Original subtitles

hi everyone it's megan townsend from

glad here and i am

super excited today because we are

talking to

cat burrell and dominique pro shockley

from sci-fi's winona erp

first part of season four has just

finished airing and we are

so looking forward to the rest coming up

thank you

for joining us today and congrats on the

new season

thank you thanks for having us yeah this

is super fun

so we can't start anywhere else here but

with the amazing

fans the erpers they've always been one

of the most passionate

fan bases and they have proven

themselves to be a force when they

organized

last year with the hashtag fight for

wynonna campaign

can you talk a little bit about that

experience and the

just the reaction from the fans and what

that kind of year was like

yeah i mean of course it feels like an

attention

go now doesn't it yeah really done

it's been a real roller coaster i think

i mean please do go first cat if you if

you want to kick us off i was just about

to say though

not only is there a fight for season

four there's actually a fight for five

now apparently that's alright have you

seen that cat no i haven't seen it

wow i'm not surprised i mean it just

shows you the dedication of their first

they're amazing

exactly it's quite remarkable

um but yeah i it was for me it was a

crazy experience i was

in brazil at the time um when

we we just didn't get any news about

going back

and there was this sort of prolonged

break that um

we didn't really understand uh and i

just

kept extending my trip and thinking

okay well i'll i'll book a ticket back

whenever we find

out about you know season four about

when we're going back and it just

kept on going and then we were having

some correspondence like

you know us cast and just trying to

speculate about what was going on and

then um

and then of course the movement uh

started

which was the most magical thing to see

i felt so far removed just because i was

the nature of where i was

and when i came back and people were

updating me on all of the

all of the incredible efforts that the

earth went to

um it just felt so surreal it just felt

like

the most um amazing

representation of fighting for something

you love

and was incredibly inspiring and

yeah it's been a marker for me in many

ways of

how to fight for something that you love

and you know passion

at in its like most authentic form

um yeah absolutely amazing well

that's awesome um so being you know

queer actors and being out and you're

both

playing queer characters what has that

journey kind of been like for you and

what has been the impact

of nicole and waverly um for

yourselves outside of you know how much

they mean to all of the fans

wow i think it's really nice to have

been

part much more part of the queer

community than i ever had been before

working on winona earp

um i think it's definitely

helped me solidify some things about my

own identity for myself but i don't know

if i ever

would have asked fully understand it

about myself if i hadn't had

this experience i guess but i don't know

it's hard to say

what would i be like without this

experience versus with because who knows

what else would have come into my life

but

um i feel like just being so

a part of the community and being at

these amazing conventions with people

and celebrating with people and um

i think i i was given the privilege of

growing up in a very um accepting

environment i grew up in a big theater

community and i was

surrounded by amazing queer people and

just

supportive people and i always

felt really um like i didn't have any

sort of

i guess shame around my sexuality

um which unfortunately is i know the

case

for so many people that i've met and

spoke to and it's a big part of their

their coming out journey so i think for

me that was a really

um really important to see and just be

reminded of how

much fight we still have and how much

there's still so much further we have to

go towards

better understanding and acceptance of

each other um

but i'm just you know being being

with the weiner community especially

within the queer community has just

reinvigorated for me

the importance that we keep moving

forward

i think representation in our media is

so important

we need to see all different types of

relationships represented and all

different types of people

and i think when you're from somewhere

where you don't have that like i was so

lucky to have those beautiful examples

growing up but when you

when you don't have that um media just

becomes your outlet and i'm reminded of

that

again and again and i

have been really grateful for that um

especially the experience with the

community of just being able to

constantly be reminded that we still

have places to go

and barriers to break down and just how

important that is

oh cat so beautiful

oh so so beautiful so true

so so true and you know you talk about

everybody having such a different

experience and i think you know

i am one of those people um i've

carried with me a huge amount of shame

and fear

around my sexuality uh since i was a

little girl

so two have been

handed this character this beautiful

gift of a character

that um that

has ultimately you know taught me

to be proud of my own sexuality is

just amazing um and the journey that of

course i've been on

since the beginning since i opened that

page

in the script and was like oh my god

and you know i remember it like it was

yesterday cup of coffee on the side

over in kensington and just like

the uh rush the the rush of my heart

you know just being so fast in my chest

and realizing that this was maybe where

i was gonna have to finally

um address this part of myself and and

go on this journey

but yeah what a gift that the universe

gave me

because um now i am in a very very

different position to

where i was then and like you say it's

largely down to being around the urpa

community

and seeing so many beautiful

representations

in them you know of incredibly colorful

beautiful human beings that

um that i admire so deeply so

having you know the opportunity to see

myself

represented in them because they see

themselves represented

yeah you know totally such a it's such

an amazing

mirror um that we

you know but but that's what i um

find so beautiful is like how much

they helped me and without even knowing

it because they were

coming to me to see how much i was

helping them

with by playing waverly and actually

everything i was feeling was

just immense gratitude for them

showing me what it's like to be proud of

their sexuality or to be coming

into their pride so

yeah it's just like you say cat it's

been it's been

so important for so many people and

myself included i love that i love the

idea that

because you're absolutely right i mean

being around that community of people

like it was it's such that give and take

that they've

you know they've come to us with

gratitude for what we've been a part of

for them but it goes

like both ways completely exactly and i

mean i just don't know

