




Courtney Eaton and the Art of Creating Empathy for Flawed Characters
Courtney Eaton wants to set the record straight: Lottie Matthews is not a villain! The Yellowjackets character may be a lot of things—a survivor, an empath, a young woman battling mental illness, a guru—but her true intentions are far from villainous, and the actress will fight you on that point. In the 22 minutes I spend with Eaton over Zoom, one thing is abundantly clear. She is fiercely protective of her characters and their flaws, especially Lottie.
“Lottie and I almost share the same brain,” Eaton tells me. “Not that I’m going to start a cult, but I think most of the decisions she makes I would also make.” Early in the audition process for Yellowjackets—the Showtime series about a high school soccer team who survive a plane crash deep in the Canadian wilderness only to face the consequences of their actions 25 years later—Eaton went for the role of Shauna. At that stage, she tells me, everyone either read for Shauna or Jackie as a way to see all the different personalities come through. A week later, Eaton was brought back in to read for Lottie and landed the role, but she had some hesitations.
Prior to Yellowjackets, Eaton had zero TV credits to her name. The Australian actress made her screen debut in 2015’s Mad Max: Fury Road and went on to star in the action-adventure epic Gods of Egypt followed by a slew of indie projects and music videos. Television was uncharted territory for her, and the thought of signing a six-year deal for a show shrouded in secrecy was, well, scary. But after meeting with creators Bart Nickerson and Ashley Lyle and hearing their take on Lottie and the plan for the show, she was all in, telling the duo, “I don’t think I will ever get bored of this character.”
That sentiment still rings true for Eaton today. She likens playing Lottie to riding a roller coaster, one she will happily go on again and again. When we first meet Lottie before the crash, she has a friendly and calming presence. She is someone who seemingly gets along with everyone. But post-crash, we learn there might be more brewing underneath the surface. When her mysterious medication runs out, she starts to have strange, almost prophetic visions, ultimately dividing the group on whether she can actually connect with nature on a spiritual level or is simply mentally ill.
At the end of season one, an important question is asked, “Who the f*ck is Lottie Matthews?” Eaton struggles to answer this question even today but believes, at the root of everything, Lottie is an empath who doesn’t trust her own brain. It’s that beautiful nuance of Lottie that makes her such an interesting character but also connects her to Eaton. “I think I had an easier in because I feel like I relate to Lottie in the sense of not always knowing who I am or trusting my own thoughts or what direction I’m going in,” she says. “I’m very familiar with what people would call her darkness or dark essence.”
From the beginning, it was important to Eaton that Lottie, who could have a mental illness, wasn’t portrayed as a villain. “I think there’s a lot of that in our industry today,” she says. As Eaton describes, Lottie is a character who walks a fine line. From one scene to the next, her actions beg certain questions: Did this trauma exist before the crash? Is it the crash trauma itself? Does she have a gift, or is she struggling with mental health? “It can be challenging some days to not lean too much one way, and our writers and directors on set are really great at giving me little hints here and there—like, ‘Yes, you are in the right direction,’ or ‘Maybe less this way.’” she says. Not knowing which way she’s going to go is a fun challenge for Eaton. And even though she’s very protective of the character, she’s happy to go blindly into the darkness of the show and where they take her.
With season two, we finally get to see what has come of Lottie 25 years after being found. Played by Simone Kessell, older Lottie is the founder and leader of a cult-like group, or “intentional community,” called Camp Green Pine. Though the teen and current-day versions of each Yellowjackets character never share scenes, there seems to be a special bond between the actors, which was the case for Eaton and Kessell too. “I love Simone with all my heart,” Eaton gushes. From the moment they met over dinner, Eaton trusted Kessell with Lottie wholeheartedly. “We are almost the same person. We’re flopsy and probably a bit annoying, but we always talk about it as Simone being the light in Lottie and my version being the darkness, and she’s on her journey there.”
That darkness is what excites Eaton the most as she thinks about what’s next for teen Lottie. With a third season confirmed by Showtime, she’s convinced it’s going to be a rough road ahead for not just Lottie but also the whole group. “I don’t know what kind of journey that will be, but it will probably be pretty dark,” she alludes.
Things don’t exactly move into lighter fare for Eaton beyond Yellowjackets either. Up next, she has the drama Parachute directed by Brittany Snow. The film, which premiered to rave reviews at SXSW, follows Riley (Eaton), a young woman who, fresh out of rehab after struggling with an addiction to food and body-image issues, finds herself navigating love again. It was a unique project for Eaton, in that she formed a strong bond with Snow after just one conversation over lunch. “I’ve never been as close as I was to a director before. Just the space she gave me during scenes and our incredible crew, I’m really proud of that movie,” Eaton says. Even more so than Lottie, Eaton felt a closeness to Riley and, again, felt protective over the character. She and Snow worked closely to ensure she felt like a full person and not Hollywood’s stereotype of someone suffering from an eating disorder. Every detail down to the wardrobe was meticulously thought through with the intention of creating an authentic, whole story.
