THR hosts Q&A with cast and creators of ‘Yellowjackets’ –

yellow jackets Creators Ashley Lyle and Bart Nickerson were on set working on the survival drama when they heard lord of the flies The idea of ​​a feature film spread in 2017.

“It was more of an ‘oh no’ moment, which happens a lot when you have ideas and work on the pitches, there’s just some synchronicity,” Lyle said. THR gifts on Thursday night at Harriet’s Rooftop in Los Angeles, California. “It was a very different feeling. This was the movie they were going to make and they were literally lord of the flies, but the genre has changed. But what I think surprised us was that I looked at the comments, because I’m always very interested in what people have to say about these things, and the comments were very harsh, but in a way that I felt was deeply wrong. because it was like, “Oh, what are these girls doing? Cooperate to the death? And I was like, “So you’ve never dated a teenager. Good to know.’ In fact, he only added fuel to the fire because we thought we could prove that person wrong.”

Melanie Lynskey, who plays an earlier version of Shauna on the Showtime series, was the first cast member. “I thought it was very well written. I wish there was a second episode, which is always a good sign. And there were just a few things about Shauna, the scene with Taisa at the diner in the first episode where her powers are revealed. I was like, “Oh, that’s interesting, because she was kind of depressed for most of the episode,” and like she was literally wiping the stains off her panties. And so I said, “Oh, well, he was very powerful at one point,” and I was really interested. and then Karina [Kusama] He was also a huge draw to me because I always wanted to work with him. And then as the cast grew, I was like, “Are you kidding me?” Christina Ricci and Juliette Lewis! And it got better and better. “

Kusama, who can count jennifer’s body, Invitation s Destroyer He is credited as executive producing the show and also directed the pilot episode, which sets the tone for the show with a fatal plane crash that leaves the women’s football team stranded in the desert.

“I read the script several times and realized how crisp, crazy and beautifully written it was,” says Kusama. “And what I loved was every character, from Shawn to Misty, Tais to Natalie, every person felt like they were on the edge of a cliff. But I did not understand the stone. He didn’t know how they got there or where they were going. I think we still don’t understand that and that’s great, to feel like a woman doesn’t have a predetermined ending and that’s great. “

Adds Ritchie: “I loved that these characters didn’t get any special treatment just because they were women. Personally, I’m a selfish, selfish actor, and I only saw my character’s scene in the pilot and was dying to play the person who was in that scene. I just wanted to go home with him and find out what he was up to. I was very, very excited about it. “

Nickerson and Lyle, who are also married in real life, agreed that the most difficult character was Jack, a role that was eventually played by Ella Purnell.

“We knew we didn’t want her to be the stereotypical bad girl, she wasn’t Regina George,” says Lyle. “And she had to be the queen bee in a high school context, but have this underlying vulnerability, vulnerability and humanity, which is a very difficult balance to find. And we had a lot of auditions where there was just Regina George and we were like, “Okay, that’s great, but what’s beyond that?” Where is the girl who is afraid her best friend will leave her? Where is the girl who fears her boyfriend loves her just for what she represents? And who is the girl that will crumble in the desert when these social constructs are taken away from her?

He added: “We were in the scout van, Bart, Karin and I… She was on tape, I think she was in London at the time and we got an email. [from our casting directors Junie Lowry-Johnson and Libby Goldstein] In typical June fashion, all caps and exclamation points, and it said, “Look at this now.” We saw him in the truck and we all got dizzy and said, ‘Get over it, it’s him.

Nickerson added: “Everyone was incredibly difficult. I think I’m going to steal what you said earlier, Karin, about the pure cast, because we knew we wanted a show that could work on many different levels in terms of the scene. And you won’t always have as much space to cover things up with one type of dialogue and find 800 pieces of people who can throw a bowl of conscious agenda, subconscious agenda, and then subconscious. Everything on the agenda is like that, it’s a great question. And it’s crazy that we ask, and it’s even crazier that we find so many people who could do this.”

the first season yellow jackets It won seven Emmy nominations, including Outstanding Lead Actress for Lynskey, Outstanding Supporting Actress for Ritchie, Outstanding Directing for a Drama Series for Kusama, and Outstanding Drama Series. Nickerson and Lyle are hard at work on the season two script, and while they can’t say much about what fans can expect, they did say there are a few surprises in store.

“We talked about the second season of the desert story being its first winter,” says Lyle. “And every challenge you can imagine comes with it. I think we call it the winter of your discontent. And so with today’s story, you know that some holes have been dug and that’s going to be a problem. I think we’re strictly implying that a new person might come back. Perhaps we are seeing a new dynamic and another survivor could be back in the mix. “

This edition of THR Presents is sponsored by Showtime.