Yellowjackets' Liv Hewson Saved Van From Writer's Chopping Block With One Simple Move
Showtime's "Yellowjackets" is in the unique position of having two troupes of actors playing the same characters in two different timelines set almost 25 years apart. At PaleyFest 2023's TV festival last month, the entire cast was given the rare opportunity of appearing together on stage for one of the largest panels ever for the event. Two of those actors, Liv Hewson and Lauren Ambrose (who play teen and adult Van, respectively) wouldn't have been on that stage if series creators Ashley Lyle and Bart Nickerson would have had their way, initially. According to them, Van was not supposed to survive her stint in the Canadian wilderness and would have been one of the first major characters to die.
In retrospect, it is something of a miracle that Van is still among the living. She's survived a plane crash, been mauled by a wolf leaving her permanently scarred, and she's been set on fire. Now that Lauren Ambrose has been introduced as the adult Van running a throwback video store in Vancouver, it's confirmed that, somehow, she managed to survive the horrors of the woods to lead a fairly quiet and content life.
Van has quickly become one of the most beloved characters on "Yellowjackets," proving that TV showrunners don't always have a master plan that covers the entire run of a series over multiple seasons. Luckily, Van is here to stay, even if the writers were very close at one point to killing her off entirely. At PaleyFest (via Vulture), Hewson learned that they were saved based on one very tiny, seemingly inconsequential detail.
Van has beer to thank for her survival
One telling character moment showed the writers' room that Hewson had great instincts that suddenly made Van one of the most relatable characters on the show. "We had toyed around with a tragic, tragic death for Van," Lyle said at the PaleyFest panel. Hewson was surprised to find out which scene changed her character's fate forever.
"There was a great moment that we found when Jackie lined everybody up at the kegger, and Liv made the choice that before they went, they topped off their beer," Nickerson said. That quick improvisation was enough to convince the writers to keep Van around. A shocked Hewson exclaimed, "That was it?!" That little instance of Van hitting the keg one more time sounds exactly like something your own friend would do at a party. It instantly gave Van a little more of a cool factor and a sense of humor that the writers have taken full advantage of.
Renaming the impromptu homecoming dance the surviving girls have in the woods to "Doomcoming" is another personal favorite quip. Those one-liners make Van all the more endearing to fans, and to Hewson as well. They explained the affection they have for Van and the close connection they feel towards the character. "I read somewhere once that the actors who play face characters at Disneyland aren't allowed to say that they play those characters. 'I'm a friend of Snow White's'" Hewson said. "That's how I feel about Van. She's real, and she's my friend."
New episodes of "Yellowjackets" stream Fridays in the Showtime app, and air Sundays on Showtime.