Beau Smith – Wynonna Earp – Comic Con 2017

By: Brittany Dailey

Q) What can you tease is in store the rest of the season of “Wynonna Earp?”

A) They all die. [laughs] No, I can say that as you’ve seen so far with the episodes a lot has happened and a lot has happened fast. It’s about to go into hyperspeed. There are characters that come up that you are going to be shocked to see. There are a lot of changes coming up. Emily is going to be counterpunching you all through these episodes.

Q) Is there anything you can share about the coming episodes?

A) I think so. Without being able to say a whole lot – because Emily will kick my butt. She knows once Beau starts talking it is diarrhea of the mouth. He’ll just go, go, go. So, there is going to be an episode towards the end of the season that is a kaleidoscope of chaos. It’s like Emily is loose ends of this rug together to make a quilt and it will all come together. You’ll either be very thankful or just plain shocked. She’s got some amazing stuff. I watched the dailys and wanted to call her and ask, “How did you think of that?! Where did this come from?” It makes me happy because it’s going forward, but it makes me scared to cross her. If she is that smart – I don’t want to be on her bad side.

Q) Will the revenant storylines increase?

A) I think Emily [Andras] has underlying plans for rev related things. I cannot go any further on that. With last week’s episode, let’s just put it this way – you never EVER want to not look behind you in Purgatory because revenants are on the loose and they are kind of disorganized. So, don’t turn your back.

Q) What is it like to see it your story come to life and these characters on screen?

A) Probably the first moment was during auditions. I saw probably 200-300 different actresses go for the Wynonna part. But when Melanie [Scrofano] got up – and she was always in my top three of the ones we had. When she came up with an imaginary badge and said, “Wynonna Earp. US Marshalls.” At that moment I wish I had an adult diaper on. She nailed it! At the audition she had blonde hair. And I hate to use this because it has been overused so much, but she had a swagger to her that was just amazing because it was a swagger, but it was likeability. If anyone else tried to pull that off you would have thought, “That’s a butthole.” No. She did it when you think, “That’s someone I want to hang out with.” She has something very, very special. I’m sure you have all seen it. Whether it is her comedic timing or her emotional stuff (especially when she opened up Doc’s note) she can make you laugh and make you cry within a heartbeat.

Q) What did you think about integrating the pregnancy storyline?

A) Again, Emily is smart, but also super brave. Most television series when they have a woman who is pregnant is they have them sitting on the couch and someone taking care of them and they upgrade the other characters. No. Wynonna is hitting people with her gun. She’s taking care of business She is still herself. She represents not only a female lead can be strong, but she is the first female mother that can be strong. Part of the inspiration for Wynonna when I created it twenty years ago was my own mother who was an original, very independent woman with no filter. I pulled from my mom so many times when I was writing WE. I told Melanie probably the first year we did this, “It’s like you met my mother and understudied her.” My mom was hilarious and my mom could probably out-cuss Emily and Melanie – maybe. A four letter word was no stranger in my house. For a long time, my brothers and I thought our names were “the little bastards.” She meant that in the most loving way, but we set the kitchen on fire and painted the bathroom with brown shoe polish. So, you can see where that kind of went. We didn’t get it undeserving. But this is a big deal! It really is even on a small production Canadian show like this on Syfy on 10pm on Fridays – this is a step no one else will take. I pray all the time that not only the media and people in the industry will say, “That little show took that chance, but we can do it too.” Creatively, it was a super brave move.

Q) Which character caught on with fans in a way that you never expected?

A) Being an older demographic and a guy that has been around the block, I thought they were going to like Doc Holliday (Tim Rozon). I was just seeing it through my eyes. I love The West and that’s where “Wynonna Earp” came from. But in the first season it was Bobo Del Rey (Michael Eklund), for the simple reason that he’s a bad guy. When I created him twenty years ago he was all out full tilt bad, but Emily added a layer of likeability to him. Even with the evil things he’s done, you think, “this guy cares about something, someone at some point.” Everyone else would have made him full tilt evil bad guy. No. That was a major surprise. In the second season, it’s not such a surprise, but more of a contagious disease and that’s Varun [Saranga] as Jeremy. Oh my gosh! My wife came here with me and her back went out. Last night she said she’s gunna watch “Wynonna Earp” on her iPad and every time Varun was on there she laughed. When Katherine [Barrell] did the drunk Haught she laughed. If they can bring her some laughter through all this pain, I thought, “This is it.” But Varun did it. We stole it. My son calls him “the scene stealer” because any time he’s on there you think, “What’s he going to do?” We got a double punch with the first season of Bobo and the second season of Jeremy.