After having a conversation with Canadian actress Sophie Nélisse, the last thing we expected to feel (ok, maybe not the last thing), was refreshed. The ‘Yellowjackets’ star is down-to-earth and bracingly low-key, and sitting in her childhood home, Nélisse is all civility and smiles as she joins the Zoom call, asking how the weather is and making sure it’s not too late where V are. 

Although Nélisse never planned on becoming an actress — competitive gymnastics were her sport, and the Olympics were her endgame — a serendipitous audition and an Oscar-nominated film catapulted her into the spotlight, whether she liked it or not. But she liked it. She loved it, in fact.

Below, Nélisse tells V all about working with a nearly all-female cast, the slew of insecurities that remain despite acclaimed performances, and the role her family plays in maintaining a grounded environment for a continuously jet-setting star.

Jewelry: Drea Collection / Top: The Line K / Shorts: Shushu Tong X SSENSE / Nylon: Personal Stylist / Shoes: Black Suede Studio

V Magazine: Let’s start with your character in Yellowjackets. She has this very drastic arc from seasons one to two to three. How do you channel this kind of more unpredictable nature that we see in season three? 

Sophie Nélisse: Well, I think it’s been really fun, and we’ve been hinting towards it all season. We knew, based off of, like older Shauna, that she’d reach and cross, a threshold in what she’s done in her younger, like past life or time zone or time frame, and so I was really excited for Shauna to move on, and to see her in like a different light, and to kind of turn 180 on people. I think the second season is really about the grief and the loss, and then this season it’s fun to be able to take all of those emotions and all of the guilt and all of the pressure that she had on her shoulders, that I feel like she can’t handle anymore. Her coping mechanism is to lash out at people, which I think is why she’s so unhinged, and I think it’s what makes it so beautiful. It’s more complex than just someone that’s angry. It has all of its reason and its weight behind it. I love that she’s controversial because you hate what she does, but you relate and feel for her because of what she’s been through. 

It’s important to see villains on screen, and I think this show does such a great job at depicting women, both in their beauty and in their flaws. We are all flawed as humans, that’s just part of humanity. If we all had a little more empathy towards each other, we would understand each other a little more, and I think Shauna is a good example of that. You root for her despite all of her wrongdoings, because you understand where it stems from, and you have, therefore, empathy for her and want her to succeed and to just get better. And it doesn’t excuse what she’s doing, and it doesn’t make it okay, but it gives a reason and an understanding behind it.

Top: The ROW / Skirt: Take Tree / Boots: Black Suede Studio

V: Can you tell us a little bit about your new project ‘Two Women’ and what made you want to make that leap or that switch to more of the indie film industry?

SN: I went on ‘Two Women’ because I had known of the director, Chloe Ravicheaux’s work. I’ve always been such a fan of her work and I love the way she operates. I fell in love with the script because I thought it was so beautifully nuanced. It’s obviously more on the comedic side, but I think that it’s very touching at times, and you leave the movie feeling a little bit shaken in some ways. It evokes a lot of important thematics that are very up to date on what you know is going on with our society. 

It’s nerve-wracking a little for me to shoot on film sometimes and to tiptoe into comedy, which I’m not used to, which I’ve always wanted to do more of. It was kind of like a perfect way for me to slowly dive into comedy in an environment that felt very safe and secure. I generally don’t want to pigeonhole myself into any sort of specific genre. I love doing drama. I love rom-coms. I love Indie movies. I love comedy. I just want to be able to be very versatile as an actor. And I think that’s mostly the goal and the dream.

V: Being a public figure, there’s an inevitability of receiving negative criticism, and you’re in the spotlight now. How do you cope with the fact that it’s going to happen and you’re going to be exposed to it at times? 

SN: In general, I try to stay off of social media and not look at the comments. You can’t please everyone. There’s always going to be people that love you almost too much, and you’re like, ‘Why, I’m not deserving of all of this positive attention’, in the same way that you’re not deserving of all of that negative attention.

