[This story contains spoilers up to episode three of Yellowjackets season three, “Them’s the Brakes.”]
Sophie Nélisse has been warning the audience about Shauna in Yellowjackets season three.
The actress plays the teenager who has been forced to survive a devastating series of traumas ever since her soccer team’s plane crash-landed in the remote wilderness back in season one of the Showtime coming-of-age horror series. After playing an unintended role in the death of her best friend Jackie (Ella Purnell) and then participating in her cannibalism feast in order to survive, Shauna lost the baby she had been carrying in season two. Shauna gave birth amid a fever dream, regaining consciousness to discover that her son didn’t survive childbirth.
When season three picks back up with Shauna in the wilderness, she’s in mourning and a state of bubbling rage. In interviews teasing the season, Nélisse had described Shauna as being “unhinged,” and the first moments of the season feature her capturing her emotions in what the cast has referred to as her rage journal. “It just builds for Shauna to be even more isolated towards the end,” Nélisse tells The Hollywood Reporter about Shauna’s arc ahead. Again describing her as unhinged — along with “mean” and “heartless” — she says the events of the first three episodes are only the beginning.
After a kissing scene with Shauna and fellow player Melissa (Jenna Burgess) in the second episode, Yellowjackets continues to follow their budding relationship. The co-creators stopped short of calling it a “romance” when previously speaking to THR, and Nélisse agrees. “I love that it wasn’t about if Shauna’s coming out,” she says. “This is something that would happen naturally. And maybe Shauna is bi, but that’s not the point of their storyline. But it’s definitely a very sort of twisted relationship.”
In the present-day story of Yellowjackets, future Shauna (played by Melanie Lynskey in the adult cast), is being stalked by an anonymous person, and the show heavily hints that it might be Melissa. Nélisse says all will be revealed in coming episodes, only adding to the “layer of the remorse that Shauna will then feel later on, the guilt of everything bad and all the people that she hurt in her time in the wilderness,” she says.
“I think that’s why they’re still being haunted by the wilderness years later,” she adds, “because they’re all living in denial. I don’t think any of them have made peace with what happened out there.”
The third episode, which was directed by co-showrunner Jonathan Lisco, ended with a wild hallucination sequence involving Shauna, along with Van (Liv Hewson) and Akilah (Nia Sondaya), that saw their dreams merging into a shared nightmare. Lisco explained to THR the cultural significance and neuroscience behind collective dreaming and how the visions preyed on their worst fears. “There is a level of psychological induction going on of people being convinced that they need to be part of the dream to survive,” he teased, noting how the space between their objective and subjective experiences is starting to blur.
Below, in conversation with THR, Nélisse shares her interpretation of Shauna’s harrowing dream involving the child she lost and talks about leaning into Shauna’s darkness for season three, while sharing Pit Girl theories and why she stopped asking the show’s creators questions a long time ago (“Honestly, if I started questioning everything they wrote it would never end, so I kind of just go with it”). She also teases a devastating death up ahead, which led to an extravagant cast funeral party.
***
I imagine the biggest difference with season three, at least to start, is you all aren’t cramped in a cabin anymore. How did springtime in the wilderness make for a lighter set this season?
Yes. Last season it was winter and we shot most of it in studio. It was a different dynamic. It really did feel like on the show where we were all crammed into one space. It felt stuffy and heavy, we were all kind of on top of each other. For me, shooting out in the woods [in Vancouver] where we got to shoot this year is great because you get to breathe a little bit more. The location itself is really gorgeous. I love nature. It felt a little more peaceful and a little less like work than if I had to get bundled up and go out in the cold.
This season is weirdly more F-ed up, but at the same time, we’re playing into the energy — we’re gonna kill each other in the best way, as opposed to it being a drag. [Wondering if we were going to be] eating Shauna’s baby, I think that went really far. Now we’re leaning into something that’s a bit more campy and fun, but still playing into the gruesomeness and the horror and the grounded side of it. There are a lot of twists and turns this season, a lot of big reveals that were unexpected.
This third episode was directed by your co-showrunner Jonathan Lisco and it felt like the biggest lean in yet to the mythology of the wilderness with the hallucination sequence at the end. What was like to film those cave scenes?
I’m luckily not claustrophobic, because it gets really tight in there. The logistics were sometimes a little complicated because it’s a one way. So it’s like, “Action!” and none of the crew fit in the caves. Our AD, we can’t really see; it’s really dark. All the tunnels were really tiny. They made it look so realistic, so I was truly trying to get myself through these crevices. Then it’s like, “Cut!” and there are 15 of us trying to get back to first position. The scene where it’s just Liv [Hewson], me and Nia Sondaya felt so chaotic. When all the water came rushing in, we couldn’t hear anything; you’re in this really tight area. It helps the performance because it brings this stress level up, and then we all start screaming on top of each other. I’m always amazed by our set decs. I can’t believe that someone handmade those [caves].
