Wynonna Earp Cast – ATX Festival 2018 – Panel
Moderated by Maureen Ryan
Transcript by Heather D.
Panel took place on 9 June 2018
Video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uO9vLGQRD7w&feature=youtu.be
Transcript
Moderator: Whoo. I’m not gonna waste time jabbering away, so I’m just gonna bring out all these super stars: Emily Andras, the creator and showrunner of Wynonna Earp, Melanie Scrofano aka Wynonna Earp herself, Mr. Tim Rozon, Doc Holliday, Katherine Barrell or as I think of her, Officer Nicole Haught.
[Audience applauds and cheers throughout introductions]
Kat: Oh this is fun.
Emily: This is so fun, I know.
Moderator: Am I supposed to be…
Emily: There’s stairs there, I didn’t know.
Moderator: here, let me give you guys…. So do we have a little video that we’re gonna show?
[Audience cheers]
Emily: Alright, I know you guys wanna get to the cast questions, but let’s just watch a preview of Season 3.
[Audience applauds]
[Video ends and Audience applauds]
Emily: What is happening to Waverly?
Moderator: That was okay. It was okay.
Emily: It was okay? C+. Melanie said it was a B-.
Moderator: My Yelp review would say…no I have a lot of emotions. A lot of stuff happened.
Emily: as long as one of them’s not ‘disappointment’.
Moderator: I’m scared and excited and I want a donut.
Kat: Good, that’s good.
Moderator: So that’s what you’re going for I feel like. Okay so we’re just going to talk for the next hour about spoilers for Season 3, this was my note from the organizers. But what does feel different about this season? What was the vibe, like it seems like a third season of a show is often things get deeper, weirder as you said Tim. Is it bigger dangers, deeper emotions? Talk to me about Season 3.
Emily: Significantly less pregnancy.
[Laughter]
Emily: I feel – I always say this before we start – I’m so proud of these guys in Season 3. I think there is just a confidence and a kickassness to the characterizations and this cast that is exceptional in Season 3, so congratulations. Bye Austin!
[Laughter]
Moderator: Great talk.
Emily: I don’t know, I feel like the team has come together more than ever so it really feels like this dysfunctional crew is fighting together for one goal. I feel like Wynonna is more determined than ever because she and Doc had to do something fairly significant which is give up their child, kind of a bummer. There’s some Wayhaught in the season I think, they’re in a good place. But it really feels like this team taking on a very definitive goal which is the demon who cursed the Earp’s in the first place, named Bulshar. But the other thing is I feel like the stakes and the consequences are bigger this year. Anyway, Mel?
Melanie: [Laughs]
Emily: No? Disagree? “I completely disagree” is what she’s [unintelligible].
Melanie: I literally hate going after you cause I’m like “yes, all of what she said because all of it came from her brain”. Your turn.
[Laughter]
Tim: Yo, how awesome was that trailer?
[Audience applauds and cheers]
Tim: I know you just talked about a bunch of stuff and you were nice to us, but thanks…
Emily: [talking at same time as Tim] You should watch it later online.
Tim: but I was still like “how awesome was that trailer?” That was awesome. [whip sound effect]
Moderator: Kat
Kat: I mean yeah everything, I’m so excited for this season more than… I say more than I have been for any other seasons because I never knew any better, but I’m just so excited for you know what I mean, like I never… I didn’t even think I could get more excited for this show, but I have, I absolutely have. I’m just so excited for you guys to see it and I’m so proud and just like trailer and seeing, I feel like we leveled up. You know what I mean? I just remember seeing that when we got sent it a week or so ago and being like ” we leveled up man”. Yeah!
Emily: The show makes the trailer look like garbage. You guys are gonna be blown away.
Kat: [unintelligible] and it perfectly represents it.
Emily: let’s just like not take the expectation sky high, let’s just be like
Moderator: I think in future, like just make trailers, don’t…
Emily: Yeah, oh my God, I would watch that show
Moderator: who needs the show, just like push out trailers every week and be like “oh my god, it’s amazing”.
Emily: I know it’s amazing.
Moderator: Melanie, so first season everyone’s just figuring it out, second season you were pregnant, you still kicked all of the ass. This season was it like oh so easy I this is a walk in the park. A park in Calgary that’s freezing cold. Was it, was it like harder, easier?
Melanie: So I think that season 2 was such a gift in the sense that I mean all the work was done for us, especially you {Tim} and I in particular just felt very close to the whole story and there was no acting required really and then Season 3 you’re like well I basically did that so what do we do….so there was that like wondering if I had anything to….left to give, to offer.
Emily: Spoiler alert-she does. She’s better than ever.
Melanie: the effect of it was essentially just now everything was colored with this beautiful new life that is behind everything we say and do and so I think it was great in that way. But also just the freedom of now I don’t have to worry that if I, you know, if I kick a door that the placenta will move and I’m like I will…
Emily: we can photoshop that
[Laughter]
Melanie: yeah so there’s a lot of freedom, not just in my body, but in wardrobe and stuff, that it was just really fun and freeing.
Moderator: So Tim, I’m just trying to think of like the relationship status that Doc Holliday would put on Facebook, ‘it’s complicated’. Like what is, what’s the Wynonna / Doc relationship of it all? She’s not really someone who does relationships as such. Am I wrong?
Emily: [unintelligible]
Moderator: Old time Facebook.
Tim: [To Melanie] What’s a placenta?
Melanie: Uhhhm
Emily: You’re in for a treat.
Tim: Is that the rice with there’s muscles in it in like a big pan?
Melanie: Some people eat it.
Emily: It’s like a loot bag.
Kat: Some people put it into pills and eat it.
Tim: Um, yeah it’s like Season 2 was like one of those things it’s like, Mel was pregnant so you know and I played the father of … I played the imaginary baby, but there was a real baby to act with so it’s like, there was no acting required honestly it’s like, “man, this woman’s pregnant” you know, and then season 3 she’s not, but then it’s like honestly what she said….wasn’t that the question?
Mel: Nope. I don’t know. Yes!
Tim: There was a placenta.
Emily: I’m excited to tell you what the placenta is over barbecue later tonight, I’m gonna wait for our moment and then go for it.
