Transcript by Edye
Panel took place on 14 April 2019
Video: ClexaCon 2019 – The Magic Behind Wayhaught
Transcript
Moderator: I could say a lot of things about the magic of WayHaught. How Waverly and Nicole have made an indelible mark on LGBTQ pop culture.
[Audience cheers]
Moderator: How a fandom became a movement. But right now, there’s only three words that matter, and that’s– Fight… For… Wynonna.
[Audience cheers]
Moderator: So let’s show ’em what a thousand Earpers sound like, alright? Say it with me now.
All: FIGHT FOR WYNONNA! FIGHT FOR WYNONNA! FIGHT FOR WYNONNA!
[Audience cheers]
Moderator: Now please welcome to the stage Wynonna Earp Showrunner and Writer Emily Andras and WayHaught themselves, Kat Barrell and Dominique Provost-Chalkley!
[Audience cheers]
Emily: Can we do a quick selfie?
Audience: YEAH!
[Audience cheers]
Emily: Thank you!
Moderator: Before we get started, let’s give some love to these Earpers who have been busting their asses to show everyone how important Wynonna Earp is and why we need it.
[Audience cheers]
Moderator: Um…so…
Emily: Hi Dana. Dana everybody!
[Audience cheers]
Moderator: Uhhhhh… anything new? [laughter] Uh what… no but seriously…. I know that fans are stressed out, you’re all stressed out, what is the situation as we stand?
Emily: What’s the situation [to Dom and Kat–nervous laughter] ? Um, I feel like the situation is… hopeful.
[Audience claps]
Emily: I… um… I wish that I could come up here and tell you a hundred percent. I am positive, I’m feeling hopeful, I think we’re close… um… I think–first of all I would just like to personally thank everybody for rallying when we needed you to yet again.
[Audience cheers]
Emily: I’m sorry you didn’t get your hiatus, uh, but we really needed you and… five seconds and I’m gonna cry. You’ve made me so proud! Thank you so much for showing up. Look at you all, look at us all, it’s just impossible to ignore. Um, people know we’re on the right side. We have so many…
Emily: [To Volunteer] I’ve got one, baby, thank you. It’s not my first day.
[Audience laughs]
Emily: Um… I just feel like you know part of me when we put up the rallying cry wasn’t sure. I mean, there’s a lot of good tv on right now. Legends is great, maybe you’ve all moved on… that would be OK it’s wonderful.
[Audience yells stuff- most loud word is never]
Emily: Um, so thank you. I just have never bet against you and would never bet against you and more importantly you shouldn’t bet against you. Okay? So I’m very hopeful we’re gonna get it done. And we’ll get some more of what you saw. If you tolerate a few more WayHaught kisses…
[Audience cheers]
Emily: Um, we have every intention of continuing their beautiful story. So thank you.
[Audience cheers]
Moderator: OK so let’s get to the real reason why we’re here. This panel’s called the Magic of Wayhaught.
[Audience cheers]
Moderator: Quite magical, are they not? So I want all of you to tell me what you think that really is. What is the magic of WayHaught?
Kat: I mean, like, this… is the magic of WayHaught. I think that, um, the Magic of WayHaught was one of the first, I think, examples in pop culture of how powerful a fandom can be when they finally see themselves on screen. And I think what we’ve been able to witness with how incredible the past … four years…?
Emily: Yeah, amazing.
Kat: …have been. We were talking about this a little bit last night. It’s when you…when you take a community of people that don’t feel represented in a way that makes their hearts happy and makes them feel seen and makes them feel loved and included and accepted and celebrated… When you do that, it’s like you can create things like this, you can move mountains, and I think that’s the power of WayHaught.
[Audience cheers]
Emily: I mean it goes without question that it’s the two amazing women sitting next to me, right? Nobody else could have made WayHaught truly magical except these two extraordinary actresses and their commitment and just… I’m so proud that both Nicole and Waverly are two completely different LGBTQ women. Do you know what I mean? It gives me so much joy to be able to write such different, real three dimensional women who have found each other. They’re not exactly the same, but they’re perfect together. And I just think it’s speaks so much to Dom and Kat and just their trust, and their chemistry, and their hard work… so… I’m so immensely proud of them. Just watching that video how far they’ve come.
Dom: I know, that video!
Emily: From just the first second you just could see it. So, I think it’s Dom and Kat. Right?
[Audience cheers]
Dom: Yeah. [mumbles] Hi guys! Uh… I think I’m a little bit speechless, to be honest, from that video. Like, I, like, was bawling my little eyes out back there because, it’s like we have come so far. Um, not just us, but the whole show and everything. It’s… it’s … from the first time we came to Clexacon to now, like… faaaa… we’ve all been on such a journey, you know? And seeing you guys back here, seeing some of the same faces, seeing how much you guys have come on and how much we’ve all solidified even further. I just think that kind of magic doesn’t go unnoticed and it… that’s the reason why we have to go back. Please!
Emily: We will.
Dom: Please.
[Audience cheers.]
Moderator: Dom I’m gonna stick with you for this moment here. Learning that Waverly was… I dunno… half angel… uh… how’d that go over when you first found out?
Dom: Um, I, everybody found out, I think, before me, and then I was like, “*gasp* WHAT?!” and Em was like, “Wait, you…you didn’t know?!” Do you remember? We were at the tab…
Emily: That’s the second time this happened.
Dom: [laughs] It’s the second time [unintelligible]. But I kind of love that about, about our journey with the show because I.. yeah.. .every time I read anything it… to be honest with you I was just as happy about all the tiny little… tiny little scenes and tiny little nuances in Waverly’s journey. Yes. It was EPIC. And obviously I really want wings at some point.
[Laughter]
Dom: And like um, but, yeah it’s just… yet another gift on the road of Waverly’s journey.
