‘Wynonna Earp’s Katherine Barrell on Melanie Scrofano Directing: ‘I Trusted Her a Lot’
Preview
Earpers can now say their favorite show is back this month.
Wynonna Earp Season 4 premieres on Sunday, July 26, and yes, it has quite a bit it needs to address — mainly, how exactly will demon hunter Wynonna (Melanie Scrofano) reunite with those she loves? (Remember, after the end of Season 3, Tim Rozon‘s Doc and Dominique Provost-Chalkley‘s Waverly Earp are in the Garden.)
When TV Insider caught up with Katherine Barrell, who plays Sheriff Nicole Haught, the other half of fan-favorite couple WayHaught (with Waverly), they had hit pause halfway through filming the season due to the pandemic. “We are really anxious to get back to shooting,” she said. The six episodes they did film will air through Sunday, August 30, and according to Syfy, the hope is that they can finish the other half of the season later this summer in Calgary.
Barrell couldn’t share much at the time about what to expect, but she did say she’s glad that the season is finally getting out there. (Season 3’s finale aired in September 2018, and Earpers fought hard to get more.) “I’m really excited for the fans to finally get to see the story they’ve been waiting so long for, and so have we, and we’re really anxious and excited to get it to them,” she said.
(Michelle Faye/Wynonna Earp Productions, Inc./SYFY)
But she did tease that WayHaught will reunite — as you can see in the photo above — “in a very beautiful way.” “I’m really excited for [fans] to see the reunion, but of course nothing in Purgatory ever comes easy,” she warned, but promised, “Have no fear, there will be, of course, lots of amazing WayHaught coming in the future.”
Also coming in Season 4 is Scrofano’s directorial debut. “We had an amazing time with Melanie directing because you get directors who come on the show but never one who understands the show and the actors as intimately as Melanie does,” Barrell said. “It’s her show and she is Wynonna Earp and no one understands the tone of it better than her.”
Furthermore, Barrell revealed that she “really leaned on Melanie for guidance and trusted her a lot.” “I found [that] episode particularly challenging for Nicole’s arc because we were seeing a side of Nicole that we hadn’t seen in a while and of course I hadn’t played Nicole in a year and a half,” she explained. “It was not only this feeling of getting back into character and finding her again but then playing this different side of her I wasn’t really used to the energy of.”
“I was unsure of my choices, if they were right,” she continued. “I really put my trust in Melanie just because she’s an actor and she understands what that feels like. I was so grateful to have her there to guide me and encourage me into the direction we took some of those scenes because if it hadn’t been Melanie, I don’t know if I would’ve been able to trust as much as I did with her, so I’m so grateful. We just had a blast with her, and I think she did a fantastic job.”
(Michelle Faye Fraser)
In Season 4, Wynonna can’t celebrate the infamous Earp Curse being broken with cold whisky and hot donuts because she must “rescue everyone she loves, save the town of Purgatory, and take on her most diabolical, Earp-hating enemy yet — all without her trustworthy gun, Peacemaker,” the synopsis teases.
Wynonna Earp, Season 4 Premiere, Sunday, July 26, 10/9c, Syfy
