Yellowjackets star Simone Kessell on Hollywood fame, te reo Māori, working alongside Melanie Lynskey

Kiwi star Simone Kessell. Photo / David Gray

Aotearoa actor Simone Kessell stars, alongside ‘bro’ Melanie Lynskey, in the Neon hit series, Yellowjackets. It’s been a long and strange ride on the road to recognition and she tells Joanna Mathers, in a New Zealand exclusive with Canvas, about filling big shoes with her character Lottie, finding fame and whānau.

On quiet days, Pakiri Beach is a temple. Waves break cleanly on white sand, seabirds tip wings in the crystal water. Light, clarity, solitude. “This was the place I’d dip into when I needed serenity. A space of calmness and the confidence when I needed to become that person.”

That person is Lottie Matthews. A freak-pagan priestess, Matthews led a group of traumatised, horny, hungry teenagers on a highway to hell in last year’s hit series Yellowjackets.

Lottie emerged as the axis around which the series spun, transforming from mentally ill rich girl to nature prophet. And last year, Simone Kessell was gifted with the task of rebirthing her.

“The final episode ended with ‘who the f*** is Lottie Matthews …' so I had huge shoes to fill.”

This, possibly, is an understatement. With 1.3 million viewers streaming final episode in the United States, Yellowjackets became the second-most-watched show in Showtime’s history. There are YouTube channels dedicated to analyses of the plane crash’s predominantly female survivors; 60,000 members on a Yellowjackets Reddit page.

A wahine from Auckland’s North Shore has been charged with bringing the show’s pivotal character to life. It’s daunting. So when Kessell felt overwhelmed, she’d drop into her own private Pakiri – a place where her dad had a holiday home, and where she spent time as a kid, supping on silence.

“Walking on the beach you could look left and right, and there was not a single person in sight. The sand dunes, the light on the water, the waves, knowing that there is a beautiful fish sanctuary just around the corner. The memory is so special, so spiritual.”

Simone Kessell is delighted she’s able to bring women of such mana to an international audience. Photo / David Gray

Kessell, 47, of Māori (Ngāti Tūwharetoa, Ngāi Te Rangi) and European descent, began her acting career in New Zealand at 15. Her first role saw her cast in short-lived soap Homeward Bound, and a few years later, alongside Katie Wolfe and Tim Balme in TV journalist drama Cover Story.

Moving to Australia in the early 2000s, she was recognised as a unique talent, and embraced. A jobbing actor, hopping from lily pad to lily pad, Kessell paid her dues.

“I’m hardworking, resilient. I’ve always taken leaps of faith and, luckily, they seem to pay off.”

Chatting over Zoom from Sydney, Kessell is fizzing. She’s enamoured of her latest role; in love with Lottie. And her casting is even more remarkable, as it comes on top of another televisual coup; that of Breha Organa in Obi-Wan Kenobi, mother of Princess Leia.

She’s delighted she’s able to bring women of such mana to an international audience. But … “I had to leave New Zealand to be seen.”

It’s been a long road. A teenage tennis ace and all-round Sporty Spice, Kessell wasn’t born into acting stock. Her mum is Māori, but this side of her identity wasn’t embraced early on.

“My mother came from a time when you weren’t allowed to speak Māori at school, so it wasn’t something I knew much about.”

But the Māori typecasting happened anyway ­– the single mother, the slut, the villain – and Australia was on the phone. “It wasn’t really working for me in New Zealand. So I made the decision to move.”

New Zealand may have forgotten Simone Kessell, but Hollywood hadn’t. Photo / David Gray

Theatre, to television, to film, the hardworking actor carried on. And life happened. She met her husband, Gregor Jordan, moved to Los Angeles, had her two sons and lived in a glorious wooden home built in 1903 and formerly occupied by Sir Ian McKellen, in Hollywood.

She worked with the big players – Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson in disaster movie San Andreas, 2015′s Time Traveller with Josh Hartnett.

It was a rich professional and private life, then along came Covid. “Los Angeles was broken during those first days of Covid. There were riots in the street. We decided that New Zealand was the best place to be.”

Aotearoa is, arguably, one of the best places in the world to live in. It’s also, arguably, one of the hardest places to return to. Kessell’s homecoming was not what she expected. “I’d been forgotten.”

First, it was bliss. “It was so different from the States, schools were open, it was really peaceful. We rented a house in Ponsonby and oh, it was heaven.”

And it offered her the opportunity to explore her Māori heritage, after being cast for a role in last year’s Muru, New Zealand’s entry into the 2023 International Academy Awards.

Based on the events surrounding the 2007 raids on Tūhoe living in Te Urewera forest in North Island’s East Coast, Muru was directed by Tearepa Kahi and starred Cliff Curtis. It had an 80 per cent Māori cast and crew.

Kessell was delighted to be able to immerse herself in Māoritanga. “There was always someone playing guitar, people were speaking in te reo Māori. Being immersed in this world was the highlight of my time back in New Zealand.”

But outside of this interlude, Kessell had been forgotten. “Out of sight, out of mind, I guess.

“I felt like I’d stepped on the lines playing hopscotch. I had to start at square one. It was fine, in some ways, ’cos I had been away for a long time, and I didn’t expect a free ticket. But I never got any of the roles I auditioned for, and it was very strange.”

The parochialism was hard to understand, and extended beyond paid work. “I sent Toi Whakaari an email saying, ‘So i’m back! If you would ever like a volunteer actress to come and speak to your first years, I’m happy to help!’ They never replied.”

She believes the powers that be may have thought she would be “too expensive”.

Simone Kessell began her acting career in New Zealand at 15. Photo / David Gray

“But no one even asked! I auditioned for one role and they ended up giving the job to an unknown actor from Rotorua. I guess it was because she was cheaper, but there was no talk about cost. I just wanted to work.”

