Ashley Sutton first auditioned for Yellowjackets five years ago. The Florida native was trying to build out her acting resumé and was a huge fan of Ashley Lyle and Bart Nickerson‘s television work (they wrote and produced on Narcos and Narcos: Mexico before creating the Showtime drama) when she got the chance to read for a small part in a then-unknown pilot. Sutton can barely remember what scenes she read, or who the character was, but she does remember laughing a lot throughout the process. “Ashley and Bart’s work is quite spooky, but they’re so funny and I really noticed that in the audition,” she says. The part never made it into the show, but Sutton kept tabs on the series: “I was quite diehard from the very beginning.”
Then, years later, she got a call from her team that she was getting another shot at what was now one of her favorite television shows. Sutton was cast as Hanna, the wide-eyed and enthusiastic scientist who finds herself researching the (fictional) Arctic Banshee Frog in a very cursed portion of the Canadian wilderness. Yellowjackets audiences got a small glimpse of Sutton at the end of last week’s episode, as she and her fellow trekkers came upon the cannibalistic soccer team during a terrifying ritual; this week, we learned much more about the ways the newcomer will ingratiate herself with the stranded teens. Below, Sutton introduces herself to The Hollywood Reporter and shares what it was like to be both a cast member and a fangirl.
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So tell us how your casting process on Yellowjackets came full circle…
After my first audition, I didn’t expect them to bring me back, even when I was seeing how they were bringing new people onto the show all the time. But my team reached out to me about an opportunity for season three, I got in front of casting and did a few auditions, and then the showrunner called me and told me I booked the job. It was very quick and unexpected. I had such a fan perspective through the whole thing, even when I was on set. And even Hanna does, right? She’s walking into the world of the Yellowjackets and gets to experience it the way the rest of us did — thinking, “What are they doing and what is happening?”
Were you looking to get into prestige drama?
I started getting an interest in film because of my grandmother — she had a bookshelf of movies. She’d arrange it with the new ones on the bottom shelf, so that I could always pick from what I hadn’t seen. Every time I would get to my grandparents’ house I’d go into their room and watch movies all day. I consumed every genre. When I first came out to L.A. to act, people were like, “You have really big eyes, you should do comedy (laughs).” But I really love any kind of intricate character — lately I’ve been saying that I love them when they’re morally gray. Women who think that they’re right, based on what they’ve gone through, but it might not be right for everybody else.
What was your journey to getting this big break?
I went to college to be a sports reporter, and I was doing acting stuff on the side. But one day I just realized, the news is a very difficult working environment and I don’t know if I want this to be my life in 10 years. I’d also met a manager, who mentioned that if I ever moved to L.A. I should look her up and she would represent me. So I quit my job, worked at Starbucks to get insurance and then eventually transferred to a Starbucks in Burbank — I worked at the one by Bob’s Big Boy. All of this was within eight months. I had never even been to Los Angeles before, so I didn’t know what to expect, but I started to realize I could make a career out of acting when I started getting a lot of opportunities to audition. I was developing relationships with casting directors, who wanted to see me work, and I realized that I just needed to wait until I found the right role.
When you got the audition scenes for Hanna, did you know that she too would turn out to be morally gray? Or was the character presented as more of an innocent victim?
I think in the beginning, Hanna was naive and innocent and really just wanted to go find those frogs. I really focused on figuring out why those frogs were so important to her, why she would leave her life for a period of time and go into the wilderness just for these frogs. I needed to figure out her launch codes, which is what one of my mentors calls it — it helps you take things in the right direction when you’re in the moment on set. So I thought, “Okay, Hannah is this nerdy, quirky girl who loves frogs.” But as I got more and more scripts I realized like, “Oh okay….[there’s more to it.]”
Do you think these characters all had a darkness inside of them, or can the woods turn even the purest of heart?
I think anybody who is in that situation, it’s about what would they do to survive? I imagine almost every single human being would do everything possible to get through it. So I think it was always inside of Hanna, I just don’t know how much she connected with it before these events. I think it’s really apparent in the moment in episode seven when I’m hiding in the log, and they know I’m in there, and I make the decision to get out of the log. I think in that moment she comes to terms with the darkness, that she’s going to have to stand up and fight and that it might not be pretty. She can’t frolic in the woods and flirt with boys and find frogs anymore. That moment is her stepping into that other side of herself for the first time. That was also my first day filming in the wilderness, and my second day on set overall. It was pouring rain, like it often does in Vancouver, and we were so drenched and muddy. I was like, this is my initiation into Yellowjackets. I also got legitimately scared the first time I walked on set during episode six during that spooky ritual thing around the fire. It was so dark, and they walked Nelson [Franklin] and I down to the fire and it was our first time there, I was just like, “What are we doing and what is happening right now?” It was terrifying.
Were there any actual first-day jitters, considering you’re joining a very tight-knit group?
My first day was with Nelson Franklin and Joel McHale, and then I had a day shooting with a small group of cast members, and then I was introduced to the big days with the full cast. Everyone was so welcoming and kind, and also excited to have new people in the wilderness. It was like Christmas for them, that new faces came in to hang out.
What sort of advice, or plot secrets, did you seek out?
I worked with Jennifer Morrison as a director on episode seven, and that was such a gift to have an actor, who has been in so much television, direct me. We talked about having kids — I don’t have them, but Hanna does, and Jennifer is a mom, too. She also really gave me ownership over the character and creating what she would be like.
Do you have any theories about the show that changed during your time working on it?
I still really don’t know what’s going to happen. Obviously, we know that they get rescued. But I don’t know how that is going to happen. When I got the first script from this season, I totally believed that I was going to be the person who rescued them (laughs).
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Yellowjackets season three releases new episodes Fridays on Paramount+, with a linear airing Sundays at 8 p.m. on Showtime. Follow along with THR‘s season coverage and interviews, including our interview with Joel McHale.
Source: Hollywoodreporter
