Yellowjackets actor Sophie Nélisse swapped her Olympic dreams for TV stardom

Sophie Nélisse attends Showtimes's Yellowjackets FYC event at Hollywood Forever on June 11.David Livingston/Getty Images

Becoming an actress was not supposed to be Sophie Nélisse’s goal.

In fact, as a kid, she was headed for a different type of stardom – an Olympic gymnastics hopeful, her plan was to make it to the event’s 2016 competition.

But Nélisse didn’t end up in Rio de Janeiro that year. Instead, she was on set for one movie or another, building on a rapidly-progressing acting career. Now, the 22-year-old Canadian is filming Season 2 of Showtime hit thriller series Yellowjackets, in which she plays teenaged Shauna. The series follows a girls soccer team after their plane crash-lands in the Canadian wilderness, showing how desperation pushes them to cruelty, depravity and even violence, and was an almost-instant hit when the first season aired in late 2021, with more than five million people tuning in every week. It now has three Emmy nominations under its belt and a cult following online, with fans constantly theorizing about hidden meanings and future plotlines.

Unpacking the pleasures and meaning of Yellowjackets

While the show’s fandom is bigger than anything Nélisse, who still flies somewhat under the radar, has ever experienced in her time as an actress, public success is not totally new to the Montreal native. At just 10 years old, she took up acting professionally to fund her gymnastics competitions. Nélisse had been training since she was 4 and struggling to afford it. “It was just very expensive to compete across the country and to travel, and I needed money to pay for all my competitions,” she says.

Sophie Nélisse as Shauna, left, and Courtney Eaton as Lottie in Yellowjackets.Kailey Schwerman/Showtime / Crave

Her mom had already signed both of her siblings up at an acting agency because her brother wanted to try it (though Nélisse laughingly says he was never very good). She asked if she could try it too. She’d always been more interested in sports than in the arts, but she found her footing instantly: Her first-ever role was in the 2011 French-language film Monsieur Lazhar, which was nominated for an Oscar and won Nélisse a Genie Award for best supporting actress when she was 11.

Neither of her parents had prior knowledge of the film industry – her dad is a research scientist and her mom is a teacher – but they stepped up to support her. Her mom took on the job of manager and temporarily left her job to travel alongside Nélisse, tutor her and read lines together.

“She played a huge role in just being such a big emotional support, first of all, and she still is,” Nélisse says.

Not long after Monsieur Lazhar, Nélisse was offered the starring role in an adaptation of The Book Thief, alongside Oscar winner Geoffrey Rush. She knew she’d have to choose between acting and gymnastics once and for all. Struggling with an injury that made competing difficult, she chose the feature film.

Geoffrey Rush, left, and Sophie Nélisse in a scene from The Book Thief.Jules Heath/20th Century Fox via The Associated Press

Almost a decade and a string of minor roles later, came Yellowjackets. But the early days of production were marked by uncertainty for Nélisse. She was enamoured by the complexity of its characters and, in her words, the “unhinged side of it.” But, as she filmed some of its darkest and wildest scenes, she was pessimistic about audience reactions. “I was like, ‘Who’s gonna buy this?’ I was very skeptical,” she says.

It seems the exact parts Nélisse worried might be off-putting – the horror, the supernatural, the hints of cannibalism – are what people have enjoyed most and can expect more of in Season 2: “I can’t reveal anything, but because fans love it so much we’ve been really tapping into even more of the craziness, the unhinged, the fighting and the messiness,” she says. “It really gets pretty dark.”

Nélisse’s initial reservations about the show have disappeared, but on a personal level, the actor still struggles with an unshakeable sense of imposter syndrome, worried she’s not as devoted as her peers. “I kind of still feel like I’m an intruder in this industry. Because I’m not like the biggest classics fan. I don’t watch Charlie Chaplin every day. And I’m not the biggest fan of like, film noir,” she says.

When it comes to this uncertainty – and her ability to push through it – Nélisse says she’s quite similar to her Yellowjackets character. She described both herself and Shauna as introverts and keen observers who might second guess themselves but ultimately have the confidence to keep pushing forward.

And these days, Nélisse has a stronger sense of what she actually wants to push forward toward. It wasn’t until she was graduating high school and mapping out her future that she realized acting, which she once viewed as fun and temporary and more akin to summer camp than actual work, was something she wanted to stick with. “I looked at all the jobs and I was like, ‘Oh, nothing really interests me more than what I’m already doing.’”

Must-see true crime, horror and thrillers according to Sophie Nélisse

Horror movies and thrillers are the Yellowjacket star’s favourites to watch on the big screen, with recent picks including Pearl and Barbarian. “It’s ironic and kind of stupid considering how scared I get afterwards,” Nélisse laughs, explaining that horror movies give her nightmares for days.

Here are a few picks Nélisse thinks are worth the nightmare:

Prisoners

Nélisse describes Prisoners, from Montreal director Denis Villeneuve, as her “favourite thriller of all time.”

“I love the actors in it. I love the storyline – being kidnapped is like the biggest fear of mine. It’s so eerie; the music, the plot, the ending … I just loved literally everything about it.”

Conversations with a Killer: The Ted Bundy Tapes

Nélisse finds true crime particularly terrifying and was completely “freaked out” by the 2019 Ted Bundy documentary, seeing herself – her naïveté and desire to trust strangers – in his victims.

Monster: The Jeffrey Dahmer Story

This pick was released on Netflix in late September. “I just started it recently. I love it. [Evan Peters] is just so good in it – everyone is so good in it – and it’s beautifully shot.”

Sinister

Though Nélisse prefers thrillers to horror flicks, she always appreciates well-acted and directed horror movies, including the 2010s Sinister series. It follows a true-crime writer, played by Ethan Hawke, as he tries to uncover the truth behind a family’s death. “I just thought it was really well done.”

The Shining

Nélisse also appreciates the classics, including Silence of the Lambs and The Shining. Her love of the Stephen King adaptation boils down to the acting, with Jack Nicholson’s performance as a spiralling author making it particularly horrifying. “The Shining is good because he’s just so good in it.”

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Must-see true crime, horror and thrillers according to Sophie Nélisse