Liv Hewson Chats About ‘Yellowjackets’ and the Importance Of LGBTQ+ Representation

Photo Credit: Kailey Schwerman/Paramount+ with SHOWTIME.

Joe

With a stacked cast that delivers phenomenal performances, captivating storytelling, surprising cliffhangers, an amazing soundtrack, and a slick combination of supernatural horror, survival drama, and thrilling mystery, Yellowjackets is one of the most exciting shows on TV currently. Season 3 continues to answer more questions about what really happened to the Yellowjackets high-school soccer team in the wilderness. Meanwhile, their adult counterparts 25 years later are still haunted and impacted by their time in the wilderness.

Liv Hewson, who plays Vanessa “Van” Palmer, chats with OFM about season 3 of Yellowjackets, their journey as a nonbinary actor, and why LGBTQ+ representation is so important.

Getting Into the Mindset of Van

“I definitely really understand her and always have,” Hewson comments about Van. “There are aspects of her that remind me of myself. There are aspects of her that remind me of people in my life that I’ve always loved. The way I think about Van is that she’s a real person I’m incredibly fond of. It’s like she’s a friend of mine. She is not the same as me, but she’s like me, and I like her very much.”

Lauren Ambrose plays adult Van in the present day. Seeing how Ambrose portrays Van helps Hewson better understand how they should portray Van. “Lauren’s performance is such a gift for me because it gives me such a clear road map of where Van is headed in the future,” they say. “Part of the pleasure of this show is that there is sort of a clear A and B, but the path between those points can take so many twists and turns. As we make this show and the story continues to unfold, I know where I’m going because of the work Lauren has done. Knowing that and being able to use her performance as we move towards that place is exciting. It’s a cool opportunity as an actor.”

The way in which Hewson approaches Van differs from season to season as Van, like the other characters trapped in the wilderness, undergoes massive changes. “When we meet all these characters in season one, they have no idea what’s going to happen to them,” exclaims Hewson. “Then season two is much more about the encroachment of winter and what they have to do to survive that time, and what we’ve seen so far is a real rock bottom for these characters and for Van. In season three, there is almost a thematic reset at the beginning. Obviously, Van is very haunted by everything that’s happened, but season three opens up with a real attempt to pretend that none of that ever happened because she doesn’t want to engage in what they’ve had to do so far. Over the course of this season, I think those events and those emotions really catch up with her. Van goes through a lot of changes in the ‘90s timeline in this season. I mean the beginning of the season is a real new place to see her in.”

Yellowjackets Cast Growing Together and Acting Alongside Jasmin Savoy Brown

With each new season of Yellowjackets, the cast grows closer together, which Hewson greatly appreciates. “I’ve always said that I think one of the coolest parts of this show is that it is an unusual opportunity to be in an ensemble this size with actors roughly in the same age bracket and get to work with each other over this prolonged period of time and to be really only working with each other because the wilderness is, like, a contained location (where) we are all together,” they say. “I love that about this show, and I mean, we shot the pilot at the very end of 2019 and then, because of the pandemic, waited a long time to see if we could make the rest of the show. So, we have all known each other for a really long time now. I think that that’s really special to be able to grow up together, for lack of a better expression, and to find out what it’s like to work together over a prolonged period of time.”

Most of Hewson’s scenes involve interacting with Jasmin Savoy Brown, who plays teen Taissa “Tai” Turner in the past. “I think we’re a really good team, and I think each of us has come into our own as professional adult people over the course of the time that we’ve been filming the show, and that’s something I’m really proud of as well,” reflects Hewson. “The two of us have always had a clear sense of what we’d like to do with these characters and their relationship, which has remained true the whole time. That is something I’m proud of as well.”

Van and Tai are one of the most iconic duos in Yellowjackets. Hewson’s favorite part about the relationship between Van and Tai is that it is complex. “I like that their relationship is overarching and goes through lots of changes, some of which we haven’t seen over the course of the story,” says Hewson. “It’s important to me that the relationship, which is an explicitly queer relationship on screen, is treated with the same complexity as any other relationship on television. Those two characters are treated as completely complex people, and their relationship is equally complex as a result, and I think that’s cool.”

Filming the Show

Yellowjackets is a dark and sometimes quite disturbing show that deals with very heavy and mature topics like addiction, death, depression, guilt, and trauma, among other things. While filming, the cast knows when to lighten up the mood. “We’re good at making each other laugh in and around the heavy filming that we do,” mentions Hewson. “I think we have a good group language now of knowing when to bring levity to the set when filming and also knowing when to take it seriously and give each other a bit more space. Pretty consistently, by the end of filming a season of the show, all of us will start having strange dreams. It kind of leeches into the rest of our lives, especially physically, because we spend months at a time holding our bodies very rigidly, like we’ll all end up needing to stretch or going to get massages. I consider myself quite lucky in that Van has always been quite funny, and Van’s voice in the ensemble is one that tends to bring an edge of levity to the show. I think that’s a real gift to me, and I enjoy doing that.”