New Zealand may have forgotten Kessell, but Hollywood hadn’t. She discovered that she had been cast as Breha Organa (child Princess Leia’s adoptive mother) while in Auckland. And there was a weird synchronicity here.

“Before I was given the role, I’d been looking for a book to read in the Grey Lynn Library,” she shares. “I’d found a Carrie Fisher biography and was completely blown away, in awe of her. She was an incredible, powerful woman. And literally a month after I had read the book I was cast as Leia Organa’s mother.”

Staking a claim in the Star Wars universe was always going to be a career-defining moment. She admits she didn’t know much about the franchise but her son was a fan and walked her through the movies.

“I knew that this role was huge. My character would be viewed by millions of people around the world, and fans would be obsessing over the casting. And I’ve got some lovely messages from fans about the role.”

And the role, inevitably, brought her to the attention of top Hollywood producers – and the makers of Yellowjackets.

Yellowjackets is a show that’s drenched in otherness: spirituality, mysticism. Embodying this otherness, Kessell drew on her own spirituality – something that is deeply entrenched.

“I consider myself a spiritual person,” she shares. “I draw on that, I draw on affirmations and visualisation. I appreciate the idea, I guess people would call it an idea, of a higher power.”

She gives an example of her son Beau’s 10th birthday. “It was yesterday. I gave him angel cards and I told him that every day we were going to read an angel card. He looked at me, like, ‘What’?”

One of the sacrifices Kessell had to make during the filming of Yellowjackets was leaving her sons in Australia, for filming in Vancouver. It’s not an uncommon occurrence for the family and part of being a successful actor.

“They are kind of used to it, but it is a sacrifice for us. But that feeling of grief, of loss, was something that I drew on when becoming Lottie.”

She’s not keen for her children to follow her into acting. “It’s too hard and too brutal. My oldest son Jack [18] is interested in writing and directing, which is fine.”

“But I see something in Beau, there’s that spark of interest. But I’m not encouraging it.”

In season one of Yellowjackets, teenage Lottie is launched as fragile, mentally ill, vulnerable. As the season progresses (and her medication runs out) this changes. She has visions that come true. The forest communicates with her. A pagan priestess, many of the girls view her as their leader.

In season two, we meet present-day Lottie for the first time. She has reinvented herself. The darkness of the time in the forest — with its blood, eating of flesh, has dissipated. “She is an aspirational leader in the sense that people want to follow her. She has something to say, and she is a healer. She has moved from a place to darkness into the light.”

Kessell explains that the foundations of the character were already in place from the first season, but she’s deepened and widened these.

“I sort of had the building blocks in place. But she was like a house without any paint or interior design. So I got to really play with shaping present-day Lottie: how she walked, how she held herself, what she wore, her voice … all of those things.”

When dropping into a character, Kessell uses the externals - hair, and makeup, costume. She explains that she sat down with costume designer Amy Paris, who had just come off Stranger Things, to create the right look for Lottie.

“Amy and I just played with these beautiful fabrics, and it was incredible. And we so much fun. And through the details, the gold of her robes, the exquisite detailing of her espadrilles. we really were taking her into the light away from darkness.”

The ritual of dressing in Lottie’s costume allowed her to “really become her. And that’s and that’s a wonderful place, I think, as an actor. When you get to that place, you’re very free.”

The significance of a wahine taking the lead in a major television series isn’t lost on Kessell. Diversity on set was a hallmark of Yellowjackets. The younger Lottie is played by Australian Courtney Eaton, also of Māori heritage, so the casting was apt.

But the fact that she is still reaching her heights as a middle-aged brown woman is significant.

She recalls sitting around with other older cast members (which include 90s film superstars Juliette Lewis, Christina Ricci and Melanie Lynskey) discussing survival.

“We were acknowledging what we had been through as women in this industry,” she shares. “The fact that we were all survivors, of the film and television industry …”

Melanie Lynskey in Yellowjackets, season 2.

Having Melanie Lynskey on set, another New Zealander to bounce off, was wonderful for Kessell. “You know, we have each other’s backs. We are culturally so, so different [from Americans] and that’s a wonderful thing.”

She shares a moment.

“It was the last week of filming, and we were all bone tired. It was around 4am, and we just waiting on Melanie, who was in the green room. I’m like, ‘Oh, come on bro, you’re keeping us waiting.’ Then I hear Melanie, go, ‘Aww, shut up!’ [in a stereotypical Kiwi accent] and we just kept going … we were losing our minds quite literally. We were so tired.

“Everyone was looking at us like, ‘What are they talking about?’”

Kessell says she’s not encountered many New Zealanders in the industry overseas; the likes of Taika Waititi and Martin Henderson are rare examples — there are very few New Zealanders prominent in the industry.

Powerful wāhine? Almost unheard of. Kessell is helping to remedy this. “We really need this. Wāhine of mana, strength, power, who are visible and that our people can see.”

She admits that she would love to learn te reo (in another interview with Woman magazine, she shares that her sister went through a full language immersion) but she’s not had the time - it’s something for the future, perhaps: “I know it’s always there.”

The future will definitely include Lottie – a third season of Yellowjackets has been announced. But while filming is over, Lottie (a character Kessell repeatedly refers to in terms of “love and light”) remains with her.

“I think she made me a better person. I mean, now, I’m sort of back to Mum and like, ‘Get in the car’ with my kids. But part of [Lottie] is still here.

“You always fall in love with your characters when you have done the work, and I’ve fallen in love with playing Lottie. And sometimes she still breaks my heart.”

Yellowjackets Season 2 is streaming on Neon from March 24 and starts on SoHo from March 27, 9.30pm.