'Yellowjackets' Star Liv Hewson Opens Up About Season 3's Most Shocking Twist
The actor, who plays Van Palmer, tells L’OFFICIEL all about the big reveal for their fan-favorite character. Warning: major spoilers ahead.
When you sign up for a show like Yellowjackets, you know that your character could be killed off at any moment. So when Liv Hewson learned, along with the audience, that their character Vanessa “Van” Palmer would live to see adulthood in season two, the word “relief” doesn’t even begin to cover it. “It’s no secret that Van wasn’t originally going to be in the show to the degree that she is now,” Hewson, who is nonbinary and uses they/them pronouns, tells L’OFFICIEL. “Her role in the story wasn’t part of the initial plan, so I was just happy that they didn’t kill me off in season one. When they brought her into the present timeline, it was like, She makes it out. She grows up. I internalized it as such a personal and professional victory.”
Of course, part of the thrill of Yellowjackets (besides, you know, the cannibalism) is that you never know who will ultimately be marked safe. Split between two timelines—the 1990s and present day—the Paramount+ with Showtime series follows a high school girls’ soccer team that, in the aftermath of a deadly plane crash, must fend for themselves in the remote Canadian wilderness. Although we’ve known that a handful of Yellowjackets survive into adulthood all along, as season three nears its end, we’re still finding out whether or not certain characters made it home alive. And in recent episodes, the show has been on what can only be described as a killing spree—in both timelines.
If you haven’t streamed Season 3, Episode 9 yet, this is where we’ll warn you of major spoilers ahead. Because after saying goodbye to Coach Ben (Steven Krueger) in the ‘90s and then Lottie (Simone Kessell) in present day, the show’s latest victim is none other than adult Van, played by Lauren Ambrose. Despite the fact that she was already battling terminal cancer, it’s not Van’s illness that claims her life in the end; it’s her former teammate, Melissa (Hilary Swank). And while Hewson will continue to portray teen Van in the wilderness timeline, they’re still mourning the character. “When I found out that Van was going to die in the present, I was very calm and cool and professional,” says Hewson. “Then, I went home and cried my eyes out. I love Van so it’s sad, but I also had to sort of sit and grapple with the fact that this is the show; the show is sad.”
With Van’s fate sealed, Hewson turned to Ambrose. “I love Lauren and the work that she has done with this character so much,” says Hewson. “We had some beautiful conversations about how we each felt and what we wanted to do with the time we had left to share this character. It was tough to say goodbye to Van in the present, but I'm grateful that Lauren and I were able to work together and send her off in the way that we did.”
Read on for Hewson's full interview with L'OFFICIEL about Van’s journey of self-discovery being similar to their own, the “confronting” nature of Yellowjackets’s latest displays of cannibalism, and why they’ve decided to take themselves largely offline in recent years.
L’OFFICIEL: By the time this interview is out, fans of the show will know that present-day Van is no longer with us. How are you feeling about everything?
LIV HEWSON: You're the first person I'm speaking to about it. It’s been emotional, and because this is the culmination of a lot of hard work, it feels very significant to me. I'm nervous to have it out in the world; I don't know how people are going to react. But I care about it so much, so hopefully it will matter that much to the audience, as well.
L’O: It’s a pretty shocking twist at the end of the episode, when Hilary Swank’s character, Melissa, stabs Van. As she’s dying, we see both versions of the character—yours and Lauren’s—sitting together on the plane, watching Van die on a screen in front of them. It’s all quite meta. What was that like to film?
LH: I mean, I didn't have to do a lot of acting. I remember being in character together in that scene and looking at Lauren and just thinking, Van Palmer, you mean the world to me. It was very real for each of us. Lauren and I were very conscious of the fact that we hadn't gotten to work together up to that point, and we're very lucky that it worked out. It was a real gift for our counterparts to be able to meet. But if you really want to talk about meta, when Lauren and Hilary were filming the final confrontation between Van and Melissa, Jenna [Burgess, who plays teen Melissa] and I were both there. I’m actually in the room, tucked away in a corner off-camera during the final scene.
L’O: Back in the wilderness, this season presents the teens’ first real chance at rescue, with a group of scientists approaching the Yellowjackets as they’re feasting on Coach Ben. Were you shocked by the introduction of new characters at this point?
