Yellowjackets Star Sophie Nélisse Opens Up About That Harrowing Birth Scene
Warning: Spoilers for the latest episode of Yellowjackets beyond this point! With just a few episodes remaining in Season 2 of Showtime's hit series Yellowjackets, fans finally got the answer to one of the drama's biggest questions this week: what happened to Shauna's baby? The episode "Qui" saw Shauna give birth, but it wasn't without issues. There were serious complications and while the episode made it seem like Shauna and her newborn son both managed to survive despite those challenges (though not without a horrifying twist), the end of the episode revealed it was all a dream. Shauna did survive, but her newborn son did not.
The episode is an emotional and difficult one to watch, but it was also difficult for the stars who play the young crash survivors. In particular, Sophie Nélisse had a particularly challenging role of portraying Shauna during her difficult labor and delivery and for Nelisse spoke with EW about the harrowing scene, calling it both emotionally and physically draining.
"It's been emotionally and physically draining," she said. "Liz [Garbus, director] directed Handmaid's Tale and so she sent me a bunch of clips from that. Also, I've talked to as many women as possible about their birthing experience. I just tried to get as many life stories as possible, even from my mom. And of course, Shauna's put in such a specific position where it's scarier and they don't have doctors and they don't know what they're doing."
Shauna's traumatic birth experience has major impact on the adult version of the character.
According to Melanie Lynskey, who plays the adult version of Shauna, that experience in the wilderness has a major impact on adult Shauna as well.
"Having a baby in that environment, losing the baby, and then also being forced to be stuck in the wilderness for however many months after that — it's not like you get to cry and take care of yourself, you're still fighting for survival — it's just the worst possible thing you can imagine," Lynskey told RadioTimes.
She continued, "It's really informed her. I think she's been forced to ask herself a lot of questions this season about whether she's a good mother. She didn't want to have a child. She never, ever, ever wanted to put herself in that position again. And I don't know if it was that she didn't want to have to explain to Jeff what had happened, so she just ended up going along with it and having Callie, but it's really tricky because not only was she ambivalent about motherhood, but the act of being pregnant and of giving birth would have been incredibly traumatic. So, how much of yourself do you shut off after that? And I think even love is difficult for her, trusting this little thing you just gave birth to is going to be okay. I think the whole thing has been incredibly complicated and so she's been pushing everybody away for a long time."
New episodes of Yellowjackets hit the Showtime app on Fridays and new episodes air on Showtime on Sundays.