Did Jonathan explain to you why your three characters were picked for this dream sequence?
Not really. I know that my character and Nia’s character (Akilah) were definitely more on the fence [about the wilderness]. We’re definitely in the circle that doesn’t believe in all of Lottie [Courtney Eaton]’s stuff, but then Liv’s character (Van) does tap in. So I don’t know why. Honestly, if I started questioning everything that they wrote it would never end, so I kind of just go with it. But I do love when we walk back from having all shared the experience [in episode four]. They were all obviously very shaken and traumatized. But Shauna especially doesn’t want to let it show that this is kind of proof that maybe there is something bigger than them out there. It’s fun to see Shauna’s confidence and strength being questioned for once.
What is Shauna’s journey with the wilderness this season? We see her her trying to cope with her trauma with anger, grief and her harrowing secret of digging up her dead child. Now, you are saying she’s maybe starting to give into this higher power idea?
I think Shauna is extremely smart and I think she will somewhat give into it, but mainly because she’s trying to gain power over the group. She knows it’s to her advantage to lean into it and believe, and I think that’s why she will in order to, hopefully, become the leader. It’s what she’s wished for ever since Natalie [Sophie Thatcher] got crowned [the Antler Queen at the end of season two]. So I think she knows that she has to, but I don’t think she’ll ever fully believe it in her core the way that Lottie does.
Also in this episode, we see Adult Shauna (Melanie Lynskey) flip out when Adult Lottie (Simone Kessell) gives her daughter Callie (Sarah Desjardins) the heart necklace, because of what that means. [Note: It marks people to be sacrificed to the wilderness.] People have been poring over that opening “Pit Girl scene” ever since the start of the show. What have been your cast predictions?
We have been as invested in that storyline as the fans. We have this group chat where we share a bunch of Reddits reviews, and the fan theories were so wild and fun and interesting that we kind of leaned into it. We were like, “Well, maybe it could be her… maybe it could be…” and then we’re like, “Well, she has an adult, so it can’t be her.” We share costumes, so whenever someone would be given the pink shoes, we were like, “What does that mean?!”
Your showrunners introduce and elevate characters who have been in the background each season, like with Melissa this season. Were you surprised when you found out about Shauna and Melissa’s storyline?
First off, I think that with a bunch of girls out in the wilderness, there would be more making out. I was like, “There’s only one love story? No way!” I do think there’s been this debate since the beginning [with Shauna and Jackie]. I don’t think that Jackie and Shauna’s relationship is [romantic] in that regard, but I do think there are a lot of questions around them, and it evoked questions about Shauna’s sexuality.
I was surprised they gave this story to Shauna because she has so many other things going on and maybe she doesn’t have the headspace to think about someone else. But it made things even more interesting because she is at such a low point in her life. She’s not in a place where she loves herself. She’s not proud of what she’s done. I think she doesn’t have the capacity to be loved by anyone else at this time, even though that’s probably what she needs, someone to just take care of her. But I don’t think she’s emotionally able to receive that kindness. So it does bring this beautiful contrast by having someone see her for who she is who loves that about her, and embraces those sides of Shauna.
But it’s definitely a very sort of twisted relationship because I think Shauna would like to be in love, and I think she is manipulating Melissa to make herself feel better. In another universe, this could have been a healthy and honest and truthful and great relationship. I just think that Shauna’s incapable of loving and receiving love at this point in her life. And so sadly, I don’t think it evolves into anything great.
Yellowjackets in its editing has hinted to the audience that Melissa is the stalker who is haunting Shauna in present day. How much of their relationship will you explore this season to understand why it devolves?
It goes pretty south pretty quickly. The story isn’t as deep as Tai and Van’s relationship, for example. It just builds for Shauna to be even more isolated towards the end and shows how unhinged Shauna can be this season, how mean and heartless she is. It adds a layer of the remorse that she’ll then feel later on, the guilt of everything bad and all the people that she hurt in her time in the wilderness. I don’t know what’s going to happen in future seasons. but it’s wrapped up by the end of this season.
Back to your dream vision, the three of you come together at the end. You see Tai’s “no-eyed man,” even though Tai (Jasmin Savoy Brown) isn’t having a dream, and Lottie and Jackie are there [marking another return for departed star Ella Purnell]. Shauna seems like she isn’t quite ready to digest this dream in the next episode so, how do you interpret what she saw?
