-I'm so impressed by your dance moves
and your singing. -Yeah. Thank you.
It's my dancing that... -It's so good.
-That's what got me here. Yeah.
I'm amazed by your British accent.
-Oh. Thank you.
Yeah, 'cause I've known you and I watch you,
and I'm a big fan, but you do a great American accent.
-Thank you. I really appreciate that.
I have an amazing dialect coach called Coley.
I can't take any of the credit.
She made this.
-Do people get surprised to know that you're --
-They do sometimes, which is, like,
the highest compliment ever.
But I remember the first time I did my American accent
in a film, I was 15 or 16.
I thought, I'm gonna do what the real actors do.
I'm gonna stay in the accent the whole time, you know?
Yeah, maybe I'm a method -- I was 15.
I was figuring it out, I don't know.
-Yeah. [ Laughter ]
-And my co-star -- I'd been doing it about three weeks,
I kept it on, and my co-star,
he must have believed I was actually American.
And I dropped it eventually.
I was tired, you know, I went into my British accent
and he didn't believe I was English.
I had to prove to him that I was English.
He didn't believe me.
-He was like, "Stop doing this character.
You're freaking me out." -I know, and at first
it was so nice, and then by the end
I was, like, making him cups of tea,
I was listing the kings and queens and I was like,
how do I prove to you? -Bringing corgis in.
You're like, yeah, whatever I have to do to convince you
that I'm from England. Exactly.
-Congrats on "Fallout," by the way.
It's rave, rave, rave reviews right now.
[ Cheers and applause ]
It's a bona fide hit.
It is a hit. Congrats.
It is based on the video game Fallout,
and it doesn't look like anything on TV.
It is fantastic, by the way.
I was like, "What's CGI and what is real?"
-That is not CGI. Can you believe it?
-No. Where are you? What is this?
-This is in Namibia. In the Skeleton Coast.
Which somehow, somehow, looks like California.
Who would have thought that Namibia
would look just like California. -Namibia.
And what is it? But even that's real?
Yeah, so this is this, like, abandoned shipwreck
and is that me?
It's very tiny. -Yeah.
-That was me. I visited you on set that day.
I was ike, "Hi!" -I didn't notice.
-Yeah. No problem. -No, this was hilarious.
This is hilarious because, you know,
so these footprints, we had to get this shot in one
the first time, right, like,
Jonah's trying to get this high and wide shot.
And I'm walking up, I'm leaving the vault
that I've lived in my whole life,
underground for the first time,
seeing the wall for the first time.
It's a big deal.
And I looked down right before we shoot
and I'm like, "Is that a bone?"
And there's all these bones in the ground.
This is like in the middle of nowhere.
We took a four hour helicopter ride to shoot in this location.
It's very, very remote.
And I look at Jonah and I'm like, "Is that a bone?"
And he goes, "Action!"
And I start walking up to this shipwreck
and he goes, "Watch out for the hyenas."
I'm like -- We don't have hyenas in England, okay?
This is my first hyena experience.
I didn't run into one, luckily,
but it was a little touch and go there for a second.
-I mean, oh my gosh, "Should we get the shot?
What's coming? Am I gonna get attacked by hyenas?"
-You know, but did we get the shot? That's what's important.
-Yeah, exactly. And you did get the shot. Yeah.
One of the most recognizable looks
is power armor in this.
And, man, they knocked it out of the park
here by building this thing.
How big is this character?
It's a 7'4 -- this actual, practical,
real life armor that they built.
And our stunt performer, Adam Shippey, wears it.
-There is a person in that? -There's a person.
And, you know, you're sitting there having your lunch
and he's just walking by, you know,
it's crazy and it never gets old.
And, uh, you know, he's such a great guy
and he's such a good sport, and it kind of got to the point
where they were like, "What can we do with Shippey?
What can he do? Can he run? Can he jump?
Can he dance? Can he do the splits?"
He can do it all. -He can do everything.
-He can do it all. -You brought us a video.
-I did. -Here's Adam Shippey
in power armor -- flossing.
Take a look.
[ Laughter ]
Yeah. He can do everything.