Tim: but all the choices in our relationship in Season 3 have to do with Alice in so many ways Alice not…is that a placenta? I’m sidetracked now. Alice is there so much more even though she’s not…and…especially in that she’s not inside Mel….Wynonna.
[Audience laughs]
Moderator: No, I mean, I think that like…
Tim: How awesome was that trailer?!
[Audience applauds]
Moderator: That’s ok, I understood…
Tim: Cause that trailer was amazing!
Emily: I’m excited for the hashtag that…yeah.
Moderator: Well they’re both people who are driven and deeply passoinate in their own way and now they have this child and fighting for that family really is it’s a big motivator yeah so.
Emily: Yeah, but I also think like the rush was to get the baby to safety and now I think everyone has to deal with the fallout of like what do they feel about that and maybe they’re not all in the same emotional space and you know that feels very real and I agree with Mel, it’s just like the presence the whole season, but what a gift that turned out to be, do you know what I mean? Emotionally, in traditional fashion, like Wynonna getting pregnant Season 2 is like not something that’s traditionally done but it turned out to be such a blessing I feel like as far as grounding the show and hopefully taking it to the next level, B-.
[Laughter]
Moderator: Eh, we’ll see.
Emily: No, but honestly I feel like everybody working on Season 2 when Mel was pregnant and helping Mel, just coming together, I feel like Season 3 is the culmination of that and because it was so not traditional storytelling it was kind of, I hope delightful you know? Just going to the next level like I said and just the fallout from that and the confidence in the sense that all the characters are fighting for something bigger than themselves is really such a writing crutch, it’s so easy really, no it was good.
Tim: yeah, that’s important because Doc Holliday in Season 2, we left him off he went to hell you know? We can’t, we underplay that, we just say it, but I’m sure that wasn’t fun, you know. It’s hell. So I think that now having Alice is a reason that he never wants to go back there again, you know? He has something more than himself, unselfishly that’s more important, that means something more to him than maybe even Wynonna and him, you know?
Tim: No, no. Ahhhh, shit.
Emily: Kat save us, save us.
Mel: that’s a shitty Hallmark card.
Kat: I’m just chilling over here just watching all of this.
Moderator: But speaking of maternal threads. I’m trying to be cool and have a cool segue here. Mama Earp, I feel like there’s lots of nurturing conversations and cups of hot cocoa right, like that’s what that’s about?
Emily: It’s basically like that, it’s totally June Cleaver. Yeah, so Mama Earp is played by a woman named Megan Follows who is incredible.
[Audience applauds]
Emily: Yeah, she’s like Canadian royalty, she makes Celine Dion also look like garbage, print that for sure. Kat’s like “take my name off that”. No, she is an incredible icon and she played this character when I was growing up in the 2002s, no um called Anne of Green Gables who is kind of like
[Audience cheers]
Emily: Oh. Awesome. Yes, thank you, even if you don’t know, thank you for clapping cause she’s amazing. But Mama Earp has all this history right? What we’ve heard about Mama Earp so far in the show is that she abandoned three little girls with basically their alcoholic demon-hunting father. Not the picture-perfect, you know, vision of motherhood, but also she obviously has some influence on these incredible Earp sisters who are such kick-ass, fierce women so Megan was really the perfect person to play her and I think there’s just so much interesting tension and angst when we find out what the character is actually all about, what she does to both the Earp sisters. But also it was just like so fun to have Megan on set, like Megan is Anne of Green Gables, she was on the show called Reign forever where she was like…
[Audience cheers]
Emily: Yes, good. And then we’re like, she showed up and it’s like very cold in Calgary she’s like “what’s my motivation” and I’m like yeah, “you might have just seen a demon, go.” and you know, when you make Anne of Green Gables say the ‘f word’, you feel like you’ve really arrived, I feel like that was some good moments, but what was it like for you to work with?
Melanie: Well. Yeah I also obviously we all know Megan from Anne, but I had actually seen her in a play, like she has a very wide career range so I was like “what Megan am I gonna get?” like what is she gonna be like The Queen Megan. And so it was really exciting to find out and every scene and every day I just got to explore more and more of who she was gonna bring and the person who played Mama Earp had to be complicated and she does that very well.
Moderator: Excellent.
Emily: Plus, she’s a redhead, Mo.
Moderator: Nice. Shout-out to me personally. You have some other amazing guest stars and you’re sort of secretly doing a Lost Girl crossover right? Something like that.
Emily: Was that a shout of protest, you’re like “what?”.
Moderator: this is a good … no, so like Anna Silk and Zoie Palmer are going to be guesting.
Emily: Well I don’t know if you guys know this, but there’s only 14 people who live in Canada.
[Laughter]
Moderator: That many?
Emily: So after a while you’re like “Justin Trudeau, you’re the only guy we got, get down here, play the bartender”, but also look, I think the industry is small and I’m incredibly lazy and I like working with people I like and those two are two of the best. If you haven’t watched Lost Girl, you should watch it, they’re delightful.
[Audience applauds and cheers]
Emily: And Anna and Zoie personally saved my butt so many times when I was starting out so the least I could do is offer them the chance to come to Calgary in the freezing cold. No, they are phenomenal and I think like Tim’s worked with Zoie before and Anna, I don’t know if you guys had worked with them before, but like
Kat: I had more like seen them at Conventions and stuff, that’s how I got to know them first
Emily: Right, yeah, it is a small industry, but they’re such phenomenal women and they have such good range that I think you will hopefully like the characters they play. I would not say they’re exactly like Bo and Lauren, but they’re very very fun. They’re extremely talented performers.
Moderator: Very nice. So big question is how gay is the new season?
[Audience cheers]
Emily: Do you know who RuPaul is?
[Laughter]
Emily: The new season makes RuPaul look like Mike Pence.
[Laughter and applause]
Emily: Definitely not going to regret saying that.
Moderator: A lot of headlines coming out of this panel.
Emily: I would say it’s not un-gay. No, it’s like a gay old time and we’re here for it. And it’s super fun, we love the diversity of the show and I’m like just everybody get on here and have fun and the more characters we can just cram into our Canadian show out of the 14 people who live in Canada who maybe are unrepresented on TV I think it’s so much of what makes our show special so if you let us keep making it we’ll just keep gaying it up.