Moderator: So Kat, in Season 3 Nicole picks up a lot more responsibility. BECOMES THE SHERIFF!
[Audience cheers]
Moderator: What was it like for you to have Nedley hand over this huge responsibility to Nicole and having Nicole step up in a way… in an even bigger way than she ever had before?
Kat: I think Nicole… it was scary for her. I think because she’s got, not only is it her job but it’s her family, and we’re such a tight knit group and she knows so much about the supernatural going-ons of Purgatory, so I think she really knew…I think when she came to Purgatory she thought it was going to be more of a normal job, and um…
Moderator: Yeah, naturally in a town called Purgatory.
Kat: Yeah! Naturally! But um… so I think she feels… I think she feels the heat, heh, um, but I think it was also a bit bittersweet. I remember doing the scenes with Greg when he was…Nedley was handing Nicole the reins over, and um, it was a bit scary for me because I didn’t know what was going to happen with Greg’s character. He was like, “I’m done. I’m off the show.” And I continuously told him they’re never going to get rid of Nedley. There’s no way, we’ve just gonna, we’re gonna unleash…
Moderator: Not our Nedley, no!
Kat: But it was…there are so many layers with Nicole and Nedley. There’s a father/daughter relationship that has become so much clearer, especially this season. The fact that he was looking over her since she was a little girl. It was just like, THE most beautiful thing.
Emily: It was written by Noelle Carbone who is right here. Stand up you beautiful Canadian!
Kat: Yeah. Stand up! Stand up!
[Audience and guests cheer]
Emily: Pleeease.
Moderator: I can see the blush from here!
Emily: That episode also had some gnome wives, some Nicole/Wynonna handcuffed together, basically your classic masterpiece, so go see her later and say “congrats”. Yeah.
Kat: Yeah, I just think it’s… thank you for that amazing episode. I’ve never gotten to be part of an episode that went in a million different emotional directions all within 50 pages. It was a masterpiece. It was masterpiece. It was incredible.
[Audience cheers]
Emily: Sorry, I just wanted to shout-out
Kat: No, a hundred percent.
Moderator: So Dom, I want to congrats…[scoffs] congrats you… Ah! It’s SUNDAY! I want to congratulate you on your Canadian Screen Award!
[Audience cheers]
Dom: It’s crazy!
[More cheering]
Dom: It’s crazy beans! Totally crazy beans you guys!
Moderator: A little birdie told me, and her name actually is Dominique, and it was on YouTube…
[Laughter]
Emily: She sounds great!
Moderator: …that… and I’m not gonna put you on the spot, because it’s Sunday, and everyone’s tired, and your eyes are…they look like they’re about to cry. But apparently you were planning to look up an audition scene.
[Audience cheers]
Moderator: And that you might reenact the fateful moment at the next convention you were attending but I… but.. here we are…
Dom: Guys. Guys. Guys. Guys. Okay, so here’s the thing…
[Laughter]
Dom: I’m really silly. I’m really silly for promising things. Really silly for promising things. Um.. I.. in Seattle, that panel … was like amazing in so many… I think… my microphone keeps going in and out, in and out. I felt like I had a huge… I’m gonna be super honest. I had a big breakthrough on that panel where for the first time in my life I was up on stage, which was crazy because it was like the most intense stage, do you remember? With all the couch and the sparkles in the sky and all the stuff? It was crazy! But I for the first time was just like quite relaxed, which is not normal for me when there’s loads of people heeee because it is really scary, um…
Audience member: We support you!
Dom: Thanks you guys, I appreciate that. But on that panel I was like, “I have got this live thing! I am just gonna like, yeah I’ll promise that.” And now I’m here and I’m regretting it so much! And I’m wondering whether you will [mic cut out]… that I will choose when I feel like the moment is right… in the next few conventions. [mic cut out]
[Audience applauds]
Moderator: We’re gettin’ you a new mic. We’re gettin’ you a new mic. It’s comin’.
Kat: There it is.
Dom: [To person carrying mic] You’re so whizzy, thank you! Thank you so much. Um, yeah. If you would be so kind as to do that, then I think that the moment will come and it will be glorious. And I won’t freak out and it’ll be great.
Emily: Sounds great.
[Audience cheers]
Dom: Thanks guys.
Moderator: Anything for you, Dom, anything you say. So Emily obviously you watched the situation in 2016, the Bury Your Gays situation very closely, and your cast became very well educated on LGBTQ rep in media. What have you seen change from your position in the industry in these last three years and what advice would you give to showrunners who have queer or trans characters and don’t wanna fall into those tired familiar tropes?
Kat: Great question.
Moderator: Thank you.
Emily: Yeah, I think I’ve seen not enough, heh heh heh, [nervous laughter] but I do think it’s getting… I mean I just think we’re not moving fast enough. But, wow, what a year that was 2016. That was a crazy year. Look what positivity came out of it, if I may say that. I think that there’s so much more awareness now among writers and decision makers and showrunners that the LGBTQ community has been so harmed by this ridiculous trope and more importantly that we’re not gonna fuckin’ put up with it anymore?!
[Audience cheers]
Emily: And remember that your eyeballs are your currency. If you don’t like it, don’t watch it. You can tell ’em you don’t like it before you don’t watch it, that’s fine.
Moderator: Oh, they’ll tell them!
Emily: Okay good. Please do. What was the second part of the question? I’m so sorry.
