"There’s no end goal for me that revolves around success"- When Ella Purnell gave her bold take on her career

Ella Purnell has been quite visible in the past couple of years, be it in her role of Jackie in Yellowjackets or as Lucy MacLean in the Amazon Prime Video series Fallout. But the actress has been around for much longer than this. She gained popularity as a child actress and has come a long way since.

But what makes Ella Purnell very different from other actors, and even other professionals, is that she is not running towards success, something not a lot of people can say in this day and age. Instead, the actress is more focused on personal growth and adventures in her career. For the 28-year-old actress, these are the milestones she aims to achieve, and not just success, fame, or money.

Discussing this in a 2024 interview with Vogue, the actress said:

"I have been [acting] for such a long time, and I love what I do. It has very much been a marathon, not a sprint. I’m not interested in any sort of fast track. There’s no end goal for me that revolves around success."

She added:

"It revolves around my personal growth and personal challenges. I’ve been incredibly lucky that the projects I’ve been a part of have done well. Of course, there’s a certain level of strategy involved, definitely more owed to my team than to me. I’m just really attracted to roles that feel new and feel different. I don’t want to do anything that I’ve done before."

Her approach is quite visible from her diverse palette of work and her willingness to experiment with her characters.

In this same interview, Ella Purnell further expressed what she felt about her career, and all of it is quite distinct from what we are more used to seeing from other Hollywood stars.

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"I want to do things that scare me"- Ella Purnell on what would satisfy her as an actress

Unlike many actors who focus heavily on success and fame, Ella Purnell is more driven towards growth. In this same interview, while discussing this, the young actress had said that she wouldn’t want to do a script unless she came out of it as a better person, or at least, a different person.

Speaking about this, Purnell expanded:

"I want to do things that scare me, and I want to take risks. Whether that’s with acting or producing or directing or writing, it is not always going to be a win. I’m going to do sh*t films. My first thing that I write is probably not going to be very good, and that’s fine. I think one of the benefits of being a child actor is you fail publicly—and early—and then you lose that fear that I think can hold you back sometimes."

She further added:

"If I don’t come out the other end of a job feeling like I’ve changed as a person, or I’ve grown as a person, or I've become a better actor, a better writer, a better friend, a better daughter—whatever it is—it’s not satisfying for me."

If Ella Purnell continues following this philosophy in the years to come, we are sure to see some very interesting works from the actress. She has already taken up a variety of different roles and is soon set to appear in more of those.

She will soon appear in Army of the Dead: Lost Vegas and will return for Sweetpea (2024-Present). She will also soon appear in The Scurry and perhaps reprise her role in future seasons of Yellowjackets.