[Audience applauds and cheers]
Moderator: Kat, do you have have thoughts on Wayhaught this season?
Kat: You know what I…we were talking about this a little earlier today, I think one of the really nice things about Wayhaught is we see them at another stage of their relationship which is like a stage to being more comfortable and settling into life as a couple and I really like that because I just think, you know, from Season 1 this amazing show has been pushing the boundaries on queer representation on TV, on seeing two females in a relationship and I think you know Season 1 we got the beginning and then Season 2 is when things started to solidify and then we get to Season 3 where they’re at a new level of comfort, but that also means that they’re at a new level of honesty with each other and with that comes amazing tension that I think is gonna again be a fantastic thing to see more queer relationships but in a real form, it’s like the next level of that and I think I really loved reading those scenes with Waverly and Nicole where they’re having some really honest conversations about what they want their future to look like and I’m really excited to see it play out.
Moderator: This question just popped into my head, do women in law enforcement ever talk to you about just seeing your character and feeling like she…
Kat: You know what I finally did?
Moderator: what?
Kat: These guys had to hear about it for like weeks. I was like “no next week I’m really going”. I went on a ride-along with the Calgary Police and that was super fun because I think it was three days after we finished filming or before we finished filming, so like better late than never, but it was just so, I feel really proud when especially like females working in law enforcement or any sort of military comment on the importance of seeing a woman in that role on TV and having it be strongly represented because I think for women to say you know it’s another aspect of the beautiful thing that we get to hear so often which is “I see myself. I see myself on that screen when I see Nicole or I see Wynonna” and I think that’s made me again really proud, another level of being proud to represent this character and play Nicole Haught because you’re getting to put a voice to women who sometimes don’t feel equally represented in their job. Yeah, makes me proud.
Moderator: I can imagine. Do you, Tim, do you get a lot of 100 year old gunslingers coming up to you?
[Laughter]
Emily: He did a ride-along this year.
Tim: 135.
Emily: You don’t look a day over 125, I swear to God.
Moderator: I was gonna say that.
Tim: Thank-you.
Moderator: Bulshar sounds like another word. Where did you come up with that?
Emily: We definitely don’t make puns about it all year long.
Moderator: Bulshar. Like you just wanted to sneak in a swear word.
Emily: Yeah. I called a character Haught, let’s pretend….we’re just not gonna do subtle on this show everybody.
Moderator: So is his motivation like that of pretty much every supernatural or Buffy demon ever, like just “I wanna do demony things”, is it more complex than that or what is his story?
Emily: Could be, Mo.
Moderator: …complicated motivation. What?
Emily: Yup!
Moderator: Alright. Just doing demon stuff, I get it.
Emily: But he is the demon who originally cast the curse on the Earps. He’s the original Demon.
Moderator: O.G., O.D.
Emily: O.G., he’s serious, he’s classic, traditional.
Moderator: Go with the classics.
Emily: He’s a formidable foe. That’s good I said that eh?
Moderator: Formidable foe.
Emily: Formidable foe.
Moderator: That’s a less exciting headline, but it’s okay. It’s like a C+ I guess i would call it. One thing I really love about this show is that you punctuate the drama with comedy, you punctuate the comedy with ripping my heart out so, is that something that you all have like together have just perfected was it like a little bit hard to kind of nail that mixture the first season or like was it a journey to kind of get where you’re at now where it kind of feels very easy? What do you think about that mix?
Tim: People laugh at me when they’re not supposed to so I have that going for me.
Moderator: It’s not the mustache, I don’t know why you would think that. No, it’s an awesome mustache.
Melanie: I just feel like, isn’t that life? Where it’s that’s how we go through our days like I was crying this morning for no good reason and then Emily shows up and I’m like peeing my pants laughing. I don’t know like it’s just I’ve never understood the idea…I mean I understand it, but it bores me, the idea of a straight drama or a straight comedy, like we’re all so much more than that, our days are so…our moments are so much more than that. So to me it doesn’t it make sense not to play that.
Emily: I’ll just say it’s a pleasure for me seeing how I think everyone on the cast has exceptional comic timing, but they’re not all the same, you know what I mean? I think Kat has really underrated comic timing, but she has different comic timing than Mel or Tim, so it’s so fun to put the two of them together hopefully in Season 3 and hopefully write a little bit more specifically to the character and their skills and I just think they excel this year at that stuff. We definitely won’t rip your heart out though.
Kat: Just kidding.
Tim: Yeah, to be honest…
Moderator: [at same time as Tim] she’s lying
Tim: I’ve been, as an actor I’m sometimes in awe of Melanie just because that
Melanie: Go on.
[Laughter]
Melanie: Everybody…let’s hear him out
Tim: …no because your ability to go from drama to comedy in like a such a split-second is like when you were giving birth on pool table and you’re like “yo, the couch is right there” in the same moment she’s like [imitates Melanie screaming] “ahhhh. couch”. I’m like how do you…how are you that brilliant?
Kat: Was that an improv line?
Melanie: No!
Tim: Say it is now.
Melanie: Yes!
Emily: Yeah, I’m in public, I’ll just freeze
Melanie: Was that line there because it’s just funnier to have me on the pool table…
Emily: Yeah, it’s better to have you on the pool table [unintelligible]
Melanie: people would be like “why are they…?” yeah, I love that. It was a brilliant line, yeah. That I did not ad-lib.
Kat: Sorry, I just outed you.
Emily: But she ad-libs a lot.
Kat: She ad-libs a lot, so it’s totally possible.
Melanie: No I don’t!
Moderator: Does she? Wait wait, I want to hear it. I want to hear, what are some of her best ad-libs, I’m gonna put you on the spot.
Audience member: You’re not vegan are you?
Emily: Which one?
Mel: You’re not…
Audience member: You’re not vegan are you?
Emily: “You’re not vegan are you” for the rat smoothie.
Kat: Did you improve that? Sick.
Emily: Oh, one of the very first ones you did and I was like “this girl’s got game”, was “this is not the kind of penetration I’m used to”.
[Laughter]
Emily: look at Tim! Tim’s monocle just went like “whoop”.
