Fallout, which is based on the video game series, tells the tale of the haves and have-nots in a world where practically nothing remains. All episodes arrive April 11 on Prime Video.
Ella Purnell is a name that has quickly been filling the air space surrounding big-name movies and series in Hollywood. However, it’s her love of New Zealand that has Kiwis’ ears perking up and listening loud.
Appearing in shows such as the heart-race-inducing Yellowjackets, period drama Belgravia and herlatest “retro-futuristic” Amazon Prime series Fallout, Purnell has not only affirmed herself as a screen sensation, but she’s also confessed to being a big New Zealand fan.
“New Zealand? I loved it,” she says, gushing over her trip to Aotearoa eight years ago. The star admitted to not only meeting her best friend in New Zealand, but also skydiving for the first time, adding that her favourite spot was Wellington - which left her with a lasting impression and a little bit of whiplash.
“I really liked it there,” she confessed, adding: “But I do remember, I stayed for two days and when I got on the bus to drive to the next area, in my ears, I could just hear, like, it was so windy the whole time.”
However, the windy city isn’t the only New Zealand treasure Purnell is a big fan of.
Speaking of her Yellowjackets co-star and resident Kiwi Melanie Lynskey, she could only gush.
Ella Purnell as Teen Jackie in Yellowjackets, streaming on Neon.
“I love Melanie,” she shared. “What was it like working with her? Melanie has one of the - and I don’t say this about everyone - one of the kindest hearts I’ve ever, ever met.
“She’s honest and she’s grounded and vulnerable and down to earth,” praised the star. “Honestly, I want to be Melanie Lynskey when I grow up. She’s just one of my heroes.”
Lynskey and Purnell, who play Shauna and Jackie respectively, are expected to return to Yellowjackets in its third instalment in 2025. On account of the SAG-AFTRA strike, the release date was pushed out, leaving many fans devastated and awaiting the hit series’ return.
But one doesn’t have to wait too long to see Purnell on the screen, thanks to her latest role in the upcoming Amazon Prime series Fallout.
Fallout is set in the aftermath of an apocalyptic nuclear exchange, in which survivors have taken refuge in fallout bunkers known as Vaults, built to preserve humanity in the event of nuclear annihilation. Two hundred years later, the “inherently good”, “relentlessly optimistic”Lucy, played by Purnell, leaves behind the only life she has ever known to venture out into the unknown wasteland above.
Translated from a video game into an eight-episode series, Geneva Robertson-Dworet and Graham Wagner - along with directorial help from Todd Howard and Jonathan Nolan - told the story of a post-apocalyptic world through a light-hearted lens. This was the point of difference that drew Purnell to the script to begin with.
“They managed to balance the light and the dark, the drama and the comedy. I don’t know how they managed to make the apocalypse funny, but they did and they did it really well,” Purnell shares.
Embedding a 1950s nostalgia into a futuristic universe, the series proposes an environment rife with suspense and laughter, juggling duality throughout.
“It’s really well written,” Purnell says. “It’s just, it’s really smart and the characters are so complex and it’s fun.”
She adds: “You throw in this nuclear radiation that mutates creatures and turns humans into ghouls. I mean, there is so much context and so much to sort of sink your teeth into.”
With a jam-packed universe and a diverse set of characters comes a location to match, and boy did Fallout explore some far-out places. A core memory for Purnell, which really takes the cake, was filming on an abandoned shipwreck in Western Africa.
Ella Purnell as Lucy in Amazon Prime's Fallout.
“It was in this sort of untouched part of Namibia and Africa that no one could get to. And so we took a helicopter, just eight of us.
“We flew, I think it was about four or five hours to this remote part of the Namibia coastline.
“[I] truly can’t describe how beautiful this place was. It was amazing. And I would never, I would never have done that. Thank you Jonathan Nolan for taking me on a helicopter to an abandoned shipwreck in Namibia. Crazy sentence.”
The blending of reality and fiction is a fascinating feature of the new must-watch flick, which begs the question - who would Purnell want in her dream team to survive the Fallout universe?
Purnell shortened it down to three tropes: a good fighter, a smart cookie, and someone funny to keep things lighthearted.
“We need Leslie Knope,” she shares, referencing the character from Parks and Recreation.
“Nick from New Girl, because he’s funny. He cracks me up. Not the actual actor, it has to be the character exclusively,” she iterates.