Moderator: What advice would you give to…
Emily: Oh what advice. I’m gonna be totally honest. I would say my advice is ask for some advice. Like I would love to write a trans character, for example, and I get asked that question a lot. I cannot imagine living that experience or writing that character without speaking to people in the trans community. You know what I mean? And I’m really good at a lot of stuff, and really bad at a lot of stuff, but I have no problem anymore reaching out to someone who has more experience and wants to know… to hear about what they would want in that story and what they would want in that character and what not. So I honestly just think that you’ve gotta put your ego aside and not be afraid to speak to those communities who you want to represent. I think that’s critical and ironically the more, for lack of a better term, successful I feel like I’ve been in my career, the more comfortable I would be 100% saying, “What was it like? How did you know? What was your transition experience like? What do you wish you could see on screen? Do you think about it every day of your life? Is it just part of your life? Do you think we could have a trans villain? What would that look like? You know what I mean? Do you think it’s too early to do that?” I think that’s my advice, is I just think we need to reach out, do you know what I mean? And also obviously hire more people from the community in writing rooms is huge. We’re just trying as fast as we can. And in Canada I feel like hopefully we’re moving a little bit faster. But we just need to get more people from the LGBTQ community into positions where they can tell their own storytelling. And that’s why it’s so important, a con like this, where you are telling your own stories where there’s so many incredible projects and films and web series and I’m so proud of you! Even just seeing where it’s come from the first year when we first came here. Look at this! It’s just been amazing! Please keep telling your stories and then hire me when I’m washed up. So I can come work for you! But it’s extraordinary! So I am encouraged, if that makes sense.
[Applause]
Moderator: I have receipts on you, Andras.
Emily: Good!
Moderator: And she practices what she preaches, from the get go. From somebody who has been in this industry on the other side. Emily has always been checking in from the get go. Like from Season One… this is something I knew this show would be special when Emily made it a point to say, “Hey, I want to connect with you and the people in your community.”
Emily: I think I’ve also made mistakes, like I’ll be totally frank about it, and I hear about it a lot. I definitely have stories that I would do much differently now than I did when I was younger and a little more naive. And I stand by those mistakes, because I feel they’ve helped me become who I am. So thank you for saying that but I completely acknowledge that I’m still learning, so thank you.
[Applause]
Moderator: So Wynonna Earp is a wonderful example of a show that has figured out how to have same sex couples still find themselves in a lot of drama but not have their relationship be the crux of all of that drama.
[Audience cheers]
Moderator: Meaning a breakup isn’t always hanging over their head, I mean they might be eaten by a demon or a tree monster any day of the week, but it’s not about the relationship. So has that really freed you up as actors and as a writer to really go interesting new places with these characters?
[laughter]
Moderator: On a roll!
Emily: It’s still a challenge, right? Like the truth is people do break up and they do get into trouble and things happen in their relationship where everyone’s like “what?”. Um… but I think a lot of drama just comes from who you are as people and not always being on the same page about what you want or where you’re at or who’s possessed by a tentacle or who’s not, depending on the day. I don’t know has it freed you guys up? Do you feel safe?
Kat: I’ve always felt incredibly safe and the thought of being freed up hasn’t ever really crossed my mind because I never felt threatened or anything to begin with or constricted to begin with, I guess. I think we’ve always treated our relationship on the show as the same as every other relationship on the show, so I’ve never really felt the extra layer of because it’s two women in this relationship it’s any different or there’s anything to be shackled by.
Moderator: Well bless you for feeling that way, but…
Kat: no! Yeah.
Moderator: …Not everybody feels that way that makes these shows though, but…
Kat: Yeah. So that would be my experience. I’ve never felt those shackles at all.
Dom: At all. (long pause) At all. It’s true, just yeah.
[Audience cheers]
Moderator: So what have been some of your favorite moments of season 3 since we can’t really talk about season 4 yet?
Kat: Well in Season 4 we…
Emily: We got some good stuff cookin’ though, I think, if we get to do it again. I’m excited.
Audience members: When!
Emily: I mean, if we can find you guys. Just kidding.
Kat: You know where to find us.
Emily: What were your favorite moments in season 3.
Dom: Season 3. Season 3.
Kat: It’s been a while!
Dom: Right? Yeah! Wow.
Emily: I think Dom and Kat had some extraordinary performances. I think they really came into their own. I really do love Gnome Wife episode. I love the episode where Kat is with Melanie/Wynonna. I just think Kat is the greatest drunk actor of our time!
[Audience cheers]
Kat: Guys everyone needs a skill!
Emily: To be clear, she’s not an alcoholic in real life, like, so when you put the headline… but playing drunk…
Moderator: It’s a skill!
Emily: I think Dominique has never been better than in an episode called Jolene.
[Audience cheers]
Emily: And I feel a little guilty but I can’t imagine what it took to get there. I think it would’ve been very personal and very grueling. Particularly the scene in the greenhouse with Zoie Palmer who is wonderful. But God, it was a tour de force, Dom, it was incredible. It felt so real! And thank you so much for getting what we were trying to do with that episode. We were incredibly nervous about it. Written by Shelley Scarrow, I should just give her a shout out too.
[Audience cheers]
Dom: Yeah.
Emily: Sorry.
Dom: No! No no no, absolutely, that was… it was without a doubt the most challenging scene I’ve ever filmed, but without a doubt the most rewarding as well, I would say. I’m wearing the shirt because it means so much to me. I actually had something completely different planned to wear today and then I woke up and put it on and was like… oh.. I’m just gonna put my “I’m here and I stay” shirt on because it’s a good reminder for me, because I did have to dig pretty deep into all of that stuff that maybe we don’t show as much to the rest of the world. And I find it really really tricky watching that scene back. I actually stumbled upon it the other day on YouTube and was like, “Whoa! Yeah!” It popped up, do you ever get that? Like all those pic…all those clips?
Kat: Yeah, I get a lot of us kissing.
Dom:Yes, a lot of us kissing. “Suggestions of things you might like,” and you’re like “Oh!”. So good. But yeah, I just feel so blessed that I got gifted that scene and that it helped me, it has helped me immensely on my own journey with myself, so…
Emily: Was it challenging during the proposal scene when those 5,000 Canadian geese showed up? It was so much honking! I can’t believe you guys kept a straight face. I’m talking there was a pond right behind the homestead. Like maybe 25,000 Canadian geese that I was like, “Who let all these Earpers on set? Oh my God!”
