Christina Ricci attends the global premiere of Paramount+ with Showtime Original Series Yellowjackets Season 3 at DGA Theater Complex on Feb. 13, in Los Angeles.Frazer Harrison/Getty Images
An actual fire burned down the survivors’ shelter in the final moments of Yellowjackets’ second season – but a figurative fire has been fuelling scenes from the moment viewers met the stranded teen girls and their traumatized adult counterparts, says series star Christina Ricci.
In both the show’s past and present storylines, the show’s female characters break free of traditional and idealized archetypes. As teens, the girls did unspeakable things to survive a plane crash in the Canadian wilderness. As adults, they carry around the weight of their actions. None of these women do what’s expected of them, and their actions aren’t oversimplified or moralized.
Ricci believes audiences relate to that dark emotional territory, particularly in a world where women are experiencing real-life feelings of hopelessness and antagonism every time they tune in to the news.
“I can’t imagine how cathartic it is to turn on a show where people are acting out that rage,” Ricci tells The Globe and Mail. “These 40-year-old women are literally burning it all down because of what they’ve been through in their lives.”
In the third season of Yellowjackets, which releases new episodes weekly on Crave, Ricci’s Misty character is channelling that rage and trauma in the wake of a friend’s death, for which she blames herself. Trying to process those feelings in a “traditional” way after a traumatic upbringing is a large part of the character’s journey, the actress says. She shares that at the time of filming she was mourning her dog, but felt she didn’t register her emotions the way society expected. So she saw Missy’s scenes as another opportunity to explore complicated and trope-breaking female feelings in a way not previously shown on television.
Ricci suggests that the adult friendships on Yellowjackets are the product of trauma bonding. But while Shauna (Melanie Lynskey), Taissa (Tawny Cypress) and Van (Lauren Ambrose) have reunited to figure out whether the supernatural “Wilderness” has returned for them in adulthood, Misty remains an outsider, just as she was as a teen. Those complicated dynamics add another layer to the idea that fully formed women aren’t just one thing, and that it can be hard to escape the labels of your past.
“Having women who are allowed to be their full selves without shying away from it or judging the behaviour is helpful for women or anybody else who’s been oppressed and marginalized,” she says. “Nobody’s winking like, ‘We know it’s a woman,’ or making a big deal out of that. The casualness of it is incredibly helpful.”
Ricci reveals she took the role based on the pilot episode, which contained a scene of elder abuse involving her character. It was unlike any other depiction she’d seen, because Misty wasn’t malicious. The abuse resulted from layers of her own experiences and traumas, and revealed a deeper power struggle within.
“She’s not a character who went in there as a sadist,” Ricci says of the scene. “She went in there very nicely and she automatically felt deeply rejected. She’s too immature, too impulsive, too out of control, so it was too easy for her to attack.”
Misty’s constant outsider status continues to resonate with the actress.
”I have a lot of trouble relating to people,” she says. “I relate to feeling not completely accepted.”
In previous interviews, she’s opened up about her past as a child actor and how she chose not to discuss her work at school, for fear of becoming an outcast. As a result, she felt as though she was living two lives before the age of 10.
Even today, she isn’t one to contribute her real thoughts or feelings when in a group, she adds, and prefers instead to hang back.
At press time, a fourth instalment of Yellowjackets hadn’t been confirmed, but it’s a likely bet the show will continue for the creators’ planned five seasons. With 10 Emmy nominations (including one for Ricci in a supporting role) and constant social media chatter and theorizing, the show has clearly struck a chord with audiences.
As Ricci puts it, viewers can connect with the series in multiple ways. Some are into the show’s supernatural elements; others lean more into the psychological drama of being stranded in the wild and forced into becoming the least socially acceptable version of yourself.
“It’s this idea that sometimes is explored in Stephen King books, where you question whether it’s supernatural – or is it incredibly human and a manifestation of your most extreme emotions and anxieties and fears and hates?” she says. “Are the monsters just our ugliest emotions? The more emotionally active a person is, the more they’re going to experience those supernatural things, certainly on our show.”
