Ella Purnell doesn't understand how she became a scream queen: 'I can't do horror films'

"I don't know how any of this has happened!" says the star of the blood-soaked TV hits "Fallout" and "Yellowjackets."

If the blood and guts of Fallout and Yellowjackets made you feel queasy, Ella Purnell is right there with you.

Despite her roles in the blood-soaked hit series, the actress is not a fan of violent entertainment.

"I can't do horror films," Purnell told The Guardian in a new interview. "I don't really love watching too much gore, or any supernatural things. I'm not even really a big sci-fi person. And I'm not a gamer. So I don't know how any of this has happened!"

In fact, Purnell isn't just confused about her success as a star of grisly TV shows — she's confused that she's an actress at all. "[I] never really planned on becoming an actor," she told the outlet. "I feel a lot of guilt and impostor syndrome attached to that statement, because I know a lot of people have wanted to be an actor ever since they were kids. And that just wasn't me."

Related: How Amazon's Fallout brought the post-apocalyptic video games to TV

However, Purnell has far more performing experience than most actors her age. By the time she was 20, she had already played the young version of Keira Knightley in Never Let Me Go, the young version of Angelina Jolie in Maleficent, and the young version of Margot Robbie in The Legend of Tarzan, not to mention appeared in films like Kick-Ass 2 and Tim Burton's Miss Peregrine's Home for Peculiar Children. But none of that was ever part of her future plan. "I wanted to go to university and be a writer — I wanted to write children's books," she told The Guardian.

Purnell also reflected on the bizarreness of becoming exponentially more recognizable after the release of Fallout. "There's the day before Fallout comes out and no one knows who you are, to a week after Fallout comes out and suddenly people know your name. That's a slightly disorienting experience," she said. However, her prior experience working on high-profile projects meant fame didn't come as a complete surprise. "I feel like it became a marathon and not a sprint. It didn't feel as shocking to me as when somebody goes viral overnight."

Related: Yellowjackets cast members threw up filming that gruesome episode 2 ending

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The actress credits her family for keeping her grounded. "I have an incredible support system who would never let me get too arrogant," she said, shouting out her "three younger brothers whose main mission is to humble me any opportunity they get." Her siblings seemingly never get tired of pointing out "how short I am," Purnell said. "And for context, I'm not that short. I'm 5 feet 4 inches. But they're all like six feet."

Related: Fallout review: An addictive post-apocalyptic adventure

Purnell will next star on Sweetpea, which premieres Oct. 10 on Starz.

Read the original article on Entertainment Weekly.