[Laughter]
Emily: We’re giving you a proposal, shut up! It was crazy!
Moderator (in goose voice): Like Fight For Wynonna, right?
Emily (in goose voice): Interrupting Wynonna!
Kat: No, that was a very… We were at the end of a day on a Friday and we filmed multiple versions of that scene and it was very interesting to see what you guys ended up choosing.
[Laughter]
Emily: That was Noelle’s idea.
[Laughter]
Emily: Just kidding.
Moderator: This year, y’all just pulled out all the stops with the guest stars. Zoie Palmer, Jann Arden, Anna Silk, Megan Follows. I mean, come on Emily.
Emily: Listen, I’m catching my Canadian….
Moderator: I know you’re the one behind all this fabulosity. How did you assemble this Avengers team of guest stars?
Emily: This Canadian Avengers team and their parkas. I think it speaks to the fact that the show is in its third season to be honest and look, we film in the middle of the winter in Calgary Alberta, it’s pretty cold there. Shout out to any Calgarians here. I met a few… [shouting in audience] that’s right babies. I think the one thing we’ve always had on our set, I hope this is true, is we kinda have a no asshole policy and we really do try to have a good time. So I feel like, amongst actors we have a reputation now as being really fun and free and you can come, and Zoie Palmer can sing a song and try to kill Dominique, and it’s a whole thing. So I called in a lot of favors, but I do think–look at the show now has a bit of cachet and it’s well known for its fan base, but also truly I think we are known as a really kind, fun set and a chance to just, it’s an amazing genre show. You can come and spread your wings and play a crazy character. Who doesn’t want to do that I assume as an actor?
Kat: I think it’s a huge kudos to Emily and our producing team because, being on the actor side of it, I have so many peers coming up to me and saying, “I want to be on your show so bad. I would love to work on Wynonna.” And people who I know wanna come back who have so many options open to them, especially on the directing side of things, who are like, “I will come back and do Wynonna, even though I have all these options”, they wanna come back because it’s an incredibly special environment that you’ve created. And I think the amazing thing about Emily is that she is so unique in the fact that she hires people to work for her and then she actually gives them, she empowers them to do what she hired them to do. That is an incredibly rare quality in a lot of producers, but she trusts her people and she…
Emily: I’m just lazy.
[Audience laughs]
Kat: No! No! But I think it needs to be said because you’ve created that environment and you’ve created a place where creative people feel they can actually do their job and the crew gets the power to make the decisions and then they get behind the show, and it’s just a beautiful example to me of how to lead a team perfectly.
[Audience cheers]
Emily: Thank you so much.
Moderator: So while we’re waiting for Wynonna to get back on track, can you share with us some other things that you all have been working on. Or at least give us vague descriptions of stuff and things. I know, Dom, you just recently announced that you’re going to be in a Christmas queer movie! Seasons of Love on Tello! Love to hear about that!
[Audience cheers]
Dom: Thank you! Yeah! I’m really excited about it, actually, I haven’t spoken to either of these ladies about it.
Emily: No that’s fine.
Moderator: By the way…
[Laughter]
Emily: No, I know, I think it’s amazing! No, it’s great.
Dom: It’s … it was one of those things where I read the script and I was like I’ve always wanted to do a rom-com kind of thing. If you’re going to do a rom-com, why not do it about something that you know, pushes the boundaries a little bit and gives this beautiful community what they so deserve, a happy ending.
[Audience cheers]
Dom: A happy ending, yeah. And for me personally the reason why the role stuck out to me so much is because I feel like… so I took some time off and went traveling to Brazil for five months, I think everyone probably knows that.
Audience member: Who’s Carla?
Dom: Huh? Carla? Oh right, yeah that was, I was traveling with her last time when we went to southeast Asia. Is that what you mean? Yeah sorry.
Emily: Is your name Carla? You gotta plug yourself, it’s okay, I like it.
Dom: But yeah, that role, the one thing I connected with the most when I was traveling was my love for music and…
Kat: Are you gonna sing?
Emily: Are you putting out an album?
Dom: I have to sing and play guitar in it.
Kat: Wow! That’s amazing.
[Audience cheers]
Dom: I know it’s crazy, yeah. And so I think it will be like a real… pushing myself too. It’s so funny, the character in it has crippling anxiety about doing it, so when I was reading it, I was like, “Uh, I get this! This is gonna be good.” So I think that hopefully it should…ung…push me to do some things that scare me.
[Audience cheers]
Kat: For me… oh… I’m doing all these spaghetti at the wall things of trying to make other projects. So I’ve been working on a little web series called, “Pooched!”
[Audience cheers]
Kat: Which you guys have been so supportive with the traveling Bernies. Thank you guys. I just want you really quickly to know we didn’t get IPF, but I also want you to know it’s the third time I’ve been rejected by the IPF so I’m really used to it.
[Laughter]
Kat: But we’ve moved on to explore more funding. We actually took all the metrics of all the engagement you guys did and put together this huge marketing document, and it’s really, really… boring… but very helpful.
[Laughter]
Kat: So thank you for that, and I’ve also spent the last year developing a half hour warm family comedy that I was… during Canadian Screen Week actually in Toronto also to pitch that to some networks, which was a really exciting experience for me to get to that stage with a project. And I’m taking the directing program at UCLA right now.
[Audience cheers]
Moderator: Awesome!
Kat: So it’s been a lot of, like, on the other side, developing myself and being back in school has been exhilarating. I go though…”I’m terrified I could never do this”, to “maybe…maybe I could be okay at this”. And it’s this huge cycle, but what an amazing learning curve, and I just… (to Dom) [I saw you]… and I’m so energized, I feel my creative spirit is on fire and I’m so excited. Those are the two things and then one more little thingy…it’s very small, it’s an embryo right now… so … it’s coming.
