Video game adaptations, by and large, have just one simple rule that they must follow — stay faithful to the source material. That’s why everyone loved The Super Mario Bros. Movie but is highly skeptical about Borderlands. And yet along comes Amazon’s Fallout to flout the rule.
As developed for TV by Westworld mastermind Jonathan “Brother of Christopher” Nolan, the Fallout series actually tells its own unique story that’s not a direct adaptation of any of the games. And yet it manages to capture the tone, feel, and themes of the games so well that it seems to have struck the perfect balance, like so few adaptations before it.
This means that audiences are introduced to a new protagonist in the show, Lucy MacLean, a peppy Vault Dweller — someone hailing from a fallout shelter city in a post-apocalyptic future — who discovers just how dark and dangerous the Wasteland of the surface world has become. Star Ella Purnell has revealed the character was pitched to her as “Leslie Knope meets Ned Flanders.” But who is Lucy actress Purnell and why does she look so familiar?
Who is Ella Purnell and where have I seen her before?
As much as it’s warranted, it’s somewhat odd that critics are calling Purnell’s turn in Fallout a “star-making performance” as the English actress has been blessed with roles in a ton of major productions for the past 14 years. Starting out as a child actor, the now-27-year-old landed her big break in the industry in a dream gig that many would kill for — 2010’s Never Let Me Go, a sci-fi drama based on the Kazuo Ishiguro novel of the same name, opposite Andrew Garfield, Carey Mulligan, and Keira Knightley.
Purnell played a young Knightley in the film, which kickstarted a successful niche for the performer across her teens as she portrayed adolescent versions of iconic actresses in numerous other blockbuster movies — see her performances as Young Angelina Jolie in 2014’s Maleficent and Young Margot Robbie in 2016’s The Legend of Tarzan. The London native also landed roles in the likes of 2013’s Kick-Ass 2 and 2016’s Tim Burton flick Miss Peregrine’s Home for Peculiar Children.
In the 2020s, Purnell has transitioned into streaming and TV projects, and the move has seen her career explode. Honestly, at this point, it’s easier to list what she hasn’t been in then what she has. You might’ve seen her in 2021’s Zack Snyder zombiepalooza Army of the Dead or period drama Belgravia. Thanks to her successful side hustle as a voice actress, you’ve also heard Purnell as Jinx in Arcane and Gwyn in Star Trek: Prodigy.
Purnell’s most recognizable role before Fallout, though, has to be as Jackie Taylor in Showtime’s Yellowjackets, for which her performance in the show’s 1996 timeline, following a bunch of high schoolers who must survive in the wilderness after a plane crash, won a lot of well-deserved acclaim. Going by Fallout, it seems Purnell’s years as a supporting or ensemble player might be over, and more leading roles may be coming her way.
