‘Yellowjackets’ Stars Melanie Lynskey and Sophie Nélisse on Feeling ‘Relaxed’ in Dark Shauna and Pushing Back Against Double Standards: ‘People Delight in Men as Villains’
The first time they ever met, Melanie Lynskey and Sophie Nélisse immediately agreed that Shauna, the character they both play (at different ages) on Showtime’s “Yellowjackets,” was anything but the wallflower housewife audiences see at first.
“We both were very sure about the fact that she’s comfortable putting herself in these roles as the housewife and the best friend, and this ‘don’t look at me too much’ mentality,” says Lynskey. “But when it comes down to it, she’s very aware of her own power in a way that almost frightens her. In Season 3, I feel like that’s finally come to fruition in the craziest of ways, but it was something we knew from the get-go — maybe not that she would be quite so vicious, but definitely that she wasn’t meek.”
That vicious streak she’s referring to includes — but is not limited to — adult Shauna taking a bite out of guest star Hilary Swank’s arm and then force feeding her the flesh, and teenage Shauna assuming the throne of the Antler Queen who encourages her fellow plane crash survivors to hunt, skin and eat the unlucky sacrifice among them.
This marriage of past and present Shauna’s darker impulses will come as an unorthodox relief for fans, who began to question in Season 3 how the increasingly volatile teenage Shauna (Nélisse), who turned her grief over losing her best friend and her baby in the wilderness into a tyrannical dictatorship, could ever grow up to be the wife and mother Shauna (Lynskey), who claims she is trying to shield her family from the ghosts of her past.
But Season 3 suggests creators Ashley Lyle and Bart Nickerson were playing the long game in addressing those concerns. Unlike Misty (Christina Ricci and Samantha Hanratty), who has always been too inquisitive for her own good, or Tai (Tawny Cypress and Jasmin Savoy Brown), who has been battling a deep-seeded darkness since her time in the wild, Shauna has had to shed her initial characterization as the flawed but relatable grounding pole of the survivors and transform in front of the audience into a far more troubled soul warped by experience.
With their respective half of Shauna siloed in the past and present, Lynskey and Nélisse have never shared a scene. You won’t find them sitting on set and talking for hours about Shauna’s psyche. In fact, they don’t check in with each other about where they are driving the character in her youth and adulthood. Nélisse, who was initially worried they didn’t look anything alike, says she now sees the ways in which their acting choices sync up through the TikTok edits fans send her. “It’s crazy how we actually kind of sound the same, wildly enough,” she says.
Their ability to put Shauna to bed when they aren’t on set is even apparent when they signed onto Zoom for this interview –– Nélisse was in Italy and Lynskey was in California. The conversation began with them trading perfume recommendations before they ever broached the topic of their shared alter ego (“We both really enjoy a good fragrance,” Lynskey says with a laugh.)
But that’s how natural Shauna’s evolution has felt to them both. It’s a validation of their initial read on the character and their trust in each other to make the most of her heel turn. For her part, Nélisse says she embraces the term “villain” that Shauna would wear as a badge of honor.
“The darkness that is within her is real,” she says. “I think it’s seen as something so negative, but like, why? I don’t think she’s channeling it right, but that’s because she doesn’t have the resources and the people around her to let her voice it. So when she gets into the wilderness, and there are no societal rules and there’s no form of parenting or any boundaries that are set. There’s just no limit to where that darkness can go.”
In the final scene of the season, adult Shauna gleefully drops her mask, consequences be damned. She longs for the fun and freedom of the wilderness, where the flashbacks show she is now heralded as their leader. But after her attack on adult Melissa (Swank), Shauna’s husband Jeff (Warren Kole) and their daughter Callie (Sarah Desjardins) flee her reign of terror. Even her equally damaged survivors Misty and Tai agree she must be stopped.
Although she understands how Shauna got here, Lynskey reads online comments and questions the double standard some viewers have about a woman breaking bad.
“I know that she’s kind of a tyrant, but the loss that she’s suffered and the psychosis that she’s under, it’s really intense,” she says. “People are just so quick to judge. Even when they talk about how she was terrible before the wilderness because she was cheating with Jackie’s boyfriend, it’s like, where’s that anger for Jeff then? He was the other part and he’s just getting away with it. The way that people talk about women and men has been very interesting because people delight in men as villains. But I think, especially when a woman is a mother, there’s this other set of expectations. Then people are like, ‘She’s not even a very good mother.’ Well, guess what? Some people aren’t. People’s need for things to be very black or white has been interesting for me to see.”
While some may still resist the demise of relatable Season 1 Shauna, both Lynskey and Nélisse relish the chance to explore her descent further as Showtime’s just renewed the series for Season 4. “Shauna’s gone down such a dark path, but that path is thrilling because I think it’s her idea of who she is,” Nélisse says.
If anything, Season 3 will be looked back on as the moment the real Shauna emerged.
