Katherine Barrell – Wynonna Earp

By starrymag | August 30, 2020

By: Maggie Stankiewicz

 

 

Q) Like all of us these days, Nicole experienced some social isolation of her own while her found family was stuck in the Garden. Besides fortifying the Homestead, what do you think she did to find comfort in the loneliness?

 

A) I don’t think she was very good at finding comfort. I think that she tried to just keep on task. If she got away from the task at hand, then she would just start to spiral emotionally. I think every day there was the religious checking of the traps with Rachel (Martina Ortiz-Luis). I also think that just having Rachel probably saved her, to be honest. Nicole is such a caregiver. If she doesn’t have somebody to look out for or somebody to care for then she loses herself. I think the saving grace was having Rachel. I love the sort of parental relationship that she’s developed with her. Having someone else to focus on really saved her and keeping to her strict regimented schedule helped. I think growing up, her being a police officer…I always assumed she probably did cadets and wilderness training beforehand. So, there’s a lot of emphasis in her life on planning ahead, structure, worst-case scenarios and mitigating risk. I think that keeping focused on those principles really helped her. She just threw herself into her work, or the job of this new work that she created for herself.

 

Q) This season has treated viewers to seeing you portray Eve imitating Nicole, Eve as herself, and the now deeply tortured and distant Nicole. How did you prepare to play so many different characters in such a short time span and what nuances did you try to bring to each one?

 

A) Thinking about the way that they moved physically really helped. I wanted Eve to be different from anybody that was on the show before. I wanted her to be different from Maeve who was on the show last season and I also wanted to make her different from Gooverly and Goononna, so that was important. Focusing on how they moved was definitely a big key component. The wardrobe for me is also key for me to tap into a character’s energy and how they carry themselves. The weight of the clothing matters. For Nicole, her uniform is distinct, there are so many bells and the structure of the uniform makes you stand a certain way. That is very important with their physicality.

If I remember correctly, I also did one take in episode two that was more in Nicole’s energy and one take more in Eve’s energy and then I allowed Paolo [Barzman], our director, to just pick the moments that he wanted from each. I’m pretty sure that’s how I did it. One take, I gave him a very Nicole version and then one take was Eve not being so good at playing Nicole, being more obvious. There were also moments I chose in the script when to drop Nicole and say things in an uncharacteristic way. Nicole has this constant empathy and sympathy about her, and I think that with Eve I relaxed that. That was the defining difference between them.

 

Q) To quote Wynonna herself (from episode 4.03) …how bad is Nicole?

 

A) She’s pretty bad. I think she has had a really hard time. Nicole prides herself on taking care of people and she couldn’t save everybody. Nicole has always felt like she could do more or contribute more but when given the ultimate test she, in her eyes, fails. She thinks that she let everyone down, and she is traumatized from mourning Nedley (Greg Lawson), hunting Nedley and figuring out that it was Nedley. I think she just feels like she’s messed every single of aspect of this up and when everyone who loved her needed her, she couldn’t save them. She’s completely lost trust in herself, in her abilities. Not only does she feel like she’s let everyone down. That’s too simple a way of putting it. She also feels that she’s failed everyone, and she doesn’t trust herself moving forward. She’s really full of shame, guilt, fear, and she’s lost touch with herself. Her energy. Her essence. She’s pretty broken.

 

Q) Last season, we finally got to dig a little deeper into Nicole’s past – which seems to inform a lot of how Nicole is processing her situation in season four. Can we expect to see an intersection of her trauma and survivor’s guilt when it comes to reconciling with those 18 months she spent alone?

 

A) I think we are going to see her work through a lot of these things. She is definitely not going to bounce back immediately. We do see her work through that survivor’s guilt and she made a few decisions while everyone is away that she’s going to have to reckon with. She made some tough calls while they were gone. I’m not saying more than that, but we will have to see her deal with the consequences of those decisions. Insider scoop!

