Juliette Lewis‘ absence was definitely felt on the set of Yellowjackets after Natalie’s onscreen death.
During the Yellowjackets premiere on Thursday, February 13, Us Weekly exclusively spoke with cast members of the hit Showtime series about returning for season 3 after Lewis’ surprising departure.
“It was terrible,” Simone Kessell, who plays adult Lottie, admitted about reprising her role alongside the other stars from the present day timeline. “It was really a shame — not so much for Lottie this season but the other [characters] talk about it.”
Kessell, 49, personally missed spending time with Lewis, adding, “Her and I are mates. It was just about missing her. She’s kind of one of a kind. She’s magnificent.”
The Showtime series, which premiered in 2021, follows a high school girls soccer team that ends up stranded in the Canadian wilderness after a plane crash. The survivors don’t return home for 19 months during which time they are driven to eating each other in order to survive. Yellowjackets also features a present day timeline that reintroduces the survivors more than two decades later.
Season 3, which premiered on Friday, February 14, picked up shortly after young Natalie (Sophie Thatcher) took over for Lottie (Courtney Eaton) as the leader of the group during their time in the woods. After the teens ate Javi (Luciano Leroux) as a group, they woke up to a fire started by Coach Ben (Steven Krueger) that burned down their cabin.
Meanwhile, in the present timeline, Lottie (Kessell) convinced the others they needed to choose a sacrifice. Lisa (Nicole Maines) accidentally got in the middle of the ritual, which caused Misty (Christina Ricci) to try and poison her. Natalie (Lewis), however, stepped in to defend Lisa and was killed off in the last minutes of the finale.
“I am beyond moved by the appreciation of my work on @yellowjackets,” Lewis, 51, wrote via Instagram in May 2023 after the season 2 finale. “I believe this team can literally do and write anything, the chemistry and exquisite talent of this phenomenal — ever-growing — cast is something I will always marvel at. You all have my heart. ❤️ Until we meet again.”
Warning: This story contains spoilers about the plot of Yellowjackets season 2. The twists keep on coming. After introducing some major obstacles in the past and present timelines, Yellowjackets wrapped up season 2 with a shocking death. In the 1996 timeline, Lottie (Courtney Eaton) steps down as the leader of the group and hands over […]
While reflecting on the differences in the new installment, Kessell discussed being on a show where there’s a younger counterpart for many of the main characters.
“It’s interesting because we don’t get to work together. There are younger versions of ourselves and then the older characters but it’s very separate. It takes two different shoots,” she explained. “That’s why I’m always so excited when I see the younger versions here. We’re all very close [with the adult cast though]. Melanie [Lynskey] is my girl and we have become incredibly close.”
She continued: “When you’re playing trauma at that level and portraying women who have been through the worst scenarios in life, you really become close. That’s what brings us close because we’re not dealing with day to day, we’re dealing with the highest stakes possible in television. That’s what people love about this show.”
Kessell’s counterpart, Courtney Eaton, gushed to Us about getting to “work with icons,” saying, “The thing that I’ve learned from the set is from Melanie. It is all about how she carries herself and how she’s so kind to everyone. She’s there to do the work. When I grow up, I want to be Melanie.”
Samantha Hanratty, who has played the younger version of Christina Ricci‘s Misty since Yellowjackets premiered, feels the same way.
“We’re so fortunate to be in a position where we’re working with such incredible people. The writers are also giving us incredible work and they just completely co-exist together,” she noted. “We are different from our adult versions in the sense that they’ve grown up in the future. But in the past, Misty is just learning to manipulate. She’s just learning her power whereas I feel like she’s really cultivated it in the future. I am really excited to see what Christina did this season because it’s amazing. She did a beautiful job this season.”
With reporting by Amanda Williams
