Summary

Welcome to a new episode of Collider Ladies Night with Yellowjackets star Lauren Ambrose.

During her Ladies Night conversation with Collider’s Perri Nemiroff, Ambrose looks back on some of her earliest credits, including Can’t Hardly Wait and Six Feet Under.

Ambrose also tells all about Van’s death in Yellowjackets Season 3, Episode 9. What was her initial reaction to the script? How did she and Hilary Swank crack that scene? Did she find closure in Van’s big finish?

Yellowjackets features some of the very best ensemble casting across the board, but there’s no denying we got an extra special duo in Liv Hewson and Lauren Ambrose. At the start of the Showtime and Paramount+ series, Van Palmer was not meant to make it out of the wilderness alive. However, thanks to Hewson’s screen presence and creative spark, it became abundantly clear that they deserved more time to shine. Not only did the showrunners shift gears and have Van survive the wolf attack in Season 1, Episode 7, but at the start of Season 2, they revealed that Van makes it home from wilderness with the introduction of Ambrose’s present-day version of the character. From that point on, we’ve enjoyed a breathtaking level of connectivity between the two actors.
However, as of Season 3, Episode 9, “How the Story Ends,” the time of Van Palmer being a dual role has ended. The character doesn’t succumb to her cancer diagnosis, but rather, is stabbed by Hilary Swank’s present-day Melissa. It’s a crushing end for a fan-favorite character, one that Ambrose admits, doesn’t offer closure, but because it was never meant to. However, Ambrose herself has found peace in the feeling that she “was just handing [Van] back to Liv.”
With all of Yellowjackets Season 3 available to stream on Paramount+, and with the show’s Emmy campaign picking up steam, I got the opportunity to welcome Ambrose to Collider Ladies Night. During our 40-minute chat, we revisited some pivotal moments of her career, many of which pointed toward a deep appreciation of the rehearsal process. And, it turns out, that love of rehearsing is what helped her and Swank figure out how to play Van’s death and deliver a scene that feels “crackling and real and exciting and weird.”
What Made ‘Can’t Hardly Wait’ Such a Special High School Comedy?

“They fought for me. They believed in me.”

One of Ambrose’s earliest films hit the big screen back in 1998. However, courtesy of its teen comedy classic status, it’s still a widely beloved and rewatched movie to this day. It’s Can’t Hardly Wait, a high school rom-com that takes place at an unforgettable graduation party.

“You can’t find a production that doesn’t have somebody from that movie in it. Deb [Kaplan] and Harry [Elfont] directed it, and they were this duo, and I think both actors, and they were given a chance to make this movie that they’d written. And they really fought for their actors. I remember I had to fly out and do a screen test, and they fought for me because I really hadn’t been in anything except for In & Out, and an indie or something. They fought for me. They believed in me.”

While trying to pinpoint Can’t Hardly Wait’s secret sauce, the thing that helped the cast and crew achieve that next-level charm and texture, Ambrose zeroed in on a subject that would pop up a lot during our conversation, particularly when discussing especially fulfilling collaborations – rehearsal.

“Everybody took it very seriously. Even though it was a silly teen movie, it was serious business [and] everyone was up to trying to make something good. And then me, of course, I was overly serious about everything. [Laughs] I was like, ‘What are we doing, guys?’ And I remember rehearsing, rehearsing in hotel rooms. We did a lot of rehearsing, actually.”

How ‘Six Feet Under’ Helped Ambrose Find the Power of Her Voice on Set

“I am always excited when I see anybody unleash the power of their rage on film.”

Image via HBO

Soon after Can’t Hardly Wait, Ambrose would score a role that would heavily evolve her work as an actor, and her career. In 2001, she began her five-season run playing Claire Fisher, a role that would earn her two Emmy nominations.

“I always say it was like acting boot camp because I didn’t go to four years of acting school or do it that way. I did more learning on my feet and had amazing teachers along the way. But that was the first time that I got to go to work every day for many years as an actor with incredible colleagues, like Frances Conroy, who played my mother on that show, who I learned so much from. [And] of course, the guys who played my brothers. And then the directors that we had, the Alans, and Kathy Bates was a director on our show. She was amazing.”

