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‘Yellowjackets’ Stars Melanie Lynskey and Sophie Nélisse on Feeling ‘Relaxed’ in Dark Shauna and Pushing Back Against Double Standards: ‘People Delight in Men as Villains’

Melanie Lynskey and Sophie Nélisse reflect on Dark Shauna on "Yellowjackets" and the double standards with male villains.

The first time they ever met, Melanie Lynskey and Sophie Nélisse immediately agreed that Shauna, the character they both play (at different ages) on Showtime’s “ Yellowjackets,” was anything but the wallflower housewife audiences see at first. Unlike Misty (Christina Ricci and Samantha Hanratty), who has always been too inquisitive for her own good, or Tai (Tawny Cypress and Jasmin Savoy Brown), who has been battling a deep-seeded darkness since her time in the wild, Shauna has had to shed her initial characterization as the flawed but relatable grounding pole of the survivors and transform in front of the audience into a far more troubled soul warped by experience. But after her attack on adult Melissa (Swank), Shauna’s husband Jeff (Warren Kole) and their daughter Callie (Sarah Desjardins) flee her reign of terror.

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