Minor spoilers for Season 1 of Fallout.
Alright, who’s watched the first season of Fallout on Prime Video? The series, which is based on the video game about the world post-nuclear war, dropped in full in mid-April. Mr. Rosie and I watched it over the course of a week. I didn’t really want to watch it when he first made the pick, but ended up really getting into it. I was confused about characters and what storlines after episode 2, so I went online and read more about the video game. Learning the background really helped me. It was just renewed for a second season, too! I’m excited.
Ella Purnell, who plays heroine Lucy MacLean, did a big interview in this month’s British GQ. Ella’s been acting since 2010, when she made her debut as a younger version of Carey Mulligan’s character in Never Let Me Go. She was also a teenage version of Maleficent in Angelina Jolie’s movie of the same name, as well as Kate in 2021’s Army of the Dead and Jackie in Showtime’s Yellowjackets. During the GQ piece, which you can read in full here, Ella talked about what it was like filming the show and waiting three years for it to finally be released. She also talked about working with Walton Goggins, described what it was like to film that finger scene, how she felt about the finale, and how “bats-it crazy bonkers” it was to work on the show every day.
She found out about Season 2 through Instagram: “I found out when you guys found out. I found out on Instagram. When they officially picked it up, I was still relieved. I didn’t make any assumptions, because I didn’t want to be disappointed.”
On being a part of the Fallout/Openheimer nuclear war zeitgeist: “It’s funny, because it feels like everybody wants me to have this humongous reaction,” she says of Fallout’s success. “It’s actually such a relief to be able to talk about everything, finally, after three years.”
On seeing Walton Goggins without prosthetics for the first time: “I actually remember the first time I saw Walton without his prosthetics. I knew what he looked like, obviously, because I’d Googled him, and I’d seen his work. We were all staying in the same hotel, and I came home, and he was standing outside, enjoying the view. I walked by him, and I went, ‘That looks just like Walton…’ And I was like, ‘Wait! That probably is Walton!’ And then I went up and I was like, ‘Hey, we’ve not actually met out of prosthetics, I didn’t even recognise you.’ He’s the nicest guy, so charming, he’s got so much charisma; he has stories for days.”
How they shot ‘the finger’ scene: “We filmed that towards the end, actually. I wanna say five or six months in. By that time, you’ve formed a good relationship with your co-stars, you’ve formed a good relationship with your director, and you’ve formed a good relationship, crucially, with your stunt team. Had we filmed that at the beginning, there probably would’ve been a lot of rehearsals. That tiny little scene where he lassoes me, pulls me back, grabs me, picks me up — we filmed that, I sh-t you not, in about an hour. We were losing light, [so] we were rushing. I think we used Hannah [Scott], my incredible stunt double, for dragging me back on the lasso, and then there was a lasso stand-in who actually [lassoed] me. But it was mostly [Walton and I].”
The reality is, they’re using the same finger [for every take]. I’ve got sticky, gross blood that tastes like nail varnish remover in my mouth. I’m probably biting Walton’s actual finger a little bit too hard. There’s dirt in my hair, in my eyes, there’s sand in my eyes; my harness is digging into my ribs. It’s incredibly uncomfortable. But you don’t feel any of it. You’ll wake up the next day, and because of the adrenaline, and because… honestly, you’re just having so much fun.
Every day was “bat-sh-t crazy bonkers:” The baby deer, the one by the lake [in episode three]? I got to play with the baby deer! I got to feed a baby deer. That’s never happened to me before. I got to pet an ox. I got to pet some chickens. Every single day was just, absolutely bat-sh-t crazy bonkers.
No period dramas for her: Here’s the truth: I hate doing period dramas. I’ve only done one, and it was great, but I hate doing period dramas because I hate being poised, and pretty, and together, and refined. I hate it. I love being sweaty, and dirty, and covered in blood, and vicious, and biting off an irradiated ghoul’s finger.
She gets imposter syndrome: I always used to get a lot of impostor syndrome, and feel like I was a bad actor, because I don’t do actor-y things like [use emotional memory]. It’s kind of like a last resort for me. I have more of a technical approach to acting, where research is the bulk of it. Making sure that I understand every single thing that’s on the page, every word. I know what my character’s favourite colour is, I know how she sounds, I know how she walks. I know what her f–king middle name is.
On British actors who get crap for sliding in American accents during interviews: British actors get a lot of sh-t for losing their English accent, and doing a slight American accent when they’re doing interviews, and I don’t think that’s fair. When you’re living in America, or staying in America, and acting in an American accent, you have American accents, maybe an American partner — we’re actors, of course we’re gonna lose our accents a bit! It doesn’t mean we’re renouncing our citizenship, it just means that we’re chameleons, and we’re changing, and learning.
OMG, I can only imagine just how bonkers it was to film that show because the plot itself is bonkers! Lucy’s adventures were such nonstop insanity that I felt like I was watching a post-apocalyptic version of 24. I like that she touched upon her researched-based acting style, too. How crazy that she never met Walton Goggins before they started filming when he was wearing his Ghoul prosthetics! In a separate interview, Walton shared that he filmed all of his Ghoul scenes during the first six weeks of filming before playing the Ghoul’s pre-war persona, Cooper Howard. I also thought it was funny that she brought up the grief that some British actors get for their accents changing the more time they spend in America. Hey, I get that. I live in South now, but grew up on Long Island. My accent has neutralized a lot over the past 15 years, even if certain words (water, saw, mirror, drawer, etc) will always give away my natural accent, ha.
Photos via Instagram and credit: Prime Video and Laurent Vu/Avalon