Spoilers ahead for Yellowjackets season 3.
Yellowjackets is a pretty gay show, but season 3 got even gayer with the start of a relationship between stranded teammates Shauna, played by Sophie Nélisse, and Melissa, played by Jenna Burgess. Shauna is a tentpole of the series, whereas Melissa was one of the ensemble team members, infrequently given dialogue — until this season, when she makes an aside to Shauna, prompting her to quip, “Wait, do you, like, actually have a personality?”
Within a few episodes, the two were on a lesbian Thelma and Louise mean streak, launching, as Burgess puts it to Teen Vogue, a kind of “coup” to put Shauna at the head of the new society forming between the titular group of high school girls. And in episode 6, Shauna’s months of resentfully and vengefully taking on more and more leadership within the group, supported by a resolute and often violent Melissa, come to a head.
Below, Teen Vogue talks to Nélisse and Burgess about the surprise coupling, the big shift for Burgess’s character stepping more into the spotlight, and the fandom reaction to the pairing.
Jenna Burgess: It's interesting how she's become such a character, and how quickly she deviated from me being [part of] this background chorus, where oftentimes my thoughts were collective with a few other actors wandering around. [Now] she comes into season 3 with a very strong motive and desire that's very potent on screen. Even when that shifts into, ‘Oh, this is taking a really quick turn,’ it's very evident what she wants, but for her, it's not always evident. As an actor, it's very fun.
Sophie Nélisse: It felt very natural. I think there had been rumors or questions from the get-go with the relationship with Jackie, and a lot of people had their thoughts on Shauna’s sexuality. I think that's what I loved about her, is there was no need to confirm one or the other. Shauna is just truly so herself, and even more as the multiple seasons progress, she finally really understands who she is. It just makes so much sense.
It adds to the fact that without the social norms and without the societal pressure, these women get to be truly who they are, and that includes their sexualities. And it was fun — I knew there would be something about Shauna being gay happening at some point, I just didn't think it would be with Melissa. That’s what was more shocking or out of left wing for me. And like Jenna said, her character came out of this core ensemble of backgrounds, but their chemistry is so immediate and intense. I think Shauna sees a lot of herself in Melissa and vice versa, and I think that's what's so interesting. These two characters are so raw with each other, and they see their true colors, and they like that about each other.
JB: For Melissa, her desire or attraction towards Shauna, crush, limerence, whatever you want to call it, is very real, but it's very consuming, and it's very conflated with this idea of power. So when it comes to manipulation on Melissa's part, as the actor and viewer as well, you could kind of tell she's very manipulative, but for her, it doesn't really resonate that way. I think when you have this — and I say “limerence” because that’s the only thing I can think about, when you're so consumed with the idea of someone that all rational thought just [goes away] — it’s a very normal thing, like the idea that you're going to pretend to like a sports team for a crush, or a band or something, and you completely lose your sense of self.
For Melissa, that's tenfold. It completely is an extreme version of that. And so she kind of has these blinders on, where she thinks she's doing something really empowering, in a sense it is, but she has no idea how manipulative she really is. She just sees Shauna rising in the group, and she knows she has a hand in that, and so she's just like, great. I'll give more.
SN: I love her relationship with Melissa, because it's so heartbreaking. Had Shauna been in a different head space or a different place in her life, this could have been a really beautiful, honest and true relationship. I definitely think that Shauna is very conflicted between having a real interest and desire for Melissa, but she has so much shame and guilt for everything that she's done so far that she's really at a place where she can't love herself. And it's the truest saying, you can't love someone until you love yourself.
I think Melissa coming into her life is everything that she needs, and that would, if she let it in, make her feel better. She just needs to be held and told that it's okay and that it wasn't her fault. But she doesn't have space within herself or within her heart to hold that right now. In all of this sadness, there's just so much rage, which is fueling the idea of revenge. Her only way of making herself feel better is by pushing people down and pushing people underneath her. And I think that's what, sadly, she's a little bit doing with Melissa and with the rest of the group.
She thinks that maybe she'll feel better by being at the top, and having everyone at her feet and below her. But I think she'll quickly realize, when it implodes with Melissa, and when it implodes potentially with the group, that it's such a self-destructive pattern, and that it's only going to isolate her even more. I think she'll really regret manipulating Melissa so much because Melissa was truly her only ally.
SN: I've always said I feel like this season is even more – pardon my french – f*cked up than the others. They all had good reasoning behind doing what they were doing in the previous seasons, out of survival, but this [season], something is flipped, and it's not even about just surviving. They are truly at a different place in their headspace. I've always said, out of everything, when they get rescued, whatever happened [during this time] is what will haunt them the most, because that was will[ful] behavior. Even Shauna: she's not the one who put Ben on trial, but her basically forcing everyone to hold him hostage and all of that, all for the purpose of regaining leadership — she didn't need to do that. I think that those are the moments that will haunt her forever, because it wasn't about survival.
