Lyonne in the lead, sees her character trying to escape a seemingly endless birthday party in eight bingeable half-hour episodes.
"It just felt like this ['Russian Doll'] was such a personal journey and work from the heart that I just wanted to bring along as many people as I could from that," Lyonne said of "OINTB" cast and crew that joined her for "Russian Doll."
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You'll also see a few familiar cast members from the show, like Charlie Barnett ("Chicago Fire"), who had a brief role on "OITNB" as an inmate from Desi Piscatella's past.
"Barnett, I really know through Samira Wiley [Poussey Washington on 'OITNB'] because they're best friends who went to Juilliard together," said Lyonne of the other main lead of her new show. "The whole thing is kind of such a close connective tissue in this sort of ongoing, all-that-jazz extension that is 'Russian Doll.'"
All eight episodes of "Russian Doll" will premiere on Netflix Friday, February 1. There currently is no premiere date for the final season of "OITNB."
You can watch a trailer for the show below.
