Samantha Hanratty. Emma McIntyre/Getty Images for ELLE
Samantha Hanratty is used to expecting the unexpected while filming scenes as Misty for Yellowjackets — but she wasn’t always prepared for the highlights and challenges that came while shooting a scene amid a pregnancy.
“It was crazy. I found out right before we went back [for season 3], which kind of was my plan. I didn’t think I was actually going to get pregnant that quickly but the plan was to get pregnant during the season,” Hanratty, 29, who is married Christian DeAnda, exclusively told Us Weekly. “It was so hard. I was throwing up the whole beginning half of the show. I felt so bad.”
Hanratty wanted to let everybody on set know “pretty early on” so they knew what to expect, adding, “I knew I was going to need as much support as possible. I knew the risks too of having a baby and being pregnant while being in a stressful environment. I was really lucky to have my mom with me through most of the season, which was really great.”
Despite having a consistent support system on and off screen, Hanratty still faced her fair share of challenges.
“Running while being pregnant is not the easiest — especially on uneven ground while in my Misty gear on. But my baby’s right next to me right now and he is literally perfect. I’m really proud of myself for getting through this season and I’m really proud of the season,” she reflected. “I kept telling [the director], ‘Please don’t take away any good work from me. I can do it.’”
Hanratty has played the younger version of Christina Ricci‘s Misty since Yellowjackets premiered on Showtime in 2019. Before returning to film season 3, Hanratty found out that she was expecting her first baby and her son was born in December 2024. The milestone moment came after a difficult pregnancy that Hanratty was happy to have behind her.
“I will say that watching the episodes back, there was a scene that I was watching and I was like, ‘I don’t remember filming this.’ And I was actually in the emergency room the entire time that it was being filmed,” she revealed. “We had my body double being me and they never panned to my face in the whole sequence because I wasn’t there. So my body double was incredible and really, really stepped up and helped me so much this season. I’m incredibly grateful to her.”
Hanratty is now blissfully enjoying her first weeks as a mother.
“Oh, I’m going to get emotional. People talk about how it changes you but I am just so madly in love with him. I’ve always wanted to be a mom. I always knew that this is what I wanted but I just look at him in such awe,” she gushed to Us. “I can’t believe that he came out of me.”
Before giving birth to her little one, Hanratty used her platform to candidly discuss her son’s cleft lip, sharing, “We weren’t sure if it was going to be in the palate or not. And thankfully it wasn’t, which just means less surgeries for him which is why I say thankfully. He is doing really well and had his surgery already. He had it at two weeks old. He’s just the biggest trooper in the world.”
Motherhood has also shifted the way Hanratty has approached certain decisions — such as choosing not to publicly show her son on social media.
“It is still a difficult decision because I thought it would be easy. But I want to show the world how beautiful he is and I want to share that. But if I can protect him at any cost, I just want to do that,” she explained. “He is just perfect, especially with the cleft. I think there’s so many questions that people have and so many things that people don’t fully know about cleft lips and cleft palates. I wanted to help destigmatize what that is. It’s so common and it’s something that the cleft community has been such a beautiful and wonderful community. People have been so kind and supportive. I feel so lucky.”
Now that her son is here, Hanratty is looking forward to showing him off to her loved ones. That also includes her costars as they await news of a renewal for season 4.
“It’s funny. I think about how they say that your baby can hear you. I’m like, ‘My poor son has heard some of the most horrific screaming and howling and animal noises when he was inside me,’” she quipped. “I want to show him off to everybody. … Having him on set will actually be such a grounding thing for me. The idea of getting to be a working mom [reminds me that] I’m in such a privileged situation with where I’m at in my industry and the fact that I do get to have those times where I get to go and be with him.”
Hanratty noted that becoming a mother has helped her stand up for herself more, too.
“Stepping into my own voice of being able to say, ‘No, I need this time with my son.’ I think that’s something I learned a lot this last season was saying, ‘No, I’m not going to do this stunt or that stunt because it’s not safe for my child,’” she shared with Us. “It went from, ‘I’m not great at speaking up for myself.’ But when I know that it’s for somebody else, I’m pretty good at it. When it came to my point in my pregnancy where I was like, ‘OK, this isn’t my body anymore. This is our body and I want to protect him.’ Thankfully everybody was really great with that. Our producers were very, very helpful with that and our ADs of making sure that I was taken care of.”
While reflecting on the season as a whole, Hanratty teased to Us what fans can expect, adding, “This is the season of mourning. In my opinion, there is a lot to lose this season and it’s definitely the most emotional season to me. Just starting it off with us losing somebody so crucial to our story. It just doesn’t really get better from there, unfortunately. In a delicious way, this is a rough season to watch and it was a rough season to film.”
Yellowjackets is available to stream on Paramount+ Fridays and airs on Showtime Sundays at 9 p.m. ET.