Emily: And I was like “are we the kind of show that’s gonna put that in? Yes we are.”
Moderator: I guess we’re on Showtime now.
Emily: I’m like “I can’t control her, she’s out of control.”
Melanie: [Laughs]
Emily: Oh you, I have to say that you, Kat and Mel have an amazing improv this year.
Kat: Do we?
Emily: it’s about [off mic] it’s about the olympics.
Mel: oh that was …yeah I guess that was an improv.
Kat: The Olympics?
Emily: well, I didn’t write it.
Kat: Oh yeah! That mostly was Mel.
Emily: It was very good.
Kat: Yeah.
Melanie: It was…
Kat: It was your idea for sure. Yeah. That was a good one.
Tim: I know Varun TRIES to do it…
Emily: I’m like “no”.
Tim: a lot.
Kat: Varun tries? That’s so …
Tim: Oh he loves it.
Emily: where it’s just like, Tim is by the letter and Tim is beloved by our continuity person cause you even do, you always do the same actions, you always remember when you touch your hat and take your pants off, you always remember that.
[Laughter]
Tim: I just think I would have been a good soldier, I need a good General, I’m like “yes, yes, yes”.
Emily: but you know what you’re good at is the contractions, like I love that character…
[Laughter]
Kat: Spoilers, Season 3, Tim gives birth.
Emily: No, I think you made the decision early on that Doc wouldn’t say “can’t” he would say “cannot” so he always corrects me very pointedly in the read-throughs is I’m like “don’t”, you’re like “do not”. That was meant to be a compliment, it went off the rails.
Tim: No, no it was good.
Moderator: What we didn’t really understand until this moment is that it’s really a symposium on grammar.
Emily: Yeah, Exactly
Moderator: So with you know ad-libed lines…
Emily: That’s what people care about.
Moderator: yeah, that’s what the fans want. Speaking of the fans I think that it’s kind of blown my mind, there’s already been an EarperCon UK, there’s gonna be an EhCon up in Toronto right?
Emily: Toronto, Ontario.
Moderator: In August, I’m not doing a sponsored content, I’m just saying like there are multiple conventions, like you guys obviously do San Diego Comic Con and this wonderful convention, but like…
Emily: There’s Minneapolis, there’s New Orleans, I’m just saying it so they don’t get mad at us.
Moderator: Yeah, Minneapolis and New Orleans, I mean to have a show in Season 3 where you have conventions devoted to just your show, I just want you to talk about that, cause just as someone who watches the TV industry I think that’s really rare. Are you blown away by it?
Emily: It’s unbelievable, it’s unbelievable, the amount of passion and dedication the fans have to this. In a billion years I didn’t think they would throw conventions for us. I almost…it feels like a dream. It’s nuts, it’s incredible that people get what we’re trying to do. I’m very happy, the thing that will keep me from crying is I’m very happy they understand that these people are exceptional both on and off screen, that matters a lot to me. These guys are so good with the fans and there such really good people, except for that one person I won’t talk about, it’s Tim, nooo.
[Laughter]
Emily: No I’m totally kidding, always pick on the nicest person guys. I’m trying not to be glib, it is so exceptional and you know we’re still like a small underdog cult show and the fact that you guys are so passionate and you support us and you get what we’re trying to do and you come and see us is amazing right.
Melanie: And one of the things that I remember from the screen test was you prepared us for a lot of things.
Emily: I never thought we would that though.
Melanie: Yeah
Emily: I was like “we might have to do Comic Cons”
Melanie: Yeah, you said “we might go to San Diego and are you prepared for that? And you might have to tweet are you prepared for that?”, but never was anybody like “by the way there’s gonna be conventions only for this show” like…we were not prepared.
Emily: I just want that to be my job.
Moderator: Yeah, well I think it is now.
Emily: Oh good. She said it on a microphone.
Moderator: This is your gig, man. If I could, Tim, you told a story earlier about EaperConUk that I thought was really moving. Do you want to tell that story here?
Tim: Yeah it’s, I was about to just elaborate on this it’s like the process of this has been it went from being like so humbling on my end, you know of “oh my gosh,I’m so lucky to get to be a part of this great show and then you know the fans are so great” and to be a part of it, but now it’s at this point where it’s like the fandom is it’s own thing and now from the outside I feel like I get to watch what the fandom is and so you asked me, your question was kind of like what was my favorite moment and it was at EaperCon UK and it was the first Earper convention just for our show and it was full of Earpers so it was like the best thing ever and I just remember there was this young girl who just turned 15 and the week before she came out for the first time to her father and her father brought her to EarperCon cause he knew that that was where she was gonna be safe and I was just like, this has nothing to do with the demons and donuts like this fandom and this show has just been more amazing than could have been possibly, you know, me being humble has nothing to do with it anymore, it’s just like “wow”, it’s honestly it’s something to be a part of that I don’t think any of us could have been prepared to be a part of and it’s beautiful, you guys are awesome.
Moderator: I’m just in it for the Nicole Haught cosplay, I mean really what it’s all about for me.
Kat: Good cosplay, I love it, I love seeing, I just love seeing the passion, whether it’s the cosplay or the art or the fanfic or the Cards Against Purgatory or like people make games, you know what I mean? There’s so much.
Moderator: That’s a thing?!
Tim: Good game! Good Game.
Moderator: I need that game.
Emily: [sarcastically] Is it a thing? Cancel the panel we’re all playing a game.
Kat: I just like…
Emily: We can get it for you.
Moderator: I need
Kat: Yeah, I’m sure you’ll have one on the way for sure. I just feel like it’s a beautiful thing when one piece of art, which is this amazing show, can inspire so much other creativity and happiness and I think that’s one of the best things about the fanbase feeling like such a safe space is people feel safe to express themselves in whatever form that takes and that it’s always met with such like “this is amazing, go do more of it” and I just think that’s what makes it so unique and special.
Emily: It’s everyone’s show.
Kat: It’s everyone’s show, yeah.
Moderator: Well speaking of fans, are we gonna take some fan questions? Can we do that? Where’s the microphone set up situation?
Emily: I know, it’s so cozy.
Kat: It’s so cozy on the panel.
Moderator: It’s a very…does that go higher? Can people just….
