On February 14, the third season of the highly acclaimed Showtime series, Yellowjackets premiered. The show is a narrative diptych of a high school girls’ soccer team who become stranded in the Canadian wilderness following a plane crash and, subsequently, how that traumatic event affects the girls in their adult lives. Canadian actress Sophie Nélisse has garnered the love of the public for her emphatic portrayal of the teenage Shauna—a stalwart, acerbic girl who longs for the approval of her popular best friend and teammate, Jackie (Ella Purnell). I met with Sophie to chat about the mid-nineties setting of Yellowjackets, the beauty of the Canadian wilderness, and the emotional Thunderdome that so often operates as the backdrop for friendship between teenage girls.
JD: Why do you think that Adult Shauna has such an oppositional relationship with her daughter Callie?
SN: “I think it’s because Shauna is committed, and we’ll see throughout the season, we’ll see her doing things that I think she feels very guilty for. I think she carried a lot of guilt and shame for the things she’s done that weren’t necessarily her fault. I don’t think that older Shauna has made peace with the events of the past. So, I think she’s become a lot more sheltered, and I think she doesn’t feel that she can let Callie in. I don’t know where Callie comes from—in the sense that, was she wanted? What is the foundation of Shauna’s relationship with Jeff when she comes back into society? I think Shauna doesn’t feel fit to be a mom because she doesn’t love herself or is proud of herself.”
In Yellowjackets, the danger and remoteness of the Canadian wilderness are a central part of the plot. As a Canadian actress, how does it feel to work on a series that is set in Canada?
“I feel very proud. Canada is such an underrated country. Canada is so vast and diverse. We have so much natural beauty. I think of Banff and everything that’s in Alberta and all of those crazy mountains. Getting to shoot in Vancouver is a privilege because it almost feels like a vacation to be able to shoot one day and go hiking in Whistler the next.”
More and more, we’re seeing the rise in popularity of TV shows with a majority female cast. I think of The Handmaid’s Tale, Orange is the New Black, and, of course, Yellowjackets. What do you think is so compelling about female characters?
“We’ve always seen the same genres for female characters—putting them in this conventional box. We’ve always seen them at their best or as the happy loving wife. I think [female characters] are starting to be more layered now—that they’re not just there to service or elevate male characters. They have their history and baggage. I think that’s exactly what these shows embrace. They also embrace the female dark side, and we love them for that because they’re so complex and because it’s not black and white. I love that you’re rooting for them even though they’re committing ugly things. You still root for them and see the humanity left in them, and you want them to succeed and get some sort of happy ending.”
Jackie and Teen Shauna have a pretty complicated relationship. They have a deep love for one another but at times, operate very oppositionally. Do you think this is due to the emotional nature of teenage friendship, or do the two share something more profound that makes the relationship especially tumultuous?
“There are a lot of theories. Some people think that there is something deeper than a friendship between those two. I do think that female relationships at that age are so heavily charged because they’re so new and feel so important. I think core friendships can become as important as family or a partner. You’re still discovering yourself at that age, and you don’t know who you are and what your voice is. You also don’t necessarily have the experience to have a lot of respect for yourself at times, so you’re scared to put your foot down or stand up for yourself. There’s a resentment that creates itself in a very subliminal way—Shauna and Jackie have a big loss of communication and honesty, but that mostly stems from love. Often, we’re scared to communicate because we don’t want to lose the other person. We don’t want to hurt them. I think that’s what happened between these two women.”
The sonic world of Yellowjackets is very 90s —Portishead, Alanis Morissette, Salt-N-Pepa. How does it feel to step on set and be transported into that past cultural era?
“It’s interesting because it’s an era that I’m unfamiliar with because I was born in 2000, so right on the cusp. It’s fun to me—that’s what I like as an actor. I’m able to step into the shoes of something that feels foreign to me and that I can’t always necessarily relate to. It feels like a complete transformation from the person that I am today and the contact lenses and the brown hair, that also helps me to [become] the character even more. The showrunners did such a beautiful job at giving the show a very specific voice, and it feels very of its era with the wardrobe and music. Every episode, I can’t believe how we’re getting such good soundtracks! It elevates the show for sure.”
Shauna has become a bit of a fan favourite. What do you attribute that to?
“I’m very blessed and honoured and grateful that people love her. Like I said earlier, I think it’s because Shauna taps into a dark place that I think we all potentially have within us, but we all don’t necessarily accept or listen to it. We have to go by societal norms. Shauna transcends those rules. There’s something that’s so brutally honest about her and her sense of humour because she is just so unapologetically herself–and that’s something that we all want. Because of the incredible writing, you understand where she comes from. It’s because we see everything she’s undergone in all of her loss and her trauma that you care for her no matter how harmful her actions can be.”
Stream Yellowjackets Season 3 on Showtime.
