The Showtime drama series Yellowjackets is part survival, part psychological horror, and part coming of age tale that follows a team of high school girls' soccer players that survive a plane crash deep in the wilderness and have to do unspeakable things to stay alive long enough to be rescued. At the same time, we also see the young women who made it through that ordeal 25 years later, each coping with what they went through in different ways, but now all fighting their demons together.
During this 1-on-1 interview with Collider, Juliette Lewis (who plays Natalie, the misfit underdog who finds her purpose and focus after the crash) talked about the mathematical equation that is television, what she most enjoys about her character, collaborating with her younger counterpart Sophie Thatcher (who plays the teenage Natalie), and the Natalie-Misty dynamic and working with co-star Christina Ricci. She also talked about the experience she had working with director Martin Scorsese on Cape Fear and how he gave her confidence.
Collider: I’m so wrapped up in this show, with all of its twists and turns.
LEWIS: Yeah, I love doing a show that has all of these interwoven elements. We were all fans of each other, the older actresses, and then to have younger actresses playing us younger and how that’s gonna inform the audience and how they see us in present day, that was a really new experience for me. I loved what the show is rooted in. You have these fiery, all distinct personalities who are great athletes as young girls, which even that I like because we don’t see that so often, and then you give them a plane crash and a survival problem, with which they do all kinds of wild things that they have guilt and trauma about. And then, we see them present day. My character is driven by wanting answers about something. You’re gonna slowly see all kinds of things from each character.
How much were you told initially? Did you just get one script to read, or did you get more than that? Were there conversations? How did you get an overall sense of what you would be doing?
LEWIS: That is the Rubik’s cube question of making television. I love that I can use that term, Rubik’s cube. Do they even have those in present day? It’s a mathematical equation where you never know because they have so many things to build and unravel, and they start figuring out what works and what to focus on and when. Also, these brilliant writers wanna make it last forever, for seasons., so it’s like you’re benched. If you were a sports team, it’s like this one’s on the bench, this one’s up to bat, and this one’s out in the field. When you take on a job like this, you read the script, and it was one script, but it was of the best scripts I’d ever read and that I’d ever been given in 10 plus years. It was so riveting and exciting. And then, they give you a rough idea about what the story’s gonna be doing and what it’s about, but it’s a huge mystery and it’s a leap of faith.
Are you someone who really wanted those answers, or are you good with not knowing everything?
LEWIS: Mainly, for me, because I come from films, I understand not giving away certain things to an audience. I understand all kinds of nuance and I just wanna honor the characters’ position and plight. Where my character ends up will be really exciting and surprising for a lot of people.
I’m very familiar with you guys in the older cast and your work, but these characters feel like characters that we haven’t seen any of you play before. Were there aspects of your character that you were most looking forward to digging into because you felt like they were things you hadn’t gotten to do?
LEWIS: That’s great to hear. Thank you for saying that. My dad (Geoffrey Lewis) was a character actor and I consider myself a character actor. I like playing people that I have not played before, and also that I can stretch in a different direction and see if I can do it. I wanna be challenged and with this character, I love that when we first see her, she’s pretending to be something she’s not. She has a chameleon nature which, in the first season, is not really explored. If it continues, maybe we’ll see more of that. I don’t know.
What were the biggest challenges in tracking the younger version of the character and figuring that out? Did you have ongoing conversations with the other actress (Sophie Thatcher), or did you just have to put your trust in the creative team?
LEWIS: It’s really wild because the casting people, the producers and the show creators did such a brilliant job of casting our younger selves that I could rest easy about it. First of all, I adore the actress that plays my younger self. We would hang out. She’s distinctly herself, don’t get me wrong, but she has a lot of elements that reminded me of me at 19. We all did our homework. We spent time together and talked with each other at length, but the way television works is that you’ve just gotta dive into the writing. Even though you have some ownership of the character, it’s a writer’s medium and you just have to commit and go in the direction that they’re leaning and hope it works out.
There are so many things going on in this story. You have the friendships and the frenemies, the survival aspect, the mystery, the thriller and this constant sense of dread, where I was just waiting for something bad to happen all the time. If you had to tell someone what genre this show falls under, what would you say? What are the aspects that you most connect to?