Emily: You can come get my mic, I can share with Mel. She’s like ‘no you can’t”.
Moderator: So do people want to just kind of form a line and we’ll see how many we get to. oh right at the front behind that middle couch, do people want to just come up and ask questions or…
Emily: They’re good, they know everything about Season 3.
Moderator: alright.
[cheering]
Emily: Look at your amazing shirt. Kat look.
Questioner 1: Thank you, my fiance made it for me.
Kat: Nice
Emily: Oh it’s awesome. Are we coming to the wedding?
Questioner 1: Yeah. Yeah,it’s a year from now.
Emily: Oh good, perfect.
Questioner 1: are we going to get to see like the conversations that Nicole and Waverly have about the kiss and you know, the serious conversations.
Emily: I don’t know what you’re inferring at all.
Kat: I actually don’t know what you’re referring to. The kiss?
Emily: She’s like why did you make someone, why did you make Waverly kiss
Kat: Oh that, with Rosita?
Questioner 1: so Nicole doesn’t know yet, or something.
Doc: There was a hot-tub.
Emily: and about the secret wife.
Questioner 1: Yeah.
Emily: That was hugely popular, that was like
Questioner 1: I didn’t hate it, so it’s ok.
Kat: Yeah, lot of love for that.
Emily: They are grown-ups, they like eachother, the have some talk in the bedroom maybe, I know if you guys can fast-forward through it if you don’t like is, it’s fine. They have lots of talks.
[Mel laughs]
Kat: Yeah they do have lots of talks, I think they also, I think there’s an acknowledgement that people make mistakes and that’s a part of a relationship I think, you know we were talking about it a little earlier…
Melanie: [shouting] You didn’t tell her about your wife!
Emily: Um, you didn’t tell her you knew where Mama Earp was.
Melanie: I’m not talking about ME right now! The question was for Nicole. Whose side are you on.
Kat: I think you get to see like in….she disappeared.
Emily: She was not satisfied with that answer.
Kat: I turned around and you were gone! Um I think you get to see a nice progression of the next phase of their relationship and they’re both also like growing up, this is like two people at a really crucial stage, you know you change a lot in your 20s. My 20s is a big difference from the beginning to the end and I think it’s really nice to see that next level because it’s just a deeper form of love, I mean, you know, you just got engaged. When you make that commitment to someone it’s a whole, it’s a level up man, so yeah you got to be ready to have some tougher conversations. So I think they really provide a nice example of a very healthy relationship.
Emily: We’ll talk more about it at your wedding.
Moderator: Hi.
Questioner 2: Hi. I actually binged Wynonna Earp
Emily: Whoooo
Questioner 2: starting with Season 2 I watched it in two days.
Emily: What’s the hold-up? Let’s go, 24 hours. Thank you so much.
Questioner 2: One of the things that really impressed me was the fact that it was a show that did not make the women ornamental, they were very much a huge part [unintelligible] of the show
Emily: Well they’re not very attractive so…
[Laughter]
Questioner 2: No disrespect Tim, but I was just curious about the writer’s room, and who’s there and talk about the dynamic.
Emily: all the best people, George R.R. Martin, J.K. Rowling
Moderator: I love that she brought her own wine. You’re my favorite fan today.
Emily: Yeah, we definitely strive for diversity in the writing room we we have more women than me so we have, oh my god, I was told there would be no math, but let’s just say five women, two men, we have LGBT represented, we have First Nations represented. We’re always looking to increase diversity, obviously, put out money where our mouth is, but yeah, out big thing is we def have more female writers than men and we have several LGBTQ writers so. They’re all excellent. None of them are that tall to be honest, none of them are that tall.
[Audience applauds]
Moderator: Anybody else got questions? Hi
Questioner 3: I can project probably.
Moderator: Yeah, project.
Questioner 3: I had a chance to meet your mom in cosplay at Dragon Con, so what was her overall feeling about the whole experience? And I think that was the first time she had been at a Con with you right?
Kat: Totally. And Dragon Con is the one like what is, it’s the biggest, I mean like San Diego is big, but it’s more kind of the industry one where as Dragon Con is really the fan one. I remember going the first night we got there sat in the lobby together and we just watched everyone walking for probably two hours we just sat there, it was fun to watch her. Because I think when you go through this incredible, the journey we’ve all been on with the show and how much it’s changed all of our lives I think it’s the next best thing to be able to share that with your parent or someone who has seen you all the way and who’s – oh I’m gonna get emotional – who’s like supported you all the way and I just felt so proud to share that with her, to be like look at all these people who like love this thing and like I’m a part of it and they’re a part of it and I think she just felt really proud because I also think as a parent you’re like “you want to do what with your life” so it was really nice to be like “look, I’m doing it and I’m okay and we’re all alive and like thriving” and gosh it was so special. She got so into it though. She made that costume all by herself, like she she looked awesome, I was so so proud of her. I was just so happy that she had the spirit she wanted to be like everyone else and fit in with the Earpers, and I was so proud of her, I never would have thought she would have done that. It was all her own thing so
Questioner 3: Her best friend was Waverly.
Kat: Yeah, her best friend was Waverly. Yeah, I just
Emily: “friend”
Kat: Her best “friend”.
Emily: Sorry. Sorry.
Kat: No, no yeah she I just felt proud, I was so happy that she got into the spirit so much, but she was like overwhelmed, she didn’t know what hit her and they’ve talked about it since we went it’s like every time Mary, my mom’s friend comes over for dinner it always comes up “and the costumes and then they had a parade”. Yeah. It’s funny.
Moderator: Hello.
Questioner 4: Hi, um so I love the show, it’s incredible, thank you so much for creating
Emily: Thank you for watching it.
Questioner 4: and we’re so stoked you’re here, I’m on staff at the festival and when you guys came on
Emily: We’ve had no fun at all. No we’ve had so much
Questioner 4: [Laughs] Damn it.
Emily: No, it’s such a great festival.
Questioner 4: So my question is, what attracted you three to the show because it’s so unique and it’s so crazy and exciting, how did you find out about it and what was your like “yes” moment?
Emily: That’s great question.
