From Yellowjackets to The Boogeyman, Sophie Thatcher Finds Her Dark Side

They say good things come to those who wait. For Sophie Thatcher, there was an entire year between filming the pilot of her hit show Yellowjackets and the project getting a full series order from Showtime. Then it took another year after that for it to premiere in November 2021. Now—16 months, multiple Emmy noms, and a dedicated cult following later—the psychological thriller is back for season two in what promises to be an even wilder ride than the first. 

Thatcher and I meet via Zoom a few days after the show’s season two premiere in Los Angeles. She’s traded in her glamorous ruby-red John Galliano for Dior archive gown for a casual oversize tee—ever the sartorial chameleon—her signature tousled brunette shag on display. Sitting at her kitchen table, she has a relaxed disposition that makes for easy conversation, so we dive right in.

It’s safe to say a lot happened in Yellowjackets season one. Taking place across two timelines (1996 and 2021), the series follows a New Jersey high school girls’ soccer team whose private plane crashes while en route to nationals in Seattle, leaving the surviving group of teens to eke out an existence in the brutal Canadian wilderness. In the 19 months before they are found, unspeakable and unexplainable events ensue, driving the group to cannibalism. As we fast-forward 25 years later, it’s apparent the survivors haven’t fully come to terms with their trauma and will stop at nothing to keep the secret of what really happened in the woods from getting out. 

"I think the second season gets a lot more surreal and dives into the unknown and into the supernatural and what the wilderness is as a whole and what it does to us psychologically,” Thatcher shares. "The stakes keep rising, and I don’t know what’s going to happen in season three because, to me, this is the worst-case scenario for any person.”

Thatcher returns to the role of young Natalie "Nat” Scatorccio, an outsider with a natural inclination for survival. She’s independent and resilient and knows her way around a hunting rifle. The part came easily to the actress, who likened her to a cooler version of herself in high school. Thatcher submitted one self-tape, and it was hers—no follow-up needed. "I’ve never had that happen to me in my life before,” she tells me, "where you don’t have to go out there and prove yourself a million times.” Thatcher was living in New York at the time, going back and forth between the city and New Jersey and watching The Sopranos, so there was this broad New York New Jersey mentality already inside her. The part came at the perfect time, and to the creators, there was no question she was Natalie. 

Not long after Thatcher’s casting news, it was announced Juliette Lewis would be playing the older version of Natalie. Having seen Lewis’s iconic performances in Natural Born Killers and What’s Eating Gilbert Grape, Thatcher was beyond excited by the news. "I thought, ‘If I’m anything remotely close to that, that’s a huge compliment.’” Spoiler alert: She is. 

Though the actors would never share scenes, they quickly connected over Natalie. Early phone calls were spent talking a lot about how the character presents herself, the music she likes, who her idols are, and what she would have in her room. "Funny enough, me and Juliette had a lot of similar overlap,” Thatcher says looking back. "So within that moment, realizing that we’re into a lot of the same artists, I was like, ‘Oh, we get each other. That’s great.’ So I think there was trust from the very beginning.”

Wardrobe was a huge piece of the puzzle for both Thatcher and Lewis. A lot of season one was Thatcher fighting against Natalie becoming a caricature and somebody else’s idea of what rebellion is. It could have easily gone emo or pop punk. Band T-shirts with the likes of Blondie on them felt too on the nose for the actress. "I was always trying to push against that because realistically Natalie is so independent and doesn’t dress ’90s or grunge,” Thatcher says. "She is in her own era, and that’s what makes her cool. She’s not at all interested in what’s happening then.” Thatcher’s reference was a young girl stuck in the late ’70s listening to post-punk bands. Even her hair, a bleached mullet, was a nod to an earlier time period and intentionally didn’t fit with the ’90s.

As the teens head deeper into the frigid winter and madness in season two, the wardrobe takes on a post-apocalyptic flair. Think tattered layers and animal pelts. Thatcher was particularly excited about this evolution and likens Natalie’s "huntress” look to something out of Mad Max or Princess Mononoke. She lights up describing her braided warrior headband and the avant-garde and "iconic” nature of the looks.

Before we start getting into spoiler territory, we pivot to Thatcher’s next project, The Boogeyman, which hits theaters June 2. The film adaptation of Stephen King’s novel looks genuinely terrifying (just watch the trailer), and I start to sense a theme building in Thatcher’s résumé. The actress admits she is attracted to darker stories, which stems from being a naturally intense person and her desire to feel something deeper. "Most of my taste in music and art is kind of depressing,” she says with a laugh. "I just want to feel something. That’s why it’s fun on set, living through these characters. When you are doing such a crazy genre piece, it’s cool to go through something you have never experienced before.”

The Boogeyman was a challenging project for Thatcher. The story is rooted in grief, which forced her to live in such a dark place while filming. When I ask how she grounds herself after wrapping such psychologically intense projects as The Boogeyman and Yellowjackets, she credits the importance of having a home base. When filming season one of Yellowjackets, Thatcher bounced from one Airbnb to the next and couldn’t shake the chaos. Now, she has an apartment that she shares with her boyfriend and their cat, which serves as the ideal refuge when she’s not filming. Then there’s her music, another form of therapy.

Music has always been Thatcher’s first love, and she just might be ready to share it with the rest of the world too. Talking about it is the first step. "Just bringing it up in interviews is kind of forcing me to be like, ‘Okay, I got to start putting it out.’” The whole thing feels extremely personal to Thatcher, hence her hesitation. There’s also the potential to ruin the cathartic aspect of making music. But she has a couple of songs she wants to release soon, and moving forward with her music, her art, and her writing is all part of a bigger plan to finally see her passion projects through this year. 

As with Yellowjackets, I’m sure it will be worth the wait.

Yellowjackets season two is now on Showtime.

Photographer: Kobe Wagstaff

Stylist: Lauren Eggertsen

Hairstylist: Sully Layo

Makeup Artist: Robert Rumsey

Creative Director: Alexa Wiley

Entertainment Director: Jessica Baker

Location: Dish Studios