Ella Purnell continues her stellar history of video game adaptations with Fallout. The actress, 27, has successfully ventured into the video game industry with Netflix’s Arcane, an animated series based on League of Legends, after previously finding success with Home for Peculiar Children, Army of the Dead, and Yellowjackets.
The English actor does, however, display a more upbeat side as Lucy in the latest drama series, Fallout. During the first season’s eight-episode series, viewers will witness Lucy’s development from an eternally upbeat vault dweller with an all-American gumption to a more seasoned survivor who can handle the dangers and quirks of the wasteland.
Purnell recently revealed that she was instantly drawn to the project when the show’s executive producers described her character as someone who could star in a “toothpaste commercial” but could also “kill you”.
Fallout’s Lucy: How The Producers Described Ella Purnell’s Character
The casting of Ella Purnell as Lucy is sure to delight Fallout video game fans. With a post-apocalyptic world devastated by nuclear war and a variety of dangerous creatures to contend with, the series is renowned for its dystopian setting. Purnell’s character seems like a perfect fit for the grim, survivalist tone of the game.
In an Amazon Q&A (via PC Gamer), Purnell revealed that she had played the Fallout games with her brothers and friends and thus was instantly sold on Lucy’s role after hearing the show’s producers characterize her. She recalled telling them.
“I’m in. I am 100 percent in. Sign me up.”
“Someone who would star in a toothpaste commercial but could also kill you” and “a Leslie Knope/Ned Flanders-type, but with something kind of dangerous lurking there” was how Fallout’s producers characterized Lucy to the actress. The Yellowjackets star further remarked:
“I felt like, ‘Okay, I could do this, I could do this’. Sometimes you just know, you kind of feel it in your body. But even so, it was such a surprise that I got the part. I couldn’t believe how lucky I got.”
But Ella Purnell revealed to Collider the little details and backstories she created for her character. The actress, 27, acknowledged—trying to remain true to the gameplay—that she had played the video game, even though its creators had told her not to, in order to comprehend it better.
How Ella Purnell’s Creative Choice Transformed Her Fallout Role
In an interview for Collider Ladies Night, Ella Purnell was questioned about the small details and backstories she created on her own for Lucy and how those were incorporated into the finished piece. Conducting extensive research was her primary objective while getting prepared for the series.
Although series creators Geneva Robertson-Dworet and Graham Wagner insisted she did not have to play the games herself, she felt the need to feel the same feelings that fans of Fallout did. As she put it:
“I love research. It’s probably my second favorite thing. When you asked me that question earlier, I was gonna say research. I will make playlists, I will imagine what they like to wear, what kind of perfume they would wear, all of these annoying, pretentious actor-y things, but I kind of love them even if they’re completely useless. I guess that was playing the game for me. Jonah, Geneva, and Graham, they all told me, ‘You don’t have to play the game. You really don’t need to. It’s not mandatory by any means’.”
In an effort to discover Lucy’s true nature, Purnell discussed playing the game and seeing the world through the character’s eyes:
“I wanted to feel the gravitas of that moment when I first tried on the vault suit, and knowing how special this was, and what a big deal, what an honor it was to be able to do that.”
Purnell co-stars on screen with Walton Goggins and Aaron Moten in Season 1.
Fallout can currently be watched on Amazon Prime Video.
