Jasmin Savoy Brown On 'Yellowjackets,' 'Today In Gay' & New Music

Jasmin Savoy Brown and I are FaceTiming my childhood friend. I’ve just told her the roundabout way I learned about her daily-news podcast Today In Gay: through a lesbian pastor in my hometown in Tennessee. She gasps. “That sentence just healed something in me. Will you please connect us?”

Spending time with the Yellowjackets star feels like being in therapy, only the person behind the chaise is a 31-year-old actor who’s disarmingly warm and gracious. Fans of the hit Showtime series recognize Brown as young Taissa, but if you follow her on Instagram, you know she’s also an accomplished singer, model, and producer. (A brief rundown of her bona fides: Since her breakout role in HBO’s The Leftovers, she’s made a name for herself playing queer characters on Yellowjackets and the Scream franchise. She’s released three singles and starred opposite Lucy Dacus in the music video for “Night Shift.” Then there’s the podcast, which she produces with a small remote team.)

As we wander the Brooklyn Botanic Garden on a dreary spring Thursday, Brown and I discuss religious trauma and our zodiac signs (she’s an Aries sun, Cancer moon, and Scorpio rising). She’s in New York for four days, and in between doctor’s appointments and work obligations, she has a few hours to hang out — which brings us to Crown Heights, Brooklyn, to drink peppermint tea and look at plants.

We’re at the Brooklyn Botanic Garden. Why did you pick this place?

I love botanical gardens. I have a membership in LA, and whenever I'm in a new city, I try to visit the closest one. It's grounding, and it's one of those things that’s the same everywhere but also totally different. Usually I find that botanical gardens are good with their money, putting it back into the environment. Also, no shade, but it feels more ethical than going to a zoo.

Do you have a favorite type of plant?

My place is full of plants, but my partner is the one that takes care of them, so she knows them better than I do. I love miniature trees — not just bonsai trees, but any sort of plant that looks like a cute little tree in a pot.

I have a memory of this place from my first year in New York. My roommate and I took pictures here during cherry-blossom season, and I was in this preppy outfit and pink lipstick that was very reminiscent of my Southern Christian sorority-girl past.

Wow, I need to see these photos. I grew up Evangelical Christian — praying in tongues, exorcising people of demons, all that stuff — but not Southern. That's a whole other ballgame.

Speaking of that, I wanted to ask you about growing up religious. How did that impact your queerness and coming-out journey?

I wonder if you relate to this: I have two versions of my history in my memory that are both real but totally conflict. One, I was always praying for my future husband, but I also had this queer memory of being in love with my female friends and being obsessed with drawing boobs in my journal. It's like sleeping Taissa and waking Taissa. Both are in me but completely separate, and it's kind of confusing to acknowledge that.

I came out at 21 in the most Aries way possible. I think I FaceTimed my mom one day and was like, "I have a girlfriend." I was really intense about it, and it was difficult for my extended family on my mom's side. But 10 years later, my cousin just married a woman. I feel like I led the way.

You grew up in Oregon. Is that still home?

Yeah, my mom and her family live in Oregon, and my dad and his side of the family live in Pennsylvania. I grew up in Oregon, and in adulthood, I'm spending more time in Philly.

I’m grateful and fortunate that I’m starting to make a lot of money in my career — I helped my mom buy a house recently, and I'm helping my dad pay off his house. I have plans for someday, when my dad passes away, to turn his house into an artist's residency in Philly. He has this beautiful old home my grandmother bought forever ago for $8,000, and I want to turn it into a place that artists can apply to stay for free. The only rule is that you have to fill the fridge and cook a meal. But otherwise, you can write your book or your album there.

That’s so lovely. I feel like there aren’t enough gathering spaces like that for people.

Especially not for people that need them. When you can afford a membership at a club, then you have that access. But when you're in your 20s and broke, and you're an artist who just needs somewhere to go to write and find a community...

It's so hard to do.

Because sometimes, you can't even afford coffee.

I love that idea. By the way, I want to ask how you’re feeling more broadly these days — you’re known for doing these very dark projects about trauma and sadness. How do you balance that with finding joy in your real life?

Right now, I’m in the healthiest place I've ever been, and I think that’s due to a combination of things. I've been working with therapists, I got a psychiatrist, and I'm exercising more. Also, I started cold-calling my friends to keep from getting lonely. Yesterday, I was on a walk and I had three different 10-minute conversations with three of my best friends.

In terms of work, I think I’m good at accessing those darker places, but I’m ready for some lighter roles. I want to do comedies. There was this period of a couple of years where I was testing for so many of them, and it always came down to me and someone else. If someone would just give me the f*cking opportunity, I'm funny.

You should do a gay rom-com.

Oh my God, I want to. I feel like it should be me and Hannah Einbinder. We would have fun together.

Do you know her?

Yeah. We've run into each other at parties, and we had a crush situation for a while. That will certainly bring two gals together. But she is very funny and actually very shy. I ran into her at a party last year, and I was being all flirty, and she was just quiet, keeping to herself. A lot of comedians are like that. I'm not sure why.

Manifesting this project for you. Do you ever find when you're in work mode, like shooting Yellowjackets, that you need to moderate yourself and step out of that darker headspace?

It’s easy for me while shooting to be like, “action, cut,” and switch between crying and not crying. I don't believe in method acting. I think that's dangerous and irresponsible. But when I'm exploring darkness in my work for months on end, I do need to balance that. While shooting this last season of Yellowjackets, I decided to paint. I took art classes at a studio in Vancouver and found a lot of lightness there.

Bring back hobbies! Especially with everything going on in the news cycle right now — things just feel heavy.

I had an intense panic attack a month ago about the state of the country and politics. Then in the last couple of weeks, I was like, "What can I do about it?" I might as well live my life, see my friends, and laugh as much as I can. Especially as queer people, as people of color, as anyone marginalized — being joyful is powerful.

I just read Malcolm Gladwell's new book, Revenge of the Tipping Point. I learned a lot, notably that change happens when 25% of people embrace it. He gave an example of the show Will and Grace. Prior to that airing, in the average American household, people voted against gay marriage. But as soon as only a quarter of the population was actively watching that show, everything changed.

It made me think about how in our current fight for trans rights and human rights, we might be really close. If we're at 23.5% of people, we have just a little way to go until there's actual change. We can't give up, which is why being in community makes a difference in the long run.

Your podcast is such a source of queer joy and good news.

Thank you, I’m really proud of it. Nay [Bever, one of the hosts] and I pitched the show everywhere for three years and no one wanted to make it, so I decided to make it myself.

Everyone involved has other gigs but is giving their all to this because we believe we deserve somewhere to tune in and hear good things. It was always my goal for the show that we have more good news than bad. Especially in the next four years, we're really going to need that.

What else are you working on these days?

Music. I've been sitting on some new stuff because I'm trying to figure out the best strategy for releasing it. I have an EP recorded, and four music videos are done. I’m really excited for people to see those, because it shows various sides of me.

Do you have a timeline for that?

No, I need to just put it out.

It's been a minute since you've released music, right?

It has, since, like, 2022. This music is much more highly produced than my old stuff, and I'm very proud of it. So in spite of everything, things are really good right now, and I'm looking forward to seeing what comes next.

This interview has been edited and condensed for clarity.