People are always going to have something to say, whether it’s good or bad. At the end of the da,y I just try to focus on my integrity and my values, and if I know that I’m working hard and I’m good to people, and I’m respectful, I can only control what I can control. How people receive that is kind of out of my control.

Top: The ROW / Skirt: Take Tree / Boots: Black Suede Studio

V: Are there any specific projects that are very close to your heart that you’ve worked on?

SN: ‘Yellowjackets’, I would say, is one of the closest ones. I’ve never experienced a lot of TV before that. Movies are short-lived, and it doesn’t feel like you’re very tight to these people that you then never really see. To have that sense of family with ‘Yellowjackets’ has been very interesting. I keep saying this to the girls, I’m like, ‘It’s crazy because, fingers crossed, if we get to like five seasons or something, I might be almost 28 by the time we finish this show’. I started when I was like 18, that’s ten years of my life. Your twenties are such formative years. I will carry that project with me my whole life.

The other one that is really close to me is ‘The Book Thief’. We shot for like six months in Germany, and I was in every single scene, and so these people — I became so close to them. Maybe it’s because I was younger, but there was this sense of playfulness on set, where we would prank each other, and I remember me and Nico Liersch, who was my co-star on that, on our lunch breaks, we assembled all the crew and we made this five minute little video clip for the director. Maybe I’ll never have that feeling again, because now I’m an adult, and now, when I have a lunch break, I go in my trailer and I nap. 

V: Is there anyone you dream of working with in the future? Any director, actor, or genre? 

SN: I love Michelle Williams and Cate Blanchett and Kate Winslet. Directors like Scorsese, or…I mean, there’s too many. I don’t know how to come up with an original answer. I would say that one that’s always been on my bucket list, and I think it’s a little more special to me because he’s from Montreal, is Denis Villeneuve. He’s done Blade Runner, and he did Dune.

I think my biggest dream is to work with a lot more female directors. It’s very inspiring for me to see them work on set. There’s nothing that inspires me more than watching a woman lead her set so beautifully, having that control and respect from the crew, but in the most kind way as well. I’ve had so many female directors that assert this power without ever needing to raise their voices. They’re such cool boss ass women. And I’m always floored. I’m always watching them like, ‘How did you get there?’ 

Dress: Julia Beauparlant / Jewelry: DRAE Collection

V: How did you get into acting? What inspired you or drew you to the field?

SN: It was very random. I’ve never wanted to become an actor, to answer your question. I don’t feel like I was ever a Cinephile, where I would spend hours on end watching black and white movies and being like ‘this is my dream.’ I needed money to pay for gymnastics because I was a high level athlete training for the Olympics. I needed to pay for my training and my coaches. My brother at the time wanted to become an actor, so my mom was like, ‘How about you just join an agency and maybe you’ll be able to do a few commercials and pay off gymnastics with that?’ And then my first movie went to the Oscars and that’s how fortunate I was. At the time I was like, ‘Oh, my God! Acting is so easy! You just do a movie. And it goes to the Oscars.’ Then I realized that that’s not how it works.

I’ve never taken any acting class, and I don’t think I even took acting that seriously until I was 18 or 20. I went into college, and I was like, ‘What could I do as a job? Well, I guess acting. I think this is what I love the most.’

I think the thing is, acting is so personal. I don’t think that there’s a right or wrong. I would say that the thing that I admire the most, and that I try to pick up on when I watch actors, is when I see actors and they’re doing the bare minimum, but it looks like they’re doing the most. It just feels so effortless. You feel like you’re sitting in the same room as them, just because of how authentic their performance is. The way they’re touching their faces, or the way they’re playing with a piece of fabric, they just make the scene feel so alive and in the way that we would move as humans if there wasn’t a camera around us. I try to do that on set. 

Jewelry: Drea Collection / Top: The Line K / Shorts: Shushu Tong X SSENSE / Nylon: Personal Stylist / Shoes: Black Suede Studio

V: Is there anyone you talk to to help keep you grounded?

