Fallout Star Is Not A Fan Of The Video Games
While there are exceptions in both directions, a general rule is that movies and shows based on games tend to be terrible (and vice versa). Because of that, fans of the hit franchise were pleasantly surprised to discover that Amazon’s Fallout show was excellent…a true love letter to the games with a captivating performance from series lead Ella Purnell.
She was so good playing as a Vault dweller unleashed on a post-apocalyptic world that many assumed she had spent plenty of time playing titles like Fallout 3 and Fallout: New Vegas, but she recently admitted the surprising truth: “I’m not a gamer.”
Ella Purnell Doesn’t Love Video Games And More
It’s not that she has a problem with Fallout or other games, necessarily…they’re just not her cup of tea (or should that be irradiated water?).
In an interview with the Guardian, Ella Purnell discussed her surprise that fans had labeled her a modern scream queen thanks to her performance in shows like Fallout and Yellowjackets. This led to an admission that games aren’t all she avoids: she also “can’t do horror films” and doesn’t “love watching too much gore, or any supernatural things.”
On top of that, the Fallout star admitted that “I’m not even really a big sci-fi person.” Despite everything she’s not, Ella Purnell found herself at the heart of an extremely gory sci-fi TV show adaptation of a hit video game franchise. Nobody is more surprised than her, and even she isn’t sure how she found such success in the kinds of projects she’d normally avoid: “I don’t know how any of this has happened!”
Ella Purnell Feels Out Of Place
The star seems grateful for her success, but she also has a tongue-in-cheek sense of humor regarding what others might think of her based on the roles that have made her famous.
“People think I must be really messed up, but I swear I’m a happy, well-adjusted human!”
It’s a joke that hides a kind of real insecurity…as someone who stopped acting to pursue writing dreams and then returned to Hollywood for Miss Peregrine’s Home for Peculiar Children (you don’t exactly say no to Tim Burton), she often feels like a woman out of place.
An Extension Of Her Personality?
From the outside looking in, it certainly seems like these qualities made her uniquely suited to star in Fallout.
Her onscreen character, like Ella Purnell herself, is someone who doesn’t like gore or sci-fi excess…she just wants to have a quiet life (complete with the occasional cousin stuff) when she is reluctantly thrust into adventure.
In the best possible way, her character seems like an extension of her personality, which helps make her a great surrogate for the audience.
An Everywoman
Speaking of which, it was always a question of whether Fallout fans would embrace her character because everyone creates different motivations and personalities for their game playthroughs (that’s how RPGs work, after all).
Ella Purnell brought her own quirky experiences and personality into her character, helping her create an onscreen persona that (ironically enough) most gamers could easily identify with.
She is an everywoman in an unhinged world, and looking at the world through her fresh and often frightened eyes helps make watching the show that much more immersive.
Change Before Fallout Season 2?
She might not be a gamer now, but that could change before the premiere of Fallout’s second season. The second season of the show doesn’t currently have an official release date, and it may very well be 2026 or later before we see more of Ella Purnell’s dystopian misadventures.
Here’s hoping that her character, like the actor herself, can remain a “happy, well-adjusted human” by the time she reaches the end of this off-kilter Wasteland journey.
Source: The Guardian