It’s a way of showing that you can’t escape things, no matter how hard you try to push them down and not think about them or try to move on. Whatever you’ve done will stick with you for the rest of your life. I don’t really have the answers. Every time I read things like this, we’re still figuring it out at the same time. I don’t know if the wilderness is nice or mean. I do think about it. I think it doesn’t want them to escape the things that they’ve done, or at least is there to show them their true colors. So whatever they’ve done, they’ll never be able to escape until they make peace with everything, the good and the bad, and fully accept the bad things. I think that’s why they’re still being haunted by the wilderness years later, because they’re all living in denial. I don’t think any of them have made peace with what happened out there. That’s why the dreams will keep coming back. The visions will keep coming back. Jackie will keep coming back, until the day they fully make peace with what happened. They need a really great therapist.
Jackie is back to haunt this season. What was it like to have Ella back and, because there were so many of you in that dream scene, did it feel like a mini-reunion on set?
It was really fun. It’s always so sad because she comes in for a day and then she leaves. So it’s bittersweet because I miss having her around. But now whenever she says goodbye, we know she’ll come back. We’re like, “You’ll be back. That’s fine. It’s fine.” We’re all so in denial that she’s dead. (Laughs) And she gets to do really weird things — our scenes now are completely different from the ones we had in the first season. They are creepy and eerie. So it’s always fun to have her back, even though it’s short-lived.
You and I spoke about the birthing episode last season and how intense that was to film. Are there any episodes this season that were equally as challenging?
I don’t think there are any scenes for Shauna this year that are quite as emotionally demanding. We see such a different side to her, different colors. It’s less so grief, heartbreak and sadness than it’s just pure anger and lashing out at other people, and tapping into the real mean, dark sides of herself where she has nothing else to lose anymore. She doesn’t care and she’s willing to do things out of spite and anger and revenge. It’s taken a 180-degree turn where she feels like a complete different person almost this season. She keeps changing. As an actor, it’s really fun to go with the wave and explore a new side of her.
Are you and Melanie Lynskey still comparing notes on Shauna as you go through the seasons? I know in the beginning, you spent time together crafting the character.
Not really. It worked so well in the first season. We understood Shauna’s essence, and we related to her in a lot of ways. Trying to create something would be overthinking and overcomplicating it, and it might take away from our basic instinct of how we would play her. For me, it’s relatively easy because I know what Shauna is living day to day; she doesn’t know what to expect. I think it’s harder for her because she has to embody all the trauma and the entire journey that Shauna has been through. Whenever we write to each other, it’s just a catch up. We talk about her family and what we’ve been up to. We cook together and we hang out at her house.
Your creators talked about the funeral parties you as a cast have hosted when castmembers are killed off the show. Do you have a standout funeral party, and can you tease how many you have this season?
My favorite one is this season. We did a really big thing. We ordered a very specific cake that is very gruesome — the person where we ordered the cake from probably thought this was the weirdest order ever made. So we got a massive cake and went to Party City and got a bunch of death-themed decorations and tombstones. We literally made it like it was that person’s funeral; we put their face on a little pamphlet that we handed out to people as they walked in, which was so crazy because then that person was there. We made a collage of everyone’s pictures that they had with that person, and we showcased it on the TV. We cried. It was a very special moment.
I actually was in their last scene, which I didn’t know was their last scene. I was so mentally unprepared. I sobbed uncontrollably for like an hour. It was a very emotional day. But again, we’re like, “Come back and haunt us anytime, please!”
We don’t know how much time this season will cover, but we know that your creators have a long term plan [as they await a season four renewal]. Can you tease if there will be any more jumps, like to the rescue timeline?
We’re out there [in the wilderness for] 18 months. We’ve done a bit of summer, a bit of winter, a bit of summer and, according to the timeline, we’re a bit into winter when we get rescued. There’s definitely more hunting. We will keep hunting each other. There are a lot of questions around the rescue: Is everyone going to want to go, or are some people going to want to stay? Who rescues them? There are so many theories.
You’ve recently done some indie movies, including high school horror Whistle. What other roles are you leaning into outside of Yellowjackets and how long do you hope to play Shauna?
I’ll keep playing Shauna forever because she’s so complex and I’ve been having so much fun with this character. I do think any show should kind of wrap up around five [seasons]. Even the best ones. Even Succession, I could watch all day long, but you better go out with a bang rather than start becoming mediocre. I really want to lean into comedy. I love doing drama, but I think I have a pretty comedic sense. Comedy relies a lot on improvisation and being willing to try a joke that might or might not land. I think it would take me out of my comfort zone. I also have a huge athletic background, having done gymnastics competitively, so an action movie always sounds really fun. I’m very open. I just don’t want to be pigeonholed. I love exploring. I think that’s the fun part about acting, that you have that freedom to dip your toes into everything.
***
Yellowjackets is now streaming the first three episodes of season three. New episodes release Fridays on Paramount+, with a linear airing Sundays at 9 p.m. on Showtime. Follow along with THR‘s season coverage and interviews.
Read the full article here