Audience member: WHOOOOOOOO!
Kat: Not! No! Not that! Not a baby! I am not pregnant! Let’s be clear! [Laughs]
[Uproarious laughter]
Kat: I’m not pregnant!
Moderator: Holy shit! You gotta warn me before that happens!
[Everyone still laughing]
Kat: Sorry! Sorry! Sorry! No no no! Let’s clarify!
Emily: Noelle, get the whiteboard!
Kat: Don’t print that!
Emily: Get the whiteboard. Congratulations!
Kat: THE IDEA… [laughing] The idea is… is… is a little… JEWEL? Do we wanna call it that instead? So, a few things are happening… Jesus Christ sorry! So sorry!
Emily: You can’t spook me! You can’t spook me! Triplets? Great!
Moderator: Write ’em in, write ’em in.
Emily: Whatever! You wanna give birth on the show, we got it. Just kidding! I’m so sorry to interrupt, but I kinda blacked out. I’m so sorry.
[Laughter]
Dom: Can you imagine if that was the way you released it as well?
Kat: [Laughing]
Emily: I can imagine, I can imagine.
Kat: Sorry. That’s it! I’m gonna stop.
Emily: No!
Kat: That’s the end.
Moderator: Tell us about your jewel!
Emily: No, please clarify what this embryo is, please we’re begging you!
Kat: Oh it’s just. I’ve been on a journey to find a feature film that I wanna have as a first feature because directors are held to their first feature, and if it’s shit it kind of like haunts you. And so I think I found what’s it’s gonna be…
Dom: Ooooohhh!
Kat: So now it needs to grow and massage. NOT INSIDE OF MY BODY, just to clarify.
[Laughter]
Emily: This is a safe space, you’re amongst friends, it’s all good.
Kat: [Laughing] Emily?
Emily: Wow!
Moderator: Do you need a sip of water?
Emily: I’m good, I’m good, you honestly can’t spook me anymore. Maybe if you both were… I don’t know, I don’t know. Challenge accepted! No, I’m just kidding. I have been developing a lot of stuff. But mostly I have been trying to fight for this. I’m thinking about joining Twitter, maybe? I hear that’s fun. And a good place to stay professional. No, I’m developing stuff all the time, but I don’t want to get too far down the road because this has my heart and I’m going to fight for this forever.
[Audience cheers]
Emily: But you know, obviously I’m always looking at new properties, new comic books, if anyone knows any good feminist, LGBTQ stuff, that’s kind of my wheelhouse, I never wanna leave that. SYFY’s always looking for new stuff, so I do have a few ideas and a few properties I’m pursuing. But mostly, I just yell. I just yell about this and make phone calls, and I’m happy to do it. I’m ready to go. We have have six outlines pretty much ready to go. We gotta figure out how to get some people out of the garden and if there was a barber in there…just like, you know.
[Laughter]
Dom: It’ll grow you guys.
Emily: I’m not worried about what’s next for me personally. I’m so happy these guys are doing stuff, though. I think everybody should do their stuff. For me, I’m just like no, I just wanna finish this story and tell this story. Like, finish it in 10 years, don’t worry.
[Applause]
Moderator: What else can we do?
Emily: That’s such a good question. I really wish I could just come out and say what I wanna say, but it has mattered so much. I know sometimes it feels like you’re just yelling into the void. I’ve met so many fans have got quite tearful, and I get it, who just feel like angry and frustrated. I think this has made such an enormous difference. I really want you to know that everybody behind the scenes is… uh… I believe the technical term is “pooping their pants…”
[Laughter]
Emily: No! They’re busting their butts. And we have so many people who aren’t as vocal as us behind the scenes working their ass off. We have so many good people in the press, Bridget, all you guys, who are making sure we’re being heard. I think the fact that it is getting picked up showcases what a ridiculous situation this is. We have people who wanna help us make it. There’s one thing I’m gonna say that’s a little controversial. There’s been talk about funding it from the fans. I don’t want to take your money that way, if that’s okay? If you wanna buy a cheerleading outfit… uh I got one. If you wanna buy a set visit, that’s fine. I think that’s a last resort. I think right now these are companies that are big companies that make a product that you buy by consuming it, so let’s give them the chance to do what they said they would do. I would just say please don’t give up hope, know there’s so much we can’t say. But if things took a turn and things weren’t going well, I would put up the bat signal–the WayHaught signal. What’s the WayHaught signal? It’s a pair of angel wings, someone has said.
[Laughter]
Emily: So you’re doing what you’re doing. Please keep yelling, if that’s okay, so thank you. That’s it.
Moderator: I think we can handle that.
[Audience cheers]
Emily: Okay good, yeah. Polite no chill.
Moderator: I know you have a ton of questions, so let us open the audience Q&A please.
Kat: (to Emily) I’m so sorry for…
Emily: Oh it was great.
Kat: I didn’t realize what I was saying.
Emily: It’s fine.
Emily [chanting]: Murder Tree. Murder Tree. Murder Tree.
Questioner 1: I’m not that tall. I appreciate it, but I’m not that tall. Tree Number Five, hi.
Emily: Hi! Love your work.
Questioner 1: Thank you. It’s actually a question about that. We were wondering if you have any plans for like a Murder Tree redemption arc?
[Laughter]
Questioner 1: Askin’ for a friend. Askin’ for a friend.
Emily: What about a Murder Tree love triangle, like … [Kat and Dom laugh]
Questioner 1: I think we’re open…
Emily: Waverly’s in the garden, she meets a soft, vulnerable poplar…
Questioner 1: There’s trees in the garden…yeah.
Emily: Listen it’s that kinda show, you know? I hear Sigourney Weaver is interested in coming on as a tree. That’s a total lie. But absolutely, absolutely, yeah. I don’t know if we’re done telling the story of the trees, we don’t really know what the hell was happening with them so…
Questioner 1: We’re good guys, we’re good. Thank you!
