The Wynonna Earp cast dish on their electrifying season one and teases more to come…

The cast of Wynonna Earp plus show-runner Emily Andras dished on what’s to come for Syfy’s runaway success.

Prior to Wynonna Earp’s finale airing on Friday 25th June, on Syfy, show-runner Emily Andras, along with some of the show’s stars Melanie Scrofano, Natalie Krill and Katherine Barrell attended a call conference for which TV After Dark were invited to. During the conference call and the opportunity to watch the thrilling season finale, questions were free to contain spoiler material but for the sake of this article and the finale airing imminently, all spoilers shall be withheld.

With the recent big twist of Willa not quite being the Earp we’d all hoped for, Ms. Krill (Willa) and show-runner Ms. Andras expanded a little bit about Willa’s conditioning, and her relationship with Bobo del Rey (Michael Eklund).

Krill said: “I think that it starts out as a, you know, a Stockholm syndrome type of relationship, you know, falling in love with your captor.  But then I think as their relationship grows on, it actually kind of reverses dynamic and Bobo is more at the mercy of Willa towards the end of it, I would say.” Andras agreed emphatically. “I think she definitely is the power player by the end.”

It opened up some interesting conversation between Krill and Andras about the portrayal of Willa, and whether or not Willa’s actions had succumbed to a push-pull of nature versus nurture, essentially. As Andras praised Krill’s “amazing” performance of a “delicious character” she lamented on Willa’s early childhood by reflecting on some of the earlier episodes, namely when Waverly (Dominique Provost-Chalkley), the youngest Earp, recalled essentially being bullied by her. There had been hints she wasn’t “necessarily the nicest kid”.

With the flashbacks indicating that she’d been psychologically raised by her father to become a killer, for Willa is the heir, Andras pondered if Willa was indeed a pure heroine or villain—or if she was a bit of both. Ultimately, Andras concluded it was the latter, but also added, “But I think there’s still some story to explore in exactly what happened to Willa and why she went bad, so to speak.”

Moving on from Willa’s psyche and exploring her relationships—namely with Wynonna—Krill and Scrofano discussed the struggle between the duo.

“I’ll just say from Willa’s perspective I think she does love Wynonna deeply but what’s driving her is she thinks she’s doing something that’s for the greater good.  So she’s a martyr,” Krill said, to which Scrofano agreed: “Yes, and the same thing for Wynonna, like, I think they’re both — they both really believe that their way is going to be the thing that saves the world so to speak.” But upon elaboration and deeper thought into Wynonna’s mind upon seeing Willa for who she truly was, Scrofano added, “To be able to see [Willa] for what she is now is really difficult and really — it’s just sort of a — you know, there’s that block that happens when you love somebody and you don’t want see them honestly, which was really sad.”

Andras also chimed in, with realisation hitting her that perhaps Willa and Wynonna were indeed two peas in a pod—albeit launched into very different environments, years growing up and fates: “When you were talking about, you made me realize like, oh, my God, Willa and Wynonna kind of want the same thing.  They both think they’re saving the world.”

Natalie Krill, who stars as Willa.

Speaking of dynamics, the long-awaited kiss between Wynonna and Dolls (Shamier Anderson) seemed to be playing on a few minds—critics and Ms. Scrofano alike! “I just feel he — the whole season, I, Melanie, was going like when? Like it’s got to come, right?  Like when is it coming? […] And I think probably Wynonna would have been the same, like, “I think, I think he wants to — like I think he wants to kiss me but maybe he doesn’t, maybe I’m disgusting, maybe he wants to kiss me now.  No, not now.  Cool.”  And so I think we were — it was like a parallel journey of going, “Holy crap.”  And then in the moment that it happens, it’s just — it’s just one of those things that didn’t feel forced.  It just felt like, yes, this makes sense right now.”

Bobo del Rey’s lavish party paved way for a bit of freedom of imagination as we wondered how and when Wynonna acquired that dress. “You know what, she travelled a lot before she came back to purgatory, I think she picked up a little — maybe she stole it,” Scrofano mused aloud, whilst an entertained Andras encouraged her to keep going. “She definitely stole it.”