LH: We were told about the frog scientists pretty early on, so we had a sense that it was coming. But we were all looking forward to them showing up, which sits in real juxtaposition to how our characters feel about it. For Van, it's just a complete break with her understanding of their experience so far. At the start of the season, she gets on her soap box and lays out the rules of the world that they've constructed up to this point—which is that we live here, and it's fine. Then these adults show up, and seeing them reminds her that the rest of the world exists. I think it's also appealing for her to cling to the idea of going home to avoid thinking about what they’ve done to Javi, Jackie, Laura Lee, and now Coach Ben.
L’O: Early on, the show seemed to veer away from the public narrative that it was about cannibalism, but this season, it’s really leaned in with adult Shauna [Melanie Lynskey] biting off a piece of Melissa's skin and forcing her to eat it. What do you make of that shift?
LH: It's not surprising to me that the show seems to be headed more in that direction, but it's interesting when the lines blur between the two timelines. In the wilderness, it's like, Okay, we are eating each other and having a bunch of violent, horrible experiences. But it's confronting in a new way when Melanie's Shauna gets violent with Hillary's Melissa in the present, because they're supposed to have escaped and made it past this experience.
L’O: Speaking of escaping, in the ‘90s, one of Tai’s biggest fears is that she and Van will have to hide their relationship again if they go back home. What were your thoughts on her weighing the pros and cons of returning to civilization versus living her truth?
LH: I’ve always assumed that the lack of willingness to be out was a big part of Van and Tai's eventual separation. And the arrival of the scientists is, I think, the first fracture, because it starts to become about optics. We know they get back to society in New Jersey in the late nineties, and the insinuation has always been that they become tabloid fodder. Van and Taissa are lesbian young women at a time when that's incredibly difficult—not to mention, Taissa is Black and Van has scars on her face. What would the late-nineties tabloid mill do to these two and their relationship? I’ve always figured that was part of why they broke up. It’s also interesting to explore how our characters reckon with the optics of what we've done to survive within the constraints of a different kind of society; not the society that we've built in the wilderness, but the society that we have to return to. How does that limit us? How does that contort us? What do we have to do to survive that?
L’O: Having first come across the term non-binary when you were 16 years old, do you think about how your own journey of self-discovery compares to these characters, who are around the same age?
LH: I think that's why Van's survival has always been so emotional for me, because I do really see myself in her. Here's this young, kind of lost, really troubled, funny, misunderstood gay person who is just putting one foot in front of the other, trying to figure it out. She is in a lot of danger and dealing with a lot of things that are beyond her scope and purview. So her survival was always very emotionally loaded for me.
L’O: If you could go back and give your teen self one piece of advice, what would it be?
LH: I think it's similar to the advice that I would give Van Palmer as a teenager in the wilderness. “Do what you have to do to survive this right now, and stick around because something else happens after this. You grow up.”
L’O: As someone who’s shared a lot of their journey online—including opening up about having gender-affirming top surgery—how do you find the right balance between using your platform and tuning out the trolls?
LH: In the last couple of years, I’ve taken a real step back from the digital sphere, which has been great. But as this season of the show airs, my partner has been encouraging me to look at some of the audience reactions online. So I will dip my toe in, but I won't get too caught up. I have really solid boundaries in place for who is allowed to talk to me and in what capacity, because from my perspective, if we're strangers, then you're not allowed to say whatever you want to me for any reason. You don’t get access to me—it’s not something you’re entitled to. So I have my DM settings really restricted, and I’m able to articulate the ways in which it is acceptable—or not acceptable—for people to speak to me. It’s good for my self-esteem, and part of how I move through the world and protect myself. I think sometimes people think of themselves as passive or helpless in the face of the digital sphere, but you do have a choice. My choice is that I’m public-facing for work, and I want my presence to be useful. But I'm going to prioritize my physical life over my digital one.
L’O: What do you feel most confident wearing these days?
LH: I wear a lot of vintage stuff. I buy most of my clothes secondhand and pretty much always have, since my early teens. Garment construction is important to me—I have a real sensory relationship to fabric. I also like stuff that has a history to it, that I can hang on to and keep for a long time. I have a blue trench coat that I've had for more than 10 years. I just like signature pieces that are comfortable and well-made.
L’O: If you were stranded somewhere, what’s the one thing you would hope to have with you?
LH: My wherewithal. My wits about me.
