Melanie Lynskey as Shauna and Warren Kole as Jeff Sadecki as Shauna in ‘Yellowjackets’. Kailey Schwerman/SHOWTIME.
For Yellowjackets‘ Warren Kole, working with an intimacy coordinator alongside TV wife Melanie Lynskey has been a “welcome surprise.”
“I didn’t know how much I would have liked that until it arrived,” the actor, 45, exclusively told Us Weekly while representing the Showtime series at PaleyFest in L.A. on April 3. “It takes pressure off. As a man sometimes it’s like you’re terrified. Like, I don’t want to offend anybody. I don’t want to overstep. But I also don’t want to betray what’s written. When you have a third party come in, now you can have a proxy to work all that out.”
Kole and Lynskey, 45, play Jeff and Shauna, respectively, on the dark psychological thriller, which debuted in 2021. Currently in its second season, the actors have collaborated on intense sex scenes onscreen.
“It’s really great actually. Warren and I trust each other so much and we’re able to come up with the most interesting version of the scene because there’s such trust that neither of us are going to be weird in any way,” Lynskey told Us at PaleyFest. “We really love each other. And so we really coordinated it together. The intimacy coordinator was just like, ‘This is great! This is so exciting!’ She’s wonderful and I love that she’s there for our whole cast.”
Working with the Togetherness alum has been a “dream” for Kole. “She’s [at] the top of her game,” he gushed. “I am very, very lucky.”
Their characters’ dynamic is a different story, however. Kole describes Jeff and Shauna as “complicated” as they continue to coverup Shauna’s affair and accidentally killing her lover.
“I think it can either explode before someone runs away or self-implodes or somehow, they can start understanding. Because it seems like there are times where both Jeff and Shauna don’t know why she’s doing this. Like, ‘Why are you doing that?’ ‘I don’t know.’ That’s a tough spot,” Kole told Us. “They can balance each other out in a kind of common mission to get away with what’s happening.”
The Shades of Blue alum thinks that Jeff “certainly would want” the pair to stay together though. “He thinks that she can still be safe. She can still be pulled back from the abyss that she’s quickly descending into,” he explained. “But the potential there is really what creates so much tension in the show.”
Warren Kole as Jeff Sadecki and Melanie Lynskey as Shauna in ‘Yellowjackets’. Colin Bentley/SHOWTIME
In real life, Lynskey is married to Jason Ritter, who is expected to make a guest spot appearance in an upcoming episode. Although the two were not on set at the same time, Lynskey heard all about Ritter, 43, bonding with her costars — and a little bit too much if you asked her.
“I came back to work, and everybody was like, ‘Your husband’s the nicest person in the world. He’s our favorite.’ And I think previously I felt like I was some people’s favorite,” she teased to Us. “It was a little bit of a heartbreak. Everyone was like, ‘We still love you.’ And I was like, ‘I know he’s nicer. He’s nicer than me. He’s easier to be around. He never complains.’ So he became the new favorite. It was hard for me to give up the title, but I was also happy.”
As of now, the Ashley Lyle and Bart Nickerson-created series is expected to be five seasons. “We feel like we’re still on track for that,” Lyle told Entertainment Weekly in March.
Kole hopes the plan sticks. “I want this show to go as far as the creative flow is still exciting and happening,” he told Us. “Because you can always tell when it’s like, ‘OK, I guess we’re out of ideas here.’ This show isn’t close to that yet.”
Yellowjackets airs on Showtime Sundays at 9 p.m. ET.