As for the choosing of the dress itself, Scrofano recalled the original having a “high neck” to which Andras had it changed to something more “plungy”, to a point where Scrofano recalled, “I think we did five fittings where they just like suctioned me into it and basically I had to take it home because I couldn’t get it off.  So that’s the story behind my dress.”

For Krill, though she had a few viable options, there was one in particular: “The blue one with the gold just seemed really to suit Willa and where she was at in that point in the story and a little bit darker, a little bit, you know, sexier.”

Interestingly, when the talk turned to Peacemaker (and certain Easter eggs, if you will, may wait until you have seen the finale!) and its struggle to precisely name its heir. As we’ve seen, both Willa and Wynonna have shot Peacemaker successfully, but as Willa is slowly emerging to be something else, is she the heir Purgatory needs? As for Peacemaker, Andras said, “Peacemaker may have more ability that we’ve seen thus far and that would be a really interesting thing to explore”, agreeing when the questioner suggested the sentience of Peacemaker possibly being revealed. Andras joked, “You just said it so much smarter than me.  Just pretend I said that.”

As for the show itself, Andras noted, “I feel like the fact that people have just fallen in love and really understood how talented this cast is and how once in a lifetime this cast is, has made me so happy.”

In the spirit of the upcoming and massive San Diego Comic Con, of which it was only recently confirmed the cast would attend, Scrofano quickly jumped in with: “I’m terrified. […] I’m not great in crowds so I’m like — I hear it’s crowded but I’m really excited.  Like some people on Twitter already posted, like, their cosplay outfits from our show.  And that just sort of made it really — sort of made it more real and got me really excited because I’m like people — people like us maybe.  Maybe they’re going to come say hi.  So I’m very excited.”

If it wasn’t clear of how close the cast were—and with their showrunner, Ms. Andras—it was evident in the slight teasing of Scrofano’s unease at big crowds, but another notable thing about the cast and Andras was their social awareness. Most recently, this related to the ‘Bury Your Gays’ trope, which Andras addressed firmly:

“I would never speak to the thought process of another show or another show runner or another writing room.  I don’t know what excuse is given there.  Yes, I just would never know.  And like as a show runner, I always am careful to say there are a thousand, thousand things that go into any decision on a show, especially when you’re killing off a character.  I do — I’m incredibly aware of the Bury Your Gays trope and was quite astonished at what happened in 2016 where we were basically losing lesbians left, right, and center.  Like to be completely honest, it was pretty crazy.  I’m hoping it was just a terrible, terrible coincidence and if nothing else, I think that there’s one good thing that came out of the destruction so to speak is that the Bury Your Gays trope really became front and center in the media.”

To further elaborate, Andras confirmed that they had finished shooting in January 2015—far before the scandal over the trope had boiled over, and any creative decisions they’d made were cemented. Andras also added that with her experience at ‘Lost Girl’, she was proud of the representation they showed, especially in having a “bisexual lead who ultimately ended up with her female love interest and that was really important to us”.

Clearly impassioned by the topic, Andras explained that beyond the trope, “We have a variety of women on the show who — from villains to straights, to lesbians, what have you, to cops, to sisters.  So I think if you are just writing a variety of women on the screen, no one woman has to represent all women.  And part of that is just [wanting] to give satisfying storylines that don’t necessarily end in destruction, because of who they are or who they love.  So yes, I’m very aware of the trope.  I know it’s a trope that’s very dangerous and needs to be addressed on television so it’s something that I’m very conscious of when I’m writing.  And I hope more people are aware of it after this year.  I really truly think you would have to be crazy not to know that this is something that we maybe should discuss and maybe do better at.