Emily: Have your agents call me for auditions.
Questioner 2: Hello ladies! I’m Jen from the Earp Fiction Addiction, the podcast all about Wynonna Earp fan fiction. As promised I’m here to ask for yet another fic prompt for our lovely authors.
Dom: Oooh! Did you do the goiaba one?
Jen: Yes!
Dom: Oh my goodness!
Jen: People boiled goiaba, yeah.
Dom (to Kat): Did you see it?
Kat: No!
Jen: They can’t read it…you can’t read it but yes, yes people did.
Dom: Laughs.
Moderator: For reasons, they can’t read it.
Jen: I know you can’t read the fiction, but while we don’t have canon content right now, we do have fic, and that is helping us kinda get through, so…
Emily: I’m so glad it exists. Thank you so much.
Jen: Yes absolutely. Fic is a huge resource for the fandom and we love when we get a prompt, either intentional or not, from you guys.
Kat: [Laughs.]
Dom: They’re in a boat…
Jen: Awesome.
Moderator: That’s it? Just the boat?
Dom: You guys can add.
Kat: Oh!
Emily: One of them has amnesia…
[Audience makes sounds of intrigue]
Jen: Oh… kay
Kat: And something to do with bad seafood.
[Laughter]
Jen: Okay fic authors, you’ve got it! In a boat, bad seafood…
Emily: Kat Barrell, bringing the sex.
Jen: … amnesia.
Emily: Bringing the sexy!
Jen: Thank you ladies!
Questioner 3: Hi…
Emily: Hi Joe!
Joe: I’ve always wanted to do a thing that scares me, so I’m speaking in front of god knows how many Earpers…
Emily: Go Joe!
[Audience cheers]
Dom: Love you Joe.
Joe: We’ve seen Wynonna Earp really kick off over the past few years with Earp cons popping up all over the U.S. and Canada, all over, and it’s a generous loving fandom and people have found love and they’ve found family. What has it been like for you to witness that in real life and online as well?
Dom: Well done Joe. Legend.
Emily: Thank you, Joe. It’s still so surreal for me. I can’t believe you get what we’re trying to do with the show and enjoy our stories. I think one of my favorite things is just how warm and generous you are about all the crazy things we do on the show. You just, you’re part of the joke and you’re part of the family and, that’s why it makes me so happy that you’re fighting because I’ve said this to a few fans, I really feel like you built this. This is your show too. You have the right to save it, do you know what I mean? We were talking a little bit about our first Clexacon and when we walked up to WayHaught panel the first year, I just knew something, this was once in a lifetime. And Kat made everyone do the wave. Should we do it again?
Kat: We gotta do it again! Let’s take a pause.
Audience member: Start The Wave!
Dom: Yeahhhh!
Kat: [off-screen] Okay, we’re going over here. 1, 2, 3,
Audience: [weakly] whooooo
Kat: [Off-screen] Okay, pause! We need, like way more energy! I know it’s Sunday! Okay, let’s take a second. Ready? 1, 2 [breathing heavily] 3! Let’s go! Let’s go! Let’s go!
[Audience cheers and does the wave with more enthusiasm while Kat runs back and forth again.]
Kat: That was so much better.
Emily: What’s it been like for you guys?
Kat: Oh what’s it been like?
Dom: What’s it been like Kat?
[Laughter]
Kat: I mean like, [heavy breathing] I never ever thought that I would be part of, well, anything like this.
Dom: Are you out of breath? [Laughs]
Kat: I am! Clearly I need to exercise more!
Dom: Fair enough.
Kat: But like it’s so crazy, sorry?
Dom: Oh no it’s crazy isn’t it? Yeah. Mmmm…
Kat: I feel so fortunate as an artist to… I think you can go through a whole career without getting any sort of human connection for your work.
Dom: Yeah.
Kat: It’s so rare! Especially working in film and television when there is no audience present when you’re working, so I think just the….
Dom: Doing something that matter!
Kat: Yeah!
Dom: Yeah. Are you okay?
[Laughter]
Emily: Everyone’s just so shocked about the embryo, we’re just like, whoa!
[Laughter]
Kat: Terrified all of you!
Emily: Just kidding!
Dom: Doing something that brings light into this world, I think, is something that I’ve always wanted to do. Something that is so important to me. Something that sometimes I find difficult. And when I see you guys, it gives me so much strength. Uhh, eh…Does it give me strength? Is that what I mean? [Laughs] Sorry, I just wanna make sure…you use the right words to describe what you’re actually talking about. I think that we are all in this together, and that’s something that doesn’t happen very often. You know this world is getting more and more separate and separated and lonely and individual, and when you build a community like this, you realize that incredible things can happen. I see it in every single one of your eyes when I speak to you that there’s a spark when you’re here, and that is something that is so exciting. And so… thank you, Joe.
[Audience claps]
Moderator: I don’t know if we would be such a family if you [to Emily, Dom and Kat] all weren’t such a family together.
[Audience cheers]
Emily: We do! I think we like each other! [Dom and Kat laugh.] We do. I’ve never had a cast like this that are just… [ to Dom and Kat] You’re all such extraordinary people, inside and out. It’s a shame about your faces but we’ll get through it.
[Laughter]
Emily: They are extraordinary people and I truly think it’s lightning in a bottle. I say that all the time, but that’s what’s made it special, but… If you have a choice you can choose to be kind, I think, and choose to be positive, and that’s what we’ve done and it’s made all the difference, so thank you.
[Audience cheers]
Questioner 4: I think Joe had a wonderful lead-in question for that, he’s not looking up though, so, oh well. In the spirit of kindness, and I know Kat you started the Earp Your Animal Shelter, Dom, Start The Wave, Emily, you know you’re just boss. And also if everyone can please say thank you and give a big round of applause for Kat speaking about her anxiety at Green Ribbon Club’s mental health auction. That was incredible.