you know who knows where either of us

would have been without it

i i guess to a certain to a certain

extent i think everyone's on their own

their own time but i think i think there

are certain things that are

that are definitely meant to be and and

this this feels like one of those

one of those for sure in both of them

our lives

in different ways oh so beautifully said

i think it

leads into one of the things that i've

really

kind of loved seeing especially in the

recent seasons um

has been just nicole kind of getting

so close to winona and kind of becoming

another sister to her in this really

kind of

meaningful found family that's really

been created between

the earpers and dock and um

and just all and jeremy and all of these

characters so what has it been

like um for you kind of developing that

relationship

and and for nicole to have that kind of

found family that she has now

surrounded herself with yeah i love the

theme of found family on our show

i think it's one of my favorite through

lines

of winona earp this idea that you can

you can choose your own family and

it doesn't have to be the one that you

were born into and

just that that choice over who you let

into your life and

who affects you and who shapes you and

and

i mean there are home situations that we

can't get away from sometimes but

there is community out there and ways to

find your i always talk about this like

i think it's so important that you find

your tribe and find your people that

lift you up and and and create a space

for you to live as your most

authentic self and i think that that's a

theme

in winona earp all the time and we we're

this sort of like

ragtag group of misfits in some way

and that we've found this family and

created this family together i think is

so

perfect and beautiful and i think nicole

was alone for a really long time

um you know she had friends and some

extended family but i don't think she

really had that

that support system that sort of

you know someone who would be there for

her no matter what and i think it's part

of what made her who she is and made her

so dependent and so

self-sufficient um but i think

spending too long like that also breaks

you away from a little bit of your

humanity in a little bit

in a way and that we need each other and

we're it's important to have people who

love you around you and the person

who's gonna notice if you are not okay

or if if you give you a sense of

belonging

a sense of belonging and i think she

finally

landed it's been really beautiful to

watch the journey

of her um i think she's been someone

who's always wanted to let people in

but she's been let down by a lot of

really important figures in her life i

think it was

um hard for her maybe to feel like

she was totally part of the family i

also think the the nice thing i love

about nicole is that

she's not magical like she's kind of one

of our only characters that doesn't have

um i mean her nedley i guess that

doesn't have

a special ability or a power

and but she's human and i think it's so

important

to have those characters who are just

like

you and i like you know just people and

um

and they only have the tools that every

other person

in the audience watching would have in

that situation and i think um

i think that's a really cool call

quality about her too that she's always

sort of felt

like she wasn't special enough to be

part of the group where she couldn't

contribute enough because she

didn't have anything more to give than

just as she was

and um i think it's been really cool to

see her really rewarding

to see her find her place and feel

settled with

her people

yeah i think um i think that's kind of

been

for me when i was when i was watching

this season sort of

it seems like nicole in a lot of ways

has really kind of become sort of the

heart

of the family for this season where she

is

driving towards the sacrifice and and

you know how much she can give

for others um and and the impact that

that has on everybody so i think

especially

like watching um episode five which i

rewatched this morning

uh like amazing performance i was shook

but it's really like kind of felt like

this is her season to really

come into her own infinite and see more

of her but also

how she really has been

so kind of folded into the family yeah

it's just so nice to see her have that

i've wanted that for her for so long and

because i love her so much and i it's

very gratifying

to see character that you have such an

affinity for

be in such a happy um

like a happy place which is where we now

start to see her this comes out after

episode six right i've like just

bit my tongue um to see her at the end

of episode

six exactly where she wants to be

and i just feel like that was really a

big

moment for for all of our characters we

see them at

very different places at the end of six

but also big on nicole and

i just i just felt like she finally

arrived at where

she's been trying to get for so many

years

um and i was really happy for her

yeah i think there has been you know as

fans

it feels like every season has really

kind of given us a new layer or a new

side

to um to nicole and waverly from like

evil to angel and trauma to romance like

you're kind of doing a little bit of

everything

um but now that you've been doing the

show for a few years and you know these

characters so well

how has that kind of um sort of

experience

been to be able to live with those

characters and and develop them

and uh and you know waverly and nicole's

dynamic as

as a couple and how they relate to each

other and how they relate to the bigger

kind of family well i must say that

during this prolonged break

i almost felt like i missed waverly

um which was an odd feeling it was i was

so excited to reconnect with her

because she's been such an inspiration

as a character and as a

as a person her example of bravery um

has been something that has really

influenced me in my own life

so so yeah that that that pause

almost felt like i was missing a part of

myself the the part of me that develops

when i play waverly was almost um

slipping away in some in some ways you

know

uh that probably sounds very odd to

people that don't act but do you sort of

understand what i mean

like when you you know that yeah like

there's something that happens when you

play another character and you go

through that journey

and yeah sort of exercise certain

muscles that maybe you don't in your

normal life

and so i did feel i felt very very

excited to reconnect with her this year

um and i was expecting to find it harder

to get back into

waverly because we had taken that time

um

you know we've had we hadn't taken the

time where it was

it wasn't that we wanted the break but

you know that that

time had um you know had had gone by so

um but actually it was because i think

we have been playing these characters

for such

a large chunk of our

lives in some ways you know like well

for me it feels like that from

25 or to whatever to 30 or 24 to 30.

