I meet with Courtney Eaton, who plays the polarizing Lottie Matthews on cult-favorite TV series Yellowjackets, on Zoom just two days after the season 2 finale airs. After getting over my initial shock at her Australian accent, I enthusiastically ask how the reaction has been to the show’s shocking finale. (Don’t worry: This is a spoiler-free zone.)
“It’s been pretty crazy,” Eaton says with a laugh. “I think this season especially has been just steering away from Reddit and the reactions because it just feels like so much pressure this season. But from the bits of responses I have seen, it’s not what anyone expected, which fits our show.”
As for how Eaton feels about all those Reddit theories overall? “I went on Reddit during the first season and have friends that will send me some theories, and my manager sends me funny ones on that. But I don’t know what it is about this season that it just scares me to go on it, and I don’t want to disappoint anyone,” she says, pointing to some especially outrageous theories she’s seen and found entertaining.
“There is a good one where people started being like, ‘There’s time travel in this show,’ and I was like, ‘Holy crap!’ Honestly, anything could happen in this show, so I don’t blame them.”
Courtney Eaton as Teen Lottie in YELLOWJACKETS.Photo Credit: Kailey Schwerman/SHOWTIME.
Eaton, who is as bubbly, friendly, and affable as one can be be, seems nothing like the at times ominous character she brings to life onscreen. Still, she insists that she has more in common with Lottie than one might think. “Lottie and I share a very similar brain, and I think in a lot of situations, the way she reacts, I would also react,” she says. “Maybe not starting a cult or trying to hunt people down [laughs], but I think one of our biggest shared traits is that I would say that I’m an empath and I’m highly sensitive to those around me. And that’s one of Lottie’s main driving forces in the season.”
