The Big Picture

Collider’s Steve Weintraub talks with Fallout stars Ella Purnell and Aaron Moten about their new Prime Video series.
Purnell and Moten talk bloody behind-the-scenes, practical effects, filming on location, and a potential Season 2.
They also discuss Lucy’s transformation throughout the show and who Purnell is voicing in Robert Kirkman’s
Invincible
series.

The countdown to Prime Video’s Fallout series has begun. As we prepare to leave Vault 33 and venture out into the Wasteland with Ella Purnell’s (Yellowjackets) Lucy, Collider’s Steve Weintraub had the opportunity to speak with Purnell and Aaron Moten (Disjointed). The stars talk about their experience on set with executive producer and director Jonathan Nolan (Westworld), how they prepped for bruises, scrapes, and blood, and the potential for Season 2.

From writers and showrunners Graham Wagner (Portlandia) and Geneva Robertson-Dworet (Captain Marvel), Fallout expands the post-apocalyptic, futuristic universe from the video games to the Golden Coast. The show will explore the world through the perspectives of Lucy the vault dweller (Purnell), Maximus, a member of the Brotherhood of Steel (Moten), and a 200-year-old ghoul, played by Walton Goggins (Justified). It also features Kyle MacLachlan (Twin Peaks), Michael Emerson (Lost), Moises Arias (Ender’s Game), and more.

Check out the full conversation in the video above, or you can read the transcript below for more on Purnell and Moten’s expectations for a Season 2, their first thoughts when they read the Fallout scripts, and how they prepare for shooting. They also talk about filming on location, practical effects, and Purnell comments on Lucy’s transformation in Season 1 and what role she’s voicing on Prime Video’s other series, Robert Kirkman’s Invincible.

Fallout In a future, post-apocalyptic Los Angeles brought about by nuclear decimation, citizens must live in underground bunkers to protect themselves from radiation, mutants and bandits.Release Date April 11, 2024 Main Genre Sci-Fi Seasons 1 Creator(s) Graham Wagner , Geneva Robertson-Dworet Streaming Service(s) Prime Video

COLLIDER: This time I’ve seen the first four episodes, so now I can say how good the show is. My one complaint is that I don’t have Episodes 5 through 8.

ELLA PURNELL: Hey, that’s my complaint too. Join the club. Get in line.

Have you guys not seen the last four?

PURNELL: No. We’ve seen what you’ve seen.

AARON MOTEN: If you find them, let us know.

You know what that tells me? It tells me that they’re still fine-tuning the last four.

MOTEN: I don’t know. They’re withholding.

PURNELL: It tells me that they’re really good because they’re trying to keep them close to their chest.

Who Does Ella Purnell Voice in ‘Invincible’?
Image via Prime Video

Listen, I’ve got a ton of questions about Fallout, but I’ve got a quick question for you first, Ella. Who exactly are you voicing in Invincible?

PURNELL: Oh, I didn’t know that was out.

It’s not out yet. I think you must be in the finale.

PURNELL: You know what? It’s a little cameo role. I don’t think I can say anymore than that. It’s not for very long. It’s a little callback to a Season 1 bit. It’s a little Easter egg. I don’t know if anyone will even notice, but I don’t know. We’ll see!

MOTEN: They won’t notice? You don’t think they’ll notice you?

PURNELL: No, I don’t know. I’ll have to see. I can’t quite remember. I also did that during Fallout, I think. On a Sunday.

MOTEN: Really? This girl works.

One of the things about this show is it has movie-style set pieces. It’s basically a movie except in an eight-episode series. As you were reading the scripts, were you like, “There’s no way we’re actually doing this because this is crazy, what’s on the page?”

PURNELL: Yes.

MOTEN: Yeah, I mean, the question was always, like, “How? How are we gonna do this?”

PURNELL: I feel like I felt that every single day. Every episode, I would finish and be like, “I don’t know. I don’t know how we’re gonna do it.” And then it would just somehow miraculously come together.

MOTEN: It was such an amazing group of collaborators to work with, from Jonah and Howard Cummings, and Graham [Wagner] and Geneva [Robertson-Dworet]. It felt like a lot of times they were stacking those dominoes up for us to come and knock them down. And it was like, “Oh, so I guess the way we’re getting it is, like, there’s nothing for me to do but to do it.”

PURNELL: That’s exactly the right feeling. Sometimes you would read a scene or a moment, and sometimes as an actor you can plan, and sometimes you’ve just got to jump, and you have no idea. And it felt like that for me. Like, “I’ve never done this before, and I have no idea how to do it.” And you just get on with it, and it happened somehow.

Ella Purnell Talks Lucy’s Transformation in ‘Fallout’
Image by Jefferson Chacon

Ella, this is for you. Do you think Lucy realizes that who she was when she left the vault, she can’t go back to that version of Lucy? Like, it’s gone.

PURNELL: I think that’s a really interesting point, and I actually think people don’t mark the changes that they go through in the way that they transform in real time. I think it always happens at a period of reflection, right? Like, you don’t notice how much you’re growing and changing. I think that Lucy probably has no idea for a little bit too long, certainly longer than the audience will realize. I think she holds on to her vault ideals and moral compass and her identity, really the only identity she’s ever known. She never could perceive of anything outside of what she was raised with. You don’t know what you don’t know. So, I think, actually, maybe she doesn’t realize that. At least not before the audience does.