LEWIS: It really is about how people come out of and survive horrific, unpredictable circumstances. Also, the individualism in the characters is ultimately entertaining to watch. Even though there are things that separate us, there are things that will bond us for life. There has been a lot of talk about cults and certain sects. I’ll tell you a funny thing, Woody Harrelson and I, and anyone who did Natural Born Killers, it was like we went to boot camp together. There was nothing like that particular experience. It was challenging and exciting. I feel like that with Woody. And all of the ladies in this show have animosities, but they also have an affinity that bonds them.
It’s so interesting when you take characters and strip everything away from them and put them all on the same level playing ground, what then happens with them.
LEWIS: It really is. It’s a microcosm of existence. We’ve seen facets of these people in our own lives. I’ve seen a smidgen of a sociopathic Misty, unfortunately. I’ve seen and can connect to somebody who’s just gonna numb out to endure life, or they do petty crime, or whatever, because they haven’t developed a toolkit to function in the straight world. That’s a little bit where Natalie finds herself. And then, you have Shauna. And there’s Taissa’s relentless ambition. You’re gonna freak out about where she ends up. It’s so good.
I love the odd couple dynamic that develops between Natalie and Misty and the little road trip that they go on. Their personalities could not be more different, but there’s just something delightful about watching that. What did you enjoy about finding and exploring that with Christina Ricci?
LEWIS: What didn’t I enjoy? What I enjoyed was Christina Ricci. I just thought, “Wow, isn’t it wild that we haven’t worked together.” We both came up in this industry at a similar time. You see actors that were your counterparts or peers, she’s a little younger, in a certain period of time, so there’s a connection of a kindred spirit that I have with Christina. Also, the way that she works, we didn’t know until we sat together that how we operate or act on a set, we’re so similar. It’s like old hat. I jokingly called us Bette and Joan, or Lucy and Ethel. We just had a funny dynamic.
I want a spin-off of just the two of them going on crazy wild adventures and how they react to each other.
LEWIS: Oh, that’s good. Yeah, I like that too. It’s also gonna be unpredictable, where Misty and Natalie end up. I felt there was kind of a role reversal that takes place, so it’s gonna be interesting.
This character gets labeled a particular way, and then can’t seem to really shake that, for whatever reason. Because of that, I love that she’s the one that becomes determined to figure out what’s going on now. What do you think has made her that person? What do you think is driving her to want to know what’s going on?
LEWIS: You’re gonna learn. I wanna say it’s a toxic love story, but that doesn’t fully encapsulate the story that will be revealed. It’s just her origin of pleasure and safety was in this individual, as a teenager, and that’s what motivates her, along with being confused in her life. You can go in different directions, when you don’t actually have a foundation. That’s what starts happening. Emptiness actually starts overwhelming her. It’s really fascinating.
It’s so great to watch you guys together, as a cast. I can’t wait to see more of that.
LEWIS: Thank you. It was so fun to do, when we all come together. I’m excited that did get written, where we all get to interact together. There’s a scene where Tawny [Cypress] and I have connected, and then Melanie [Lynskey]’s character shows up. That was so fun because there’s an animosity, but there’s a respect. Natalie’s strength, or her pretended strength, starts to become very flimsy around these ladies, and that’s really interesting.
What was the earliest experience you had on a set that was a really positive, really memorable experience for you, that you feel you really learned from and was kind of a turning point for you in your career or how you thought of acting?
LEWIS: When you asked that, right away, I went to the moment that Martin Scorsese gave me a compliment, that I didn’t know about how I work. I liken that period of time (making Cape Fear) to being anointed, or getting my creative wings. I use a lot of metaphors. But it was because he’s so in love with cinema. He’s making it and he watches and he works with each actor differently. I was just young and full of very good instincts. I knew that much. I knew that my instincts were pretty solid and intuitive. I was really intuitive. One time, I did nine takes. It was a scene with Jessica Lange, and after the ninth take, I tapped him on the shoulder and was like, “Marty, why are we going again?” And he went, “Oh, I’m sorry. I just wanted to see what you were gonna do. You do everything different.” I was like, “Oh, he’s just enjoying everything that I come up with.” That changed me. It gave me a confidence where, after that experience. It wasn’t the outside accolades. It was him nurturing my ingredients, as a performer.
It sounds like something that could have a really profound effect because, if the opposite happens, you’ll not trust yourself.
LEWIS: And I had the opposite, right before, where I was on a comedy TV show, actually, and they didn’t want realism. They wanted really broad stuff. I was like, “But you hired me. I don’t actually know how to do this.” I almost was gonna quit the business at 17.
Yellowjackets airs on Sunday nights on Showtime.