Tim: Ahhh, for me it was immediate, I mean it was a chance to play Doc Holliday. I knew exactly who Doc Holliday was. There’s like so many scripts throughout the year that you and then you just get like a little snippet of them trying to like a storyline breakdown of them trying to explain the show and I don’t remember what the original one was, but I just remember it was like demon fighting thing and then I’m like in the future and I’m…
Emily: Like “not again”
Tim: with Doc Holliday, but at the same time I’m like whatever happens, I need to get this part. I was excited from literally …
Melanie: Did you you think you would?
Tim: Kind of.
[Laughter]
Emily: Tim is a pretty humble guy so I think that speaks to actually how good his audition was. He auditioned for Dolls and I was like “no!”.
[Laughter]
Emily: It was a very good audition.
Melanie: but what was it about it that you were like “yeah”.
Tim: It just was like um it just fit perfect, it was just like for the first time ever this part that just felt so perfect, I just remember…cause you know, we gotta screen test and stuff and that’s not fun, you gotta go and producers are judging you and stuff and normally they’re nerve-racking, but I was so excited I just wanted to get in the room and the first person I read with is sitting right next to me and so the first scene we did, we did a scene together, I said “man I better get this show, I better get this show”.
Kat: What scene was it that you guys did, do you remember?
Tim: It was one of those, they were written, but they weren’t
Emily: I think wrote it just for the audition
Tim: I remember it wasn’t a real one.
Moderator: But you… I’m… maybe I’m telling tales out of school, but you actually said to, I don’t know who you said it to, but your thought after reading with Melanie was like, “if they don’t cast her, they’re out of their minds”
Emily: Yes, you have said that.
Tim: Oh yeah, there was other Wynonnas that I read with.
Emily: Meryl Streep? Garbage.
[Laughter]
Emily: I love that my publicists are like “great, Celine Dion, uh RuPaul”
Tim: Did you just say “my publicists”?
Emily: I meant Syfy, I meant Syfy, I meant the general….
Tim: I’m kidding, whoa I’m kidding. Yeah there was and very talented people, I won’t say who, but you know some of them and they were
Emily: Meryl Streep, I just said it, Meryl Streep.
Tim: No, they were good, but I literally I remember I came out of there and I said if they don’t hire Melanie Scrofano, they’re crazy. Yeah. They’re crazy.
Kat: Did you feel when you read Wynonna that she was kind of built, cause I feel like she’s custom made for you.
Melanie: Well no, because you don’t know, you don’t know what they see and I didn’t know any of them so I was like “eh, I don’t know, I don’t think I’m doing what they want”, but because I don’t know, not that I don’t know I just didn’t want to be the picture of what I assumed they wanted, you know how like acting teachers for example they’ll always like give you like the checklist of how to play a superhero or whatever and I was like “okay well nope, nope, nope, nope” and then I went online and I looked at the Wynonna from the 90s and I was like “nope”. So I was like “cool cool cool cool cool, so just have fun, cause you’re going home empty handed” but I think that’s what did it, that’s the lesson just…
Kat: Weren’t you chewing gum in your audition? I remember, yeah
Emily: Yup, it was amazing. She was like Jack Nicholson, she was so crazy. I was like “this girl’s gonna murder someone, but I want to marry her”.
[Laughter and applause]
Emily: Like honestly and I saw like 300 girls and I was like who’s that bat shit princes, I love her so much . No
Melanie: I want that on my tombstone.
Emily: It was amazing and like the comedy timing was good. It was pretty good, we’ll see how it works out.
[Laughter]
Moderator: Yeah we’ll see…
Emily: Oh I just want to say about Kat too, Kat was on our radar for a long time. She read for a bunch of them, is that okay to say?
Kat: Yeah, of course.
Emily: She read for Doc, she read for Dolls, she read for Nedley
[Laughter]
Kat: Jeremy, they even made me come in for him to like recycle me.
Emily: Like maybe you could use a character named Jeremy
Kat: yeah, do both.
Emily: But we always loved Kat and we were like “what could she do? Ah I don’t know, redhead cop? Yeah it’s worth a shot”.
Moderator: Too bad it didn’t work out.
Emily: Ah, I know.
Moderator: There was a fan question I got through twitter, “can you talk about the characters and their flaws, what makes them imperfect and how this impacts their significant relationships?” and I actually think the imperfections of the characters is what makes me relate to them quite honestly.
Kat: Can I, can I? I have one that’s so like burning in my throat that needs to come out. You know what I realized about Nicole this season, because I had always struggled with this question because Nicole is so good, she’s so noble and I realized this season that her nobility is actually her weakness too. Here’s why, it’s because she works so hard to get everything right and have everything in check and have everything perfect that she sometimes fails to see where um she kind of can block out her vulnerability and her openness to certain things and I think in order to put on a strong front and I think that’s where some of her weakness comes from that I really learned about her this season.
Tim: Yeah, if only she had a partner that could offset those things.
Kat: I know, it’s true.
Moderator: One day, one day. I think Wynonna is a little bit imperfect just like I don’t know, what do you guys think?
Emily: Not great at birth control.
[Laughter]
Melanie: True fact.
Moderator: Is that one of the the things that attracted you to the role? I mean how much do you actually know when you just …
Melanie: Yeah, well, it’s part of what I was saying like…is this weird? Do people touch their boss’s legs like this?
Emily: Sure.
Melanie: Yeah, do we? Ehhh, sure.
[Laughter]
Emily: I love you. It’s third season, take it up a notch.
Melanie: Yeah, you’re right, you’re right.
Moderator: they’re such good actors cause, guys, they hate each other.
Emily: We love each other. Go. It’s a pretty save space.
Moderator: Yeah, they can’t stand each other.
Melanie: We signed a thing that says “don’t touch people you work with”
[Laughter]
Emily: I didn’t sign it!