Surviving the Wasteland in ‘Fallout’
“Our show is so wild.”

For both of you, you get to either have blood on you or black and blue marks or cuts. As actors, do you relish having that kind of physical transformation, or is it sort of like after three or four days, you’re like, “My god, this is itchy?”

PURNELL: [Laughs] What about you? You had a few.

MOTEN: Yeah, I had a lot of scrapey-scrapes, right? I think I relish them as an actor. I think it’s a way to always, also, track that development a little bit. Also, when you don’t shoot things sequentially, certainly, these things also become the key markers to remind me, like, “This is where I am at this point in the story.” Because we might have to jump all around the place because of a specific location that we need to shoot two scenes in, or however the schedule works itself out. But I relish them. Yes, by the end of the day, I’m like, “This thing is itchy, get it off of me,” but I do think that it’s such a fun part of the job for me.

PURNELL: I’m with you on that.

This is not a spoiler, but you have some costume changes, if you will, some blood, some stuff. What was that like for you?

PURNELL: I personally like it. I think it adds so much, in a way. You actually have to do less, and it becomes more about the way you carry yourself. Those physical marks, they act in place of the emotional damage sometimes. You don’t have to do as much. By the end of Episode 3 or 4, let’s say 4, she’s really quite different from how she was when she left the vault, and I love that. [Laughs] I also love just getting a little bit beaten up and rough around the edges. It’s hard to maintain a clean look and a clean mentality. But getting to be starved and dehydrated with radiation poisoning, and covered in blood, and whatever it is that you go through in the Wastelands…

MOTEN: [Laughs] Just hearing her list that out, our show is so wild. You know what I mean? Fallout is so crazy.

Again, that’s why I’d like to have Episodes 5 through 8 right now. Just throwing that out there to anyone from Prime Video.

PURNELL: If anyone’s listening, so would we.

MOTEN: Can they hear us?

9:39 Related ‘Fallout’ Season 2 Is Ready To Go If Prime Video Renews Series, Showrunner Says Graham Wagner discusses working alongside Bethesda, the Vault 33 bible, what they couldn’t fit in Season 1, and tons more.

So, has anyone asked you to save any dates later this year for potential filming? I’m digging for Season 2 information.

PURNELL: No, they haven’t asked me. Have they asked you?

MOTEN: Save dates? No. They keep trying to kick me out of this country. It’s weird. I keep having to buy my own way to get here to talk to you. [Laughs] I’m kidding.

PURNELL: That’s not true. He’s a liar.

MOTEN: No, we haven’t gotten anything like that. We’re so excited, though, just to premiere this thing. I keep waking up happier and happier because, again, I really enjoyed those first four, and I can’t wait to share this whole series with people. I keep my family and my friends in the dark. I don’t tell them anything. I just say things like, “Just wait. Just wait and see.”

I would be very, very surprised if this doesn’t get a second season. It’s very, very well done. There’s no doubt fans are gonna dig this. Speaking of fans, what do you think soon-to-be fans of Fallout, of this series, would be surprised to learn about the actual making of the show?

PURNELL: I think they would be surprised by how much of it is real, practical, or rather how little of it was green screen even. I don’t know if you’ve heard, but we went to Namibia and shot in Namibia, which was crazy. So, that moment where Lucy comes out of the vault, and you see the California PCH coastline, that’s actually the Namibian coastline, but you would never know because they actually look so similar. That’s real.

MOTEN: Yeah, the suit. There’s so many practical, real elements in the show. Jonathan Nolan will be the first to tell you that he learned to make films that way. It’s part of his DNA as a filmmaker, is a practical element is easier to work with later in post than trying to build the entire thing and have your actors acting with a tennis ball.

PURNELL: It’s such a treat for us to be able to react in real time and have that experience.

MOTEN: But also, I think new fans are going to be surprised at how funny the show is. People that don’t know the tone of Fallout are going to be like, “Wait, this isn’t like the other post-apocalyptic show I watched.” You know what I mean? It’s clever and really fun and exciting, so I think that’s really going to grab them, as well.

How to Survive on the Set of ‘Fallout’
Image via Prime Video

When making the first season of a show, you’re learning about how to make the show, how to do the stunts, how many days we need to film an episode. What did you both learn about the making of this show, and, as actors, the marathon it takes to make something like this that you will apply if you get to make a Season 2?

PURNELL: I think, for me, it has something to do with endurance and taking care of yourself and the people around you, and pacing yourself. This is kind of a boring, practical answer, but I do think it’s important, and Aaron brought up earlier, which I think is crucial, is you have to stretch before you do stunts, otherwise you can’t do stunts tomorrow because you won’t be able to walk. You’ve got to warm up. The same with, like, if you’re filming inside a studio — take vitamin D. There’s things that you need to do to prepare yourself. For me, I love research, and that’s something that I’m really glad I didn’t skimp out on in Season 1 is working with a dialect coach, learning my lines weeks in advance, researching by playing the game. Stuff like that I think I would carry on to not only a potential Season 2, if there was to be one, but future projects, as well.

MOTEN: And I do think that all of those things make us both really excited that if we did get that announcement, we would be ready to hit the ground running. We’d be so excited.

PURNELL: Bring it on!

Fallout Season 1 is available to stream only on Prime Video.

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