 

Q) On a lighter note, we’re getting to see a new side of Nicole with Rachel. She’s always been protective of those she cared about, but there are subtle nuances that make those interactions unique. What can you tell us about developing that relationship on screen?

 

A) I love Martina who plays Rachel. I am so incredibly impressed just by watching her. She hadn’t done a lot of on-camera work before, but she is an incredible, professional entertainer. You can just see that in people. That kernel of being an entertainer. Once that’s there, it’s unteachable. That awareness of how to entertain and how to tell a story. Once you have that kernel, like Martina does with music, then you can really transition through all mediums with discipline, dedication, and talent – which Martina definitely has, especially at such a young age. It’s been incredible to watch her grow. She literally turned nineteen years old just as we were starting to shoot. She has such a composure and a confidence about her that I never had at her age and I am so in admiration of her. We had a cast dinner at the beginning and I wanted to make sure that I reached out to her.

We sat together and we talked because I knew the development of the relationship between Rachel and Nicole was really important. I really love their relationship and how it brings out this new side of Nicole because it is different than her relationship with Wynonna or Waverly. I think Nicole sees a lot of herself in Rachel, the way they had no one, being abandoned at a young age and trying to make it on your own. Nicole really identifies with Rachel and she has a hard time. She can be overprotective at times and she struggles with letting people make their own mistakes. That’s one of the hardest parts of parenting because parents have lived it. I’m not a parent, but I can assume that you’ve lived all these years of life and you can see the mistakes or the speed bumps coming for your kid. You want to protect them, but you also have to let them experience it for themselves and it’s this constant dance of mitigating risk without helicoptering over them. That’s what she’s learning with Rachel. But I think that Rachel saved her. Yes, she saved Rachel and they got out of the zombie apocalypse together and got back to the Homestead, but it was Rachel that saved her after.

There was a huge bonding fight between the two of them. I can only imagine what that was like for them, so they’ve gotten really close. Now, we’ve also seen that moment where Nicole ran back to the Homestead to Rachel and that was the perfect moment to encapsulate how she’s trying to protect her. Rachel is a teenager. She’s not a little kid, so she has to be able to fend for herself. It’s selfishly one of my favorite relationships of the season because I love seeing that side of Nicole, Waverly (Dominique Provost-Chalkley) and even Wynonna. I think for each of them, we’ve talked about Wynonna (Melanie Scrofano), Waverly and Nicole loving in different ways. So, Rachel is getting all of these different kinds of love and support, which really reaffirms all of the amazing through-line of our show – which is found family. You can pick your own family; you don’t have to be with the family you were born with. A lot of people don’t have good relationships with their blood family, but they can make another family. It isn’t defined by blood. That through-line continues to shine through with Rachel.

 

Q) The relationships with Wynonna and Waverly have been developed over four years, but her relationship with Rachel is already so rich and textured.

 

A) That’s a huge credit to the writers, too. The parental theme has been explored a little bit with Nedley and Nicole and little bit with Mama Earp and the Earp sisters, but these are all relationships involving adults. We haven’t yet explored this younger energy and I really like that.

 

Q) Right now, Nicole still seems to be putting Waverly’s emotions above her own. Will we see a switch in dynamics as Waverly steps up to take care of an emotionally wrought Nicole?

 

A) Yes. Waverly is definitely conscious of Nicole, of course. She’s not going to abandon her. She’s going to continue to check-in and care for her. But I also think there is an understanding that Nicole needs to work through it. Everyone knows that Nicole is hurting. Everyone knows that Nicole sacrificed for them. And everyone is going to be checking in with her. There is a note that there’s only so much everyone can do because she has to work through it herself, which is an amazing and important thing for us to be exploring on the show. I think that you have to eventually, to the best of your ability, take a stand in fighting for yourself and take on the responsibility of getting better.