“When I was in her energy, my body just felt relaxed,” says Lynskey. “I felt so relieved in those fight scenes with Hilary. I felt kind of loose and free. Even coming home to find Jeff and Callie aren’t there. I think she just wants to keep that feeling for a little while of just being herself, without the expectations. She knows she’s not going to live up to them, so she’s telling people to stop having them.”
“We both were very sure about the fact that she’s comfortable putting herself in these roles as the housewife and the best friend, and this ‘don’t look at me too much’ mentality,” says Lynskey. “But when it comes down to it, she’s very aware of her own power in a way that almost frightens her. In Season 3, I feel like that’s finally come to fruition in the craziest of ways, but it was something we knew from the get-go — maybe not that she would be quite so vicious, but definitely that she wasn’t meek.”
That vicious streak she’s referring to includes — but is not limited to — adult Shauna taking a bite out of guest star Hilary Swank’s arm and then force feeding her the flesh, and teenage Shauna assuming the throne of the Antler Queen who encourages her fellow plane crash survivors to hunt, skin and eat the unlucky sacrifice among them.
This marriage of past and present Shauna’s darker impulses will come as an unorthodox relief for fans, who began to question in Season 3 how the increasingly volatile teenage Shauna (Nélisse), who turned her grief over losing her best friend and her baby in the wilderness into a tyrannical dictatorship, could ever grow up to be the wife and mother Shauna (Lynskey), who claims she is trying to shield her family from the ghosts of her past.
But Season 3 suggests creators Ashley Lyle and Bart Nickerson were playing the long game in addressing those concerns. Unlike Misty (Christina Ricci and Samantha Hanratty), who has always been too inquisitive for her own good, or Tai (Tawny Cypress and Jasmin Savoy Brown), who has been battling a deep-seeded darkness since her time in the wild, Shauna has had to shed her initial characterization as the flawed but relatable grounding pole of the survivors and transform in front of the audience into a far more troubled soul warped by experience.
With their respective half of Shauna siloed in the past and present, Lynskey and Nélisse have never shared a scene. You won’t find them sitting on set and talking for hours about Shauna’s psyche. In fact, they don’t check in with each other about where they are driving the character in her youth and adulthood. Nélisse, who was initially worried they didn’t look anything alike, says she now sees the ways in which their acting choices sync up through the TikTok edits fans send her. “It’s crazy how we actually kind of sound the same, wildly enough,” she says.
Their ability to put Shauna to bed when they aren’t on set is even apparent when they signed onto Zoom for this interview –– Nélisse was in Italy and Lynskey was in California. The conversation began with them trading perfume recommendations before they ever broached the topic of their shared alter ego (“We both really enjoy a good fragrance,” Lynskey says with a laugh.)
But that’s how natural Shauna’s evolution has felt to them both. It’s a validation of their initial read on the character and their trust in each other to make the most of her heel turn. For her part, Nélisse says she embraces the term “villain” that Shauna would wear as a badge of honor.
“The darkness that is within her is real,” she says. “I think it’s seen as something so negative, but like, why? I don’t think she’s channeling it right, but that’s because she doesn’t have the resources and the people around her to let her voice it. So when she gets into the wilderness, and there are no societal rules and there’s no form of parenting or any boundaries that are set. There’s just no limit to where that darkness can go.”
In the final scene of the season, adult Shauna gleefully drops her mask, consequences be damned. She longs for the fun and freedom of the wilderness, where the flashbacks show she is now heralded as their leader. But after her attack on adult Melissa (Swank), Shauna’s husband Jeff (Warren Kole) and their daughter Callie (Sarah Desjardins) flee her reign of terror. Even her equally damaged survivors Misty and Tai agree she must be stopped.
Although she understands how Shauna got here, Lynskey reads online comments and questions the double standard some viewers have about a woman breaking bad.
“I know that she’s kind of a tyrant, but the loss that she’s suffered and the psychosis that she’s under, it’s really intense,” she says. “People are just so quick to judge. Even when they talk about how she was terrible before the wilderness because she was cheating with Jackie’s boyfriend, it’s like, where’s that anger for Jeff then? He was the other part and he’s just getting away with it. The way that people talk about women and men has been very interesting because people delight in men as villains. But I think, especially when a woman is a mother, there’s this other set of expectations. Then people are like, ‘She’s not even a very good mother.’ Well, guess what? Some people aren’t. People’s need for things to be very black or white has been interesting for me to see.”
While some may still resist the demise of relatable Season 1 Shauna, both Lynskey and Nélisse relish the chance to explore her descent further as Showtime’s just renewed the series for Season 4. “Shauna’s gone down such a dark path, but that path is thrilling because I think it’s her idea of who she is,” Nélisse says.
If anything, Season 3 will be looked back on as the moment the real Shauna emerged.
“When I was in her energy, my body just felt relaxed,” says Lynskey. “I felt so relieved in those fight scenes with Hilary. I felt kind of loose and free. Even coming home to find Jeff and Callie aren’t there. I think she just wants to keep that feeling for a little while of just being herself, without the expectations. She knows she’s not going to live up to them, so she’s telling people to stop having them.”