Yellowjackets Star Confirms They Almost Passed on Showtime Series

There are so many great television shows out right now, and one that has become popular unexpectedly fast is Yellowjackets. The horror/mystery/drama series only premiered on Showtime in November, but it already has a huge fan base and even got an early Season 2 renewal last month. The show follows the remaining survivors of a plane crash in the present day as well as their teenage selves living in the wilderness for 19 months in the 1990s. Some big stars who rose to fame in the ’90s play the adult versions of the girls, including Christina Ricci, Juliette Lewis, and Melanie Lynskey. During a recent interview with Collider, Lynskey revealed that she almost passed on the series. 

“Honestly, I haven’t auditioned for a while, which is lucky because I’m very bad at them. I get nervous and don’t like auditioning, so I’m very grateful that I haven’t had to do it for a while. [Laughs] I mean, I would if it was something where I needed to. I don’t have an ego about it, but this just was an offer, which was nice. I’m sure they offered it to 12 people before me. Usually, the case is that somebody’s passed on it, so thank you to that person who didn’t see how great it was. But usually, that’s the case. I’m not usually first on the list,” Lynskey explained.

She continued, “But it just came to me, I was doing Mrs. America, I had a newborn child, I was exhausted and I had to say to my agent, ‘I don’t want to work. I can’t. It’s too hard. I’m feeling like I’m going crazy.’ And she said, ‘Well, an offer just came in for a pilot. Just read it and I’ll respectfully pass.’ And then I read it and I was like, ‘Well, shit. Well, now I have to do it.’ And she was like, ‘Are you sure? You just told me you don’t want to do anything.’ And I said, ‘No, I am sure. Let me have a talk to them. If they sound like psychopaths then I’ll say no.’ But they were awesome. I talked to Ashley [Lyle] and Bart [Nickerson], the creators of the show, and Karyn Kusama who directed the pilot and Drew [Comins], one of the producers, and they just were all so great.”

The season finale of Yellowjackets drops on Showtime on January 16th.