SN: I love to be directed. I’ll always tell directors that I love for them to give me notes. I think that to be a really good actor you need to not have a big ego, because it’s a collaborative process, and there’s no right or wrong. I’m always very open minded for directors to come and tell me what I did wrong, or what I can improve on. I put a lot of faith and trust into the people directing me. 

Sometimes you don’t have that luxury. On Yellowjackets, when there’s such a big ensemble cast, sometimes we’re moving at a pace that’s so quick that you don’t get to have that more intimate rapport with the director. So then I find that I rely a lot on castmates that I trust.

There’s this thing where we often only have like one or two lines per scene. And weirdly enough, it’s so much harder than having a monologue or big chunks of paragraphs, because we get so in our heads. There’s this feeling that we need it to be perfect. It’s a challenge that we all have, and we’re always like, ‘Oh, I feel like I did this one line so stupid,’ and we’re all coming to each other after the take. We’re such an insecure cast in that way. We always need validation from each other. But Courtney [Eaton] is the one that I always go to. I’ll be like, ‘Is this good?’ And she’ll tell me, ‘I think it needs to be amped up a little, I think it needs to be a little more angry.’ She is the one that I trust the most. 

V: What is the dynamic like on set with a nearly all-female cast?

SN: There’s just so much trust within each other and within this group. A common goal is to make this show as grounded as possible, and we do have a struggle of walking a fine line with its thematics. I think what’s so magical about our show is that we thread that line, and it never becomes a cliche. We’re not like ten women starting a cult. It’s not that, but there is an aspect of ‘Is there a higher power out there, or is it just mental health? Or is it the lack of social norms, and so now they don’t have any moral compass anymore? What is it?’

Vest: Maison Guillebeau / Lingerie: SKIMS / Socks: Aritzia / Shoes: Black Suede Studio

V: What are some common misconceptions about acting and the film industry? 

SN: It’s hard, because we get treated very well as actors, almost too well. I think the glam part of it seems really fun, to be going to all of these events and Oscars and Emmys. It looks more impressive than when you’re actually in the room. The ceremony itself — you’re just sitting in this really uncomfortable dress for like three hours. I prefer watching it on TV than being physically there. 

I think we glorify the industry a lot. People are like, ‘Oh, my God! You have such a jet set life!’ And I’m like, it’s exhausting and it’s really tiring at times to travel and not have any sense of routine. Any sense of normalcy. 

I have truly no idea where I’m going to be in a month from now, so I think there’s this idea that it’s really fun and glamorous to be put in beautiful rooms and be glammed up and going to these events. Ultimately, I’m sometimes just so sick of sitting down for two hours to get my hair and makeup done and be in a beautiful dress. But at the same time it’s so hard because it also, ironically, is one of the things that I like. The idea of not having a routine or my future being so unpredictable is also one of the things I love the most. No day is the same, and there’s always something to look forward to. It’s terrifying and thrilling to not know where I’ll be six months from now, and every year I think it’s crazy that in January I have no idea what’s going to happen to me this year.

V: Is there something or someone that helps you unwind in those moments of extreme chaos and unpredictability?

SN: I try to meditate, but I feel like I’ll be really good at it for like three or four days, and then I forget about doing it. I love watching films and TV in bed. But I think my family is what keeps me the most grounded. They’re very good at giving me tough love, to make me realize the chance that I have and how lucky I am to be where I am. 

And when I’m crying because of whatever reason, they’re like, ‘Do you know the amount of people that would like to be in Paris right now? Suck it up.’ They’re really good at grounding me, and making me feel grateful for what I have, but also holding space for me to be able to complain, and understanding that it’s okay for me to feel overwhelmed. It’s okay for me to find things hard. There’s space for both emotions to be lived. To both be grateful and to feel run down. And I think they’re there to make me see both sides. 

Photography Alexis GR

Assistant Catherine Dubois

Makeup Leslie-Ann Thompson X The-Project

Hair David D’Amours X Folio Artists

Creative Director & Stylist Maude Sen

Retouching Mélanie lapointe