[Audience cheers]
Questioner 4: Soooo… in that light of spreading kindness, if you can each please tell each other the singular most important memory that the two of you share or a memory of the other person that has impacted the most. I’m ready to make you cry.
[Laughter]
Dom: Can you just repeat the second bit? Or…
Questioner 4: A memory of the other person that has impacted you the most.
Dom: A memory of the other person that, the other [points to Kat and Emily] Yeah…
Questioner 4: Yeah, turn to them…
[Laughter]
Dom: I understand.
Questioner 4: …and tell them…
Dom: One of my favorite memories with Em was in Hooter’s car park…
Emily: Good story. Last year.
Dom: …last year. I’ll let you tell it, because you tell it really well. But Em [Laughs], it was so fun, it was the end of season 3…2…3…2. It was the end of Season 2, so it wasn’t last year. It was last year? Oh my god, I’m getting so confused. How many seasons have we done? Three? Yeah so end of season two, and…
Emily: [Behind her hands] No, end of season three.
Dom: THREE! Yeah. [Laughter]
Moderator: Emily do you want to tell the story?
Emily: I am so… it’s Canadian math.
Dom: [unintelligible]
Emily: I’m so sorry Dom.
Dom: No no! It’s totally fine. I’m glad, no it’s good cause I remember obviously what you’re talking about angel and all the stuff, and Em was like, “Do you mind if I just, like, pitch you something? Like, I just feel like I really need to talk about the show about what we’re doing, is it crazy?” And then she just did this huge pitch and told me about the last, I think, four episodes was it?
Emily: Last episode, last year.
Dom: It was? Just the last episode?
Emily: The last couple times I’ve come to Clexacon, I’ve had to be writing the finale in my hotel room, so…
Dom: It was one of the most epic things I have ever seen in my entire life, she went through ALL of the characters.
Emily:Tell everyone where it happened.
Dom: It was in Hooter’s car park.
[Laughter]
Dom: And it was just, it was so special.
Emily: That was one of my favorite memories too. I was so terrified about the finale and the chainsaw, and I was doing a whole skit, but you…
Dom: It was unbelievable.
Emily: It was like, Dom is the most satisfying person to pitch, cause she’s just like, “NO! WHAT? NO! WHAT?!” That’s one of my favorite memories thank you Dommie, I love that.
Dom: What about you Kat?
Kat: It’s so hard! I think one of my… I don’t remember what con we were at, but we were in the hotel room with Tamara Duarte and…
Emily: Oh, UK, Earper.
Kat: UK, yeah and we ordered lobster fettuccini alfredo or something like that. And we talked about motherhood, and Tamara had just had her baby. And we were talking about…you guys were telling me what it felt like to be mothers. And it was so affirming for me, because it’s something that I struggle with, it’s always really intimidated me, becoming a mother. It was one of those moments when two really important women in my life were like really… and I think Tamara pulled out her birthing video, like it was a whole thing.
[Laughter]
Emily: I just kept eating my lobster fettuccini alfredo, I was like…whatever.
[Laughter]
Kat: I really felt supported by women in my life who I admired immensely and in that moment I felt really connected to you guys and that was special.
Emily: Well my memory is when Dom announced she had gotten you pregnant at Clexacon 2019…
[Laughter]
Emily: I was going, “Wow! Oh my god!”
Kat: You… I have so many of them.
Audience: Awwwww.
Dom: You know what? This is not necessarily an expected one, but I rethought about when we were in your hotel room…
[Laughter]
Dom: Just recently at the last convention.
Kat: Yeah.
Dom: That last night was so special.
Emily: Dim the lights!
[Laughter]
Moderator: Read the room, Dom!
Dom: It was the end of the convention…
Emily: Dim the lights!
Dom:It was the end of the convention and I came over to drop off the other two dresses in Kat’s room. And we just sat on the bed and talked, and I felt like I was a 15-year-old girl again at a sleepover…
Kat: Yeah!
Dom: And she was like, “I’ve got this new cream, it smells really nice.” And I was like, “Oooh, That’s lovely!” and I ended up staying in your room so long and I just felt so connected to you in that moment it was really special.
Kat: That was beautiful, I loved that. I also have a memory of… I don’t know what we were doing, we were at your house. Maybe during season 3, and you had made salad, and we were eating salad and talking about some big life emotional… like we were both really feeling like we were both going through a big shift in our life.
Dom: Oh yeah.
Kat: I remember we were sitting on the two couches in your living room and…we were…
Dom: Eating a bulgur wheat salad, I remember like it was yesterday.
Kat: Yes, the bulgur wheat salad! Yeah! And I just remember feeling… like cause we had been apart for a long time, and I remember feeling like we had come …
Dom: Yeah.
Kat: …back together as different people.
Dom: Mmmm.
Kat: Like we had started in one place and had kinda grown apart a little bit, and then had come back. It was like we were both stepping into a stage of our womanhood…
Dom: Mmmm.
Kat: …simultaneously, and it was really beautiful. Do you remember?
Dom: I do remember, yeah.
[Audience claps]
Questioner 5: Hello! So if you as your actual human selves were dropped into the world of Wynonna Earp, which of the characters would you 1. become instant best friends with, 2. who would drive you bonkers, and 3. who would you find particularly alluring?
Kat: Oh, what a great question, that’s fun! I think, I actually think Doc Holliday would drive me bonkers, is that a weird thing to say? Yes! I don’t know why, I think his passiveness would drive me nuts. I’d be like, “Dude! Shit’s going down!”
[Laughter]
Kat: “Let’s go!” Have you ever seen that Zootopia episode where she’s in the DMV?
Emily: Yes!