They're so desensitized to everything. They've been there for so long, they're not even aware of how messed up it is, it's like normalcy. They really have become like animals in a weird way, and it felt like that, shooting it. Steven’s performance was just so good as well. It's one of the scenes that truly grossed me out the most, because it felt so ugly. It made me want to puke, truly. I thought that was harder than filming all the cannibalistic scenes.
JB: Narratively, the entire show has been teasing in season one and two [that] what we did out there was so bad that it's impossible to live with. Season three is showing those stakes. One thing that's really interesting about the wilderness, to me, is that it's a society of less than twenty people, and there's no rule books. We're kind of showing this side of the evolution of human nature where we're devolving into these lesser forms of ourselves. As a viewer watching at home in the comfort of a functioning society where right and wrong are literally written in code, it's terrifying to see that perhaps there's a version of reality where people are taken out of [society], and this is what they do. We're kind of showing that side of it. As a person who likes to think they wouldn't do that, it's haunting.
For Melissa, she's someone who I found to be very zipped up and obsessed with this idea of power, and to her, it's how Shauna emulates power. Shauna, especially this season, can be very standoffish and vocal. For me as an actor, it was emulating that. So when we talk about these performances that are just so heartbreaking, it's near impossible — like the trial, it was so hard not to cry, because as Jenna, I'm a crier, so I just wanted to sit there and weep. But I'm looking over at Nélisse, and, you know, she's got her arms pulled in, I'm like, “Okay, well—”
SN: I was also wanting to cry, it was such a hard day. Watching Steven, I kept being so teary-eyed, and then I was like, no, no, Shauna would not!
JB: I know, that’s literally what I do, too! And then there's moments where you do and you're like, Well, maybe they'll use that, then they don't, because it's just not your character. So with Melissa, it's finding the spots for that very scared little child that is in there. But it definitely is difficult as an actor when these things feel very real and tangible because of the performances and the environment we're in, and then having to put yourself in a character who is just so traumatized and closed off to that at the moment.
SN: My manager texted me immediately. I obviously love the gay community, and I was like, I'm hoping this relationship is gonna resonate with them. There had been such a [build] to wanting Shauna to be gay, I was like, I hope that when they see it happen, they'll be excited. There were such high expectations, so I was sort of nervous. When we saw all the people already shipping the relationship and loving it, my manager flooded me with all of the Instagram and Tiktok edits, and it really warmed my heart. I just love how people are so open minded to it. Even in the show, not that it doesn't come as a surprise, but I love that it's just so effortless. We don't feel the need to make a big case, and it's the way it should be. It should just feel so natural.
SN: And I love that that's how the show brought it up, and there weren't any comments after within the group, or scenes when they're like, oh, wait, Shauna is gay? No one's even questioning it, which is the way it should be. And so I loved that as well. But, yeah, I've seen some edits, and I'm glad people like it. And it is fun that it's a bit f*cked up because people relate to it. Especially, like Jenna said, when it's so consuming, I think we've all been through toxic relationships, and hopefully some people can relate.
JB: [covers her face with her hands] Totally. It’s the hat. I thought that too. It's the hat, or the blonde hair. I don't know, it is what it is. Love them, so. Sick. Um —
SN: That is so true. Sorry, I just Googled it.
JB: I would say for Melissa, her being a lesbian was never really a doubt in my mind, especially when that hat got popped on my head, which was kind of last minute; the whole hat thing was a thing.
One thing that I talked about with one of the showrunners early on was, you know, there's this radical freeness in the wilderness, that you just get to be who you are. Especially thinking about it being the late 90s, that she just is, and then they get to explore this human experience together where they are, like, staging a coup, it's just so fun.
This is my first big thing for me as an actor, and I've come from a very private life, so to see people responding to a piece of work that I'm putting out there, and a character I'm putting out in the world, means the world to me. I've had lots of messages and comments that people really resonate with Melissa, and she is for you [here, Nélisse tears up], and lots of people are frustrated with her too. But like, she's on a journey. She's cooking. She'll get there. But even if I don't respond to everything, I see a lot, and it means everything. Her story means so much to me, and I'm just so excited for everyone to see what will happen with her throughout the season.
JB: I'm kind of off the internet side of it. As soon as I came into the fray, I was like, Oh my God, I've got to go. But she's definitely a point of discussion. It's so cool to see people having thoughts and feelings about her, because I was given the bones of what her arc would be this season, which I was very fortunate, I knew where she'd started, and I knew where she'd end up at the end of her arc this season.
For me, I was like, “Okay, I'm just gonna play with it, and I'm gonna go on a journey with her, because it's the wilderness: You don't know how long you're gonna get on this show.” I'm just gonna have so much fun. To see people creating discourse is all you'd want as an artist.
This interview has been lightly edited and condensed for clarity.