-Oh, God.
He's gonna kill me for sending that in.
-You were telling me backstage
that you broke a lot of things on set.
-I do, yeah, thanks for bringing that up.
-Sorry about that, but. No.
Well, you were telling me and I think it's a funny story.
Because I thought it was just going to be one thing.
But you kept breaking multiple things.
-I did. Well, I wanted to wear the power armor
because it's the coolest thing in the entire world.
They would only let me wear the heads.
-Well, it's bigger than your whole body.
That's probably why.
Oh, my God. -It's true, it's true.
But they didn't let me because I have a habit of breaking things.
They nicknamed me Ella the Destroyer
because I broke so many things.
-But tell me what?
-Well, okay, so there's these pit boys, right?
It's like the big thing in the games,
and it's kind of iconic.
It's like a really big honor to be wearing one.
And I broke four of them.
And it was--
-This thing on your on your wrist.
-Yeah, and they're made from iPhones.
It's an iPhone that's sideways and held together
by this kind of, like, magnetic contraption.
And I talk with my hands in case you didn't notice.
And so I would be very passionate
and it would just kind of go flying across the room
and you just hear, "Cut!"
And they had to go, "Hey, iPhones are expensive.
So, you know, can you kind of -- We're in Namibia.
Yeah. It's tough to get an iPhone."
-So it's a good thing they didn't let me
wear the power armor, I think, in the end.
-You also said to me backstage, I go,
"Do you remember auditioning for this?"
And you go, "Yeah, I do. It was okay."
And I go, "Have you had bad auditions?"
I think if I just -- -Yes.
No, my auditions are always terrible.
I kind of feel like it's, like,
bad rehearsal, good wedding.
Every time I walk out an audition, I think I nailed that.
I never get the part.
It's only when I ruin auditions
and they're terrible that I somehow get the part.
-Give me an example of a bad one.
-I did "Sweetbitter," my first audition,
this is such a bad story, it's just so embarrassing.
I did my audition for "Sweetbitter"
and, you know, it's a screen test.
They fly out five girls and you're in New York.
I was 21. I was an idiot. I didn't know anything.
And you're all sitting in a waiting room, you know,
sizing each other up.
It's really scary. -Oh, I know.
-And you go in and there's like 25 stars executives in the room.
And I'm just sitting in the center
and I do the worst audition.
I forgot my lines, I was wearing the wrong top.
It was just -- It was a nightmare.
And I tried to leave and it was --
No one told me it was a push door, so I pulled it.
But I pulled the handle off
and we were locked inside this room.
-No. -For like 45 minutes.
-After the bad audition?
-Yes.
-You're now locked in the room with all these executives,
and they're like, "No." -I was doing stand up.
I was telling jokes. It was terrible.
Like, how do I play this off?
-But you got the part -Somehow.
I don't know how. Somehow I got the part.
-Because you're charming and you're really, really awesome.
You're really good, that's why. -Thank you, thank you.
-That's why you got the part.
You're super talented.
"Fallout." What can we tell everybody?
What character did you play?
And who do you play? -Oh, you know, I'll tell you.
When I did my first meeting,
they described her as Ned Flanders in the apocalypse.
And I was like, "I've never seen that show."
It's funny, it's political.
It is based on a video game,
but I don't think you need to know the games
or played the games to like the show.
Sort of nuclear apocalypse,
but funny, I don't know.
-Yes, that's a good way to say it's a nuclear apocalypse,
but funny. -TV show basically, yeah.
Yeah, it's fantastic. Everyone should check it out.
I want to show a clip.
Here's Ella Purnell in "Fallout."
Take a look.
-But the mission of the vaults
should be important to everyone.
-And why is that?
-Well, uh...
Well, you see, the idea is, um,
that we're going to...
save America.
-Ha!
And when exactly were you planning on saving America?
The vaults were nothing more than a hole in the ground
for rich folks to hide in
while the rest of the world burned.
-Whoo!
Ella Purnell, everybody.
Season one of "Fallout" is out now on Prime Video.
Benson Boone performs for us after the break.
Stick around everybody.