 

Q) The Earp curse is broken, but the struggle is far from over for our band of unlikely heroes. The demons keep getting bigger and badder. The stakes keep getting raised. What’s Nicole’s biggest foe or foil since they defeated Bulshar? Is it her own inner struggles which she has never really addressed, is it her past that’s constantly coming back, or is there another enemy we haven’t seen yet that’s coming this season that will be her greatest threat yet?

 

A) What can I say without spoiling it? [laughs] I think one of the biggest struggles she has this season is with herself. As we touched on, the idea that she failed everyone. That she couldn’t save the people she loved. That is a massive crisis for her and a complete affront to who she thought she was and her identity. There is other stuff going on, but her battle to get through her doubt and start trusting herself again is going to be one of her biggest struggles.

 

Q) We recently saw the episode that Melanie directed, and I thought it was a quintessential episode. It was hilarious but still had a powerful emotional undercurrent. What did Melanie do to engage the cast as a director and as a scene partner at the same time?

 

A) I can definitely speak to my experience. I really struggled with that episode. It was the first block that we shot coming back. There was this struggle of getting back into these characters who we hadn’t played in over a year and half. One of the things that I love most about working on Wynonna Earp is that it is an endless challenge as an actor. The tone is constantly shifting. One episode is fun hijinks that still has heart, the next episode might go really deep. Most of the time we have both elements in the same episode. Something that the show does so brilliantly is toe the line between comedy and drama. It’s got so much heart. I struggled because, as an actor, you’re very attuned to the energy of those around you. So, when you’re in the scene and everyone is buoyant and having fun like during the chili cookoff and I was playing it completely different. For me, my concern was thinking, “Am I in the right pocket for this particular episode?” But I keep on being reminded to just play the truth of the scene. The responsibility of playing the tone is the director and the writers and they have a bird’s eye view of the episode as a whole. You just have to trust them and play your instrument. It’s almost like an orchestra.

They are very much the conductor and you’re just one instrument. They’re in charge of making it come together. I really felt that way with Melanie, especially in episode three because it had been so long and we were coming back to a very different Nicole energy, with an episode filled with so much silliness and fun. I wasn’t sure how my puzzle piece was fitting in. If I was playing the truth of her sadness, was I going to bring the tone of the episode down? Am I going to be the sour note? She pushed me. She said, “No. Go there more. More, more, more. Play the pain. You don’t have to mask it. Play it.” And I really leaned on her and trusted her so much. After that episode I was really unsure and worried about being that sour note. But Nicole was the sour note, so it worked! I leaned on Melanie in a way that, because she knew, and I told her my fears, she understood as a director and an actor. As the star of the show, she understands the tone better than anyone, so if there was anyone who was perfect to bring those questions to as an actor, it was her. I trusted her completely. There were some scenes I wasn’t sure of, but if she said that was it, then it was. It was an incredible experience and I’m so glad it was her directing that episode.

 

Q) What are some standout scenes for you this season? Ones that you felt really stretched you as an actor and as a human being.

 

A) Even in just the first three episodes, I think I’ve had some incredible challenges. They’re gifts. Emily is trusting me with some incredible story arcs. I really loved all of the Eve stuff, I was challenged by those. There were some scenes that we shot in the portal room with Wynonna, Nicole, and Rachel that were really challenging because we block shot them. That means we were shooting everything that you see in one take from each camera angle. It was challenging because we almost never shoot more than three pages without cutting, and this had us always rolling, and resetting the roll and tweaking things and doing them again. That was an amazing challenge because you can get into these zones and when you cut so frequently, it’s hard to stay there. Sometimes you wish you could just keep going without the momentum stopping and starting, so when you have an opportunity where that’s not the case it’s really fun to play around and really get into it, like in theater. I’ve been so lucky. The first three episodes have been incredible arcs, so complex, multiple characters, multiple timelines. It’s all been amazing and challenging in the best way.

