Christina Ricci Shares Why Starring in 'Yellowjackets' Is Unlike Any Other Project She’s Ever Done

If you’re a fan of Yellowjackets, then you know that the show is quite unique. In addition to having two distinct time periods, a collection of unpredictable characters, and mysteries that’ll have any viewers’ heads spinning, the show also has an impressive cast of female actresses.

Alongside Christina Ricci as the older version of Misty, for example, stars of the show include Melanie Lynskey, Juliette Lewis, Tawny Cypress, Sophie Nélisse, Sophie Thatcher, and many more.

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For those unfamiliar, Yellowjackets is an intense drama series that follows a high school girls’ soccer team that suffers a plane crash and gets stranded in the woods in the ’90s, forced to survive and potentially revert to cannibalism. The flash-back, flash-forward series also focuses on the adult survivors who made it out of the woods alive, wrapped up in the mysteries that followed them beyond the wilderness.

Christina Ricci’s experience filming Yellowjackets has been unique.

Talking to SheKnows about the show, Ricci, who also guest stars in this season of Hollywood Houselift, admitted that the female-led cast makes the experience of filming the show unlike any other. “I’ve never worked with so many women at one time,” she says.

In addition to being a mostly female cast, the actresses are also at a similar point in their lives. “I think it’s really special and different to be in our 40s,” she says. “We spent so many days and nights just together the four or five of us and it really is special to be working with a group of women [in] the same age as me at this time in all of our lives.”

As a result, the co-stars have bonded more than ever before. “We’re not having crazy emotional drama, we’re not competitive in the way that sometimes you can be when you’re young cuz we’re all kind of settled and a little bit more secure,” Ricci says. “And so we’re kind of able to just have fun and really bond.”

Ricci and co-star Tawny Cypress, who plays the older version of Taissa on the show, have also become “really close” friends. “I don’t know that I’ve ever had that in a work environment before,” Ricci reflects. “Like someone who’s just a really, really close friend, you know?”

YELLOWJACKETS, from left: Lauren Ambrose, Simone Kessell, Tawny Cypress, Juliette Lewis, Christina Ricci, 'It Chooses', (Season 2, ep. 208, aired May 21, 2023). photo: Kailey Schwerman / ©Showtime / Courtesy Everett Collection
YELLOWJACKETS, from left: Lauren Ambrose, Simone Kessell, Tawny Cypress, Juliette Lewis, Christina Ricci, 'It Chooses', (Season 2, ep. 208, aired May 21, 2023). photo: Kailey Schwerman / ?Showtime / Courtesy Everett Collection

 

As for what viewers can expect from Ricci’s character Misty in the upcoming third season, which is currently in pre-production, the actress is keeping her mind open for possibilities.

“This show is specifically different than any other project I’ve worked on in that I don’t really have any say over the character or in this situation,” Ricci explains. “Everything she does in this new season will depend on how this character reacts to trauma and guilt and all of those things and that’s not a choice that I get to make.”

So, just like viewers, Ricci is also waiting to hear what the writers have in store. “I really have to wait and see what decision the writers make in terms of how this character reacts to this stuff,” she says. “And then I can figure out my way through that and my way of grounding it in emotion and all those things. So I can’t even really think about [Misty’s future] because I don’t want to get attached to any of my own ideas should they be in conflict with the writers, you know what I mean? I have to approach it very open-mindedly.”

Regardless of what the writers come up with next, we can’t wait to watch!

Before you go, click here to see our favorite movies and TV shows about imperfect, complicated women. 

Phoebe Waller-Bridge in 'Fleabag'
Phoebe Waller-Bridge in 'Fleabag'

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