One especially amazing memory Ambrose has of working with Bates? A time when Bates was directing an episode, heard Ambrose’s thoughts on a scene, and then insisted on backing her take.

“I remember it was like the second time she directed, and the crew and cast, we all loved her so much because she was just part of the gang. It’s a difficult job to be a TV director. You kind of come into this thing. But she was also an actor on the show, so she came in and directed us. Peter Krause and I did this scene, some weepy scene about our dad, or whatever it was. We were sitting on the washing machine talking to each other, and there was this beautiful two-shot that she just did. It was a normal two-shot, and it was like, ‘Okay, that was so beautiful, guys. Oh, that was great.’ Really, something happened. It was really exciting because something happened in the scene between Peter and me. She was like, ‘Okay, let’s go in for coverage,’ and I said something like, ‘Oh, it’s a shame that we even have to because it really felt like we were just doing a play and something real happened.’ And she said, ‘You know, you’re right. Let’s move on. Let’s move on. We did that scene.’ So, that’s just what’s in there.”

Ambrose added, “She knew what she was doing, and she had the confidence to say, ‘Moving on,’ confidence in her [and] in everyone’s artistry.”

Image via HBO

Ambrose would go on to find just that in her own artistry. When asked for the very first time she could feel the power of her own voice on a set, she began, “I don’t know if I can remember the first time. A couple of things come to mind.” She then laughed and recalled:

“On Six Feet Under, we were doing some scene in an office, like a guidance counselor’s office or something, and I had to throw a coffee mug or something, and Rachel [Griffiths] was either there or commenting on it, and she was like, ‘You know, you’re able to be so angry, and that’s great because a lot of women just don’t do that.’ And I was like, ‘I don’t know if that’s a compliment. I’m not really sure how to take that.’ As in, ‘Put a lid on it, kid?’ [Laughs] No. Maybe that’s what she meant, but I do take it as a compliment, because it’s good, and I am always excited when I see anybody unleash the power of their rage on film. Maybe she didn’t mean it to, but it gave me the confidence to do that more. [Laughs]”

Another way Ambrose developed great confidence? Advocating for her characters during the rehearsal process. She continued:

“And then I think of rehearsing, specifically rehearsing Romeo and Juliet, which was a play that I did at the Public Theater and Shakespeare in the Park. The process of rehearsing that play was when I really understood rehearsal. I always kind of felt like I loved that stuff and loved the time in the rehearsal room, but that was the time when I was like, ‘Oh, this is what it is to really, truly have it be unbridled possibility in the rehearsal room.’ And advocating for Juliet, even though Shakespeare does a good job of doing that already, but advocating for that character and the time to rehearse it, and then having that segue into taking time in other projects, like, ‘Hang on, hang on. We gotta actually clear out some space and take some time to try to let something real happen.’”

A time when Ambrose did just that recently? While filming her character’s death scene for Yellowjackets.
How Lauren Ambrose Figured Out How to Play Van’s Death in ‘Yellowjackets’

“What level of bananas are we at here?”

Season 3, Episode 9, “How the Story Ends,” turned out to be the end of Van Palmer’s story. (Or at least as far as present-day material goes.) In Episode 7, “Croak,” Van’s cancer takes a turn for the worse. She begins to cough up blood and is rushed to the hospital. However, two episodes later, she’s visited by her younger self (Hewson) who gives her “a little something for the road,” and tells her she’s off to “get the treasure.” That mission takes her straight to Melissa’s house.
While Van takes a moment outside, Melissa secretly closes the chimney flue, filling the home with carbon monoxide. Van manages to get Taissa (Tawny Cypress) and Shauna (Melanie Lynskey) out, but then feels tempted to take Melissa’s life in an effort to please the wilderness and buy herself more time. However, the goodness in her takes hold, and she can’t go through with it. Crushed and scared, Van says, “Why can’t I be that?” Melissa tells her, “You don’t want to be,” and then throws in the curveball. Melissa grabs the knife, stabs Van and then says, “But I do.”

