The Buzz on ‘Yellowjackets’ Aftershow: Jasmin Savoy Brown on That ‘Traumatic & Triggering’ Scene (VIDEO)
“I threw the script,” Jasmin Savoy Brown confesses about her initial response to reading the scene in Episode 6 of Yellowjackets where her character, Taissa, and the other stranded teens greedily devour Shauna’s (Sophie Nélisse) newborn. “I will not do that. That’s my boundary. Then when it turned out to be a dream, I felt more comfortable.”
Shauna’s difficult labor, with Tai at her side, was also brutal for the cast. “It was traumatic for a couple reasons,” Brown reveals on The Buzz on Yellowjackets aftershow. “It was triggering for a lot of people. A lot of us have personal experience with pregnancies gone wrong, like with someone we love in our family. It was also really hard because we had to shoot it twice [due to technical problems]. Your worst nightmare for any scene. It was the worst day I ever had on set. Some of us cried.”
In this wilderness world with death around every corner, Brown sees her character as walking a fine line to survive. “Tai is smart, smarter than Coach Ben (Steven Krueger). Sometimes you have to play the game. As a viewer, I thought it was really dumb for Ben Scott not to at least pretend to participate in eating Jackie. In these survival situations, you have to be in the group. Tai is smarter than him, and we’ll see how that plays out.”
And while Tai may be giving lip service to Lottie’s (Courtney Eaton) wilderness-worshipping cult, part of her does want to believe in it, evidenced by her putting what appeared to be a magical charm in Shauna’s hand during labor. “I think that might be Tai saying,’ I’ll do anything to keep my friend alive. I’ll worship your stupid god, do your stupid chants.’ That’s one moment where Tai has no ego.”
One thing Brown has been lobbying for with Tai is more of an on-screen relationship with Akila (Nia Sondaya).“If there’s only two Black girls in the woods, they would be together all the time, that would be a very quick alliance. We’ve had more of those in Season 2 which I’m grateful for.”
Check out the video to hear more about Tai’s sleepwalking scenes; her visions of the mysterious man with no eyes; and Brown’s theories about how Lottie might respond violently to eventual rescuers. The actress also hints about how the loss of Shauna’s baby will change the group. “There are things alluded to in Episode 3 that are going to come to fruition as a result of this grief. There are serious clues.”
Yellowjackets, Sundays, 9/8c, Showtime (and Fridays on On Demand and Streaming)
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