Christina Ricci On SHOWTIME's 'Yellowjackets': 'I Like The Idea That These Women Aren't Likable Or Good People'
(ViacomCBS) - SHOWTIME welcomes a new comer to its Sunday night lineup on November 14th with the premiere of Yellowjackets. This coming-of-age/survival epic/psychological horror tells the story of a talented high school girls' soccer team who is involved in a plane crash and forced to survive on their own in the wilderness. Throughout Yellowjackets viewers will watch as this once unified team devolves into separate savage clans fighting for survival while also tracking the fall out from those events 25 years later.
CBS' Matt Weiss spoke to Christina Ricci who plays the adult version of one of the girls involved in the crash ahead of Sunday night's premiere.
MW: Christina, good to see you today. How are you?
CR: Good to see ya, I'm good thanks. How are you doing?
MW: Doing well over here, excited for Yellowjackets coming to SHOWTIME on November 14th and this must feel like the end of such a long road with the show being casted two years ago at this point, how excited are you the first episode to finally drop?
CR: I'm really excited, I think we're all really excited. It was a very long time between the pilot and them actually picking up the show and it going to series. We shot for six, seven months and now we'll finally see all that and I'm really excited to see how people respond to it. I think I think it's going to be great.
MW: You're playing Misty, introduce us to who she is...
CR: What I like about Misty is that mystery that follows her. She has her own set of rules. She's somebody who's a very extreme character, but really is grounded and has a trackable kind of journey. You can sort of see where everything went wrong in many ways.
I like that she is a character who follows her own rules. I like that she's not necessarily a character who relies on anyone relating to her. She doesn't need to be likable and that was really fun to play.
MW: And another neat thing is you're sharing her Samantha Hanratty who plays the teenage version of Misty. What was it like working with her and tag teaming this character?
CR: It was great. She and I met originally before the shooting to sort of discuss the character and to establish ground rules for the character. We laid a lot of ground rules then that made playing her work really well.
MW: What was it about Yellowjackets that really brought you in initially and made you want to be a part of this? Was it the role or the concept?
CR: I really like the concept of the show. A show like this would traditionally be occupied by men and 10 to 15 years ago, this would be a show about boys. I like the idea that these women aren't likable or good people. I love that we have an entire female cast, where that is the case.
MW: You do have a very strong cast here, how was it being on set with everyone?
CR: It was great, it was really great. All the older actresses got together and communicated and discussed scripts and character issues and took advice from each other. It was really wonderful to have that sort of collaboration and ability to just depend on each other and share that camaraderie.
MW: November 14th is right around the corner at this point, so what are you most excited about for people to see when they can finally get their eyes on this show?
CR: I'm excited to see what people think and I'm excited to see how people react; I hope people love it. I think it should be really fun. It's a fun show and every episode seems to get better than the last. I've seen the first three and I'm really excited to see the rest of them.
MW: Very cool. Real quick before I let you go, I want to put you on the spot here to sum up Yellowjackets in three words...
CR: I would say it's tense, fun and scary.
MW: Perfect, well there you have it. Thank you so much for the time today Christina and all the best with the show!
CR: Thank you so much. Have a good day!
Yellowjackets premiere Sunday, November 14th at 10:00PM ET/PT on SHOWTIME. Check your local listings for more information.