LEILA FADEL, HOST:
Season 3 of "Yellowjackets" starts streaming tomorrow, and fans have waited nearly two years. So it begins with a recap, as told by some of its characters. A plane transporting a high school girls' soccer team crashed in a remote wilderness.
(SOUNDBITE OF TV SHOW, "YELLOWJACKETS")
LIV HEWSON: (As teenage Van Palmer) They survived hunger. They survived blizzards.
FADEL: Stranded for months, their survival became the fodder for stories that may or may not be true.
(SOUNDBITE OF TV SHOW, "YELLOWJACKETS")
SOPHIE NELISSE: (As teenage Shauna Shipman) They worshipped evil spirits, and they hunted their friends, and they feasted on their flesh, and they liked it.
FADEL: "Yellowjackets" is unnerving, told from multiple vantage points - those of the high schoolers and those who survived into adulthood. I spoke with two of the actors playing adults. Tawny Cypress is Taissa, and Lauren Ambrose plays Van. Their characters shared a romance in their teenage years, then they separated after returning to civilization. And as adults, they discover each other again, and that love is rekindled. But what drove them apart is never fully explained. Actually, a lot of what happened in the wilderness is yet to be explained. That's where I started with Tawny Cypress.
I want to know about how much you all know about what's going on. Are you getting your scripts? Like, do you get the full season when you start?
TAWNY CYPRESS: No. Sometimes we have to beg them for scripts. We're like, please, we start filming in two days.
(LAUGHTER)
FADEL: So with not really knowing where it's going, how do you play the character? I mean, because you're playing these complicated people dealing with trauma you've all been through and are manifesting really differently. But you also don't know exactly what's going on either. So how do you play the character that way? Tawny, maybe we start with you.
CYPRESS: Yeah, I mean, it's television, you know?
FADEL: Right.
CYPRESS: It's like water. You have to be able to go with the motion of the ocean. You know the character, and then whatever gets thrown at you is really, like, a puzzle that you sort of fit into this character that you've already built.
FADEL: Lauren?
LAUREN AMBROSE: Yeah, you know, you just play the scene, really. That's what I've learned...
FADEL: Yeah.
AMBROSE: ...In all these years is that you play the scene together. And usually, if there's a mystery, the answer lies in your scene partner's eyes. And you just - we find our way together.
FADEL: And you two are so incredible together and so different in how they deal with trauma. Tawny, your character is a little terrifying in my opinion (laughter).
CYPRESS: Thank you. She's so selfish. It's ridiculous. I can't believe it.
FADEL: (Laughter).
CYPRESS: I would hate this woman. She would definitely not be my friend.
FADEL: Is it fun to play somebody that you would hate?
CYPRESS: Oh, hell yeah.
FADEL: (Laughter).
CYPRESS: Oh, my God. Honestly, she's so narcissistic. Everything she does, even when it seems loving, it's always for her. And it's fun to be selfish like that, for sure.
FADEL: Now, Lauren, Van, the character you play, really deals with her trauma very differently. And you've been estranged with Tawny's character, Taissa, for years, and you come back together. Can you talk about that coming back together and how your character deals with trauma in a totally different way?
AMBROSE: Yeah, I think the years have sort of worn on Van and just a lot of pain and sadness there. There's this beautiful scene in the first season, which I wasn't - when I wasn't yet on the show, and Taissa and Van come to the - the kids throw themselves, like, a homecoming dance, and they - they're each other's date. And the rest of the soccer team receives them with joy and cheers for them. And I remember watching it and thinking, wow, like, that wouldn't necessarily happen in their high school in the '90s. But somehow, out there in the wilderness, they can be this true expression of themselves, of their sexuality. And then what happened when they got back and have to leave that freedom that they found out there? And what kind of hurt that causes and what that then does to a person.
FADEL: Taissa is kind of relishing this return to the past that sort of starts, and Van is terrified of it. What draws the two characters together despite these two very different feelings about going back or looking back?
AMBROSE: I mean, they're meant to be. They're - these two women are just cosmically connected across time and space. They hold secrets and the truth for each other.
FADEL: The thing that's so unique about the show is the way it balances these really dark plotlines with real humor. How do you find that balance? Let's start with you, Tawny.
CYPRESS: Oh, gosh, I don't think my character's very funny.
FADEL: (Laughter) No.
CYPRESS: I don't get hired for comedy, unfortunately. I would love to. I think I'm funny, but apparently I am not.
FADEL: And Lauren?
AMBROSE: I can attest that Tawny is indeed very funny.
CYPRESS: (Laughter).
AMBROSE: Yeah, no, I think Van is a really fun character. It's been really fun - witty quips. But, you know, yeah, the show can be so dark and weird and gross. And so it's nice to have the levity of that, for sure.
FADEL: Speaking of which, it drops on Valentine's Day, which - you know, nothing says love like cannibalism, cults, dark forces (laughter). What do you think of the choice to drop it on that day?
CYPRESS: It's fitting.
AMBROSE: Especially for our little storyline, right, Tawny?
CYPRESS: Yes. That's what I'm thinking.
AMBROSE: There's this little love story at the heart of it.
FADEL: I've never seen - especially a women cast like this. Like, it makes you think of "Lord Of The Flies" but with women and totally different outcomes.
CYPRESS: I've spent 25 years playing, you know, these one-dimensional women who spit two paragraphs of exposition and with zero heart behind anything. I never thought I'd get to play a character like this, and I never thought I'd get on a show with women like this. Like, it's a dream come true.
FADEL: So how do you responsibly tease what's about to happen to your characters without giving away the plotline? Like, what do you want people to know?
CYPRESS: (Laughter) I think me and Lauren set out to give a beautiful love story, and I hope that that comes across. And also, there's this one moment or two moments that will make people cry and throw up at the same time.
FADEL: (Laughter) That was Tawny Cypress, who plays Taissa, and Lauren Ambrose, who plays Van on the show "Yellowjackets." Season 3 begins Friday - Paramount Plus and Showtime. Thank you both so much.
CYPRESS: Thank you.
AMBROSE: Thank you, Leila.
(SOUNDBITE OF SONG, "NO RETURN")
CRAIG WEDREN AND ANNA WARONKER: (Singing) It was cool. Nothing fire. Nothing broke. Transcript provided by NPR, Copyright NPR.
NPR transcripts are created on a rush deadline by an NPR contractor. This text may not be in its final form and may be updated or revised in the future. Accuracy and availability may vary. The authoritative record of NPR’s programming is the audio record.
