[Editor’s note: This article comes from an interview recorded in March 2023, prior to the SAG strike.]

The Big Picture

Inspired by a Misty and Crystal (Kristen) conversation in Yellowjackets Season 2, Courtney Eaton, Samantha Hanratty, and Sophie Nélisse name three famous people they’d like to have a sleepover with. Hanratty highlights the incredible work of Nuha Jes Izman. Eaton, Hanratty, and Nélisse emphasize the importance of having supportive scene partners on set.

Yellowjackets hit the ground running when it returned in March. Fans are feasting right alongside the girls in the wilderness as Season 2 introduces us to more present-day characters, and yes, the highly anticipated cannibalism. In celebration of the Season 2 premiere, Collider’s Perri Nemiroff got to sit down with Courtney Eaton, Samantha Hanratty, and Sophie Nélisse, who play Lottie, Misty, and Shauna, respectively, to discuss some early season highlights.

Season 2 picks up two months after Jackie’s (Ella Purnell) death. In the midst of a very harsh winter, tension soars and composure starts to crack. Thanks to the mushroom debacle in Season 1, the girls are back to heavily ostracizing Misty, leading her to form a new bond with fellow outcast Crystal (Nuha Jes Izman). Meanwhile, Jackie is long gone, but certainly not forgotten. Shauna spends much of her time in the freezing cold talking to her dead best friend. This behavior rubs some of the girls the wrong way, but Lottie assumes a position of spiritual leadership and insists that they let Shauna mourn.

In their interview, which you can watch in the video above or read in transcript form below, Eaton, Hanratty, and Nélisse discuss these new relationships and also emphasize the importance of having supportive scene partners when tackling challenging material. On top of that, the trio has a little fun and reveals their dream celebrity sleepover guests à la Misty and Crystal in Episode 4.

Image via Showtime

PERRI NEMIROFF: Which three famous people would you invite to your slumber party?

COURTNEY EATON: Oh my gosh. I’m bad with names. Someone else start it off. [Laughs]

SAMANTHA HANRATTY: I’ve gotten to work with her before but Viola Davis, come on over. I’d love to have a sleepover with you. Robin Williams, come on down! And Shirley Temple! Let’s have a combo.

SOPHIE NÉLISSE: Paul Mescal, and we can cuddle [Laughs].

EATON: It’s just a daddy [date].

NÉLISSE: Paul Mescal, Pedro [Pascal], and Jake Gyllenhaal. I don’t know!

Oh, it’s the daddy party, and I love it!

Courtney, can you top this?

EATON: Oh no!

NÉLISSE: She’ll be with me!

EATON: And we’ll add some extra fun ones in there.

I am all for giving that one all the points in the world.

Courtney, I’ll give you this question from Episode 1. From your perspective, what was it like playing the moment where Lottie screams before she gets on the plane? Even if you don’t know everything that’s happened in the wilderness up to that point, where for you at that moment on set is that coming from?

EATON: Pent-up emotions, sadness, I don’t know. I’m an emotional person. No, it was interesting because [showrunners] Bart [Nickerson] and Ashley [Lyle] were on set that day and I was asking where it was coming from. And at some point, I was screaming at the reporters and coming from that type of rage of, “Get out of our faces!” And then there was another one where I was screaming out into the ether, and maybe towards the wilderness. But it was daunting. It was our first day on set.

NÉLISSE: Our first scene back.

HANRATTY: We were about to go to the Emmys.

EATON: I think I’d lost my voice a little by the end of the day, but, yeah, it was daunting.

Image via Showtime

Samantha, I’ve had this in my back pocket since we last spoke; what is something about Nuha [Jes Izman] as a scene partner that you really appreciated, that maybe even helped you access something in your own character that you wouldn’t have been able to without her?

HANRATTY: Oh my gosh, she is the cutest little sweetest thing and I love her so much, and I think that the way she looks at me. Honestly, she kind of has those puppy eyes when she’s Crystal that I can’t help but be like, “Aw,” you know what I mean? I feel like I turn into a little kid when I’m playing with her, when I’m acting with her, and I think that that’s a big thing between Misty and Crystal is they are kind of like little girls hanging out.

And so, yeah, it’s not hard to fall in love with her and be really weird and goofy. There’ll be times right before the scene that she’ll be like, [imitates Izman], and I’ll be like, “Yeah!”

There are times when you’re doing things even in the background where it’s not the focus of a scene, but it’s so important to filling out the world and making all the characters feel real.

HANRATTY: And Nuha is so brilliant that she’d look at me and be like, “Okay, should we sword fight?” And I’m like, “Yeah!” You know what I mean? She’d just come up with these things where she’d be like, “Let’s hold hands in this,” and I’m like, “Oh, love that!”

EATON: She comes from a theater background, no?

HANRATTY: Yeah, yeah. She’s just freakin’ amazing. I love her so much.

Image via Showtime

I’ll throw that question to both of you now, too. Do you remember a time on set when you were having a tough time cracking a scene, but because the person you were acting opposite gave you what you needed you were able to see it through and crush it?

NÉLISSE: I don’t have any specific partner because I think the relationship with everyone is so different, but I do think it’s really interesting to see how the scene comes alive when we’re all together. Like sometimes we’ll be doing a scene and we’re like, “Something is just off, something in the rhythm, I don’t know who it is …” – not someone specifically – “I don’t know who it is, but something just doesn’t work,” and then we’ll discuss and be like, “I think we need to just amp it up, pick up the pace,” and the way that we all collaborate and unite together to make the scene work, I think that’s the most impressive, I would say.

EATON: I would say that Samantha and I had a scene later in the season that there are a bunch of things going on physically and mentally in that scene, and had some fun. And it was the first time we had really got to be one-on-one. A lot of this season is groups, and we’re starting to break off and do one-on-ones.

NÉLISSE: Sometimes it’s like the most subtle things. Like I think sometimes we’ll do a scene [where] Courtney will come and will just put her hand on my shoulder, and I’m like, “Oh,” and that gets to me. It’s like the tiny little unexpected moments that really …

EATON: Actually, I have a really good one that you didn’t even intentionally do. I think everyone on this set gives the most they can. And especially going into Season 2, we were all nervous, and I remember talking in the green room, and us being like, “We need to forget the pressure and just kind of commit to what we want to do,” and I think everyone committed so hard. And then, especially later in the season, there was a scene where Sophie almost looked like she was having a panic attack and I almost stopped the scene, but it got me to where I needed to go! [Laughs]

For even more on Yellowjackets Season 2, be sure to check out Courtney Eaton’s Collider Ladies Night episode below: