'Fallout' Isn't the First Video Game Adaptation Ella Purnell Made Better – Collider

When it comes to rising stars who completely elevate any project they’re a part of, few are doing it as successfully as Ella Purnell. This actress has been working nonstop for more than a decade, taking on wildly different performances and imbuing each with a versatile depth for which she’s quickly becoming known. The most recent of these is her role in Fallout, created by Graham Wagner and Geneva Robertson-Dworet, a video game adaptation that broke all expectations due in large part to her performance as main character Lucy. This live-action version of the groundbreaking game featured exceptional performances from everyone involved, but it was Purnell who gave this story of mayhem in a radiation-drenched dystopia the dreadful gravitas needed. Her acting makes the entire project immensely better — and, funnily enough, this isn’t the first time she’s done this with a show based on a video game. While Fallout uses real people to stress the levity of its premise, the animated series Arcane, created by Christian Linke and Alex Yee, does the same through animation, using beautiful images, heartwrenching storylines, and, most of all, Purnell’s amazing voice acting to turn its digital story into something anyone can relate to.

Arcane

Set in Utopian Piltover and the oppressed underground of Zaun, the story follows the origins of two iconic League Of Legends champions and the power that will tear them apart.

Release Date

November 6, 2021

Seasons

2

Streaming Service(s)

Netflix

Ella Purnell Is Essential to ‘Fallout’

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Fallout has taken streaming audiences by storm, with Purnell especially receiving praise for the wild places she’s able to take her sheltered (literally) character, Lucy. The show finds this young woman living in the safety of an underground vault that’s kept her community safe while nuclear bombs turned the world upside into a brutal wasteland, with Lucy choosing to leave this haven and venture out to find her kidnapped father. She merges comedy and tragedy in her portrayal of this multi-faceted character. The Fallout games famously had both humor and horror elements, showing a terrifying vision of humanity’s future through a funny lens that the show tries to adapt in this narrative. Lucy perfectly encapsulates these themes, emphasizing through her journey that no matter how terrible the world and its inhabitants have become, there is always a reason to fight for love and peace. This fight for good starts innocent but grows with each episode, Purnell showcasing the character’s growth and recognition that while her mission certainly needs to account for the atrocities of this world that doesn’t mean she shouldn’t still have it. This portrayal bolsters the entire project, similar to what the actress was able to do with her role in Netflix’s Arcane.

The complexity and endearing qualities of Lucy were aspects Purnell learned to embody during her time as Powder, aka Jinx, one of Arcane’s central and most tragic characters — though that nuance didn’t come easily. The series is based on the world-famous game League of Legends and takes place in the expansive setting of Runeterra, a planet filled with bombastic characters with unique abilities that people can play in this team-based fighting game. The blue-haired, maniacal Jinx is one of its most popular, but rather than getting the storied past that others receive, she is largely reduced to a superficial “manic pixie dream girl” with a passion for guns and explosions. Audiences were excited to see a much more fleshed-out version of her in Arcane, but it meant that while other performers had backstories to draw from, Purnell had to learn on her own what created this person and how to show every conflicting part of them onscreen. It was an amazing script that would have yielded a great performance no matter what, but she went beyond that — with just her words, Purnell transcended the writing and created a character that captures Arcane’s message as a whole.

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‘Arcane’s’ Jinx Is More Than Meets the Eye

While all of Arcane worked hard to expand upon League of Legends’ lore, where it really shines is turning these digital characters into compelling personalities. Nowhere does that show more than through Powder, a young girl who, with her sister Vi (Hailee Steinfeld), saw their parents ripped away from them by the corrupt police force of Piltover, a metropolis that literally hangs high above their toxic city, Zaun. All of these characters benefit from amazing voice acting, with Steinfeld especially shining as the protective but messy older sister, but it’s Purnell’s that showcases just how terrifying this colorful world can be. Season 1 sees Powder grow into Jinx, the trauma of her parents dying and inadvertently causing the deaths of her found family turning her into the ruthless, gun-toting adoptee of a local crime boss. It’s a devastating story arc that goes beyond the simple caricature created by the game, and none of it would have been possible without the actress’ impeccable voice acting.

From the fluctuations of Jinx’s voice to reflect her instability to the choked sobs she lets out every time yet another person she loves is ripped away, it’s jaw-dropping how effectively Purnell uses her words to truly give this heartwrenching character a voice. The series turns her manic love for explosions into a coping mechanism Jinx develops from the mental distress she is perpetually suffering from. It’s the actor’s job to carry out the titanic task of portraying this internal dynamic, and she does it by finding both the highs and lows that live within Jinx’s mind.

She refuses to paint this blue-haired orphan as purely sad or as an overexcited shell, instead mining the immense depths that live between these two extremes and presenting through each word the nonstop misery that would create a character as wild as Jinx. Just like the adaptation she lives within, Jinx contains multitudes, her bright colors often concealing a deeply distressed center. She is one of animation’s most intricate characters living within one of gaming’s most encompassing worlds, and through Purnell’s expert presentation of the conflicts (both internal and external) that created her, she embodies Arcane’s themes and grants it the levity it needs.

From ‘Arcane’ to ‘Fallout’, Purnell Shines No Matter What

Creating a video game adaptation is always an uphill battle, especially when the original property is as popular as Fallout’s or Arcane’s. There will always be people who are upset about some aspect of the show and criticize that no serialization can ever encapsulate the dozens of hours of world-building that were put into each game. Yet both shows create an expansive world that feels like an organic, realistic evolution of the histories provided by their digital counterparts — and they both owe this feat to the acting of Ella Purnell. Of course, some countless other performers and writers help make the world, but without her, each falls dangerously close to becoming a surface attempt at replicating stories that fans of the games are already aware of.

Purnell is able to untangle the vast layers that live within a character like Lucy and Jinx, and the worlds they inhabit, with Jinx especially allowing her to find the countless different aspects that created this troubled character and display it for all audiences to see. Both series have numerous themes that attempt to show the complexity of their world, demonstrating the darkness that lies behind their often wondrous settings and giving the stories a depth that their games never could — and none of that would be possible without Ella Purnell elevating them every step of the way.

Arcane is available to stream on Netflix in the U.S.

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