This article contains spoilers for “Yellowjackets” Season 3, Episode 8
In this week’s episode of “Yellowjackets,” we finally meet Hilary Swank’s character. As several fans had already guessed, she plays adult Melissa, although that reveal was harder to suss out once we learned her fellow survivors thought she was dead.
Instead, she had started a new life under a new name. Shauna (Melanie Lynskey) manages to track her down and is stunned to learn that Melissa (now called Kelly), is married to Hannah’s daughter, who, naturally, has no idea of her real identity.
TheWrap spoke with her about signing on for the show even though, as she told us it “was too violent for my taste,” when it first debuted. She also addressed that “crazy” fight where Shauna takes a bite out of her arm and tries to get her to eat her own flesh. “When she sees everybody again, everything is retriggered for her and once that happens, the floodgates open, and it all comes rushing back,” the Oscar-winning actress said. Here is more of our interview with Swank:
TheWrap: Were you already watching the show?
Hilary Swank: I had watched the pilot, but it was too violent for my taste. That stuff lives with me for a long time, so I didn’t watch a lot of it. But I have a lot of friends who love it. And obviously there’s a huge audience for it. It’s a critical success, and after having a conversation with the creators, I was very intrigued to be a part of it, and thought, this is going to be a blast. I love the psychological aspect of it.
She has been living a secret life and is in a very complicated relationship.
Yeah, to say the least. And she thinks it’s completely normal. It shows how deep these characters’ wounds run. They’re so young when it happens. It’s a terrible time, and no one would ever want to go through any of it, but if you did, a big part of who you are would have already been developed. And they’re still in that real, vulnerable place.
You have this really intense physical fight with Melanie Lynskey. Can you talk about blocking that out? And then her biting you?
Yeah, yeah, it is crazy. But that’s also a really good example of how emotionally stunted they are the moment that trauma hits because they’re acting. That’s like how 2-year-olds act. Like, “You’re not listening to my words, I’m going to bite you, and then you’ll have to listen.” It’s crazy, but when you look at their past it actually kind of makes sense.
Do you think any of this would have come up if Shauna had not showed up at her house?
I don’t know. It’s a good question. I think that she did a really good job, healing as best as she could, having separation from everybody and trying to make amends with what she did by marrying this person and loving them in a way that feels healing. When she sees everybody again, everything is retriggered for her and once that happens, the floodgates open, and it all comes rushing back.
Obviously, it was a huge secret who you were going to play. Did your friends and family want to know?
Yeah. But honestly, no one wanted a spoiler. They were like, “Tell us who you play, but don’t tell us anything else.” I didn’t want to ruin anything, and because [my character] comes up at the end, it would definitely spoil all those episodes before. I said, “If you don’t want a spoiler, then I’m not going to say anything.” And they’re like, “Okay, okay.”
Did you go back and watch the episodes in between before filming?
No, I watched some to see the younger me. When I said yes, it was only about two weeks before we started filming. By the time they offered it to me, we talked, and then negotiations happened and then I was on set. There was not a lot of prep time.
Did you meet Jenna Burgess, who plays Teen Melissa?
She came to the set, and I had some conversations with her, which is so great because she informed me of her relationships with everybody when they were younger. And I was like, “Oh, that’s how I can infuse that.” That was really helpful, obviously with Shauna, because those are the two people that I had significant scenes with.
What is your overall takeaway on what the show says about our survival instinct?
It’s an instinctual thing in all species. It’s what keeps species alive, and that’s a really interesting thing to also explore. I read this book, “Sapiens: A Brief History of Humankind,” and it talks about how we learned to survive as humans was fear. Fear is what kept us alive. Because [all the survivors are thinking], “Now we are alive, and now we are surviving. So we don’t have to hold on to that fear anymore.” But fear is a part of our DNA.
The first eight episodes of “Yellowjackets” Season 3 are now streaming on Paramount+ with Showtime. New episodes premiere on streaming on Fridays and air on Paramount with Showtime on Sundays.