“I think it’s hard.  I think about — especially like young LGBT viewers, I think had a really tough year and like I just think about when I was 14 and how hard that could have been.  So yes, you know, again, we can’t all drive the bus when it comes to storytelling.  You can get on the bus and go where we’re going or you can get off the bus if you don’t like where it’s going.  But I think if you’re recording a particular community that maybe has been through some trauma as far as representation, you have to be aware of what they’ve been through and make better choices.”

When asked of their favourite scenes to shoot, Scrofano immediately picked “anything with the sisters”, though later double-backed to add that “also, anything with a harness” was a favourite. Krill, meanwhile, noted that her character had been on quite the rollercoaster ride between Eve, an amnesiac Willa and the true Willa—like playing three people on the show.

Melanie Scrofano, the breakout star and lead of the show.

Interestingly, with character assumptions, Scrofano blasted through them, potentially proving to every appraisal of her performance as Wynonna as being one hundred percent accurate:

“I think — well, I think — first of all, Waverly — it’s that thing, right, of — yes, you look at her and she looks a certain way but it’s like Emily says, you — not every girl is one thing.  Like Waverly looks like she would be sweet and meek and she’s f***ing not, like she’s bad ass.  And that’s one of the things I love about the writing.  Yes, and Wynonna was never supposed to do this.  She didn’t want this.  So every day, like every morning, she wakes up and has to go – f***, like, am I brave enough to do this today?  And the answer has to be yes.  But that takes a toll and I think — and I think part of Wynonna’s strength and part of her weakness is the same thing, which is that she just sort of — she doesn’t over think — like she just sort of does things like a bit blindly because I think if she thinks too much about it, it’ll topple her.

“So she drinks.  And she makes jokes.  And so she doesn’t — she doesn’t really think hard about what it is that she has to do.  Waverly, on the other hand, has — and then Willa, when she comes back, they both like — they both are primed and ready.  They’re like chomping at the bit.  And Wynonna is facing something that she has been working her whole life to not only avoid but to convince herself wasn’t real. […] It weighs heavily upon her for those reasons and just the fact that she is just a human who like probably doesn’t get enough sleep and who just wants to be loved.  You know, I don’t know.  Like it’s just — it’s just — like she’s just a girl.  A woman, a person, a human, who goes up against something she’s scared of and tries to win every day.  And some days, she wins better.  And some days, things knock her on her ass.  And the fun in playing is to see her get back up.”

When asked of how Wynonna would perceive ‘WayHaught’ (the relationship between Nicole Haught and her sister, Waverly), Scrofano simply said, “I feel like Wynonna just — if you’re a good person, she’s in.  And if you’re a s****y person, she’s not in.  And Officer Haught clearly is not a s****y person.  And mostly she just wants like — like that’s her goal in life.  One of her goals in life is to make — to make sure that her sister is OK and whoever is going to do that and do right by her, I think Wynonna is cool with.”

With talk of ‘WayHaught’ it would be apt to switch the limelight onto Ms. Katherine Barrell, who portrays one half of the beloved relationship on the show. Unfortunately, Ms. Provost-Chalkley couldn’t attend the conference call.

Katherine Barrell, an instant fan favourite as Nicole Haught.

Barrell confessed that originally, she didn’t know where the relationship between Waverly and Nicole was going—as she was going “episode by episode” as she was initially hired for six episodes. She noted, “I am so beyond happy with where we ended up at the end of season one, and working with Dominique has been amazing, she’s become an extremely good friend of mine.” Thinking of their on-screen relationship, Barrell said that it was imperative that they made the relationship simply feel as heartfelt as possible, and that the writers had cleverly juxtaposed their relationship to Wynonna’s conflict between Doc and Dolls, to Waverly and Nicole, which in Barrell’s mind is “pure, young—beautiful, pure love”.

Of the fan reaction, Barrell instantaneously exclaimed that it was “beyond my wildest expectations, I don’t even know if I’ve fully comprehended the extent of the fan reaction and if it’ll fully sink in until going to conventions, or whatever’s coming up in the future, and meeting fans face-to-face.” Barrell noted that she had been “sitting behind a computer” mostly for the fan-reaction, and was excited to meet fans face-to-face.