If it seems like Eaton’s work has erred on the heavier side lately, that’s because she prefers it that way—at least for now. “I don’t know what it says about me, or maybe it’s the themes of my last jobs, but I really just love delving into the emotional, dark side of [stories],” she says.
I added a new photoshoot to the gallery. Click on the gallery link below to see the photos in full size.
Here are also 2 new interviews with Courtney: Esquire Magazine and Town & Country Magazine
Next Big Thing: ‘Yellowjackets’ Actress Courtney Eaton Reckons With Lottie’s Big Revelations and What the Show’s Success Means For Her CareerThe actress, who plays young Lottie, has been upped to a series regular — after initial hesitation — as her character comes to the fore: “I knew pretty early on that I wasn’t ever going to get bored with this character.”
As the return of Yellowjackets looms, there’s one question on avid viewers’ minds (one that also was asked by Colleen Wheeler’s Suzie in the first-season finale): “Who the fuck is Lottie Matthews?”
For Courtney Eaton, it’s complicated. The actress has now spent more than a year filming the blockbuster Showtime drama about a group of teen girls stranded in the woods 19 months after a plane crash (and the struggles of their adult counterparts to reconcile, among other things, the cannibalism they committed before their rescue). In the cliffhanger episode of season one, the current-day Lottie was — to the sinister delight of viewers — revealed to be a cult leader seemingly responsible for the death of Travis, another survivor. “It doesn’t come from not knowing her well, but I have a hard time explaining her,” Eaton says.
Eaton, 27, who was born in Western Australia and moved to L.A. to pursue an acting career after scoring a role in 2015’s Mad Max: Fury Road, has been upped to series regular on Yellowjackets, an offer she actually turned down before the pilot. “This was my first TV show, and the idea of signing on to something for six years really scared me,” she says. “But then I knew pretty early on that I wasn’t ever going to get bored with this character.”
Yellowjackets, back on March 24, is an ensemble show in every sense of the word, but now Eaton’s character is squarely in the spotlight, much to her surprise. “I remember getting that script and seeing that I closed out the season and sort of shitting myself, for lack of a better term,” she says. Lottie will get even more fleshing out in the episodes to come, with the introduction of her current-day version (played by Simone Kessell) and a glimpse into her post-rescue trauma that, frankly, will do little to clear up the big questions around whether the character unlocked supernatural powers in the Canadian wilderness or simply suffered from an unmedicated mental illness.
Eaton says she talked to showrunners Bart Nickerson and Ashley Lyle about Lottie’s potential clairvoyance in season two, coming to an admittedly still-flimsy conclusion that at least helped with her onscreen portrayal. “I’ve decided that she doesn’t have a mental illness but that she’s never really trusted her own brain,” she says. “In dealing with the trauma of the crash, she’s just trying to latch onto whatever she can, which is often an energy that draws people to her even if she doesn’t know how to process it.”
Nominated for seven Emmys last year, Yellowjackets has already been renewed for a third season. But Eaton says the success never really sank in — and now the pressure of delivering for the fans is beginning to take hold.
It’s a lot for any young actor, but especially for someone experiencing their first big moment as an actor. “I only started feeling like I could actually do this as a job in the last year or two,” she says. “It came with learning what I want for my life.”
Courtney attended SXSW 2023 again yesterday! Two days ago she was there to promote “Yellowjackets” and yesterday she was promoting “Parachute”. I added 4 new albums with portraits to the gallery, as well as photos from the Parachute Premiere. Click on the gallery links below to see all new photos in full size.
Here are also some video of Courtney at SXSW 2023:
Courtney attended SXSW 2023 yesterday. I added 3 new albums with portraits to the gallery. Click on the gallery links below to see all new photos in full size.
I added a new photoshoot to the gallery taken in 2013. Click on the gallery link below to see all new photos in full size.
I already uploaded all candids, events & premiere photos of Courtney to the gallery until now. Here are 5 preview photos. Click on the gallery link below to see all candids, events and premiere photos!
I already made screencaps of Courtney in all of her film and televison projects. Click on the gallery link below to see all photos and screencaps from her films and television appearances.
And last but not least, I also uploaded all photoshoots and magazine scans of Courtney to the gallery until now. Click on the gallery link below to see all photoshoots and magazine scans!