The Fast Round: Ten Questions with Lyra

We caught Lyra in between setups and gave her ten questions, no thinking allowed, first answer only. Here's what we got.

Sweet or salty?

Salty, and it's not close. I will trade you every dessert on the table for a bowl of fries, no negotiation needed. Put a basket of anything fried in front of me on set and I will suddenly have nothing else going on for the next ten minutes.

Weirdest compliment you've ever gotten on set

A photographer once told me I "blink like I mean it." I still don't fully know what that means, but now I think about it every single time I blink on camera, which is probably the opposite of blinking like I mean it.

What's currently living in your camera roll that no one needs to see?

Forty-three nearly identical photos of a dog I saw on the street once. He didn't even look at me, not once, and I apparently needed to document that rejection from every possible angle. I have no plan for these photos. I just cannot bring myself to be the one who deletes them.

Coffee order, but the honest version, not the cool one.

Iced, way too much syrup, whatever size lets me pretend it's a personality trait and not a sugar delivery system. If you ordered it for me you'd assume I was twelve, and you would not be entirely wrong to think that.

If you had to give up your phone or give up shoes for a month, which one goes?

Shoes. Easily. I will suffer barefoot before I lose my group chats, and honestly a month without shoes just sounds like a mildly inconvenient beach trip.

What's a trend you were fully embarrassing early on?

I will take this to my grave, and I'm only slightly exaggerating. There is footage. It exists somewhere. I have made peace with the fact that it will surface eventually and I am choosing not to think about it until that day arrives.

Best thing about a long shoot day?

Craft services, no contest. Whoever is in charge of snacks runs this industry and nobody talks about it enough. They should get a producer credit. I have picked jobs based on the snack table before and I am not ashamed to admit it.

Worst thing about a long shoot day?

Standing perfectly still while someone fixes a strap for what feels like forty minutes and is actually ninety seconds. Time moves differently when you're not allowed to scratch your nose. I have developed a whole inner monologue for those moments and none of it is interesting.

Guilty pleasure show you'd never bring up unprompted?

Now you're just trying to get me in trouble. I'll say this much, I know entirely too much about a reality show I would publicly deny watching, and I could argue for twenty minutes about who deserved to go home in a season I refuse to name.

Last question. Cats or dogs, and don't overthink it.

Dogs, but I'd never say that near a cat. They remember things, and I would like to keep my apartment intact.