Kat: And the rabbit? I am the rabbit a hundred percent. My husband, Ray, is definitely the fox, he just enjoys watching me try to navigate the world with immense frustration at how glacial it moves sometimes. I don’t know, I think Doc Holliday would drive me nuts.
Emily: I feel like I’d be like Kristin (I know her name was Kiersten, but Emily said Kristin) who got off the bus. I’d last like two minutes tops. I would just be like no, like… uh… I think I’d find them all alluring, kinda like when I go to a con with them and I’m like, “I’m the writer with the actors everything’s okay!”
[Laughter]
Emily: “I’m supposed to be here”. Holding my PCA so tight, like “nope, I definitely am allowed to be here! I’m definitely one of them!”
Dom: She’s crazy beans. Em, you…
Emily: I think I would find Wynonna both annoying and alluring. And I would want to be friends with her but again I’d be [throat slitting sound effect] you know? Too bad, but that’d be my answer.
Dom: Yeah, I think I’d find Wynonna very intimidating as well. Um… oooh… who… I feel like… I would get on really well with Nicole. It’s hard to think about me and then the characters, do you know what I mean? You’re like “okay, Dominique, going into the Wynonna world…and getting along” I think I’d get on with everyone. They’re all such great characters. Don’t we all want to be friends with them all?
Moderator: I feel like that’s the most Dom answer possible.
[Laughter]
Dom: Oh god, yeah, it is isn’t it? Yeah. But, oh god my mind’s completely blank. Sorry.
Moderator: Thank you.
Emily: Good question.
Moderator: So we probably have time for two more questions.
Emily: We’ll blitz through them.
Questioner 6: Hi my name is Kris. I’m from Hungary.
Emily: Woooohoo! Andras. Andras. Andras. Hungary. Shout out to Hungary.
[Laughter]
Kris: My question is for Dom. Please don’t hate me for it, my friend asked me to ask this question.
Moderator: Uh oh!
Emily: Your “friend” named “Kris from Hungary”?
Kris: No, my friend who’s from Hungary but not here. So if Waverly had to choose between saving Nicole and Wynonna…
[Ohhhhhhhhh]
Kris:… and only could save one, who do you think it would be?
Moderator: This is an illegal question in this panel!
Kris: Not mine, really!
Dom: That’s an illegal question, isn’t it? That is an illegal question. THAT IS AN ILLEGAL QUESTION!
[Laughter]
Kris: I’m sorry, blame my friend.
Moderator: [fake crying voice] We’re fighting for Wynonna right now and this is just gonna tear us apart!
[Laughter]
Dom: There is no way Waverly would walk out of there with just one of them. NO. WAY.
[Audience cheers loudly]
Dom: Never!
Moderator: Perfect! Thank you.
Questioner 7: Hi.
Dom: Hello.
Questioner 7: I’m tall. Real tall. Hey, so I’m getting my master’s in writing and producing for television. My question for each of you…I know, Dom, you said that the Jolene, which phenomenal episode, I wish Shelly was here, was really hard for you, but besides that, like in season three as like the creator and as the actors like what was the most challenging part of that season. Because I feel it had the most crazy shit happen. What was the hardest part about making it.
Emily: I think for me it was Doll’s death, a hundred percent. That was really, really hard. Both episode two, when it happened with the car crash and it was hard both physically, because it was so cold and Mel was on the cliff, we all had to say goodbye to Shamier. And then I was extremely nervous, personally, about episode three, the episode where it was a celebration of him and yet a goodbye. Grief is a very passive act, it’s very sad, it’s not very fun to watch unfortunately, so I knew we had to have some fun and a bar brawl and what not. Again, I’m just always so impressed with you all and how open hearted you are at accepting that stuff and being so generous about it. I think that was the hardest episode for me. I felt the same way with Mel’s pregnancy. I feel like the fan response when it was discovered that Wynonna was pregnant, you coulda left and you didn’t, so, that was amazing. But for me it was definitely Doll’s death, episodes two and three.
Kat: Oh, um…
Dom: No, no it’s okay, we’re both…we’re both in this, I can answer one first, I can do this. [Laughs] I can do this. I think that… I found the last four episodes quite challenging actually.
Emily: It was really stuffed.
Dom: No not at all. Yeah, there was a lot of things to get your head ’round. Of all of the things that were happening in such quick intervals. Having a dad, not having a dad…
Emily: Some would say too quick, I’m so sorry.
Dom: No! God, no . Not like that! I think in many ways the fact that I [stumbles to find the words]having a dad…thinking you don’t have a Da…not knowing who your dad is, finding out who your dad is…is Wynonna’s boyfriend, like, all of these things is just like, “What?!” It was mental! And so it was more than anything trying to shift into how I would be feeling and obviously we shoot out of order and making sure that it all flows nicely. But I think that the very fact that I felt like that actually lent itself quite well, because it came out into my performance, and in many ways I think that’s how Waverly probably would be just feeling like, you know, the ground is shifting beneath her feet and not being able to quite shift the gears quick enough.
Moderator: What about you Kat?
Kat: It was a fun challenge to do the Maeve episode. Which I was really insecure of if it was going to be too big or too much. And we shot all of it in one day. Everything at that location in one day, and it was very very fast. That was the one I was the most nervous about watching cause I was not feeling a hundred percent, but it was super fun. It was awesome.
Dom: Wonderful too.
Moderator: Thank you. And something you never have to feel nervous about is us not loving you to pieces! Thank you to the three of you! And thank you to all of you! Keep fighting for Wynonna!
Dom: Thanks, guys.
[Microphone squeal]
Emily: Wow! Fight for Fucking Wynonna.
Moderator: This is it, we gotta go! We ran over!
Emily: Oh my gosh. It’s over. We love you guys. Thank you. Fight for Wynonna.
[Audience cheers]
End of Transcript.
Sorry, it's a lot. 