it's a you know it's very um

impressionable important years for me

so i think because of that it was a lot

easier than i was anticipating coming

back and stepping into her shoes

and it just feels like coming home now

which is

a really beautiful feeling coming home

to you know that chosen family

and and uh yeah in particular i would

say i've

really loved um the waverly nicole

relationship

how uh the parts that we're representing

now

just feel maybe it's because of where

i'm at in my life and

feeling so comfortable with that um if

it

it just feels like it's perfectly timed

to

um explore and

and um yeah settle into that place of

comfort

um and true true love

you know i think we're really seeing

them

um becoming one to become one

but like really you know two people

becoming one

uh force it's really special

it's really really special um and like

even

you know like that scene that we did on

the floor in was it last episode before

you know i forget which episode but yeah

when we had sex in

like the post sex on the floor like

before after sex

on the kitchen floor and like just

how playful we were that day and how

much

time we got to spend on that scene you

know we did that scene honestly so many

times

but so many times who directed it

yeah yeah love that man he was just like

this

he just really wanted us to have that

time he was i think he was so happy for

the characters as well

like seeing their their journey and like

he

was directed director ron murphy was the

director who

did the very lots of very iconic

way hot scenes just by chance so like

the initial scene when we first met

then the couch scene you know this um

nedley's couch and then uh you know huge

scenes so

for him i think that there is such a

like all of us just like such a

a joy that that we're like the journey

for the

joy for the journey that we've come on

um so we just got to play

you know for probably too long

considering

how you know yeah how how strapped we

are the first time

yeah yeah it's certainly on your time

but but

but i've really enjoyed those scenes

uh playing those things with you i feel

like we've had

more nicole and waverly this year than

last year

i think so i think so it feels it feels

more more it like not just that word

yeah but i've like we've had more scenes

together i would say

i think yeah it feels that i think so

yeah

yeah yeah so we have to talk about the

mid-season finale and that proposal

uh i loved it i may have um

screamed at my desk a little bit so

the engagement back on is there anything

that you can tell us about

what is coming up for waverly nicole

maybe

finally away hot wedding is there

anything we should tell you

likes are you asking me to say

don't put us in that position um

i think i am i think everyone will be

really happy

to continue to watch their journey um

i think we've spoken a little bit about

um

that scene dom i know you and i have

spoken about the

the fire fireplace proposal and just how

how beautiful it was and it was just

again it was sort of like don was saying

about um the last scene

that that it was so amazing for the

characters like we just

we want it for them so badly um

and we want i mean we want it for the

audience we want it for the amazing

representation that we know it's going

to provide for so many people

and but at the core of it

it it was so perfectly earned like i

feel like

we always say this about way hot but i

think it's important to keep saying it

like

i think the reason that this

relationship strikes such a chord with

people is because it's so well

paced i know that seems like a really

silly thing to say but

i feel like every moment with them is

earned and that makes it feel so

real and so grounded because it just

feels like we've been working towards it

and fighting for it and working towards

it and it feels like the natural

progression

of a relationship you know these aren't

characters who like

got together in the first episode of

meeting and like

i think it's just been a beautiful

journey to show like the real ebbs and

flows of a

real true love relationship

and and i'm so i'm so happy with the way

that the proposal because i always

wanted like a little bit of a redo on

the proposal i always thought

we could just do more but you know not

something that was so grief-stricken and

surrounded by so much pain but something

that

deserved its own moment to be beautiful

and

vulnerable and fragile it was perfect

yeah i loved the fact that though like

all of the other characters were there

too

i thought that was a really beautiful

choice

and how it was almost very spontaneous

in its even though we've been waiting

for it for such a long time

it was still had that sense of

spontaneity and very

nicole unwaverly and then yeah like i

say having

the whole team around and feeling that

sense of family

and the fact that we're all in it

together there's just something so

beautiful about that

and then of course like the roaring fire

and

i just absolutely loved filming that

scene i have to say i can't wait to

watch it

because i haven't seen that yet have you

seen it have you seen there's been like

a time

i adred a little bit of it too yeah but

i haven't seen it

and it's the whole thing built the whole

thing

and the build up and the whole edits and

i'm excited to watch it

yeah thank you both for being with us

today

we cannot wait for the

rest of season 4 and for all of you fans

don't miss all new episodes of winona

earp coming to

sci-fi in 2021

you