How Heléne Yorke brings herself to her ‘Other Two’ role. Or is it the other way around?

“Brooke’s journey this year is something I myself struggled with — which is how to be a good person,” says Heléne Yorke of her “The Other Two” character.

(Mary Inhea Kang / For The Times)

Heléne Yorke plays Brooke Dubek, the ambitious but hapless sister of two brothers: one who acts, one who’s a flailing former viral sensation, on Max’s “The Other Two.” But according to Yorke, “Embarrassingly, in so many ways, I’m just playing myself.”

Is she, though? As Brooke, Yorke is immediately identifiable as a woman no longer in her 20s, trying to find her place in the world — while also getting hilariously in her own way. Before now, the New York-based but California-raised new mom Yorke has been a bright spark in such shows as “Masters of Sex,” “The Good Fight” and “Graves,” but as she tells The Envelope via Zoom chat, one of her big ambitions now is to divorce herself from Instagram.

Are the show’s writers riffing on your real life?

You make me feel like I should ask them! I can’t believe I haven’t asked that. During the pandemic, I was purposeless. I wasn’t acting. I was like “I should be at the church across from my apartment bagging up groceries and stuff.” Sarah [Schneider, co-creator] was putting together bags for her unhoused neighbors, and I was like, “I took 12 Peloton classes today.”

This show’s description — about the siblings of a teen singer who goes viral, and how they deal with his success — that’s not what the show is about any more, exactly. Does it surprise you that the show has veered away from that?

They always talked about the intention that “the other two” [in the title] would evolve, which keeps it dynamic. People grow and change. The way they shifted it to Molly [Shannon] in Season 2 was striking, and reading the 10 episodes this year — the swings they took! They read on paper as truly bananas. Brooke’s journey this year is something I myself struggled with — which is how to be a good person.

Heléne Yorke stars with Drew Tarver as the older siblings of a viral sensation teen in “The Other Two.”

(Zach Dilgard/HBO)

Are you still weighed down by that?

I always feel like I’m not doing enough. As an actor, every job feels like it’s my last job. So it’s like, “What am I going to do? Who am I? What do I stand for?” It’s a good and important challenge to be faced with.

One of the overriding themes in the series is the truly addictive — even when absurd — nature of fame. Why are so many of us addicted to even the idea of fame?

I think about this a lot. When I was younger and I would get a compliment on my appearance in middle school or high school, I would get butterflies in my stomach. Then I remember when the same compliment did not ignite the same reaction. So you end up chasing the next thing, the next step above and beyond that. A friend of mine recently said, “When we’re 40, let’s get off Instagram. We’re no longer cute.” And I’m like, “Any day now, counting down the moments.”

You grew up in Pacific Palisades. Was it inevitable that you’d get into show business?

I was not a part of showbiz L.A. My mom was a stay-at-home mom, then worked at a bookstore. My dad is a computer software salesman. I had a couple of friends who went to fancy schools with parents in the business and it made living in L.A. very intimidating. It didn’t feel accessible. I wanted to move to New York and be in musicals, which I did. Then I tried to get into TV — and I did. But I do most everything in New York. When I was doing “Masters of Sex” on the Sony lot [in L.A.] I would drive the 10 Freeway to get to the lot and it was like, “Hollywood accepts me! I’m in the white castle on a hill!” But I still felt like this little weirdo, belonging in a studio apartment in New York doing eight shows a week.

(Mary Inhea Kang / For The Times)

Your son will be a year old soon. How has being a mom shifted your passion for acting, or has it?

I think time is the biggest thing. I’ve spent 16 years of my career constantly worried, striving, wondering when the next thing was going to come. Getting the likes, getting the clicks. And I do love working, I love what I do. But your time is so precious. It’s all I want to do — other than [be a] mom.

I think we’re done! Is there something you hoped I’d ask that I didn’t?

God, no. Do I sound like an idiot?

No, but I spoke with a Brit yesterday and at the end of our chat he said, “Don’t make me sound like a doughnut.” I’d never heard that phrase before, but I also instantly understood it.

Yes, let’s bring that to the United States. Please don’t make me look like a doughnut. Because my mom’s going to read this. The L.A. Times — that’s my hometown newspaper. My mom’s always like, “Why can’t you be in the L.A. Times?”