UTOPIA'S CHILD

Ella Purnell is a naive Vault dweller venturing Topside to save her father

Your voice work as Jinx for the Arcane series was well received. Did that make you choosier about considering other videogame adaptations?

Not really. I guess it opened up my eyes to that world. I’m not really a gamer. I don’t have a ton of experience in that field. But just seeing the passion that videogame fans have… The thing about videogame adaptions is there’s so much lore and there’s so much to sink your teeth into. I really love doing that, being able to play within the parameters that have already been set with the world that exists.

Lucy’s an original character. How was the role pitched to you?

I first met with Jonathan Nolan and Geneva and Graham, the writers. They wanted to talk to me before they sent me the script to introduce me to Lucy and explain the world and the tone of Fallout. They immediately got my attention because they described her as someone who could star in a toothpaste commercial, but also was capable of killing you. I just thought that was really interesting.

Since you’re not a gamer, did wearing the iconic Vault suit or the Pip-boy have much impact on you?

I did play Fallout 4 a little bit to research the games. I just watched people play it, because I was not that good! But the weight of the responsibility on what I was doing, the gravitas of that, was not lost on me for even a second. Like, the first time I saw a Nuka-cola bottle was the coolest thing ever. I remember putting on the Vault suit for the first time and it was humbling.

How would you describe Lucy when we first meet her?

She’s a Vault Dweller. She’s lived her entire life underground. She, obviously, is very naive. At her core, she is good. All she’s ever known is this community of people who think exactly the same way as her, who were all raised the same. What was interesting for me is that she’s funny. Her humour comes from her innocence, right? She’s got that all-american, can-do attitude. From that comes strength.

On her journey, Lucy connects with Maximus, the squire and the Ghoul. How do they change her?

I love how they use these three archetypes as a way to explore the theme of morality in the show. They balance each other out, the three of them. They all have something the other doesn’t have. They all have different backgrounds and have come to adapt to survive in completely different ways.

Lucy is faced with a choice when she’s presented with these two characters who symbolise these two different ways of being. She has to decide who she wants to be. Every character that she meets in the season will shape her, just like her environment is going to shape her. Who she is at the end of the season is very different from the Lucy in

episode one.