Would Barrell be getting that chance soon, though? She hinted that “I think the chances [of going to San Diego Comic Con] will go up…but I think we will be making some other announcements in the future.” And hypothetically, if she did go, would she dress up or down? Barrell laughed, “Um, uh, probably not, but I’d probably seek out a Wynonna Earp T-shirt and wear that. But if I wasn’t working comic-con, I’d want to go as a fan and dress up.”

Amidst the fan reaction was also talk of the ‘Bury Your Gays’ trope, as heavily talked about by Andras. Barrell confessed she wasn’t aware of the height of the controversy until fans started tweeting her about it, until then she did her own research and found out about the different shows and what had happened. There was a scene Barrell could recall as simply “just a scene”—which it was, when they were shooting it—in the finale, but she pondered if upon watching the finale, fans would view a certain Nicole Haught scene from a very different perspective in light of the past few months.

TV After Dark asked about the seismic impact the ‘WayHaught’ ship seemed to have on the Twitter fanbase—it certainly seemed to rejuvenate a young, vulnerable LGBT fanbase simply by having a well-written, same-sex couple on television. To this, Barrell said: “I have gotten nothing but beautiful, amazing, positive feedback. It has been so incredibly” “I feel really proud representing a character that’s bringing so many people — so many people in general, but especially young people — a good role-model to look up to, because media affects our culture so much, especially in North America, and I feel like media really is a place that dictates our cultural attitudes, erm, and I think we need to see ourselves on TV, everyone needs to feel represented and we’re getting there. Things are getting better, and it’s an uphill climb for equal representation, and I feel incredibly proud to be a part of that.

“She’s on the show not just to be the queer representation–she’s an amazing character.” To this, Barrell added, “I just want her to be a role-model for anyone – not just for queer representation – I just want her to be a role-model of an amazing person.”

We also asked about the importance of separating Nicole from the relationship, and having her as her own individual character, citing her winning introduction in episode two and episode seven, ‘Walking After Midnight’ as insights into her being a brilliant cop, inquisitive mind, and such. “I loved [‘Walking After Midnight’] too, as an actor as well, I think you want to show as many aspects of that character. That episode was huge for Nicole. That episode, Waverly breaks up with Champ and Nicole doesn’t just come swooping in.”

“It’s not just about hooking up. Otherwise we’re not gonna change anything.”

‘Walking After Midnight’ certainly seemed to be one of Barrell’s favourite episodes to work on, even if it meant no interaction with Waverly; Barrell stated that it was genuinely just fun to work with Melanie Scrofano, who plays Wynonna, especially the scene in the morgue. As for the chemistry between her and Dominique, Barrell could focus fondly on the scene in episode twelve, in which Nicole watches Waverly come down the stairs in her dress and smiles. When asked how that was to act, Barrell declared:

“Just looking at Dominique and how beautiful she looked, I didn’t really have to prepare.” She also went on to praise Provost-Chalkley and express her admiration at watching her “develop as a friend and a colleague over the course of this season”. For the particular scene, Barrell recalled that it was near the end of filming, and she remembered thinking that she was “just very proud [of Dominique].”

To address an issue earlier raised in the prior conference call, Barrell was also asked to ponder what would happen upon Wynonna and Nicole actually facing off against each other over Waverly, and like Scrofano, Barrell didn’t see much conflict of interests. She noted that the duo might “butt heads” over their ways of protecting Waverly (perhaps if Waverly needed protection at all).

Interestingly, Barrell also has directorial experience on some short films and expressed her gratitude and admiration for the crew on-set everyday as this was a much bigger-scale production. She also expressed how it “helps me stop taking everything so seriously” and that she wanted to keep on with her multi-faceted skill-set, for “as an actor you don’t just want to work out your biceps you want to work out all of your body.”

And if Nicole Haught had a theme song?

“I have no idea…I don’t know…what it’ll be…it’d be something pretty powerful and pretty confident […] ‘Alicia Keys–Girl on Fire‘. Let’s go with that one.”