Photo by: Kailey Schwerman/Showtime
The Showtime original series Yellowjackets returned for its second season on March 24. The horror-drama show follows the aftermath of a plane crash in the Canadian wilderness that carried a soccer team of wildly talented high school girls. Years later, the details of what the girls had to do to survive in the wilderness haunts the “lucky” ones who made it out.

Alexa Barajas plays Teen Mari in the Emmy-nominated show which is known for very intense and graphic scenes of gore. Popternative host Petey Beats asked Alexa how she prepares for those intense scenes.

“For myself there’s I guess two sides of it. There’s the preparation I do for my character. I just want to make sure I know where she stands, what she believes in at the moment because things are constantly changing,” she shared adding, “and for me personally because of the subject matter being so heavy, I try and make sure that you know in between scenes, between takes to just like take it easy, play Nintendo, or just listen to music, and just chill out so that hopefully […] I don’t let it affect me.”

(L-R): Steven Krueger as Ben Scott, Samantha Hanratty as Teen Misty, Nuha Jes Izman as Teen Crystal, and Alexa Barajas as Teen Mari in episode 204 of Yellowjackets. Photo by: Colin Bentley/Showtime

Barajas also said it was easier to decipher reality from fiction this time around. “What happens is I’d say this season it’s easy to actually do have that like flip of the switch because we’re in a stage, so as soon as you walk into the stage it’s like…it’s almost like Narnia because it’s all snow and then you’re in that world. And as soon as you step out of it, you’re out of it. There’s trailers, you go and do your thing and so you really do get that clear separation.”

Watch the full interview with Alexa Barajas below.

New episodes of Yellowjackets air Fridays on Showtime and Paramount+

Amber Dover is a multimedia journalist with over a decade writing about pop culture. Cat mom with a deep love of horror, you can follow Amber at @Glambergirlblog on Instagram and Twitter.

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