‘Yellowjackets’ Star Melanie Lynskey on Shauna’s Growth in Season 3: She’s ‘Relaxing into Herself’

For Melanie Lynskey, playing cannibalistic crash survivor Shauna Shipman on “Yellowjackets” is about walking the line between comedy and drama.

“You look at my character, and she’s imbued with the history of the past,” Lynskey told Variety. “She’s been through so much. She found out she was pregnant, then had this horrible loss.” While Shauna has endured more than her share of trauma, Lynskey enjoyed the character’s more lighthearted moments in Season 3, especially in the 1990s-era storyline in which Sophie Nélisse plays a young Shauna.

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“Shauna’s relaxing into herself,” Lynskey explained. “There’s not a lot of time for being very jokey. So it’s nice to start bringing in more scenes where Sophie is allowed to be a little funnier. She’s very funny.”

As for Shauna’s approach to parenting Callie (Sarah Desjardins), Lynskey says Shauna isn’t particularly concerned with her daughter’s increasingly violent tendencies. “Many things don’t seem like a big deal to Shauna. She’s like ‘I understand that it’s not great, but also, coulda been worse.’ She doesn’t want to punish punish her.”

Desjardins says Callie is just eager to connect to her mother in any way she can, which is why she begins wearing Jackie’s (Ella Purnell) necklace in the present day. “It’s knowing how close Jackie and Shauna were. There’s a fascination there because Callie is longing for that closeness with Shauna herself,” Desjardins explained. “The writers play with these moments where elements of Callie purposefully remind Shauna of Jackie. Callie’s yearning and looking for ways to be close to her mom.”

Another Yellowjacket yearning for acceptance is Misty Quigley, who continues to be an outcast in the wilderness despite her survival skills. According to Samantha Hanratty, who plays the 1990s version of the character, Misty would rather the whole team like her than make one true friend.

“She’d want the approval of the whole group, unfortunately. At least where she’s at in her teenage years. Maybe as she gets older, she’d pick Natalie [Sophie Thatcher]. They have an invisible tie to each other,” Hanratty said. “Where she’s at in her teenage years, she just wants everybody to like her. And not just like her, but need her.”

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