Melanie: Yeah, me neither. I think again it goes back to the audition where is like I’m more interested by flaws and by, I once…I married my husband, but before I did that I hated him sometimes and I was like what is this rage and it’s cause he seemed perfect to me and I hated that because it made me feel like shit about myself and then one day I was like “I just hate you because you seem perfect” and he was like “oh no I’m not” and in that moment I just liked him so much more and I feel like that about Wynonna or about any character where it’s just like, what if it’s okay to be petty sometimes or to be shallow sometimes or the shitty things but then you’re still okay, you’re still lovable and you can still have your core people, you still deserve it and that’s a scary thing to think about. Even right now, I’m like “no, you have to be perfect all the time otherwise nobody will like you and but that’s what I like about Wynonna and I think that’s what people think about our characters is that they’re messy and when you can see that and go “oh I still like that character even though they’re a mess”, then maybe you can turn it back around and feel like “maybe I’m okay even though I’m a mess.”
Moderator: Yeah, I mean to me I think the show a lot of it about people who make mistakes but still try to show up for each other you know and I think that’s so relatable as is like the sheer presence of demons in people’s backyards.
[Laughter]
Emily: Yeah, and a tentacle.
Moderator: Like, we’ve all been there, it’s like “oh god, got to call the tentacle guy again.”
Emily: Yeah, yeah exactly. But if he looks like Doc Holliday, you’re like “oh okay”.
Moderator: Hey, why were you in that well on my property? That’s weird. Questions? Any more questions? Hello, hi, do you want to come on up?
Emily: Come on up. Black Badge? Are you wearing a Black Badge t-shirt?
Moderator: Nice
Questioner 5: This question is mainly for Tim, I was wondering, Emily said earlier that there are so many women represented on the show and being an action and suspense very filled show, I was wondering what it’s like to be surrounded by so many women and what you’ve learned.
Tim: It’s pretty awesome.
[Laughter]
Tim: Yeah, I mean I don’t know, I’ve been so lucky in my career for some reason that honestly I’ve been a supporting actor to strong females like pretty much most of…all of my career. Starting, going back with Instant Star, there was a lot of people talking….
Emily: Whooo
Tim: about that show before, but you know, I was support to a strong female character and then I went into Lost Girl and then, who doesn’t want to be saved by Wynonna? I think it’s awesome, to me if feels pretty normal, you know, it feels like home. Yeah.
Moderator: No I think that’s actually a great point, you know, I love action adventure and love demons, obviously, but I think that there’s like this stereotype that I grew up with action movies where it was like ‘the guy’ then his friend ‘the other guy’, this is so refreshing because really anyone, all the characters get to have their moment of like kicking ass or you know, fighting, or banding together to fight somebody off. It’s so cool that like, there’s no like, everybody can join in, you know what I mean?
Emily: And that’s really because we have like a small cast of characters, but they’re so strong, that’s like kind of one of the writing rules we try to do, like everyone gets a turn to be maybe the victim for lack of a better term, but everyone 100% gets their hero moment in this season or especially as we’re in the last two episodes it’s really important to me that everybody get that moment where they do something where you remember what they bring to the team or you see their flaws become strengths, I just think… and hopefully that’s why you fall in love with then, you know? That they’re relatable but they are there for a reason. So yeah.
Moderator: Yeah, I mean, not to get deep, but I’m gonna. I think that that’s what I love about this show and especially Wynonna is that her flaws are actually her superpower and – I’m gonna cry – but I feel like she’s someone who fears that she loves other people too much and she’s just like really scared of like committing because it’s like too overwhelming. I don’t know, I’m crying.
Emily: So nice, oh my god, Mo Ryan.
Moderator: Am I way off base because I could just be like having an emotional meltdown, which is fine.
Emily: I will tell you a story I’ve never told before, and these guys too, we have a director that we really love called Paulo Barzman who’s like, he’s famous, he’s French, he’s got like 72 scarves on all the time, he’s like always swearing and like somehow he’s got espresso from Paris and we’re like “we’re in the middle of the woods what’s happening?”. He is like the perfect combination of like takes it so seriously and understands what makes the show work and also is like “it’s TV, we’ll do a re-shoot it’s fine, whatever”. I’ll get emotional about this, but one of the best notes he ever gave me, because I trust him so much, it was when he read the pilot and at the end of the pilot it was kind of when Waverly is being hung, you’re like first season and all that stuff and Wynonna has to go and save her, remember with the motorbike and everything and it was a different ending and Paulo is so good at giving notes and he said to me “I don’t want to give you specific notes, but here’s what I think, I think the way that Wynonna saves Waverly and comes into her own as the Earp heir has to be defined by what she fears about herself and who she is. She thinks she’s crazy, so make her crazy. Like, that’s gotta be her superpower, exactly that” and so that became the moment where she aims the gun at Waverly and says “nobody shoots my family, but me” and for me you’re like…that was like
Moderator: No, that’s love.
Emily: For me you’re like, yeah it is dark, but I was also like “this is brave” because this is her being like “you wanna see crazy, here’s is mother-fucking crazy”. Yeah. Right?! Yes and I’m like yes and for me that was such a defining moment and that was thanks to him that I was like yes the thing she fears about herself and that she thinks she’s crazy and she’s seen demons her whole life, you might as well lean in, because life is hard but she still gets up every single day and fights along with this team and that’s what so many women and men I know do right now in 2018, it’s like maybe life isn’t great all the time, but you still get up and we all just try it, whether there’s a tentacle in your backyard or a metaphorical tentacle like health care, yeah yeah yeah or you know, your moms.
[Audience applauds]
Emily: But that, thank you so much for saying that, I feel like that is a defining thing about the show. You’re like “no, I disagree”.
Questioner 6: Kind of off of that, what was the pitching process and the development of the show like and especially how did it chance between what your original vision was, once you had heard all of the feedback from executives and the network and how did you have to change your vision to suit what actually aired.
Emily: I really really want to give a shout-out to Syfy and not because…oh hey, look a high-five, they have been so supportive, honestly I feel like there has never been, like you know, they let us do a pregnant superhero over here, no questions asked. I was like “Wayhaught?”, they were like “yep, prefect”, “tentacle?” “okay”, “mustache?” they were like “we’ll talk.”.
