Ella Purnell interview: ‘Fallout’ star on her new thriller ‘Sweetpea’ and bidding goodbye to ‘Arcane’

After her breakout role as the doomed queen bee Jackie Taylor in the survival thriller Yellowjackets, it seemed like only a matter of time that Ella Purnell and her eyes would take over the world.

The Londoner, who made her film debut in 2010 with Mark Romanek’s Never Let Me Go, playing young Ruth (Keira Knightley essayed the adult version), had been on the edges of stardom for years, making an impression in titles like the NYC-set restaurant drama Sweetbitter and Zack Snyder’s zombie heist adventure Army of the Dead. But then, after the success of Yellowjackets and voice-starring alongside Hailee Steinfeld in the steampunk action series Arcane, Purnell’s life went into overdrive when she was cast in Fallout.

Ella Purnell attends the 76th Primetime Emmy Awards in Los Angeles, California, U.S., September 15, 2024. REUTERS/Mike Blake
| Photo Credit:
MIKE BLAKE

Amazon’s adaptation of the post-apocalyptic video game franchise was one of the most acclaimed shows of 2024 – even garnering an impressive 16 Emmy nominations – and at the centre of it all was Purnell, playing the lead protagonist Lucy MacLean. 

But even as fans eagerly await Lucy’s jolly jaunts in the second season, Purnell had another surprise up her sleeve as she decided to star in (and produce) Sweetpea, an adaptation of CJ Skuse’s 2017 novel about a socially-inept introvert who suddenly snaps one day and goes on a serial-killing spree.

The 28-year-old is certainly an unusual choice to play a wronged murderer, but perhaps that’s exactly what attracted Purnell to the project. Talking to us over Zoom, she seems to have delighted in the process of developing the dark comedy and the transformative arc of her character, the wallflower Rhiannon Lewis.

Excerpts from an interview…

The success of ‘Fallout’ has brought much discourse over your eyes. There are think pieces and Reddit threads on them, probably due to Lucy’s wide-eyed innocence and optimism that she displays during the initial portions. Have you been getting this all your life?

It’s funny you ask if people have been talking to me about it my whole life, because they really hadn’t! In fact, the whole eye thing wasn’t even on my radar until I made Miss Peregrine’s Home for Peculiar Children. I was young and dumb, and made the mistake of Googling the film’s reviews. Never, ever do that! I should have known better, but I kept reading them and someone had said that I had the eye-to-face ratio of a giant squid. You can imagine what that would do to an 18-year-old’s self confidence (sighs). But no, no one really talks to me about it. It’s funny, we never really see ourselves the way other people see us. 

You have spoken earlier on how choosing projects like ‘Yellowjackets,’ ‘Fallout’ and now ‘Sweetpea’ – shows which are headlined by female protagonists with a lot of agency. Is this result of having read so many scripts with stereotypical women characters over the years. Are you trying to express feminine rage through these different characters?

I never really realised that there was such a similar thread running through these last few characters. It’s definitely not something I deliberately or consciously chose; it just might be something my subconscious is trying to tell me that I haven’t quite figured out yet. If I read a script and I’m looking at a role that feels like something that I’ve done before or something that I could do very easily, then it doesn’t really interest me. 

These days, I want projects to really challenge me. I want them to feel different and new, work with good people who I feel I’m going to learn from, and have a good time making it. So I’ve just been really lucky, and it’s just a fantastic coincidence that all these projects happened.

I read that you go really method while developing a character, such as with Rhiannon in ‘Sweetpea’. You have a fully-formed backstory for her, know her family history, how she walks and talks…

I’m so glad you asked me this because we put a lot of time and effort and work into developing it. It really was the most important thing if we were going to get the audience into Rhiannon’s head, relate to her emotions and feel empathy for her. And then, you know, obviously make them feel morally conflicted when they don’t relate to her actions. 

A still from ‘Sweetpea’

We needed to make sure this feels as authentic and real as possible, and I’m always trying to get to the heart of a character to make them feel like a fully fleshed-out real person. So it is important, I think, that you do all of that actor-y, slightly pretentious stuff too… such as figure out the car she drives, the milkshake she orders, and so on. If the script were to disappear somewhere, we could still make the show, knowing what to do with Rhiannon and where to put her. 

You’re also an executive producer on the show. Outside the book’s source material and the script, did the research and development take a lot of time?

I was lucky enough to come onto this project probably about 10 months before we started filming it. So we had a lot of time to sit with the head of costume, hair and makeup, and our production designer to design Rhiannon’s room, her hair, her shoes, what she looked like, all of those things. Those conversations naturally and organically came up, and you keep thinking about details that you probably wouldn’t.

But I couldn’t have done this without the makers Patrick, Kirstie, Ella, and the rest of the team. I adore Ella Jones (the director) in particular; she is just fantastic, and knows and loves Rhiannon just as, if not more intricately as I do. 

Your portrayal and voice-acting of Powder/Jinx in ‘Arcane’ is phenomenal and has accumulated a separate fan base amongst ‘League of Legends; fans. The second (and final) season is set to be released in early November.. will you miss playing her?

Oh, I really will miss her so much! It’s slightly breaking my heart, but we had such a good run, and it’s a phenomenal show. I’ve been so lucky to be able to voice Jinx, and it has absolutely shaped me as a person and actor. It was my first-ever voiceover audition and first-ever voiceover job, so I will always hold a huge piece of Jinx in my heart. Also, fun trivia for you, I learned today that Sweetpea came out on Jinx’s birthday, October 10!

Sweetpea is currently streaming on JoCinema Premium with weekly episode drops