 

Q) Nicole spent the better part of those 18 months unknowingly hunting her father figure, Nedley only to have Doc recognize that he was the Barnacle Creature. In a recent episode, it looked as though she was unable to enjoy Nedley’s return. Will we get to watch Nicole struggle with that guilt?

 

A) Yes, absolutely. It’s just another thing on the guilt pile for her, another thing that she feels she messed up. It’s horrible for her, after searching for everyone and exhausting her options she retreated to the Homestead but the one thing that she continued to hunt was Nedley. Luckily, he doesn’t seem to have memory of it so far, but she is definitely carrying that with her.

 

Q) The “WayHaught” relationship has broken barriers both on screen and off, often throwing Nicole and Waverly into high stakes situations from multiple near-death experiences, to secret wives, Gardens of Eden and staircase reunions. What is it like portraying a relationship under such heightened circumstances and how do you picture Wayhaught finding downtime and normalcy between these moments of crisis?

 

A) That’s a great question. As an actor, it’s amazing because we’re always looking for conflict. Things are not interesting or engaging to audiences if there aren’t stakes and conflict. Sometimes you work on stuff that isn’t as well written or doesn’t have as much conflict and it makes it hard to play a scene because it’s sort of about nothing. The two key things you have to know to play a scene are what a character wants and what’s in their way. With WayHaught, there are so many layers. I’ve been working on WayHaught and working with Dominique and talking to the fans at conventions. So, I’ve been able to do more of a deep dive into that relationship than any other character relationship I’ve ever played or worked on. It’s a very rich playground as an actor because you have so much to pull from.

I think it’s amazing and I think that as much as you don’t want to see anything bad happen to them, it’s important to remember that without conflict, nobody would enjoy the show. You need that to create drama and raise the stakes. From a storytelling perspective, their lives are pretty crazy, and I think the story does a great job at giving them those moments together where they can breathe a little bit and just enjoy each other’s presence and company. But their lives are absolutely insane, they’re monster hunters so it’s pretty hectic. The show finds a really great balance between those high stress, high stake moments and having them come together and checking in.

 

Q) Both WayHaught and your character Nicole mean so much to viewers, particularly when it comes to representation and the presence of strong, complex, well-developed women on screen. Have you found that your character and that relationship impact you as deeply as they have audiences?

 

A) Oh yeah. I feel like playing Nicole has developed me immensely as a human and fostered so many discoveries about myself. Especially in being able to step into such a strong woman’s shoes, I think my confidence as a person has definitely been affected by playing Nicole in a positive way. I also think Nicole has taught me so much about being proud of who you are and never apologizing. Nicole doubts herself, but she still is unapologetically herself. Seeing Nicole in a profession that is typically a male dominated space has helped me as far as what I want to do in my future and what I might want to pursue. Nicole has always been a person who enjoys a leadership position and is good in that space, but playing Nicole has fostered that for me and taught me not to be afraid of my own power.

 

Q) Season three’s episode “Jolene” tackled mental health head on, a subject that Wynonna Earp has never shied away from. Will we get to see Nicole confront her own demons in the ways we’ve gotten to see Wynonna and Waverly defeat theirs?

 

A) The amazing thing about the Jolene character was that it was an internal demon personified, but I think we definitely do see Nicole have to work through her trauma. I can’t say too much without getting spoiler-y, but we will have to watch her work through it.

 

Q) Nicole has always had a rock-solid constitution, and her identity was always so closely tied to her profession as an officer of the law. Since losing her position as Purgatory Sheriff, how have her convictions and sense of purpose been challenged? 

 

A) I think that it’s the doubt we were talking about earlier. She’s not feeling as confident in her abilities anymore or as confident in herself. So much of her identity is being able to help and save people and being a protector – but all of that was challenged. In her eyes, she didn’t meet the challenge. It’s rocked her sense of identity.

 

Q) The mid-season finale is quickly approaching. In three words, can you describe what can audiences expect to see surrounding that episode?

 

A) At peace, division and next chapter.