“In doing all this kooky dying business for Van, you get the script and it’s like, okay, this is going to be really hard because I’m lying in a hospital bed and then I’m leaping up with an oxygen tank, and there’s carbon monoxide poisoning? [Laughs] And then Hilary Swank is meant to be stabbing me. How are we gonna do this? I don’t really know! Is it going to make sense? Is this gonna scan? What level of bananas are we at here? It’s like a leap of faith. ‘Okay, fine though. This is the script and this is the bible that we’re working from.”

The key to cracking that scene for Ambrose and Swank? It all came down to rehearsal. Ambrose continued:

“With Hilary that day, I was like, ‘Okay, everybody out. We gotta just try to make some space, literally.’ And Ben [Semanoff], the director, was lovely and said, ‘Yeah, let’s do it.’ And our lovely AD team literally cleared all the people walking through with equipment and producers and video village, and all that stuff, and it was just the actors and the script and the director, and maybe the DP, the amazing Shasta [Spahn], who is so incredible, and we just rehearsed it like a play and tried to make something real happen, and I think that we really did. I think Hilary and I, I even said to her, I was like, ‘This feels really hard, and I’m really glad you’re here, and that we can try to figure this out together.’ She was like, ‘Okay, we will,’ because that was one of her first days, too, actually. It was just cool because it was the end of this thing for me, but it also felt like we got to something crackling and real and exciting and weird, and weirdly intimate, so, at the end of the day, I felt good about it.”

Ambrose Explains Why It’s Okay She Didn’t Get Closure with Van

“I think it’s meant to be quite jarring.”

Image via Showtime

54:52

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Given Van’s fan-favorite status, an uproar over the character’s death was inevitable. In fact, admittedly, I was quite upset when the moment came and went, and I was forced to sit with the fact that we know the end of Van’s story and that Ambrose would not continue on with the series. The silver lining though? That devastation is proof of the profound contribution Ambrose and Hewson made to this show with their work. Also, as I often remind myself, particularly with television narratives, one might have to wait for closure. In this case, we might only find full peace when the truth of the ongoing mystery is revealed and, hopefully, adds even more meaning to Van’s exit.
But what about for Ambrose? As the person playing the character, was she able to leave set with any sense of peace or closure with how Van’s story wraps up?

“No, because I don’t think that it really ends with closure. I think it’s meant to be quite jarring. Like that wasn’t supposed to happen, I think. I don’t know. That’s how it felt. It was like, ‘What? This is happening?’ And then, of course, my older version of the character on the plane with Liv’s beautiful, younger version of the character saying, ‘No, no, this is how it has to be, and I’m so sorry that this is how it has to be,’ but there really isn’t this understanding until the very last shift of the scene. I don’t exactly know how it ended up being in the final cut of it, but we sort of played it that it was really like, ‘No, you weren’t supposed to do this to me,’ and it was really quite angry. ‘This wasn’t supposed to go like this.’”

Ambrose continued:

“It was just like, ‘Come on. Come on, come on,’ and that was like, ‘Oh, okay, okay. What do I have to come on with? What do I have to get on board with?’ And then just the unknown of what it all is for. So, I don’t know. I don’t particularly feel any closure. Although it was nice because we shot those scenes on the actual last day that I was there in Vancouver doing that work. The crew was really lovely and gave us a nice round, and we got to take a nice bow together as co-creators of the character. And I felt like I was just handing it back to Liv.”

Looking for even more from Ambrose on her journey on the stage and screen thus far, and her experience playing Van in Yellowjackets? You can watch our full conversation in the video at the top of this article, or you can listen to the interview in podcast form below:

Yellowjackets

Release Date

November 14, 2021

Network

Showtime, Paramount+ with Showtime

Showrunner

Ashley Lyle, Bart Nickerson, Jonathan Lisco

Directors

Benjamin Semanoff, Daisy von Scherler Mayer, Deepa Mehta, Eduardo Sánchez, Jeffrey W. Byrd, Liz Garbus, Scott Winant, Eva Sørhaug, Jamie Travis

Writers

Liz Phang, Sarah L. Thompson, Ameni Rozsa

Yellowjackets Season 3 is available to stream in full on Paramount+.
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