Hewson loves filming on location and is happy that season three returns to that filming structure. “Season two was largely sound stage work because, I mean, the snow was fake; it was constructed winter on a sound stage,” they comment. “But seasons one and three have almost entirely been on location in B.C., and I love that. I love that because it makes all our jobs much easier because we don’t have to pretend that we’re outside and it’s quite relaxing to be surrounded by trees and birds and really out on the landscape. In-between sets, we can wander off and sit at the base of a tree with a book if we want. I enjoy that from an acting perspective and also a selfish personal level.”

Van is known and loved for her trademark wit and sarcasm. Another thing she is known for is the iconic scar on her face. Some Yellowjackets fans might suspect getting the scar makeup on every day is one of the toughest parts of playing Van, but it does not bother Hewson that much. “I’m sort of used to the scars now,” grins Hewson. “It does mean I have to come pretty early, so maybe the hardest part is the sleep disruption, but honestly, that’s just part of the course.”

So, what exactly does Hewson find to be the toughest part about playing Van? “This show is physically challenging, but I’m, like, an acting sicko and love that kind of stuff. I think the hardest thing about playing Van is keeping in mind the things I know about her and how I feel about her and then staying open and flexible to the twists and turns that the story is going to take. I have to remind myself that what’s coming my way is coming my way, and Van doesn’t know what’s gonna happen either. So, when I’m unsure of what’s happening, neither is she, so it’s gonna be fine.”

Season 3 of Yellowjackets has given us some of the show’s most shocking twists and jaw-dropping moments so far. The amazing performances are equally exciting, with each episode seemingly topping the other. “This season I’ve gotten a real kick out of watching Alexa (Barajas),” smiles Hewson. “I love Mari. I love watching what Alexa does playing Mari. I’m just so stoked she’s gotten so many wonderful moments to flex her muscles this season.”

Hewson’s Journey as a Nonbinary Actor

Hewson kindly shares their story coming out as nonbinary. “I came out to my friends when I was like 16 in like 2012. I’ve been using they/them pronouns privately for like 15 years now. When I started acting for a living at the very beginning of my 20s, when I started working in TV and film, I just sort of re-closeted myself in the public sphere.

I did not have the expectation that I would be able to be honest about myself. I didn’t think I would get to do that. Getting a little bit older and coming into my own sense of confidence, and coming into a sense of myself as an adult, I realized there was a space for me and that even if there wasn’t a space for me, I needed to create it. I needed to be honest, insist on myself and be clear about who I am because keeping it hidden was really bad for me. It was bad for my mental health, and it was making my life smaller. I made the decision in my early mid-twenties to come out publicly, and I’ve never regretted it once.”

The Importance of LGBTQ+ Representation

Yellowjackets is the second time Hewson has portrayed a queer character. They previously portrayed Dorrie, a queer character in the Netflix Original movie Let It Snow. Playing characters who are part of the LGBTQ+ community is very important to Hewson. “As an out, gay, nonbinary actor, I consider that like a priority of mine in my career and building a body of work in this industry,” they exclaim. “It’s something I care about and is something I want to see more of, not just as somebody who works in this industry but somebody who is also an audience member the rest of the time. I love being able to play gay and queer characters, and I’d love to play nonbinary characters. The more kinds of people you have in a world or a story, the more opportunity you have for storytelling. It is only ever enrichment. It’s something I’m really grateful to be able to do.”

Yellowjackets has great LGBTQ+ representation. Multiple cast members of the show are members of the LGBTQ+ community, and the show features several queer characters. Being part of a show like Yellowjackets in which LGBTQ+ voices are at the forefront, and LGBTQ+ stories are being shared, Hewson finds, is really important, especially at this current moment, where in places like the U.S., anti-LGBTQ+ legislation is being pushed, making it more difficult by the day for queer people to live their lives freely.

“The significance of it is not lost on me, like especially in this current moment,” they comment. “When I think about the work that I am doing, I want to be useful. I want to be of use. I want to be of assistance. So, if I can use the work that I am doing to contribute to more images of LGBTQ+ people out in the world, and if I can use the position that I am in to advocate for myself and people like me, then that’s important for me to do so.”

Concluding Comments

“This job continues to be very significant for me in many ways,” Hewson says about Yellowjackets. “Over the course of filming it thus far, I have changed as a person a lot. I think I have self-actualized a lot, and this show continues to teach me a lot about my capacity to get things done and my sense of myself as an actor. I feel so much more sure of myself now than when we first shot the pilot of the show. I turned 24 in the middle of filming that pilot, and now I’m almost 30. The journey of this show is a real one of personal and professional development for me.”

Follow Liv Hewson on Instagram to keep up to date with upcoming projects.