“I visited San Juan several years ago. Puerto RicoVisit my friend [the director] Ángel Manuel Soto. Rootbeer—that’s my dog—came with me. On New Year’s Day a big group of us went to the beach—I’m intentionally trying to avoid telling you which one. This perfect piece of heaven is something I wouldn’t share with anyone. This makes no sense. The water was perfect, not too cold and there were no rocks so you could touch the floor. I surfed for a while. As a child I was a gymnast, so I’m able to ride a wave with no problem. surfboards are, I don’t know, closer to six feet, so if the wrong wave ever catches me—boom—I’m dust. We did a lot of swimming in the ocean. Three hours of swimming is what I mean. At least, I did. There were other people coming and going. [the actor] Anthony Ramos stayed there for some time. And there was a lot of chatter, like, ‘Yeah, New Year’s Day, we gotta swim last night off.’ I asked myself: Can I make small talk in an ocean? I’m not the right guy to do that. I did laps. Many people think of the ocean as a place to sit or dip. I don’t understand all those beach shenanigans—like, I don’t get sunbathing. I’m at the beach to swim. I’m that person you see in the water and go, ‘Is that person swimming across the entire ocean?’ Backstroke is my favorite way to see the sky. It makes me feel like I am in a’snow globe. In the evening, I enjoy looking up at stars. Even though I did have Rootbeer with me on the beach. What did I think? I have a Carl Sagan decal on my surfboard. I don’t know if you are familiar with the ending to the film Contact, Jodie Foster was there, but the water wasn’t. [in the parallel dimension Foster’s character journeyed to]. Why wasn’t it surfing? What an adventure! Surf’s up, right?”
Natasha Lyonne is a star in The Fantastic Four – First StepsSeason 2 of, which will be released on July 25, is also in theaters. Poker FaceNow streaming on Peacock
This article was published in the July/August issue of 2025. Condé Nast Traveler. Subscribe to the Magazine here.