[Audience applauds]
Emily: So, we had this comic book from Beau Smith and it was very different, like I talk about it very lovingly, it was very T.N.A., she’s basically wearing band-aids over her boobs and like fighting mummies, as you do in the 90s, it was the 90s. But I love Beau Smith and he is like such an ally, but we knew the show had to be grounded also, cause we didn’t have ‘mummy band-aid’ money, you know what I mean? That’s like season 7, so I really wanted to ground, obviously a huge influence for me. I had nothing to lose, let me put it that way, they brought me the comic book, they said “what would you do with this?” I said “crazy stuff”, I said “I would want to take the typical Western which is full of dudes running around and saving ladies and stealing horses and I want it to be just a bunch of women with supporting men. I really want to turn that on it’s head, I really want to make the horses motorbikes” and one thing that was like really kind of just because I have a little girl who had watched Frozen maybe 72,000 times, I was like “I’m really interested in the idea of the love story being the sisters” um so those were kind of the things I pitched, so I went to Syfy and I said “can we do Buffy meets Justified meets Frozen” and yeah.
[Audience applauds]
Emily: And they were like “we already have like 10 shows like that in development”, but they were like “if you could pull this off, Godspeed”, no but honestly to their credit they were like “that sounds bat-shit, let’s try it.” I felt really free from the beginning I really felt so supported and also there’s something to be said for the fact that we were in Canada just making this show and nobody was being like “what’s going on over there?”. The hardest thing for me, I’ll just say quickly, from development to production was tone, just like typical things you fight is like lots of people, NOT executives I will say that, are like “can women be funny?” and I’m like “pretty much, pretty much” like the amount of comedy and kind of I did feel like we were fighting a lot of those tropes about like strong female character who’s like glowering and has like two machine guns and has like 72 push-up bras on all the time. Yeah, sexier, sexier, I was like “what about less sexy, what about less sexy” you still made her pretty sexy though, okay. So tone was the hardest thing, do you know what I mean? You see the unevenness to be honest in the first season, just like every other show in the world, the first three episodes or whatever, maybe six, maybe first eight. But we had incredible partners and there was something really pure I think about all of us together in the middle of Calgary making the show, I talk about this a lot, running around in the woods being like “is there film in the camera? I don’t know”.
[Laughter]
Melanie: Uhhh, there isn’t, we do digital.
[Laughter]
Emily: but it kind of felt like we were doing these crazy skits, and then it turned out to be the greatest TV show and most successful TV of all time.
Moderator: And you’re still doing crazy skits.
Emily: It was one of the best development experiences I’ve ever had in my life, both with my network and with Beau Smith, when you’re adapting material it can be very tricky, it felt like a reward for something really good I did in a past life.
Kat: Do you guys ever feel like being in Calgary, I think it’s like a gift that we don’t get to go “home” at night, because I think it keeps
Emily: oh it is. yeah. like we’re at camp
Kat: At camp! That’s how I feel too.
Emily: Like a freezing cold camp in Siberia.
[Laughter]
Kat: Like camp in the off off season.
Mel: and nobody brought tampons.
[Laughter]
Kat: no one. Only Diva Cups.
Emily: and we’re like “should we act? Should we write something? I don’t know”. No, I actually think you’re right
Kat: But I think it really helps, there’s something about like, being in the bubble that I think is like essential and I think is why everyone bonds so well too because there’s this sense that like “it’s just us out here”.
Emily: And we’ve talked about this these guys are so amazing, but now I feel spoiled because where I’m like “please don’t send me any jerks, if you can help it on set” because these guys are amazing and it’s so much your effort as a team and your commitment and guys going into to the freezing cold, ha! I’m mostly in Hawaii most of the time so I don’t, no but honestly, I totally agree and I think also just being remote has let us be like “should we do this? I don’t know. Put a tentacle in it. Okay.”
Moderator: Well it’s funny because by ATX law, I must mention Friday Night Lights at every panel.
[Cheering]
Moderator: But honestly that’s what people talked about filming it Austin it gave them a lack of distraction, an ability to bond, an emotional bond among the cast that was really I think very evident on screen and you know it’s funny because we were talking about this earlier, but I think Friday Night Lights for a long time was also one of those shows where you’d say “it’s about high school football in Texas, but it’s really not about that” and so with your show, it’s definitely, there are tentacles, I mean there’s definitely tentacles, but like it’s much more about like the found family…
Emily: tentacle is like the gateway drug, if you love tentacle
Moderator: Of course. Obviously, so it’s just is more to me about a chosen family struggling together and trying to build a better world or be there for each other, it’s one of those shows, when you describe Wynonna Earp you’re like “so, there was a guy in a well and demons, guns and yeah.”
Emily: Sisters.
Moderator: Sisters.
Emily: Hot cop.
Moderator: actually, that’s a really good description.
Emily: I would watch that show. I would watch that.
Moderator: 100%. Alright, well I’m just gonna like give you all like we’re gonna have to wrap up here in a minute, but if there’s anything more that you want to talk about or say.
Emily: I’m just so excited for Season 3 and I love you guys so much, so thank you so much.
I also would just really like to thank Mo ‘Red Head’ Ryan for all her support of the show, for leaning into the tentacle show, thank you so much. Honestly guys, thank you so much.
Tim: Yeah, and ATX for having us, you guys for coming and can we see the trailer again?
[Audience applauds and cheers]
Kat: I was just gonna say “can we see the trailer again”.
Emily: Sure.
Tim: Is that bad?
Emily: and then I think we should post it online. yeah?
Moderator: Is that cool, Allison?
Emily: You guys promise not to screen shot it, right? You’re not gonna dissect it.
Moderator: Alright, here’s an idea, while the lights are on, why don’t we all go off the stage, go to the side of the room and then we can have a better view and we won’t fall over in the dark.
Emily: Did you have a question?
Moderator: oh yeah, do you have a
Questioner 7: {Asks if since they are portraying historical figures if they ever get curious about if they might be related to someone like Wyatt Earp or Doc Holliday}
Emily: Now I do.
Kat: I’ve done a DNA test.
Emily: Have you?
Kat: I was like “I want something exotic” and then it was all like Easter European, all of it.
Emily: That’s cool.
Kat: For like thousands and thousands of years.
Moderator: That’s okay by us.
Emily: That’s a good question.
Moderator: Thank you all for coming we are going to exit the stage and then watch the trailer again with all of you.
Emily: Guys, just suffer through it.
Tim: Thank you guys.
[Audience applauds and cheers]
Sorry, it's a lot. 